Kind of a crude question, but in the world west of Japan, being a voice actor doesn't really seem to have all that much to do with one's looks. However, in Japan, being a voice actor (especially a female one) tends to overlap with being an idol, a musician, a stage performer, a multimedia personality, a model, etc.
So, how much of a requirement is being a total babe in the Japanese voice acting industry? Can a total uggo ever hope to make it?
Voice actors featured in the post
(Clockwise from top left):
1— If you don't know who she is, you are in the wrong sub.
2— Haruka Tomatsu.
3— Maaya Sakamoto. Yū Asakawa. Rie Tanaka. Ai Kayano.
4— Romi Park. Miyuki Sawashiro. Shizuka Itō. Nana Mizuki. Megumi Hayashibara.
5— Mariya Ise. Yui Ogura. Kaori Ishihara. Raychell. Konomi Kohara. Megumi Han.
6— Maaya Uchida. Rina Hidaka. Aina Aiba. Sumire Uesaka. Chiemi Tanaka. Shion Wakayama.
7— Ayane Sakura. Inori Minase. Ami Maeshima. Nao Tōyama.
8— Miku Itō. Moe Toyota. Ayana Taketatsu. Aoi Yūki.
9— Sora Amamiya. Mikako Komatsu. Saori Ōnishi. Aguri Ōnishi. Yūka Iguchi. Kotori Koiwai.
10— Rie Takahashi. Saori Hayami. Yui Ogura. Yōko Hikasa. M·A·O. Reina Ueda.
11— Fairouz Ai Kadota. Lynn. Moeka Koizumi. Coco Hayashi. Akari Kitō.
8 Comments
I somewhat always assumed entertainment personality producing companies hire pretty people and just throw them at different things
Otherwise plastic surgery is a thing, and good makeup and photography makes big difference too, plenty of the people in this collection don’t actually look this good normally
Those who have the looks and are willing to gravure shoots and what not but obviously not like every seiyuu does it, plenty big names that don’t
When they start to market seiyuu as idol
to the extent that they are idol. The ugly one only does Hentai or are paid way less.
I think that its more important now than 20 years ago. Before voice actors did mostly only voice work. Anime. Drama CDs, maybe some ads. In the last 10 years, with anime becoming more accepted as a sub-culture, you see that in Japanese media VA’s are more treated like actors and idols that some faceless voice.
In general I think that looks matter more now but also, these are some of the most popular and visible VA’s. You still have a bunch of VA’ s that only do voice work.
First pic: Kana Hanazawa?
Who is 1?
Probably cos now their jobscope involves making physical appearances and showing their faces for promos and stuff, attractiveness certainly plays a part in their popularity
I think it’s because being a seiyuu is only one of their roles. Most of them are also singers, performers, actresses.
Thanks for posting, I had no idea how good looking some of my faves actually are and enjoyed listening to their VA roles often.
Many of them sing the ED and OP to their respective anime shows as well so they are actual singers / performers and not just the voice to characters. Some of their bios have stated that they started as singers / performers only and added voice work to their repertoire as well.