How does the Japanese voice actor industry compare with the North American one

[The Overlord]

How does the Japanese voice actor industry compare with the North American one? I'm not just talking in terms of anime dubbing but overall (so we can mention non dubber VAs like Tara Strong).

How are they different and how are they same?

[Weatherman]

Well, they both do voice over work......:p

What kidns of diferences are you thinking of? The business model? The public preception?

Publicly, Japanese VA's can be much bigger celebrities. Outside of a few fandom conventions no one really knows who VAs are in America. In Japan many of them become celebrities in their own right from the VA work.

[The Overlord]

Well, they both do voice over work......:p

What kidns of diferences are you thinking of? The business model? The public preception?

Publicly, Japanese VA's can be much bigger celebrities. Outside of a few fandom conventions no one really knows who VAs are in America. In Japan many of them become celebrities in their own right from the VA work.

That depends on the VA doesn't it, you can argue Ron Perlman is more famous then any Japanese VA, but that's not due to his voice work.

I heard though most of the major anime pictures (like spirtied away) are voiced by celebs instead of VAs, like animated movies here.

How do pay rates compare?

[Naruto D.Luffy]

Iknow that most Japanese VA's actually have to work part time.

[AstroNerdBoy]

Several Japanese seiyuu are also singers, performing the OP/ED themes to the anime titles they are working (HAYASHIBARA Megumi springs to mind, but I could list quite a few).

Now, in the U.S., there is a larger VA market than just anime or cartoons. I didn't know this, but there's a lot more voice over work done in movies and shows than you might think. Anne Lockhart (Sheba from the original Battlestar Galactica) was at Starfest 2008 and told us that she's done all sorts of things like the Predator noises in Predator 2, the chimps in Project X and crowd voices in all kinds of other movies (something I had no idea ever happened). There's enough of that kind of work to keep her busy and pay the bills apparently.

[The Overlord]

Iknow that most Japanese VA's actually have to work part time.

I think that's true of most North American VAs as well, only the really successful ones like Tara Strong can live off voice acting alone. Most VAs who just dub anime can't live off that alone. In Canada there very few people who just voice act, you usually have an onscreen caereer and voice act on the side.

[CyberCubed]

How about in most cases, the Japanese VA actually know how to act.

[The Overlord]

How about in most cases, the Japanese VA actually know how to act.

That's an broad and incorrect statement are really saying that the best VAs in America like Steve Blum, Grey Delisle, Tara strong, Jeff Bennett, etc, don't know how to act? Because you are dead wrong if that's what you are saying.

[WrenchNinja]

How about in most cases, the Japanese VA actually know how to act.
You mean overact? Then yeah, I agree.

[The Overlord]

You mean overact? Then yeah, I agree.

To be fair, a lot anime scripts are pretty over the top, so they likely are just acting according the script. I think Death Note is better show case for someone's acting chops then say Blue dragon.

[Taekmkm]

Yep, pretty tough to pull an oscar-level performance when your character is the butt-monkey.

[The Overlord]

Yep, pretty tough to pull an oscar-level performance when your character is the butt-monkey.

Well an actor is only as good as the script and director allows them to be, its the same in North America. BTAS and Gargoyles had better voice acting then He-Man and GI Joe, not because the actors were better in one series or the other, but because the scripts and direction were better in the 90s series then in the 80s series.

[Tay the Cat]

To be fair, a lot anime scripts are pretty over the top, so they likely are just acting according the script.
This better be the case, cause I've never heard a Japanese VA's performance (except on Pokemon of all things) that I actually liked.

[The Overlord]

This better be the case, cause I've never heard a Japanese VA's performance (except on Pokemon of all things) that I actually liked.

What about Japanese Death note?

[Quarkboy]

This better be the case, cause I've never heard a Japanese VA's performance (except on Pokemon of all things) that I actually liked.

That's even more ignorant and biased than people who say all English dubs suck.

If you speak Japanese then I'll accept it as your true opinion, but if you do not, frankly I think a comment like sounds to me that it's not the performances of the Japanese voice actors that you dislike, but the language itself.

At least the people who proclaim that all english dubs suck are fluent in english and have the ability to judge performances in their own language.

[DemonLordShugo]

How about in most cases, the Japanese VA actually know how to act.

Honestly, I like both the Japanese and English VA's, and I have no preference for how I watch animé, but bashing the English voice actors is kinda rude, because both English and Japanese VA's have their flaws, and English dubbing has improved since the 90's (though I'm mostly a sub fan), so saying one is superior to the other is very ignorant, intolerable, immature and biased

So let's not have the dub vs. sub debate start here (since I hate it so much!!)

As far as industry goes on both sides of the world, I know, some VA's can make money off voice acting alone, but some have to take part time jobs due to the low fees voice actors are payed, another difference Japanese VA's are kind of big celebrities in Japan, over here VA's (both English and Japanese) only have large fanbases, and aren't as well known

[Taekmkm]

English VA's would be awesome if the language was easier to convey. The Japanese language is so much easier to naturally be over-the-top or monotone without sounding "Talentless." And it doesn't hurt most anime characters are flanderizing their stereotype anyway.

Case in point, Code Geass. Japanese Lelouch sounds awesome in Japanese. In English, he would sound like a parody and way too deep for a teen.

[The Overlord]

English VA's would be awesome if the language was easier to convey. The Japanese language is so much easier to naturally be over-the-top or monotone without sounding "Talentless." And it doesn't hurt most anime characters are flanderizing their stereotype anyway.

Case in point, Code Geass. Japanese Lelouch sounds awesome in Japanese. In English, he would sound like a parody and way too deep for a teen.

Well there is a lot of problems with the dubbing processs that can affect an actor's performance. Dubbing is twice as hard as pre-lay work, you have to focus on matching your words to lip flaps, unlike with pre-lay work where you can focus solely on your performance. Likewise most dubbing companies have less money then local cartoon studios, so they can't hire as many actors and can't hire some of the more expenisve VAs in America.

I mean look at the dubs of Studio Ghibli movies, those are usually better then most anime dubs, because Disney has way more to spend on the dubbing process then say Viz. So there lots of things that make anime dubbing not sound as good as pre-lay work.

[tinlunlau]

Studio Ghibli's films were never known for using celebrity actors in the past. Just that in recent years, they've been using more well known actors from Japan to do some of the voice work. In "Howl's Moving Castle", Miyazaki got Takuya Kimuro to play the voice of Howl. Ironically enough, Kimuro's former co-star from the hit TV series (which they starred in together many years ago) played the voice of Sosuke's mother in the new "Ponyo on the cliff".

As for Death Note, the voice actor who plays Ryuk actually starred in Jet Li's "Fearless" and John Woo's latest Chinese epic "Red Cliff". The way I see it, Japan is starting to get into the hang of using celebrity voices in anime.

[Undrave]

The buisness model is way different in any case. Japanese company really know how to milk a franchise. What with character CDs and drama CDs and stuff like that where its basically the VAs doing all the work.

I mean just look at the crazy numbers of Double Action CDs hehehe.

Its the kind of crazy stuff I'd actually like to see in North-America. Music never seems to matter in North-american cartoons. Only in tweencom based on budding tween singers.

[Tay the Cat]

What about Japanese Death note?
I dislike Death Note in all forms.

That's even more ignorant and biased than people who say all English dubs suck.

If you speak Japanese then I'll accept it as your true opinion, but if you do not, frankly I think a comment like sounds to me that it's not the performances of the Japanese voice actors that you dislike, but the language itself.

At least the people who proclaim that all english dubs suck are fluent in english and have the ability to judge performances in their own language.
Nope, it's most definitely the performances. They're almost always over the top and make me want to mute the sound.

[ensatsu-ken]

I dislike Death Note in all forms.

FAIL :p


Nope, it's most definitely the performances. They're almost always over the top and make me want to mute the sound.

To be fair, though, there are tons of English dubs that sound that way as well (and I'm a person who happens to love several English dubs of various anime titles). Sometimes the voices are even supposed to sound over the top, like with Tamaki's character in Ouran High School Host Club. ;)

[DemonLordShugo]

FAIL :p



To be fair, though, there are tons of English dubs that sound that way as well (and I'm a person who happens to love several English dubs of various anime titles). Sometimes the voices are even supposed to sound over the top, like with Tamaki's character in Ouran High School Host Club. ;)

I agree with Ensatsu, plus anime and entertainment in general is over the top, so the voices automatically have to be over the top as well, and this applies to any language

[ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, I like both the Japanese and English VA's, and I have no preference for how I watch animé, but bashing the English voice actors is kinda rude, because both English and Japanese VA's have their flaws, and English dubbing has improved since the 90's (though I'm mostly a sub fan), so saying one is superior to the other is very ignorant, intolerable, immature and biased

So let's not have the dub vs. sub debate start here (since I hate it so much!!)

100% Agreement with this post.

[The Overlord]

To be fair, though, there are tons of English dubs that sound that way as well (and I'm a person who happens to love several English dubs of various anime titles). Sometimes the voices are even supposed to sound over the top, like with Tamaki's character in Ouran High School Host Club. ;)

Again American voice actors almost always sound better in pre-lay.


There many factors in dubbing that can affect a performance that aren't present in pre-lay.

[DemonLordShugo]

Again American voice actors almost always sound better in pre-lay.


There many factors in dubbing that can affect a performance that aren't present in pre-lay.

Yeah, because in pre-lay, you have almost no restrictions, no original voice, no mouth flaps, no Japanese producer supervision, you can pretty much do the character in your own way

[ensatsu-ken]

Again American voice actors almost always sound better in pre-lay.


There many factors in dubbing that can affect a performance that aren't present in pre-lay.

I'm aware of that, and I agree, but my statement was only referring to English dubs of anime when I was saying that there are also tons of English dubs that sound over the top. I wasn't referring to English voice actors who do pre-lay work.

I'm also aware that dubbing is much more difficult to perform than pre-lay, due to the restrictions of having to match the timing of the mouth-flaps of the characters, but that doesn't meant that they always have to sound over the top, unless the character is made to be that way, or unless there is a line that they just can't get around without making it sound over the top. A good example of an anime that comes out sounding pretty natural with its dub is Cowboy Bebop. In my personal opinion, most of the voice actors in it portray their characters well, and match their lip-flaps, while having the voice acting sound just as good as it would if it were a pre-lay.

[DemonLordShugo]

Studio Ghibli's films were never known for using celebrity actors in the past. Just that in recent years, they've been using more well known actors from Japan to do some of the voice work. In "Howl's Moving Castle", Miyazaki got Takuya Kimuro to play the voice of Howl. Ironically enough, Kimuro's former co-star from the hit TV series (which they starred in together many years ago) played the voice of Sosuke's mother in the new "Ponyo on the cliff".

As for Death Note, the voice actor who plays Ryuk actually starred in Jet Li's "Fearless" and John Woo's latest Chinese epic "Red Cliff". The way I see it, Japan is starting to get into the hang of using celebrity voices in anime.


Strangely this isn't the first time, they sorta did that back in 1996 with Kodomo no Omocha (Kodocha), because some of the characters were played by Japanese live action actors, and Sana was played by Japanese radio host, Shizue Oda

[garfield15]

I mean just look at the crazy numbers of Double Action CDs hehehe.

Double-Action (Sword Form)
Double Action: Rod Form
Double Action: Ax Form
Double Action: Gun Form
Double Action: Wing Form
Action-ZERO
Real-Action
Double Action:Coffee Form
Double Action: Ga-Oh Form
Double Action: Den-Liner Form
Double Action: The Final

Freakin' Den-O man. The songs have to END! I don't care about how hot the seiyuu are for the Imajin!

(For the record, I do actually like these songs. There's just too many of them. Rod Form is my favorite)

[Undrave]

Double-Action (Sword Form)
Double Action: Rod Form
Double Action: Ax Form
Double Action: Gun Form
Double Action: Wing Form
Action-ZERO
Real-Action
Double Action:Coffee Form
Double Action: Ga-Oh Form
Double Action: Den-Liner Form
Double Action: The Final

Freakin' Den-O man. The songs have to END! I don't care about how hot the seiyuu are for the Imajin!

(For the record, I do actually like these songs. There's just too many of them. Rod Form is my favorite)

There's also 4 Piano Form and each of them has a 'dialogue' version with lines from the show. Including two different Momotaros version. I think DenLiner Form might have different ones too or is that Climax Jump DenLiner Form?

Personally the classic Sword Form is my favorite. Especially Momotaros version. ORE SANJOU!!!

[The Overlord]

I'm aware of that, and I agree, but my statement was only referring to English dubs of anime when I was saying that there are also tons of English dubs that sound over the top. I wasn't referring to English voice actors who do pre-lay work.

I'm also aware that dubbing is much more difficult to perform than pre-lay, due to the restrictions of having to match the timing of the mouth-flaps of the characters, but that doesn't meant that they always have to sound over the top, unless the character is made to be that way, or unless there is a line that they just can't get around without making it sound over the top. A good example of an anime that comes out sounding pretty natural with its dub is Cowboy Bebop. In my personal opinion, most of the voice actors in it portray their characters well, and match their lip-flaps, while having the voice acting sound just as good as it would if it were a pre-lay.

Yes but in general pre-lay work gives one a better indication of one's level of skill as a VA then dubbing does, despite the fact there are some exceptions that prove the rule, like Cowboy Bebop.

[Bunai]

Off Topic. long post is long

How about in most cases, the Japanese VA actually know how to act.
That's even more ignorant and biased than people who say all English dubs suck.

If you speak Japanese then I'll accept it as your true opinion, but if you do not, frankly I think a comment like sounds to me that it's not the performances of the Japanese voice actors that you dislike, but the language itself.

At least the people who proclaim that all english dubs suck are fluent in english and have the ability to judge performances in their own language.
Pfft.
Watch "Lemon Angel Project" and tell me if you think that is 'Good acting'. Seriously if you can't hear it then I envy you. And it's not hard to pick out bad acting and bad singing in another language.
If it was however -something like Theater acting, I would agree with your statement.

My examples.
-myco who played Mitsuki Koyama in the "Full Moon wo Sagashite" (in my opinion) was terrible, her acting was stiff and the voice choice didn't fit the character at all, I was literally laughing every time she spoke - She did alright as the show went on - which usually happens with a lot of VAs in Anime. The lady is great at singing but Voice Acting isn't her thing.
-Another Singer who voice acts is Momoi Haruko - who I love and a big fan of her singing, but when it comes to voicing characters it's a mix-bag. Sometimes she shines as the character, other times you can just hear the stiff acting but also hear the enthusiasm. She's popular so she is used a lot.
-Then there is Saeko Chiba, perhaps it was just her Dokuro-chan role that made me wary of her acting, I'll check out more of her work. It sounded like she had this "OooooH ... REeAL-LY!?" type of way of acting, like fake. "NAaah-Nii?!". I think it was just this role that bugged me, the show itself is amusing.


There are Anime roles when the voice actor is just terrible, yet when they do a different Anime role they are terrific. Perhaps the role was just wrong for them or the director wasn't...directing lol

With "Air Gear" Kenta Kamakari as Ikki was just terrible I was literally cringing, the guy is a good Stage-actor, but as Ikki his acting didn't improve till the show was nearing it's end. I felt that half the Japanese cast for Air Gear was just bland. Chris Patton as Ikki and the English cast (to me) was a lot better.
With exceptions when it came to Akito/Agito. And I mean this for both dubs (Jnp and Eng) I found both voice choices to be unfitting, but the VAs were good at bringing out the character, and their acting was enjoyable.

I watched "Disney's Hercules" in Japanese and was surprised at how bad it was. Not because I am use to listening to English (I watched it in Spanish too) it was seriously just badly done.


Most people who say that the English dub track is bad, is mostly just ranting and look at Japan as some shinyland of happy. You can find clips and episodes of anime in Spanish, French, German, and people will say the same thing because they just have a preference for listening to Japanese, even if the acting is bad. And when it comes to popular Anime you definitely see people making claims about how "Inferior" every dub is.


On Topic.
I think you should actually ask an English dubbing Anime voice actor about this. Many of them have blogs and emails they reply to. The only replies that can be gotten here is *points above* Opinions. And how much time is put into the dubbing. And what we think happens.
....? Unless that is what the purpose of the topic is.

Since Anime is an industry in Japan, of course the way of getting voice actors is different from other countries and each country has their own method for their own Animation industry.

In Japan there are schools for voice acting and lot of them are in music groups. It's literally a career choice and the people are practically celebrities as-in movie star status.
Those are the only two major differences -from my view. Overall, many voice actors have various careers, it could be Stage acting and Radio that gets them chosen for a role.

A thing they have in common is that they [Voice Actors] love their work. They have opinions about the characters they play and they have their favorites. A lot of people think you have to like everything about the character to play the part - well from an Otaku perspective.

And then there are some Studios and VA's go out of their way to please Fans.

[The Overlord]

Do any Japanese voice actors make as much as the Simpsons cast?

[DemonLordShugo]

Do any Japanese voice actors make as much as the Simpsons cast?

You know I never thought of that, I know Japanese VA's are payed very low fees, but who knows how much they make?

[The Overlord]

You know I never thought of that, I know Japanese VA's are payed very low fees, but who knows how much they make?

The Simpsons cast makes 400,000 dollars an episode, that likely makes them the highest paid voice actors in the world, has Japanese show ever had voice actors that demanded a fee similar to that?

[Taekmkm]

Bottom-ranked Japanese VA's get about 15,000 yen per episode after taxes and fees, while some higher-tier animes could get their actors paid 80,000 yen per episode.

Their contracts prevent such gouging of salary that the Simpsons cast do.

[The Overlord]

Bottom-ranked Japanese VA's get about 15,000 yen per episode after taxes and fees, while some higher-tier animes could get their actors paid 80,000 yen per episode.

Their contracts prevent such gouging of salary that the Simpsons cast do.

What does that translate into American dollars?

[Taekmkm]

About 163 and 871 dollars respectively. Granted, American anime dubbers get paid by the hour (I think average minimum is $25/hour) but yeah, 99% of voice actors get paid diddly. Simpsons are the absolute exception, not a goal.

[The Overlord]

About 163 and 871 dollars respectively. Granted, American anime dubbers get paid by the hour (I think average minimum is $25/hour) but yeah, 99% of voice actors get paid diddly. Simpsons are the absolute exception, not a goal.

I'm sure that union pre-lay voice actors make way more money then anime dubbers, however it doesn't seem like Japanese VAs make more money then American VAs, overall.

[Jave]

You can't compare The Simpsons to anything when it comes to VA salaries. It's way above normal and into ridiculous levels. They even demanded one million per episode a couple of years ago, and nearly everyone agreed it was ridiculous beyond compare. No VA is worth THAT much money.

[O-chan]

Okay, being an anime fan for years and listining to both English and Japanese sides I have a few comments to make:

1. On both ends of the spectrum I have gotten bored with the "stereotypical" voice acting that crops up in voice acting overall. The standouts in Japanese being Urusei Yatsura, One Piece, and the Dragonall franchise. In English the standouts are Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop, and a good chunk of Funimation dubs.

2. Most people tell fans if they don't speak Japanese they don't know what they are talking about. I agree in the sense that fans are not an expert on an language unless they are speaking it. But I disagree in the sense that, many times, I've been as bored with the Japanese version of a show as I have by an English version. Funimation (and most Texas dubs) tend to give a degree of reality to a dub that I appreciate while the Animaze/Studiopolis/Ocean set seemingly have become more average in terms of dubbing experience. It's not that they are bad but often times a little too "anime cartoony" (i.e. high pitched voice, bishonen type voice etc..) and don't bring as much life to the characters as most Funimation dubs do.

3. On the Japanese end I've gotten bored by the same archtypes and voices and the reason I listed One Piece and UY is because the voice acting is very unique and quirky. I can't judge acting ability because I am not Japanese but I remember a particular scene in UY where Lum's friend Ran went form cute girly-girl to a psychotic so and so and I could pick up through intonations and pitch the change in acting.

I'm getting a little tired of typing but I think I've made my point.

O-chan