Seiyuu throughout the land are so hard pressed to find work that the vast majority can only subsist with the aid of additional employment, according to an industry insider.
The insider is しろがねしょおむ / Shomu Shirogane, the director of agency Winner Entertainment.
He has this to say about the business of voice acting:
“How many seiyuu are thee in the country at present?”
“It’s thought there are about 1600. Of that figure, about 10% are “free” (freelance as opposed to agency employed) seiyuu, and some 80% can’t make ends meet with just their voice acting work, so they work other jobs part-time.
The numbers go up a bit if you include all the actresses, idols, talent and so on. It’s said if you go so far as to include all the potential seiyuu candidates, the number swells to around 80,000, all in all.”
“There are that many? That’s quite harsh. What do you have to do to become one?”
“Probably the main shortcut is enrolling in a specialist seiyuu school, or in a training school run by an agency. By the way, there are actually more than 50 such specialist schools in the country, just for training seiyuu. Of course, just getting into one is no guarantee of becoming one.
In the seiyuu business there are also thought to be more than 850 seiyuu who are not actually formally employed by their agency, but are instead temporarily attached.
Even if they do get formally employed, it’s no guarantee they’ll find work soon, they have to keep auditioning constantly whilst working part time. Their income is by no means stable.
And then even if they land a part, they may only be employed if their fee is low – if it climbs too high they are no longer wanted.”
Via Ameba News.
Clearly, this is a highly competitive trade, and not one which is necessarily highly remunerative.
Of course, supremely talented though they are, the cost of extravagantly paid seiyuu has to come from somewhere, so from this perspective anime and game fans may very well be much better served by the money going towards production or development, or else going to the original creators and encouraging more such works, rather than fuelling the ever increasing girth of Aya Hirano…
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Wow, I was just reading about this on that site a few minutes ago. Are you spying on me?
I was going to write it up a few days ago, but other articles intervened...
I never would have thought of it... kinda sad =(
Halfway down the article I was thinking: "Where's the Hirano Aya jab?"
Sure enough you delivered.
Same here... I was like "Arte will not let this chance slip away."
It definitely makes sense that the seiyuu business in Japan is as rough as any other acting field. I bet the numbers are roughly comparable percentage wise if you look at the acting field here in the US or any other country with a sizeable entertainment industry.
What I'd like to know is there any really well known seiyuu working at some combini in order to make things meet. Imagine buying a bento from say Rie Tanaka.
Well, you do have to wonder why she took that role in the Touhou anime from Maikaze.
Actually, that was probably to seal their roles if and when a major production company, say SHAFT (hint, hint), decides to do Touhou.
I'm really saddened to read this.
From my POV, these seiyuu really work hard to bring us what shows we watch today. And to see that they don't get paid enough makes me worry about the anime industry.
And hell, some of these seiyuu do their jobs because they love acting, not because of the money. :V
Yeah man, I agree.
But I wonder what kind of part-time work they do?
I'm not exactly following...competition is bad? As the article said, the anime industry is able to keep costs low if there was a large selection of seiyuus to choose from- and the auditioning ensures (to an extent) that those who get the part can play it well.
Consider the possibility of the opposite, ie. english dubs. Comparatively I'm sure that English voice actors are in higher demand as well as payment levels because there are so few talents that can play so many parts...and we all know how that turns out.
Oh yeah, i read this over at jimones blog a couple of days ago. Sounds kinda sad for the up and comers though. I guess only the truly establish seiyuu can make a good living and the others do struggle a bit.
The smexy picture made me unable to read it
Isn't the anime industry really small over there? I can't believe there's so many. Whenever I hear about statistics like this I always wonder about how there's so many anime produced in Japan each year.
Yes, the anime output of the USA just dwarfs Japan doesn't it?
Once again Artefact jumps to the aid of poor defenseless Japan! lol
He even used his ESP to sense sealouse's comment had something remotely to do with America. (<_<;)
Who else produces a lot of animation, pray? Why would anyone think that of Japan is "really small" when the only other country producing a significant amount is the US?
I'm not interested in defending Japan, but those are factually deficient statements...
Since when was anime = animation? If you mean animation in general then yes, the US completely dwarfs Japan when you factor in Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks etc.
Are you sure about this? Japan produces a lot of animation... I suppose it mainly comes down to the market for children's cartoons.
The amount of sarcasm in this particular comment thread dwarfs the amount of seiyuu currently in Japan.....
I'm talking about how anime isn't mainstream over there, yet I see numbers like 80,000 and how realistic is that?
In a nutshell that comment was unnecessary given it's tone and something you were better off keeping to yourself.
If anime isn't mainstream in Japan it isn't mainstream anywhere. Besides which seiyuu also work in games, on the radio, etc...
I actually think that Japan dwarfs America when it comes to the amount of animation produced yearly. Dozens of new series every season (TV and OVA) as well as a fair number of movies, I think even more than the 2-3 ones Pixar and Disney throw out every year. I don't have any statistics to base this on, though. Just the impression I get.
Since when did anime = animation you ask? Since the hiragana for animation spells 'AH NI ME SHO N' I would guess, speaking of which, Artefact, do the Japanese consider American cartoons and such to be "anime" too? Doesn't make much sense to me that there would be separate terms for the two types of animation styles/story telling types, but then again America does just that.
As for the vast amount of animation that Japan produces, yes it dwarfs American production by a mile and a kilometer. Seeing as how there are only two studios that seriously produce cartoons over here that I know of offhand.
Anime /アニメ is most definitely used by the Japanese to refer to any sort of animation, whether it be Japanese or not.
It's simply a given on places like 2ch and other Japanese forums that "late-night Japanese anime" is what they're talking about 99% of the time when they mention "anime".
Thanks for the info, I need to try to remember that there are more than just two people in Japan on these forums. D:
Quen is in New York.
If you ever have a Japanese teacher, it is almost a given that they will correct you when you say "anime ga suki desu", and make you say "Nihon no anime ga suki desu" - as we are of course interested in Japanese anime, not just any old anime.
Yep, it's been a while since I properly lived in Tokyo (2003-2004), although that should change when I can find another job, ideally.
Indeed, I can see that being reasonable from a teacher teaching proper Japanese. I had not realized Quen is in New York currently, something else I shall try to remember. :/
GL on finding another job Quen.
Thanks!
In addition to Artefact's sarcastic comment, you also have to keep in mind that voice acting is not solely something used for anime. There are still things like drama CD's and video games, and probably a lot more that I'm not thinking of right now. Then there's dbubing foreign shows and movies, and also hentai lol. And voice work for VN's.
Wasn't this issue explored in REC?
REC is the first thing I thought of when I saw this post
Same here. When I finish reading the first thing come to my mind is REC the anime.
Ah REC. I guess not every jobs we know aren't as good as we think.
--
All she need is to find a salaryman, ;P
This article reminds me of REC
I'm sorry to hear that the seiyuu are having such a tough time. The quality of Japan's seiyuu work is greatly superior to their US and Canadian counterparts. So much so that I never watch an anime and listen to the english sound track.
Same, sad thing though it's no different from actors all around the world, as for quality of US seiyuu, for the most part I agree, but ADV and Funimation's eng dubs are about the only dubs I would watch in English consistently. Although there are good dubs here and there from other dub studios from time to time (eg. Ranma 1/2) for the most part they don't measure up to Japanese seiyuu.
damn this topic sure was unexpected from my part... amazing talents being underrated like this makes me feel real bad.
artefact... is there any good news for us otaku?
its the beginning of new year...
where's my 2007? T.T
This is good news. Do you really want to be paying for the inflated salaries of a few idols, in the same way as you do with Hollywood actors?
this is quite disheartening...
is it because of the current economic recession?
Delicious Tanaka Rie is delicious. The thought that she might have done this only because she really needed money leaves a bad aftertaste though.
Hey! I-It's not because she likes you or a-anything!!!
Well it would have been nice if she did it for fun. But that probably is wishful thinking...
I'm sadden by the news that these seiyuu have not make enough for them self. I hope this will be getting betters soon.
This is nothing special. it's how it is with all creative industries. it's worse for writers. i think only 5% of novelists live on their work. it's just the way things go. you either work for money or work for love.
Well i heard is seiyuus when in desperate need for quick cash they Go and work as VA for those Eroge games..
Some of the VA used Pseudo name as credit as some fear someone find out They work for a porno game. Their name get tarnish.
Reminds me of Shiraishi Minoru's comment in Lucky Star of working his ass over at Cocob**** alongside being a Seiyuu.
I wonder how much Rie Kugimiya makes a year now
No wonder Touhou Musou Kakyou can employ well-known names! I guess the price of employing middle-high quality seiyuu is still affordable even for doujin circles...
It's funny how most people commenting now think that their favorite seiyuu can't make ends meet. The seiyuu that don't make much from their jobs are the ones who have only landed a handful of (most likely small) roles, not the ones that are being cast as main characters. Those seiyuu that get main character roles most likely also get paid for doing things like image songs, radio dramas, and other promotional work for the shows they're on. Plus many popular female seiyuu have modeling and singing careers as well. Your not going to hear about your favorite seiyuu working at some average part-time job (that's what american voice acters do), it's only the people who voice those small characters who you can never remember the names of that will need extra work.
I'm not really surprised. Like its been said before, the rich and famous celebrities that you see on t.v. makes up less than 10% of the numbers of actors in America. What I want to know is: how much are the top seiyuus making.