“This is something I’ve been kinda curious about for a while. Back in the day well for the matter, being a seiyuu in Japan just meant pretty much doing voice acting right? You almost rarely if ever saw what the voices behind the characters looked like. Nowadays it seems to have evolved into so much more due from a changing industry more so than not. Apparently keeping a good appearance for the media is just as important as voice acting talent in the industry for things like magazine shoots or live events. Then we have stuff like seiyuu idolism and most of the ones who work in that department make a full time career out of it doing live events and stuff. On the other hand other seiyuu not involved in that line of work need other work on the side to maintain themselves financially. Who/what/when did the industry change like this? Or am I wrong and has it always been like this?”
Chances are you might not’ve understood anything I just quoted here. Long & short of the of the question in question being: Voice actors have always been popular because they represent the voice behind the characters. However they stayed pretty under the radar for the most part for a really long time. But somewhere down the road they got really popular, and are even idolized today. This is an interesting point to bring up. Clearly voice actors like Steve Blum, Johnny Bosch & Vic Mignogna are considered demi-gods in the community at large today, but how exactly did this transition take place? I’m not posing this question for a thesis, I honestly have no idea and would love to hear anyone’s opinion on it. Voice acting, for all its glorious end results, is still a very ‘quiet’ career; there aren’t alot of ppl that know about it. If more ppl did know about it, I wonder if the idolization would be more of the norm? and whether or not such status helps or hurts a voice actor?
