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INTEREST: Megumi Ogata Comments on Seiyū Awards Win: Voice Acting World Needs To Be More "Gende


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Multi-Facets



Joined: 15 Oct 2019
Posts: 217
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:06 pm Reply with quote
Well said and good points from Ogata-san. Considering how long she was respectfully nicknamed "Aniki" by other voice actors, I hope the powers that be in the awards industry at least take her thoughts as inspiration.
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livin_large



Joined: 10 Nov 2021
Posts: 107
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:15 pm Reply with quote
I think the main issue with this proposal is while it's pretty common for women to voice male characters, especially adolescent boys, it's extremely rare for men to voice female characters. Most if not all of the examples I can think of are done as a jokes or punchline, like Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros or Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time. Or they need someone with that 'chain-smoker' voice.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:19 pm Reply with quote
I agree with you as far as the rarity in Japanese voice acting. There are some "not joke" examples in American voice acting though, like the cast of Bob's Burgers. Tina and Linda are both voiced by men.
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Chrno2



Joined: 28 May 2004
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Location: USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:25 pm Reply with quote
I find this an interesting topic, because I always thought that was the case. You already have women who voice male characters and male characters. I can think of one from the show Star Driver. Maybe I'm missing something. But I thought considering how things are this conversation wouldn't need to be brought up.
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WANNFH



Joined: 13 Mar 2011
Posts: 1708
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:50 pm Reply with quote
livin_large wrote:
I think the main issue with this proposal is while it's pretty common for women to voice male characters, especially adolescent boys, it's extremely rare for men to voice female characters. Most if not all of the examples I can think of are done as a jokes or punchline, like Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros or Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time. Or they need someone with that 'chain-smoker' voice.
Well, the only male seiyuu who done that more than once (as I know for sure) is Aoi Shouta - but there is usually a quirks too, with his characters usually being transgender or close to that (like Cagliostro in Symphogear spoiler[or Kaiser Insight in PriConne]).
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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 1:09 pm Reply with quote
livin_large wrote:
I think the main issue with this proposal is while it's pretty common for women to voice male characters, especially adolescent boys, it's extremely rare for men to voice female characters. Most if not all of the examples I can think of are done as a jokes or punchline, like Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros or Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time. Or they need someone with that 'chain-smoker' voice.

An example that comes to mind is the main character of Fucked By My Best Friend, but I think that anime can hardly be considered good representation of anything lol
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 1:20 pm Reply with quote
I remember she even did songs from the perspective of two Danganronpa characters so she she knows a lot about males. Still, I wonder if the scene from Evangelion 3.0+1.0 involving spoiler[bothered her because she was replaced by another actor just for around three lines involving an older Shinji.]
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 1:49 pm Reply with quote
I was just reminded of Doctor in Akudama Drive which is probably one of her more prominent female roles, and very feminine in terms of character, although I think they actually suggested at one point that she didn't used to be a woman.

I think it's an interesting question and relates to how we still connect to gender and apply it to people and the works we take in, and that Ogata hasn't thought of herself as very much like a "woman" in some time (although not the extent of being non-binary, I assume).

I understand her point even though I think there's still sense in their being different awards for male and female VA's just as much as we still view characters as male and female in general (like Best Boy and Best Girl categories rather than just "Best Character") but that's just me.
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Souther



Joined: 22 Feb 2015
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:14 pm Reply with quote
livin_large wrote:
I think the main issue with this proposal is while it's pretty common for women to voice male characters, especially adolescent boys, it's extremely rare for men to voice female characters. Most if not all of the examples I can think of are done as a jokes or punchline, like Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros or Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time. Or they need someone with that 'chain-smoker' voice.


Only serious examples that I know of are Akira Ishida in ICE, and I think Daisuke Ono in Tamako Market?
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AmpersandsUnited



Joined: 22 Mar 2012
Posts: 633
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:21 pm Reply with quote
Chrno2 wrote:
I find this an interesting topic, because I always thought that was the case. You already have women who voice male characters and male characters. I can think of one from the show Star Driver. Maybe I'm missing something. But I thought considering how things are this conversation wouldn't need to be brought up.


In terms of casting, sure. Gender has been a non-issue for casting voices for a long time. But as far as awards and recognitions go, I suppose it could be seen as ironic that someone known for voicing opposite-gender characters would win an award for their gender rather than the characters gender.

I think the distinction exists to prevent a shutout or domination in any one direction. If you only have a best voice actor category and it's always a really popular man or woman that wins every year, it could be seen as problematic and not diverse enough. Having both actor and actress classifications in these awards ensures there's an equal number of men and women being recognized and awarded.
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Sarukah



Joined: 13 May 2006
Posts: 160
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:37 pm Reply with quote
AmpersandsUnited wrote:

I think the distinction exists to prevent a shutout or domination in any one direction. If you only have a best voice actor category and it's always a really popular man or woman that wins every year, it could be seen as problematic and not diverse enough. Having both actor and actress classifications in these awards ensures there's an equal number of men and women being recognized and awarded.

Exactly this, it was the first thing I thought of after reading what she said. Surely there would be outcry when the nonspecific category only awards two men, making her statement really pointless. Its just grandstanding, Im incredibly disappointed.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 3:20 pm Reply with quote
I notice there seems to be more male VAs voicing young boys in Anime now. Deku from My Hero Academia would have most likely been voiced by a women if the show had come out maybe even 10 years earlier. So would Eren from Attack on Titan, and if it had come out now maybe Amin would be voiced by a man instead given that he ages past the range that women usually voice males.

We certainly wouldn't have characters like Goku voiced by a woman now, maybe even Luffy would be voiced by a man if the show came out now. There doesn't even seem to be any newish(as in they started only about 10 years ago) female VAs who mainly only do male roles.

Or an example that involves Ogata, she voiced Yugi in the 98 adaptation of Yu-Gi-Oh! and he was later voiced by a male VA in the 01 adaptation. So it's mainly only women, if the character looks below the age of 10 or are girly looking.
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Changeman



Joined: 06 Jun 2018
Posts: 220
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 3:32 pm Reply with quote
Well, as next year the categories divided in gender will be eliminated, I don't think there's much more to debate.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11392
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 4:22 pm Reply with quote
Some stated or implied trans women get played by men, like Ixion Saga's Mariandale (Jun Fukuyama) and Tamako Market's Kaoru Hanase (Daisuke Ono). Then there are women who look like men for reasons, like some of the alien women in Project A-ko, e.g., Captain Napolipolita (Shuuichi Ikeda) and D (Teshou Genda).

Older women are sometimes played by men, notably Howl's Witch of the Waste (Akihiro Miwa) and Still the Town Moves' Uki Isohata (Takahiro Sakurai). But for playing a young, attractive cis-woman the only one I can think of is Akira Ishida playing Julia in ICE The Last Generation (Chris Patton played her in the dub), which Souther already mentioned while I got distracted in the middle of writing this. Wink
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 906
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2022 4:23 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
There doesn't even seem to be any newish(as in they started only about 10 years ago) female VAs who mainly only do male roles.
I wanted to say this is incorrect, but all the VAs I can think of are more in the past-15-years range. Mutsumi Tamura and Natsumi Fujiwara come to mind.

But there are still high-profile female seiyuu who play male roles frequently enough that I'm never surprised to see them in the cast list, like Miyuki Sawashiro or Rie Takahashi. Yoko Hikasa voicing Yoh in Shaman King 2021 is also fairly noteworthy.
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