Nozawa and the nuances of acting being lost on the new generation of Seiyuu

[JulieYBM]

I remember seeing Brina Palencia and Jason Douglas in The Walking Dead and thinking that that was so cool. Like, "oh, hey, that's a neat appearance out of nowhere!"

[dva_raza]

Japanese live action/anime acting is much closer to theatrical acting than American live action/cartoon acting is, it's just a different approach. And none of these forms of acting are trying to come across as realistic and natural, that's not the point. Acting that sounds like actual real life conversations is only really found in media that specifically goes for that as a gimmick or selling point.

Lol... wut?
A natural performance is a grounded and realistic style and it's used by the best actors in the world, for the biggest projects in the world.
Some examples of people coming to mind who’s style is usually that, are Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep, Gael García, Christoph Waltz. They don't oversell yet brutally project. Its captivating precisely because of the little things that happen while in character. It's basically a complete awareness of your surroundings and an organic reaction in real time within that reality.

But yes, the only acting that’s “bad” acting is whatever doesn’t convince or transmit what the character is supposed to be transmitting within the story, that’s it.
Whether it’s the mannered kind of performance used for cartoons or a realistic one, neither should be approached through imitation. A quality work will always have nuance

I’m not here to dismiss dubbing but yes being able to say you have experience in an on camera role even for low grade preschooler entertainment is a better resume builder when auditioning for a live action movie or show than saying you have experience as a voice actor. It’s why you pretty much never seen anime voice actors in live action roles and usually when they get on camera work its bit parts.

Voice actors usually don’t do live action film because they either, believe it or not, don’t want to, or because they don’t fit a standart physical requirement/lack presence to be on film. When someone has the requirements to do both, and they want to do both, then that happens, it's not so much about resumes.

[Mosaic]

Nozawa has made the comment that lately the new crop of Japanese Voice Actors arent really trained or inspired by naturalistic methods of acting but rather imitate Anime acting, creating an imitation of an imitation.

How do you feel about this?

It's very interesting she would say this, since that's my opinion on most American voice actors. I guess this problem isn't just limited to the US.

[bkev]

I think she has a point, and it's not the first time she has made such a claim. In fact, we've discussed such -- along with similar points made by Sonny Strait -- on this very website!

The idea of just becoming a "voice actor" as compared to an "actor" has really proliferated in the internet era, and while that's great for people in the business (they get much more love as a result), it's not exactly a positive when it comes to acting diversity. Cartoon voicework is inherently going to be exaggerated by comparison to other acting fields, but that doesn't mean you need to ascribe to that every time. I have to admit, I feel like it's getting harder to tell voice actors apart; sure, they're all technically proficient, and often better at their jobs than the talent we grew up with, but the delivery style has become a little more standardized. This is especially true in English dubs, but it can be said of Japanese language works too.

[coola]

HanaKana, Aoi Yuuki, Mamoru Miyano etc. we have lots of seiyuu with distinct voice and great voice range, and I'm sure in 1970's/1980's we also had lots of generic cute girls and loud shounen protagonists. Take a look at upcoming Urusei Yatsura remake PV, both Ataru and Lum VA voice their characters differently, not trying to emulate Hirano-san and Furukawa-san https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhLF0pjMwns

And overall, it's staff/director, who have last word in voice direction.

[Cure Dragon 255]

HanaKana, Aoi Yuuki, Mamoru Miyano etc. we have lots of seiyuu with distinct voice and great voice range, and I'm sure in 1970's/1980's we also had lots of generic cute girls and loud shounen protagonists. Take a look at upcoming Urusei Yatsura remake PV, both Ataru and Lum VA voice their characters differently, not trying to emulate Hirano-san and Furukawa-san https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhLF0pjMwns

And overall, it's staff/director, who have last word in voice direction.

I honestly thought those WERE Hirano and Furukawa...