Shopping Guide
Have you ever got charmed by anime? If you have, what was the reason of that? It can be the story, character, picture, or others.
Well, why don’t we focus behind the scenes who are acting the characters, the voice actors? As the anime industry has developed, and voice actor fans have rapidly increased, not just anime itself. Many of the fans starts off by liking a specific anime character and naturally like the voice actors as well. However, most of the voice actors now work as artists by singing, having a radio program, and many more. So, let’s dig into the fascination of voice actors.
Singing too!? Voice actors now have the demand to sing!!
Anime always have opening and ending theme song, and many people care about it a lot. Famous Japanese artists and anime song singers, such as Eir Aoi, take a lead in singing anime songs, however, theme songs sung by the voice actors have a big influence to both anime and voice actor fans since the voice actors act out and know the character of the anime, so they are able to match the image of it.
Nana Mizuki act Fate Testarossa in Magical girl lyrical Nanoha series, and also sang the theme songs too, such as Angel Blossom, which is the latest song of Lyrical Nanoha series.
Mamoru Miyano sang all of the opening theme for Uta no Prince-sama series,known as Uta-Pri, and played Tokiya Ittoki in the anime.
Not just opening or ending songs, but also character songs are very popular for both anime and voice actor fans. Character songs are songs for only a specific anime character in which the voice actor sing as the anime character.
*The IDOL M@STER* series have been releasing a lot of character songs for most of the idols appearing in games or anime.
I am the character! Voice actors perform, sing, and dance on big stages!!
Famous voice actors stand on the same stage where famous Japanese artists or idols perform. For the anime events, the anime voice actors recite the original story for the event on stage. Not just anime events, but voice actors who work as a solo artists tend to have concerts like many other artists do these days.
LoveLive! concert is famous for its high quality in dance performances and costumes that perfectly match the animation. The nine voice actresses, as a character, act and perform on stage. Uta no Prince-sama! Maji Love Live is very competitive for it’s tickets, so if you have chance to attend, it is like a miracle! The voice actors from Uta-Puri appears on stage from the screen to create a live just like in the anime.
Appearance is important too. Picture book of the voice actors!?
Even though their main activity as voice actress did not have strong importance on their visual looks, many of the fans, in curiosity, like to see the faces of the person acting the character so the situation has been changing these days. Especially, recently many of the female voice actors have a trend of exposure in magazines and other medias.
Haruka Tomatsu is famous for her voice that can be both male and female. She acts Keita from Youkai Watch that is popular among Japanese children, and Asuna from Sword Art Online series, which the anime and the novel became an exploded hit in all around the world. “I may Me” is her 5th photo book that she published.
Aya Uchida got famous from LoveLive! series acting as Kotori Minami. She debut as a singer last year and successfully ended her solo live. “Patina” is her first photo book, and fascinated the fans with her inborn cuteness.
Radio program is the classic media to listen to their voice!
There is a way to listen to your favorite actor/actress’s voice for 30 minutes, and that is to listen to their radio. Of course their special characteristic is their voice as they do in anime, but many of the actors and actress take a role in the radio program, as MC or a guest, makes the fans amuse a lot.
"Dear Girl Stories" has been on board for almost 8 years and is popular for many people. The reason of their popularity comes from the two MC, Hiroshi Kamiya and Daisuke Ono who are the top popular voice actors in Japan. The program had unusual projects such as making a movie or opening a live at Budokan, the martial arts stadium, where only the pro artists can perform.
NozoEri Radio Garden comes from the LoveLive! project. NozoEri is the abbreviation for Nozomi and Eri, who are the characters of the MC; Yoshino Nanjo and Aina Kusuda. This program is part of LoveLive project, so the talk is mainly about LoveLive!
We have touched on the works that voice actors do. The trigger that the fans start cheering voice actors is from the animation they appear and get interest in the person that one acts. The voice actors have widen their range of activity by the fans accepting the character of the anime and the voice also. Voice actors’ fascination is that they come out from the frame of the voice actors. Their existence is idol like and seem to have more exposure as the anime culture evolve.
Source: Tokyo Girls' Update
Source article written by Maririn