Why does Anime Seiyuu lose its popularity in Australia?

[Allegreto]

I have been wondering. In Japan, Anime Seiyuu was hailed like a big celebrities and there are flowers in every path they took.
However, they did not receive the same treatment in Australia or in America.
As a matter of fact, even American own Seiyuu did not manage to gain as much popularity as Japanese Seiyuu in their own respective
home country.

What is your view regarding this?

[Meggido]

Voice actors/actresses aren't really given much attention compared to live-action actors/actresses because people need a face to relate to. Seiyuu aren't given much emphasis outside Japan and even in America their own voice actors aren't well known with the exception of Nancy Cartwright (Bart simpson). Even now most animated shows from US use voice actors who were originally live-action actors to get as much recognition as possible.

[Actionman]

In Japan though, anime is a very important subculture as you can the the amount of ppl you see going to anime/manga conventions. I've went to one in Tokyo in the past, and the crowd was humongous.

In Australia, there a extremely few ppl who even take the time to notice japanese seiyuus. Most of the aussies I know that like anime prefer to watch the dubbed versions of the anime dvds. There may be alot of ppl who download fansubs, but most of my friends who do that don't even bother to care who voiced which character in which series (i.e. I have a friend who loves Code Geass and not know who voiced Lelauch or Kallen). I only know one other person besides myself who would care to recognise various seiyuus.

[Chrono]

because Australia is not japan.... lol

but let just Animavericks will do their part and help brainwash all australians haha

[Akulatraxas]

AGREE!! i second opinion of Chrono, that we will do our part to brainwash all australian to start paying attention to those who brought life to each of our lovely anime chara. They deserve every single bit of respects just like actors and actresses  i reckon.

Although Australia isn't Japan, whats wrong in knowing the roots? its always good to know where it came from

[Allegreto]

Yeah, we can be the 3rd Anime country after USA

[Akulatraxas]

I second that, with Animavericks as the leading media and the amount of enthusiasm and support of Australian fans, I would say more than certain!

[MilkBOX]

i would say cultural difference. Anime is not part of Aussie's life. at least Aussie got more healthy life.
in Japan, anime is a big industry and i totally mean it.  ANIME is not a fantasy world,!!

off course seiyuu is popular, because they are on high demand. and the more they appear, the more popular they will be. All part of media world, just like IDOL.

[Zero_Kiryu]

I read somewhere that most of the Seiyuu's dont have full time jobs.. they are only part time.. most have to work in like a 7/11 or something to help make ends meet. apparently because there are alot of people wanting to be one... there are only a handful of them who have fulltime jobs.

[Actionman]

I read somewhere that most of the Seiyuu's dont have full time jobs.. they are only part time.. most have to work in like a 7/11 or something to help make ends meet. apparently because there are alot of people wanting to be one... there are only a handful of them who have fulltime jobs.

very true....out of every 10 000 that graduate from seiyuu specialised schools...only about 10 get to be full fledged seiyuus....and even when becoming one, you can't really be too picky about what projects to take, otherwise your manager will keep reminding you about the remaing 9990 that didn't make the cut-off.

Some of the current seiyuus have theatrical backgrounds (eg. Ami Koshimizu). So you don't really need to attend specialised schools to become a seiyuu.

Nowadays, anime studios / other employers are  generally economical with their choice of seiyuus. As you can see, alot of the current series have main casts who are average or below in popularity (lower wages) and those that are high in popularity (higher wages) are usually cast as supporting characters.

[Zero_Kiryu]

its a dam shame they are a lot of people going for the same job... imagine all the people who thought they could do it.. then they find out one of the BIG NAMES are going for the same job >_>  a bit disheartening .

[Akulatraxas]

yes!! i agree totally with being economical. I also found the trend to be more and more inclined towards hiring newcomer seiyuus as main characters and have more and more pro seiyuus as the supporting chara, because the newcomer will get pay less for more hours he needs to do for the main character role and as for the pro seiyuu, it is done still to make sure the anime still have strong sales point but at the same time because these pro seiyuu doesnt have to do a long hour of recording session, then their pay will also be limited with the time. very clever indeed