Forum - View topicINTEREST: Esteemed Voice Actor: "1 in 100 Voice Actors Become Pros"
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Mikeski
Posts: 608 Location: Minneapolis, MN |
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I'm surprised the odds are as good as 1:100, or even 1:10,000.
Given the basic requirements (literacy) let pretty much anyone take a shot, I would have expected there to be way more chaff around the wheat. It's not like having the memorization capacity to get into law school, or the mathematical background to get into engineering school, as the entrance exams would require... I'd think any Japanese high-school grad (and most dropouts) could "test in" to a seiyuu academy. Giant pool of applicants, tiny crowd of stars, 1:100 chance? That's excellent. Kids shooting around at the park and dreaming of the NBA wish they had those odds. Last edited by Mikeski on Wed Mar 11, 2015 8:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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They are lucky, here in Mexico we have very good voice actors but the sad truth is that if they go pro they can do a decent living, but they will never earn the equivalent of what big (AAA?) voice actors do in Japan. I suppose that something similar happens in the USA but I do not follow english dub voice actors careers.
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LEGOF
 Posts: 26 |
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The older you get, the harder it is to continue to obtain roles. There are only a handful of 30+ year old seiyuu that consistently obtain roles (Horie Yui and Tamura Yukari come to mind). A lot of the younger seiyuu are eating up all the roles because they're in their "prime." Touyama Nao and Sakura Ayane hog nearly half the roles for KanColle.
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wonderwomanhero
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I seem to recall Chris Patton writing a (since deleted?) post on his tumblr about his anger at an unnamed voice actor who once stated at a con that it was not possible to work as a voice actor for a living. Supposedly Patton is able to make a living doing voicework. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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In addition to that, Rina Hidaka and Aya Suzaki ended up voicing four characters each in that show. |
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reanimator
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After reading about entry level animator pay level and now the 1:100 ratio of becoming professional voice actor... Either way, entertainment business is tough.
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Banjo
Posts: 784 |
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the young gets everything, once you hit 35~40 trouble begins.
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WatchforMoons7
 Posts: 529 |
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I think it's been said before: Most seiyu need extra jobs.
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14802 |
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Wonder what the ratio is for live actors to get into Hollywood................
But why in Japan "pay is based on seniority"? That may work for salarymen, but acting? Why not how good you can act?
Especially voice actors who earn their SAG/AFTRA union card can earn a pretty good living. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13581 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I suppose I should have said that it's the awful truth that young aspiring VA to-be might not become a pro and they might not make a good living from it.
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Yeah, that's what I was thinking--1 in 100 would be pretty good odds considering the entertainment business, in any country, in any medium, is extremely competitive. Showbiz is alluring.
Even in Hollywood, only a handful of voice actors can get enough work to make a living entirely on voice acting. It's the same deal everywhere: Lots and lots of people want to be voice actors, they are willing to do anything to get their foot in the door, the studios that hire them want to spend as little as possible, and voice acting is freelance work (meaning they're paid based on how much work they can find and have to desperately claw at any chance they get, even big names). The result is that most voice actors get peanuts for paychecks, even very talented ones--they just aren't as lucky as someone else. As for English-language anime voice actors versus western animation voice actors, I read somewhere that Billy West (voice of Fry in Futurama, current voice of Elmer Fudd, among others) said that whereas western animation voice actors like him are paid more, they largely remain obscure and don't get any fame from what they do, unlike anime voice actors, who go to all these conventions and get to sign autographs and all. Don't quote me on this though, as I read this a long time ago and I forget where I found it.
While unions can guarantee decent pay and good working conditions, some studios would be hesitant to hire union voice actors because it means more pay and higher maintenance. |
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2894 Location: California |
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Actually, this requires a footnote. Sure, old veterans may not get as many roles as younger folk, but that's also because they don't need to. Once they get that veteran status, they don't need to be doing 3 or 4 regular shows a season to get by. They can get by with maybe just 1, or perhaps a few guest roles. Also, those actors/actresses generally don't audition anymore. The roles often come to them. It sounds you guys are thinking of the seiyuu profession as only anime. Voice acting encompasses many different media other than anime, such as narrations, dubbing, drama CDs, etc. Just because you might not hear someone in anime much does not mean they are not doing other voice work. You don't hear Tachiki Fumihiko in anime every season but you can hear him pretty much weekly on various TV shows. I'm surprised at how often I hear him when I randomly turn on the TV. Wakamoto Norio does a lot of narrations too. |
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KutovoiAnton
 Posts: 943 Location: Vladimir, Russia |
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From what I get it's kinda easier to make breakthrough in video games and in the dub. It's pretty rough in anime, though.
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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1:100 acceptance rate is quite good in a competitive profession, but that next figure of only 1:1,000 manages to live off only from their vocation, with the rest needing to find alternative sources of income is indicative of the Japanese anime as a whole (remember the article about the recent AMA session of Henry Thurlow, or the statement of Kamimura Sachiko?)
It would seem that while the Japanese cast (seiyūs, animators, directors and more) are more closely-followed and adored by the fans than their Western counterparts, the pay checks are the opposite of that. |
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MajinAkuma
 Posts: 1199 |
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Breakthroughs often depend on the roles. If the seiyuu gets a role that makes him/her incredible popular, he/she benefits from it. With each popular role after that breakthrough role, you finally get your foot on the ground for some years.
However, it can also be the case that a seiyuu gets his/her breakthrough role and plays it for years, but doesn't voice many other characters every year, e.g. Junko Takeuchi, Mayumi Tanaka or Masakazu Morita. But that doesn't mean that they will fall down. Mayumi Tanaka is guaranteed to play Kuririn/Krillin and Luffy in the future, and Naruto also gets its video game boom. Seiyuus often have other activities or projects to do, so even Masakazu Morita is not out of the business and his role as Ichigo Kurosaki will always be remembered. A breakthrough role is a major step for the seiyuu's career. Some seiyuus get many roles that resemble their breakthrough role, e.g. Rie Kugimiya and her tsundere loli roles or Akira Ishida and bishounens, but in a few cases, they can become successful in other media. Nana Mizuki's breakthrough role was Fate Testarossa from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which not only increased her popularity, but also heavily influenced her music career. While Yukari Tamura's breakthrough role is the title character, Nana Mizuki's music career make her more successful in the seiyuu industry. After switching her old agency to King Records, playing Fate and singing the openings and insert songs, she finally got food in the music industry. Her singing talent comes from her training as a professional enka songtress, which she started when she was around 3 to 4 years old, but that didn't guaranteed her success. She changed her old J-Pop style to a more rocky J-Pop in 2007 when she realized that the style of her Nanoha songs were her greatest hits and they still are her best hits. With her collaboration with Element Garden, she has produced much more hits than before and now she's the first seiyuu to ever reached the first place of the Oricon charts and her singles (or were it her albums) reach the top 5 regularly. In exchange to that, with the schedule she has gotten, she's more busy with her music career than her seiyuu career, that's why she plays mostly in short anime series, but in most of them she sings at least one song. With every new role she gets, the chance is very high that she will produce a new song. And with the Nanoha franchise still being going on, her hits won't stop. Her case is really rare, and since most other seiyuu don't have a successful music career like her or Maaya Sakamoto that isn't short lived. Last edited by MajinAkuma on Thu Mar 12, 2015 9:02 am; edited 1 time in total |
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