![]() ![]() “You’ll never see a voice actor standing completely still behind the mic,” Strong says. There’s also a reason why students at places like the Tokyo School of Anime learn singing and dancing – it’s all part of performing. That’s a common refrain among nearly all voice actors: “The acting element always trumps the voice element,” Sheh says. “That’s what I tell people: come on out here, there’s plenty of room,” Paulsen says. On average, Kagawa says it takes one to five years to become a professional anime voice actor – those years are spent honing the craft, as well as taking gigs like TV adverts or radio spots.Ī common theme among voice actors is that they identify as actors first and foremost. Her dream? “In the credits, I want to see my name for not just one character – I want it next to two or three characters.” “I was so surprised that voice actors make a lot of different kinds of voices in front of the mic – it was a big shock,” she says. She especially looks up to Aya Endou, a voice actor who played a main role in the series, but also several of the show’s colourful monsters. ![]() Yui Fukushima says she was inspired to become a voice actor by watching Yo-Kai Watch, an anime that’s a mix of Ghostbusters and Pokémon that took Japan by storm a couple of years ago. Students on the voice acting course take 15 classes a week for 90 minutes apiece, focusing on breathing, enunciation, learning how to work the mic, and even dancing and singing to develop a good ear and sense of rhythm. ![]() Being a fan, “I was a little bit more well-versed in the material, or the tropes, or what they were trying to get at.” Some actors who dub Japanese shows started out as fans. They're needed for dubbing: that’s when actors take a translated script and dub over the characters’ speech in a film or show into the local language with their own performance. That total comes from TV, film, internet distribution and merchandising – all driven by overseas sales, which made up the majority of revenue.Īll that popularity overseas means more opportunities for actors, even outside Japan. To get a sense of the scale of the voice acting industry, we need to look at Japan: according to the Association of Japanese Animations, the anime industry set a record in 2016 when it generated revenues of ¥2.01 trillion ($17.7 billion). There’s something very human about that.” “Your vocal signature is like your vocal fingerprint. “Honestly, anywhere you hear a voice? It was probably created by a human,” says Tara Platt, who wrote a book about the career with fellow voice actor Yuri Lowenthal. And even in an age of flashy video games, talking robots and films with computer-generated imagery, lots of clients still need a voice artist. It’s crucial for aspiring voice actors to perfect their actual acting skill, to take smaller gigs, and be willing to do less glamourous work such as corporate videos as they work their way up, according to the professionals. “So you have a lot of non-actors trying to pursue it.” ![]() “A misconception is that it’s easy because it’s just your voice,” says Sheh. She also says “it doesn’t matter what you look like – you get to play all kinds of characters.”īut many of them began careers as actors, and fell into voice acting – and they caution fans who want to follow in their footsteps. You need to make sure to have a lot of acting training: scene study, improv classes, and singing lessons to learn what your instrument can do.” Voice actors mention meeting fans at conventions who want to become voice actors themselves. “You have to know that’s all you want to do. “It’s really, really hard to break in,” says Strong. For example, Tara Strong has over 350,000 Twitter followers – she’s starred in animations like The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, as well as the Final Fantasy video game series. Now? The once-invisible performers lead panels in packed convention centres at events the world over, and can command massive social media followings. He also runs a regular podcast on the voice acting industry. He’s a voice actor who’s starred in Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and both the ‘80s and 2010s version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. “It’s a pretty anonymous profession – or it used to be,” says Rob Paulsen. ![]()
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