So, you wanna be an anime voice actor....

G

GRIMREAPER75

New member
I just saw this article on ANN. In it, Tony Oliver talks about how Bang Zoom is currently offering classes on anime voice acting.

I personally think offering classes specifically for anime voice acting is a bit silly. Mainly because a lot of the people who say "I wanna be an anime voice actor!!" often want that specific job because they love anime; not because they love acting or have any acting talent whatsoever.

Now, I'm not saying my generalisation applies to all aspiring anime voice actors (I saw some pretty talented people at the Bang Zoom panel at Anime Expo last year). But it still seems weird to me that so many people just want to focus on just one small slice of the VA industry (and a very difficult and low-paying one at that!).


That said, some good points were made in the interview...


One of the few legitimate complaits that dub bashers use is the fact that the same small group of people are cast in nearly every anime and video game these days. So I'd LOVE to see these classes succeed in finding fresh talent. As much as I love Yuri Lowenthal, Wendee Lee, and Crispin Freeman; I do wish they'd take a vacation once in a while. For their own sake as well as ours!
 
I know Cristina Vee was one such student. Very talented indeed. I do agree a lot of the good work is in video games, as Bosch and Blum frequent between game and anime.


If the class can teach the very important obstacle of anime voice-acting, lip-lock, then it might be a good hear.
 
Why just anime VAing? Why not voice acting in general? It'll give in sight for students that aren't just going to be Anime VAs on what to expect afterwarRAB.
 
I'd like to see more general voice actors in anime dubs, as opposed to people who only voice dubs. There are too many dub actors out there with little more than a couple variations of their own voice. No matter how good they are at the acting part, they're not comparable to actual "voice actors". It gets tiring to hear nearly the exact same voices again, and again, and again...

--Romey
 
Well, at one point in the interview, Oliver mentions that he'd like to expand his class to include stuff about the American industry and commercial work...



...but the secondary purpose of the Bang Zoom classes was to teach people how to adapt to all the technical crap that goes along with doing VA work on an anime.

And the main purpose of the classes was to get those annoying twits to stop asking "How do I become a famous anime voice actor?" at every freakin' convention over and over again.
 
These workshops seem like fun, and a friend of mine did the workshop in DC the other weekend. However, I agree that there is a problem as far as limiting to anime dub voice acting. I'm a pursuing voice actor myself, but I sure don't want to limit myself. I don't want to be a voice actor because I love anime, I want to be a voice actor because I happen to like acting in general and I just happen to love animation. Acting experience beforehand is a must, honestly, so while I might do one of these workshops in the future, I want to do more theatrework and take actual acting classes. It is a shame that it's difficult just being able to get the chance to audition, but you just have to be very dedicated and persistent.
 
Which is very much a cart before the horse situation, regardless of what he thinks is more difficult.

Now that's a legitimate purpose.

--Romey
 
Hey now! Its unfair to say that actors with a narrow vocal range only exist in anime dubs. Its also unfair to say that dub VAs aren't "actual" voice actors.

Typecasting talented actors in the same type of roles again and again and again happens in both anime dubs and domestic shows. For example, Kath Soucie does TONS of VA work in American shows. She's very talented and has a great range; but for some reason she enRAB up using the "Phil and Lil" voices in about 95% of the stuff she's cast in. I'm sure thats the voice directors fault more than her's; but the case is probably the same for most anime VAs who seem to only be able to use the same 2 voices over and over.
 
Um, the main reason for these classes is to MAKE MONEY.

They don't put them on for charitable purposes, it's a way of getting another revenue stream from the small group of hard core dub fans that love anime dubbing.
It has beneficial side effects of finding new talent and educating people, but really the main reason is to expand their business. Bang Zoom isn't a non-profit, you know.
 
Ahh, but that's not actually what I said, is it? I'm enough of a domestic VA nerd to be familiar with a laundry list of voice actors with narrow vocal ranges. They show up for good reason. Most I can think of are cast because they have unique voices. That, and they're available. There's a huge difference, however, in the frequency of casting. You don't hear them everywhere, especially not among a show's main cast.

Bah, you ought to know what I meant.

Again, major difference in frequency. Not even comparable. If it were that much a problem in domestic shows, couldn't you cite a better example than Kath Soucie? I'll question your 95% figure as well. Some of her voice directors have a rather well proven track recorRAB, so I'm not going to complain about them.

Supposedly, that's the main purpose of all business, but no one on the internet ever questions why any particular business does what it does, instead of something else, like smuggling cocaine or whatever.

--Romey
 
I doubt anyone here is under the delusion that Bang Zoom is offering these classes out of the goodness of their hearts. It kinda goes without saying that they want to make a profit out of this. Which is why I didn't bother mentioning it before.

I actually applaud Bang Zoom for this genius move! The dub industry is hurting financially right now. And soaking those durabasses who disrupt convention panels and set their sights on being "anime VA stars" is a great way to make extra cash!
I wouldn't be suprised if Funimation and a bunch of other companies jumped on this bandwagon, too!

Oh, I agree with you. If I were an aspiring voice actress, I'd go for Bob Bergen's workshop before I even thought about attending Tony Oliver's classes.
Oliver is a cool dude and a good actor. And in the interview he talks about educating his students about the American industry, too. But a class focusing only on one tiny piece of the American VA industry won't help the students all that much in the real world.

I really don't, though. Its a little hard to interpret tone from forum posts, y'know.

Soucie might not be the best example; she was just the first actress that came to mind when I posted before. And the 95% figure is just a guesstimate I threw in based on all the cartoons I've watched in my lifetime. Its not supposed to be scientifically accurate or anything.
 
When you think of "voice actor", don't you usually imagine someone capable of, y'know, doing lots of different voices? That's about all I was getting at.

I know an obvious exaggeration when I see one. At least I like to think I do.
Anyway, my general impression of Soucie has a lot less Rugrats in it.

--Romey
 
Answering a lot of things in this thread, but yours is the shortest

The general reason is that anime dubbing is a subset of general voice acting, so a general VA class will not address skills and techniques that are necessary for anime voice acting. The closest that an average voice-over actor gets to doing anime is ADR (automated dialog replacement) either for their own performances or to do things like redubbing bits of a movie for broadcast or airplanes to replace the swear worRAB and things. However, in general, ADR work is small, limited in scope, in the same language, and often done to your own performance. An anime dub requires much more work because you have to match up to an existing performance plus lip-flaps in addition to all the stuff you already have to do as a voice actor. It forces you to produce a convincing character under much tighter and less forgiving circumstances. Anime dub actors can go do regular VA work a lot easier than the other way around, so it's bitterly ironic that many of them get typecast as "anime actors" and don't get work outside that.

There are also business reasons why many actors opt not to do anime voice acting that have nothing to do with technical skills. Apparently, most anime acting jobs do not pay residuals -- you're paid a session fee and that's it. If the DVD sells a billion copies, you don't see an extra dime for your work. This is definitely not true of domestic cartoons or even other dubbing work. Because of the time and budget you have for anime dubs, there isn't much auditioning or prep work -- they have to cast who they know, give them a script as they walk in the studio, and start recording right off. It's much, much harder work for much, much less money, and there are lots of actors who won't/can't work like that. The surprise isn't that there are the same set of a dozen or so actors who do all the anime work -- the surprise is that there are as many who can and still do.


There are also a few voice actors who succeed because they really only do one voice. Thurl Ravenscroft was pretty much Thurl in everything he did, and Gilbert Gottfried and Yeardley Smith pretty much do that today.

Besides, it's not as much about the voices as much as it's about the characters. Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson and Cartwright as Todd in The Replacements aren't that sonically distinct, but people miss the fact that it's the same actor because Bart is a very different person than Todd. I've seen the same thing happen with someone like Mae Whitman, where Avatar freaks don't recognize her as Tinker Bell even though Whitman is using almost exactly the same voice.


Yeah, well, I don't think that will ever go away no matter how many articles, classes, seminars, or whatever are written about it. The clueless will stay clueless and they're constantly getting new ones.
 
well, it takes a certain level of skill and practice to actually do voice overs for animes.

I took the Adventures in Voice Acting workshop back in October and we had like 3 chances to record anime.

You're actually restrained in ur acting since u have to not only try to match the lip syncing, but u hav to hold urself back in naturally acting out a line when u hav pauses in the animation wen the character isn't talking.

as Tony Oliver said, acting is an easy but its a super hard job to do well.

yes, you should hav a good ability to act before u get into voice acting, but anime is a slightly different ball game. very challenging.
 
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