The Emerging of Seiyu : Concerning the Relationship between Character Creation and Voice Artist in Japanese Animation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This research is aimed for understanding the relationship between character creation process in Japanese animation and voice artists (seiyu), as well as the development of animation culture. Japan is used as the place to conduct this study because of its prosperous animation industry and the prominent role of animation voice artist.
Japanese voice artist originated from those who worked in radio drama industry. After the animation boom period in 1960s, the role of voice artists has become more and more important until they extend their roles in other form of media as well. For example, radio drama, music, acting, dubbing, modeling, etc. Some successful voice artists even become idols. This situation shows the tendency that voice artist's status is changing from being a part of animation character to an individual product themselves.
The purposes of this paper are as follow:
To study voice artist's status in animation industry by comparing with other departments in animation creating process.
To compare the importance of visual aspect and audio aspect in animation.
To study the process of voice dubbing when Japanese animation is broadcasted in foreign country.
To study the influence of modern society on voice acting business.
This paper is meant to present the general idea concerning voice artist's status in Japan first. After collecting more data, a new paper concerning research method and data analyzing method will follow.