Post
by Gaffer Tape » Sat Jun 02, 2012 8:15 pm
Here's something I think people are forgetting: the distinction between voice acting and, well, acting. And specifically, I mean the Japanese industry's thinner distinction between the two. I remember several years back the podcast touting an interview with Nozawa who chided younger performers coming into the industry who didn't want to be actual actors but just wanted to be voice actors and how, in her philosophy, you had to be an actor first and a voice second.
Take a moment to think about live-action acting, be it on the stage or on television or in film. How many good actors can you think of who sound totally different in every role? That's not to say that actors don't make vocal choices. That is certainly a primary element of creating a character. However, if you close your eyes, I'm sure you can, in almost every role, recognize Tom Hanks, Sean Connery, Bernadette Peters, Woody Allen, Alan Rickman, or Patrick Stewart by voice alone, regardless of what vocal choices they are making with their characters. And when they get actors to voice in, for example, Studio Ghibli films, you're still usually going to get that same thing too.
In solely the voice industry, though, is the emphasis more on creating a voice, a "character" voice, usually much more cartoony, as that is often the nature of the beast. When Chris Sabat hopped onto the scene in 1999, most of the criticism leveled at him was for that reason. His Piccolo was a "character voice" made up to sound really gruff. His Vegeta voice was a "character voice" made up to sound really gruff and with an affected accent. His Yamucha voice was a "character voice" made up to sound like a surfer stereotype. His Jheese was a "character voice" made up to sound Australian. And so on...
But you have to remember that the line isn't a strong in Japanese animation. Many of those seiyuu are actors too. I know that, for example, Aono Takeshi was mentioned as being a stage actor in the articles accompanying his death. So, yes, more of an emphasis is made on creating a character than creating a character voice. And I know I can certainly easily distinguish his Gyu-Mao from his Umigame from his Mr. Satan.