What is there to say about D4DJ’s TV anime? My approach to this is multi-fold. And personal, as my usual style…
Category Archives: Seiyuu, Idol, Pop
Seiyuu Work: M
I read this and I’m like, either this brain is too small or it’s just not how it works. However I appreciate this point of view, focused on the male voice actor side of things.
But to look for – in a prospective seiyuu – qualities way far from what being a seiyuu entails, already tells us how the industry has shifted to the point that talent agencies believe that only seiyuu with good looks, that can sing and act are the ones that will be successful in the future. [emphasis removed]
What they are forgetting is that most of these seiyuu, unfortunately, will not survive the industry unless they are extremely lucky.
With the seiyuu rankings, the abuse and manipulation in the seiyuu industry that lead to some – unworthy seiyuu – to rise quickly in the ranks and snatch roles from talented voice actors that didn’t even had a chance due to rigged auditions – in which power plays and favoritism end up deciding most of the main cast in anime series – it is hard for seiyuu to thrive.
Is this fanon leaking? I don’t know…
Based on the handful of older seiyuu who’s given talks in the States, seiyuu industry started out as actors and actor-like talents getting into dubbing. Eventually specialized talents called seiyuu became a thing and really blew up in the 90s–and in a lot of ways the requirement for this is just a specialized actor with additional training/education.
The fact that a lot of the popular male seiyuu nowadays climb the entertainment industry ladder by leveraging fan fame because of their solo activity is pretty much textbook entertainment industry stuff. To me this is more of an indictment that you can’t grow your career purely on voice acting, especially if you are expected to be the primary financial provider in your family. There are only so many ways to monetize fame (traditionally, anyways), and if you make it long enough to be a veteran, there are only so many ways to you can continue the career outside of regular dub roles, such as being a teacher or write a book. I can see a lot of older female seiyuu working mostly just behind the scenes while married with children, because that option is open to them and they don’t have to bust their butts making a buck. I am not sure if I can see any successful men doing this short of the rare SuzuKens (who probably make as much as his wife actually) out there.
So it isn’t seiyuu are becoming like tarento–they are actors to begin with, and it is just like how things were many years ago. Just like how actors sometimes also show up in variety shows and whatever, except they don’t have to as much because they are paid a lot more doing acting on popular TV shows and films.
Yes, seiyuu have to do tarento things because voiceover alone doesn’t pay much, and it’s hard enough to get regular roles in a super competitive field. Even if you make it, it doesn’t really pay until much later, which means you have to “keep” making it, or expand the zone to get into other things like all other types of acting, music and general purpose entertainment. Plus, doing all these jobs open doors that might not otherwise be there.
It’s probably super important to highlight what makes a seiyuu a seiyuu–a set of specialized skills reflected in a seiyuu’s ability to create a character voice or a narration voice based on the customer’s needs. It is not something that is that easily done, and like acting there are different ways or styles (schools of thought) to accomplish this, which is going to also impact how seiyuu work with ADR people, directors, and other people running the project. This is the skill set that made seiyuu a distinct profession, which is not something the average generic JP geijokai tarento will have. In fact most people don’t have it. While any actor can probably do a dub, working with actors and specialized seiyuu are different, and it is something sound directors can figure out–still, directors would want seasoned veterans over people who are not experienced at voicing, no matter if they are tarento or not. That’s why they cost more.
On that note, the other major problem on that article (and the writer) is on “rank” because, again, ranking is not some controversial fandumb. It’s kind of boring. Voice acting in Japan is largely unionized work in which the major agencies agree on a set of pay scale, and industry-wide most agencies follow suit. Internally, each agency have varying systems on ranking their new hires and paying (and charging) out, and rank advancement. There are cases when a seiyuu’s career facilitates going freelance once it reaches a certain point. Different agencies have different priorities in terms of talent management (family friendly work vs. eroge, for example; or voice work versus general purpose versus seiyuu idol). Some agencies don’t do the ordinary cut until you are at high rank and is flat rate until then, etc. It can vary a lot.
Having followed IM@S over the years, it’s a good case study. Every time a new branch launches (although I’m not sure who is that for CG) some seiyuu gets on board as their first role. For example, Eriko Nakamura, Asami Shimoda and Manami Numakura. You can see what happened to them, and wonder as I do why Eriko isn’t married yet? Good for her. But those 3 are still doing well enough to stick with Arts Vision, which is still one of the largest seiyuu agency out there.
If you look at Million Live, there are now a handful of freelancers who have left the mothership, the latest being Asuka Kakumoto. Given it’s been over 7 years that these talents have been with the company, their future careers are well realized at this point. The three Spacecraft Millions each have achieved some degree of success, although arguably none of them are successful; at the same time, being able to participate in a project that do not have an ending in sight and is already relatively popular is a silver bowl of sorts, it is an auto-win.
Which is just to say, with the Million Live anime on the horizon does this mean Asuka gets to keep more of her gyara? Is it because of some internal rank issue? I have no idea, but these do play a role for someone who doesn’t have a lot of jobs otherwise.
More commonly, freelancing is a thing that happens when you think your career has either plateaued or you have a spat with management. Mostly the former. My hunch is also that managers are really in short supply, especially skilled and well-connected ones that can really develop talent. What happens when the manager that helped you out in your first 4 years gets bogged down with newbies and you think the agency isn’t going to help you much more, and you are ready to take on some administrative work to earn back some fees that otherwise goes to management? Again, there is already a pay scale for major work, and freelancing gives flexibility to let you take on smaller jobs or jobs that your agency would not have accepted, it’s not a bad option for established talents.
Re: IDOLM@STER at Songs of Tokyo Festival 2020
Songs of Tokyo Festival is an annual1 special program from NHK World, as part of its Songs of Tokyo TV segment. Songs of Tokyo showcases Japanese music acts with translation and feedback from global fans. Now that its 2020 fest had the ON AIR moment last weekend, it is free on demand viewing online here. The VOD expires January 31, 2021.
While Songs of Tokyo and the associated festivals have been going on for some time, it’s always pretty wild to catch the artists on domestic TV that I had to fly to Japan to see. NHK World is commonly broadcasted as a community program in metro areas in the west, or as a freebie in world packages in bundled television services like cable. It’s weird to be able to see all that at 1080 broadcast resolution, where as the real-time web stream looks like, well, a piece of crap. I mean, it probably looks fine normally for NHK programs but these live shows have a lot of visuals going on, and there were just not enough bits. In fact the VOD has the same mushiness look, just much better than the stream.
For this 2020 edition of Songs of Tokyo Festival, instead of in-person audience, there are a bunch of people put on 2 big TV in the venue (NHK Hall), Zoom-style. They act more or less like your typical studio audience.
Enough leading up, I think it’s time to reflect on this 25-minute TV segment that I’ve watched 4 times already in about 48 hours. First of all, the visuals in the back is full blown Mai-Note production value. Fans of IM@S lives will know it well, but I think this is more cranked up than usual given the set is just a giant half-circle LCD wall.
The 15th Anniversary song survived the Coronavirus and we got a presentation of it at Songs of Tokyo Fest. It’s the first time everyone’s seen it performed. It’s not even performed by the original cast–but this is the kind of song that everyone will get to perform. Nandodemo Waraou is also the first IM@S group song with SideM, which means dudes and gals get to sing together, a first for the franchise.
It’s an hour-long TV program including Nana Mizuki, BanG Dream (Popipa, Roselia, RAS), and IM@S. So that they gave ~22 out of 48 minutes of the time to them is already pretty great. In usual JUNGO fashion, team IDOLM@STER’s performance is crammed with little things. Let’s try to unpack some.
Flying Low With Ueshama
Over the years I’ve pondered on exactly how and why seiyuu artists do the major label thing. I understand it financially, but it isn’t exactly clear cut why that is a good deal for a large number of them–it seems like an advancement in career or at least an attempt at it, or as obligation to their fans and industry partners. As individual artists, they work with their managers and producers to come up with something that’s worth selling to the seiyuu’s existing and new audience. Some folks made it work, some didn’t, but even in the worst case these projects at still kind of interesting.
So, in comes Ueda Reina and her cute country songs. I’m going to just link to some music videos and briefly talk about what I think about this in general.
The 30,000-feet view is that anisong and seiyuu-idol as a music label business is basically churning people who are already primed as stage-quality performers (including actors, models and tarento generally–but the training for the latter 2 can vary a lot, affecting their readiness for it). Some popular TV personalities, cosplayers, and now youtubers can all get record label contracts and have a music biz–possibly on the side, or in the front. To take one example, Mizuki Nana is a mainstream musician working hard to still be a relevant seiyuu, as the exception to the norm. But outside of this type of exception and other exceptions, most are just trying to express artistically & tapping into the fandom built around their geinojin persona.
When it comes to voice, it’s hard to monetize people who love your voicework. Like, short of selling facetime, autographs and photos, there isn’t much else you can monetize from. The work product which is tied up totally separately from your voiceover contracts, the characters, stories, game and anime connected to that, is not yours to control, sell or otherwise directly profit from. It makes sense why some seiyuu agencies start idol groups and tropes, because it taps underutilized labor in this growing category of employment, as supply of seiyuu outstrips jobs available for them.
The 10,000 feet view is that different seiyuu artists go about it differently. I think it’s a fair criticism to say that a lot of musicians, especially western ones, have something more to draw from. It’s both the upbringing and the sample size. That while this is a nitpick, but diverse environments produce more diverse talents. Ueda Reina comes from the Toyama countryside and it’s a fresh breath of air for her to try to create something this way, even if it is at core something pretty close to who she is as an entertainment persona and as an individual. And even the ones that aren’t, do it in ways that brings out some originality crossed with, well, what the people want.
Give the people what they want is sometimes a winning formula, but not really that interesting if it’s all that you do. It’s understandable and it’s something everyone do to varying levels. In this case, though, it’s more like Ueshama wants to give you want she wants to give you, so you’ll gladly take it, or not. It’s a selfish but reasonable, and sustainable balance between something that is hardly marketable because it’s just so simply Ueda Reina, but also because that’s what some people want anyway.
Which is to say, when you connect the dots, a lot of seiyuu-idol artists pander to their core audience because they don’t have competitive offerings for the general audience. It’s like why Pixel 5 can be a very attractive phone is lost on the masses, to use a very orthogonal analogy. But what carries in a quality work of art is the conviction of the artist, and you can see it in the way Ueda behave consistently (or as the kids say, on brand).
Going down another level (1000 ft?), Ueda’s solo projects are just art projects. They can be fun, in the video which posts a bunch of fan-submitted flower pics.
It reminds me of her old Web Newtype column (for example) where she would do a photo shoot once every other week with the staff, usually at some low-key but stylish location–a cafe, an art exhibit, a park, etc. Each shoot had a color motif which she picked. At the end of the run, Newtype decided to make a photobook which can be customized by various images used in the column. It was a lot of work to do it, but I’m sure it’s rewarding for the fans who did.
In as much as it’s a business, it’s about engagement and ultimately, producing an artist. That’s where Ueda really leans on her orthogonal art branding here. Originally she was supposed to have her first solo concert in July, which was cancelled by Covid. But in conjunction with the original planning, they had various merch to go with it, including a whole set of artwork she drew in which fans can vote to select which will be made available for purchase. The results were 3 images available as canvassed artwork, and some sold as art for t-shirts or whatever. And then, there’s the Hana no Ame music video project mentioned earlier.
It’s not to say other artists don’t do this kind of arts and craft stuff–it’s actually not unusual. Like I said, engagement is a metric and this does drive that. But this is unique enough of a combination to be noteworthy. If Ueshama is going to be that art teacher persona, I guess there aren’t too many others in this same zone at least.
To close this out, let’s zoom in one more step. I think I’m going to wrap it up with this interview done as a promo for her latest single, which is used for the opening for Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina. Basically, some time after her last album, her manager got married and move away from Tokyo. Thanks to covid also, she wanted to see this friend/ex-coworker and couldn’t. Instead, she wrote the lyrics and performed the song with her (and her partner, who is another employee who met at work) in mind, making it cuter than usual. We’re way too close for aircraft metaphors at this point.
Still Thinking about Hellshake Kanno
My first Japan eventing trip was when I flew to Japan in 2009 and attended the Super-Dimensional Supersonic Tanabata concert, taking place around 7pm on July 7th, also a Tuesday.
Unlike that show, today’s online tribute is a 77-long video which I didn’t get to watch due to not buying a ticket early and having it sell out on me. I also woke up a bit late so I would have had missed the first part of the event, which is the set up.
Here’s the microsite for 2020’s Tanabata online event. Oversea viewers can still watch the last timeshift, which starts at 10pm Eastern time.
The traces for the 2009 show was removed deliberately after it was over. All the promo went down. It was meant to be a thing that had a short shelf life. Maybe that’s just how art works with Kanno. Maybe that will happen for the 2020 version?
In a lot of ways, the 2009 Tanabata event is literally that once-in-a-lifetime event that you may never forget, as fans of the composer and producer, and her output generally. It was art AF. So art that my post about it got eaten by the void when my site went down and lost about 1.5 years worth of posts back last decade. Just stubs left.
The experience of that show carved its shape into my psyche and I still remember rolling out of SSA with Wah and AlexD like it was some wild and crazy thing, even if at the end it was just Kanno marching around the stage with the musicians tooting a rubber duck.
I woke up at like 6am today Eastern time trying to watch the Japan stream. I ended up staying up watched the 9am Asian stream. Man, that stood with me. Without spoilering, I wish I watched the Europe timeshift too. I will catch the Americas one, so maybe I’ll write more about it then.
It seems that the Asian TS is shorter and doesn’t include additional stuff in the Japanese one, which is also 1000 yen more expensive. Oh well.
I’ve been thinking about this show for over 10 years, and it took the Coronavirus being a global pandemic to bring it back. I think that’s two once-in-a-lifetime events happening at the same time. Please take advantage of this online delivery and watch something really, really special.