Voice-acting and the dearth of iconic characters

Here is one more reason to bow to the professionalism of voice actors - while famous actors may have movies tailored to their individual strengths and weaknesses, voice actors must adapt to the roles as they come.

To be honest, there are not that many roles in any given year which give voice actors the elbow room to shine to their heart's content. For one thing, voice-acting is teamwork and each voice must complement another. In addition, iconic roles which do allow elbow room for one individual voice actor to steal all the spotlight are few and far in between.

Take Tanaka Atsuko (田中敦子), for example, who played Mokoto in Ghost in the Shell, an iconic role par excellence. She has not really encountered any similarly challenging role that allows her to demonstrate her talent and wonderfully intelligent-sounding and femininely sexy voice since then. Just a series of minor bread-and-butter roles.

Tanaka 'Gankutsuou' Jouji (田中譲治) is an another example - I think his voice-acting as The Count of Monte Cristo is the best I have ever heard, but since then he has gone back to playing a series of minor middle-aged-man-type characters. Often I sigh at the fact that he is wasted in the roles he is cast.

Looking back in the past year or so, I cannot say it was a year that wowed me in terms of voice-acting, but here are a few passing comments:

• I think the only character role that demanded an individual voice actor to stand out in a conspicuous manner was Sakurai Takahiro (桜井孝広)'s Medicine Seller in Mononoke.
• The technically most challenging role was Seki Tomokazu's (関智一) in Mononoke's Umibouzu story arc, as he had to intone a story in the style of traditional storytellers.
• No female role leaped out at me per se, but if I must choose I would say it was Orikasa Fumiko's (折笠 富美子) voice-acting of the journalist in the Bakeneko story arc in Mononoke - in particular the 'yurusenai' bits.

Looking ahead, I would say that Yakushiji Ryoko (薬師寺涼子) has the potential to be the iconic role of 2008. She is not just an ordinarily successful career woman in present-day Japan (rare as these types are in anime/manga), she is The High-flying, High-powered Alpha Woman. You can write a whole book about her, and I will certainly return to discuss her at greater length at some other time.

Comments

[Snoop']

I heartily agree that Nakata Jouji was one of the best VA ever in Gankutsuou. Haven't heard of him recently, except of course for hellsing OVA - another series that exists solely for his gorgeous voice.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Andou Mabuki, who is the seiyuu of Balsa in Seirei no Moribito. Her performance was truly impressing : the sexy voice of a 30 years old spear wielder, where you can feel strength and flesh. Have you watched the series ? Esp. ep.3 and the episode towards the end where she slaps Chagum...

Apart from that, I'm not sure you saw the series, but Tsukayama Wasane did an insane job at rendering the madness of Washizu (Akagi) and the Chairman (Kaiji), both old sadistic men.
It was also in Kaiji that I saw the most impressive piece of acting : Ishida-san (a minor character) loses his mind due to fear, and his inhumane scream is something only a Japanese professional voice actor could pull out. Check the video from 6:50 to 7:03 :
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=DIr4hRnQoP4

[Wabisabi]

I can't remember if Hellsing (the TV series) predates Gankutsuou - I think they came out at around the same time? Anyway, I thought of the Hellsing OVA as an extension of the TV series so did not really see it as 'post-Gankutsuou'. Besides, Nakata's character in Hellsing is rather thinly fleshed out - the only thing that props the character up is his gorgeous voice. In fact, his voice is about the only thing (to me anyway) that is the saving grace of an otherwise unremarkable work.

I didn't set out the write the History of Modern Seiyuu, so I didn't mention Barusa. But you are right, the voice-acting was good there too.

The YouTube video got stuck halfway. Not sure way...