Jumat, 27 Agustus 2010

Actors - Seiyū



A Seiyū (声優, also transliterated seiyuu or simply seiyu) is a Japanese term meaning "voice actor." Seiyū work in radio, television and movies, perform voice-overs for non-Japanese movies and provide narration. The most well-known seiyū work as anime and video game character actors. When speaking of a character in a series translated into English, conventional usage among American fans is to use "seiyū" to refer to the Japanese actor and "voice actor" for the English one.

Japan currently produces 60% of the animated series in the world. Because the animation industry in Japan is so prolific, seiyū are able to achieve fame on a national level and are able to have full time careers as doing voice overs. Seiyū are able to take greater charge of their careers than in other countries. Japan also has the institutions to support the career path, with around 130 seiyū schools and troupes of voice actors that work for a specific broadcast company or talent agency. Korea is the only country with a similar system for voice actors (성우,) where the broadcasting stations employ voice actor troupes.

Seiyū frequently branch into music, often singing the opening or closing themes of shows in which their character stars, or become involved in non-animated side projects such as audio dramas (involving the same characters in new storylines) or image songs (songs sung in character that are not included in the anime but further develop the character). Many have also branched into live action film and television acting as well. They often attract their own appreciators and fans who will watch shows specifically to hear that actor or actress. Popular seiyū, especially female seiyū such as Kikuko Inoue
, Megumi Hayashibara, and Aya Hisakawa, often have devoted fan clubs with memberships from all over the world.

A common notation used in Japanese publications to denote a "character voice" in one of the roles listed above is "CV". This term was first used in the 1980's in anime magazines such as Animec and Newtype, and from there it spread among Japanese anime fans.

Substance of the job

Voice-over and dubbing

This is the core of the seiyū's job: speaking a role and recording it.
Anime
In the case of anime, it's all about timing the recording of your character's voice to the picture on the screen. Before completing the recording of the role, there are two different methods of prescoring. In Japan, the most popular method is to do the dubbing after the animation has already been completed (although, depending on the production schedule, the dubbing may be recorded before all of the animation is complete).

In order to keep a limit on the production budget, less well-known and younger seiyū are often used. However, for original video animation and fan-oriented productions and products, famous seiyū are often used as a selling point.
Dubbing into Japanese
When it comes to foreign dramas, movies, news and documentaries, the localization voice-over requires more exact timing in relation to what appears on the screen. In order to do the voice-over, the original language voice track has to be turned down, leaving only a faint sound remaining. Voice-over work is primarily done for things such as news and original foreign dramas. Auditions are held in order to determine who will take on the various roles, and the popularity rankings can play a large role in who gets the job.

Seiyū history

Voice acting has existed in Japan since the advent of radio. However, it was only in the 1970's that the term seiyū entered popular usage because of the enormously popular anime "Space Battleship Yamato". According to an newspaper interview with a voice talent manager, "Since the Yamato boom, the word "seiyū" has become instantly recognized, before that actors and actresses who introduced themselves as seiyū were often asked, "You mean you work for Seiyu supermarket?"

The radio drama era

In 1925, the predecessor to the NHK, Japan's public broadcasting system (), the Tokyo Broadcasting Company started radio broadcasts. In that same year 12 students who were specializing in voice-only performances became the first voice actors in Japan when a performance of a radio drama was broadcast. They referred to themselves as seiyū, but In those days the term "radio actor" () was used by newspapers to refer to the profession.

The next era began in 1941 when the NHK opened a training program to the public in order to prepare actors to specialize in radio dramas. This was called the "Tokyo Central Broadcasting Channel Actor Training Agency" (). Then, in 1942, the Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Troupe () debuted its first performance, this was the second time that the term "seiyū" was used to refer to voice actors and from this time on, this word was used.

Senin, 16 Agustus 2010

Manga Genre



Action
A work typically depicting fighting, violence, chaos, and fast paced motion.
Adult
Contains content that is suitable only for adults. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.
Adventure
If a character in the story goes on a trip or along that line, your best bet is that it is an adventure manga. Otherwise, it's up to your personal prejudice on this case.
Comedy
A dramatic work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone and that usually contains a happy resolution of the thematic conflict.
Doujinshi
Fan based work inspired by official anime or manga. For MangaUpdates, original works DO NOT fall under this category
Drama
A work meant to bring on an emotional response, such as instilling sadness or tension.
Ecchi
Possibly the line between hentai and non-hentai, ecchi usually refers to fanservice put in to attract a certain group of fans.
Fantasy
Anything that involves, but not limited to, magic, dream world, and fairy tales.


Gender Bender
Girls dressing up as guys, guys dressing up as girls.. Guys turning into girls, girls turning into guys.. I think you get the picture.
Harem
A series involving one male character and many female characters (usually attracted to the male character). A Reverse Harem is when the genders are reversed.
Hentai
Adult sexual content in an illustrated form where the FOCUS of the manga is placed on sexually graphic acts.
Historical
Having to do with old or ancient times.
Horror
A painful emotion of fear, dread, and abhorrence; a shuddering with terror and detestation; the feeling inspired by something frightful and shocking.
Josei
Literally "Woman". Targets women 18-30. Female equivalent to seinen. Unlike shoujo the romance is more realistic and less idealized. The storytelling is more explicit and mature.
Lolicon
Representing a sexual attraction to young or under-age girls.
Martial Arts
As the name suggests, anything martial arts related. Any of several arts of combat or self-defense, such as aikido, karate, judo, or tae kwon do, kendo, fencing, and so on and so forth.
Mature
Contains subject matter which may be too extreme for people under the age of 17. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.


Mecha
A work involving and usually concentrating on all types of large robotic machines.

Mystery
Usually an unexplained event occurs, and the main protagonist attempts to find out what caused it.
Psychological
Usually deals with the philosophy of a state of mind, in most cases detailing abnormal psychology.
Romance
Any love related story. We will define love as between man and woman in this case. Other than that, it is up to your own imagination of what love is.
School Life
Having a major setting of the story deal with some type of school.
Sci-fi
Short for science fiction, these works involve twists on technology and other science related phenomena which are contrary or stretches of the modern day scientific world.
Seinen
From Google:
Seinen means "young Man." Manga and anime that specifically targets young adult males around the ages of 18 to 25 are seinen titles. The stories in seinen works appeal to university students and those in the working world. Typically the story lines deal with the issues of adulthood.
Shotacon
Representing a sexual attraction to young or under-age boys.
Shoujo
A work intended and primarily written for females. Usually involves a lot of romance and strong character development.
Shoujo Ai
Often synonymous with yuri, this can be thought of as somewhat less extreme. "Girl's Love", so to speak.
Shounen
A work intended and primarily written for males. These works usually involve fighting and/or violence.
Shounen Ai
Often synonymous with yaoi, this can be thought of as somewhat less extreme. "Boy's Love"�, so to speak.
Slice of Life
As the name suggests, this genre represents day-to-day tribulations of one/many character(s). These challenges/events could technically happen in real life and are often -if not all the time- set in the present timeline in a world that mirrors our own.
Smut
Deals with series that are considered profane or offensive, particularly with regards to sexual content
Sports
As the name suggests, anything sports related. Baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, and racing just to name a few.
Supernatural
Usually entails amazing and unexplained powers or events which defy the laws of physics.
Tragedy
Contains events resulting in great loss and misfortune.
Yaoi
This work usually involves intimate relationships between men.
Yuri
This work usually involves intimate relationships between women.

Selasa, 13 Juli 2010

Toei Animation and Mushi Productions


Japanese movie poster for the first color anime feature film The Tale of the White Serpent (1958)
In 1948, Toei Animation was founded and produced the first color anime feature film in 1958, Hakujaden (The Tale of the White Serpent, 1958). This film was more Disney in tone than modern anime with musical numbers and animal sidekicks. However, it is widely considered to be the first "anime" ever, in the modern sense. It was released in the US in 1961 as Panda and the Magic Serpent. From 1958 to the mid-1960s, Toei continued to release these Disney-like films and eventually also produced three of the most well known anime series, Dragon Ball in 1986 and Sailor Moon in 1992 and Digimon in 1999.
Toei's style was also characterized by an emphasis on each animator bringing his own ideas to the production. The most extreme example of this is Isao Takahata's film Hols: Prince of the Sun (1968). Hols is often seen as the first major break from the normal anime style and the beginning of a later movement of "auteuristic" or "progressive anime" which would eventually involve directors such as Hayao Miyazaki (creator of Spirited Away) and Mamoru Oshii.
A major contribution of Toei's style to modern anime was the development of the "money shot". This cost-cutting method of animation allows for emphasis to be placed on important shots by animating them with more detail than the rest of the work (which would often be limited animation). Toei animator Yasuo Ōtsuka began to experiment with this style and developed it further as he went into television. in the 1980s Toei would later lend it's talent to companies like Sunbow Productions, Marvel Productions, DiC Entertainment, Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, Ruby Spears and Hanna Barbera with producing several animated cartoons for America during this period. Other studios like TMS Entertainment, were also being used in the 80's, which lead to Asian studios being used more often to animate foreign productions, but the companies involved still produced anime for their native Japan.
Osamu Tezuka started a rival production company called Mushi Productions. The studio's first hit Mighty Atom became the first popular anime television series in 1963. Contrary to popular belief, Atom was not the first anime series broadcast in Japan; that honor falls to Otogi Manga Calendar, which began broadcasting in 1962. The first non-series anime broadcasted was Three Tales. However, Atom was the first series to feature regular characters in an ongoing plot. American television, which was still in its infancy and searching for new programming, rewrote and adapted Atom for the United States in 1964, retitled as Astro Boy. The success of Atom in Japan opened the doors for many more anime titles to be created, including Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-go (the first Super Robot anime show, later released in the U.S. as Gigantor), Tezuka's Jungle Emperor (later released in the U.S. as Kimba the White Lion) and Tatsuo Yoshida's Mach Go Go Go (later released in the U.S. as Speed Racer), which was produced by Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd.

During the Second World War



In the 1930s the Japanese government began enforcing cultural nationalism. This also lead to a strict censorship and control of published media. Many animators were urged to produce animations which enforced the Japanese spirit and national affiliation. Some movies were shown in newsreel theaters, especially after the Film Law of 1939 promoted documentary and other educational films. Such support helped boost the industry, as bigger companies formed through mergers, and prompted major live-action studios such as Shochiku to begin producing animation.[10] It was at Shochiku that such masterworks as Kenzō Masaoka's Kumo to Chūrippu were produced. Wartime reorganization of the industry, however, merged the feature film studios into just three big companies.
More animated films were commissioned by the military,[11] showing the sly, quick Japanese people winning against enemy forces. In 1943, Geijutsu Eigasha produced Mitsuyo Seo's Momotaro's Sea Eagles with help from the Navy. Shochiku then made Japan's first real feature length animated film, Seo's Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors in 1945, again with the help of the Navy. In 1941 Princess Iron Fan had become the first Asian animation of notable length ever made in China. Due to economic factors, it would be Japan which later emerged long after the war with the most readily available resources to continue expanding the industry.

 Second generation of Japanese animators



Yasuji Murata, Hakuzan Kimura, Sanae Yamamoto and Noburō Ōfuji were students of Kitayama Seitaro and worked at his film studio. Kenzō Masaoka, another important animator, worked at a smaller animation studio. In 1923, the Great Kantō earthquake destroyed most of the Kitayama studio and the residing animators spread out and founded studios of their own.
Prewar animators faced several difficulties. First, they had a hard time competing with foreign producers such as Disney, which were influential on both audiences and producers. Since foreign films had already made a profit abroad, they could be sold for even less than the price domestic producers need to charge in order to break even.[3] Japanese animators thus had to work cheaply, in small companies with only a handful of employees, but that could make matters worse: given costs, it was then hard to compete in terms of quality with foreign product that was in color, with sound, and made by much bigger companies. Japanese animation until the mid-1930s, for instance, generally used cutout animation instead of cel animation because the celluloid was too expensive.[4] This resulted in animation that could seem derivative, flat (since motion forward and backward was difficult) and without detail.[5] But just as postwar Japanese animators were able to turn limited animation into a plus, so masters such as Yasuji Murata and Noburō Ōfuji were able to do wonders in cutout animation.
Animators such as Kenzō Masaoka and Mitsuyo Seo, however, did attempt to bring Japanese animation up to the level of foreign work by introducing cel animation, sound, and technology such as the multiplane camera. Masaoka created the first talkie anime, Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka, released in 1933,[6][7] and the first anime made entirely using cel animation, The Dance of the Chagamas (1934).[8] Seo was the first to use the multiplane camera in Ari-chan in 1941.
Such innovations, however, were hard to support purely commercially, so prewar animation depended considerably on sponsorship, as animators often concentrated on making PR films for companies, educational films for the government, and eventually works of propaganda for the military.[9] During this time, censorship and school regulations discouraged film-viewing by children, so anime that offered educational value were supported and encouraged by the Monbusho (the Ministry of Education). This proved important for producers that had experienced a hard time releasing their work in regular theaters. Animation had found a place in scholastic, political and industrial use.

First generation of Japanese animators



Few complete animations made during the beginnings of Japanese animation have survived. The reasons vary, but many are of commercial nature. After the clips had their run, reels (being property of the cinemas) were sold to smaller cinemas in the country and then disassembled and sold as strips or single frames. Shimokawa Oten was a political caricaturist and cartoonist who worked for the magazine Tokyo Puck. He was hired by Tenkatsu to do an animation for them. Due to medical reasons, he was only able to do five movies, including Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki (1917), before he returned to his previous work as a cartoonist.
Another prominent animator in this period was Jun'ichi Kouchi. He was a caricaturist and painter, who also had studied watercolor painting. In 1912 he also entered the cartoonist sector and was hired for an animation by Kobayashi Shokai later in 1916. He is viewed as the most technically advanced Japanese animator of the 1910s. His works include around 15 movies.
Seitaro Kitayama was an early animator who made animations on his own, not hired by larger corporations. He even founded his own animation studio, the Kitayama Eiga Seisakujo, which was later closed due to lack of commercial success. He utilized the chalkboard technique, and later paper animation, with and without pre-printed backgrounds.
The works of these two pioneers include Namakura Gatana (An Obtuse Sword, 1917) and a 1918 film Urashima Tarō which were discovered together at an antique market in 2007.[1]
In July 2005, an old animation film was found in Kyoto. This undated 3 seconds film, plainly titled Moving Picture (活動写真, Katsudō Shashin?), consists of fifty frames drawn directly onto a strip of celluloid.[2] It depicts a young boy in a sailor suit writing the kanji "活動写真" (katsudō shashin, for "moving pictures") on a board, then turning towards the viewer, removing his hat, and offering a salute. The creator's identity is unknown, but it is thought that it was made for private viewing, perhaps as experimentation, rather than for public release. The discoverer, Naoki Matsumoto, has speculated that it could be "up to 10 years older" than the previously first known Japanese animation, Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki, released in 1917. However, while a date of circa 1915 is possible, there is no actual basis for this extreme speculation.

Kamis, 18 Maret 2010

Anime History


The history of anime began at the start of the 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques that were being explored in the West. During the 1970s, anime developed further, separating itself from its Western roots, and developing distinct genres such as mecha and its Super Robot sub-genre. Typical shows from this period include Lupin III and Mazinger Z. During this period several filmmakers became famous, especially Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii.
In the 1980s, anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan, and experienced a boom in production. The rise of Gundam, Macross, Real Robot and Space Opera set a boom as well. The film Akira set records in 1988 for the production costs of an anime film and went on to become a success worldwide. Later, in 2004, the same creators produced Steamboy, and later took over as the most expensive anime film. The Super Dimension Fortress Macross also became a worldwide success after being adapted as part of Robotech, and Megazone 23 also gained recognition in the West after it was adapted as Robotech: The Movie.[citation needed]
In the 1990s and 2000s, anime series such as Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, as well as films like Ghost in the Shell became worldwide successes, while other anime series such as Gundam, Macross, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop were popular in Japan and attracted attention from the West. A number of animations have been produced in the West, and the growth of the internet also led to the rise of fansub anime. Spirited Away shared the first prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival and won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, while Innocence: Ghost in the Shell was featured at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.