Hi everybody!

This is just something I found while surfing the web. I thought it was kinda 
interesting, so I copied and pasted it here. It's about how feamale seiyuu 
are treated in Japan. It's written by Japanese fan, (I think). I'm including 
the address here so you can go to the page if you want. 

http://homepage2.nifty.com/kannagi/review.htm


Title: Japanese Voice Actresses

Most of you already know Hayashibara Megumi has been No.1 voice actress in 
the last decade. Her CDs, autobiographical essays, and radio programs are 
favorites with teenagers of both sex and she is the only Seiyuu whose music 
CDs can enter the J-pop top10 count down. 

She married Amiya Masaharu (script writer of Those who Hunt Elves, Blue 
Seed...etc.) in 1999, but the Japanese Mass Media has never reported about 
her husband so far. Here lies something very odd. I don't want to say 
anything about her private life. Personally, I respect her talent. But, I 
have to mention the fact that all topics related to her are censored in 
Japanese anime-related media. Since her popularity is so big for such a long 
time, and there is a powerful guy Ootsuki Takahiro (famous Star Child 
producer) or others backing her up, public criticism about her is taboo. 

I think this is a very bad Japanese habit to be afraid of someone in a 
position of authority. Japanese media is lacking in critical reasoning and 
the concept of growth by mutual criticism. If they insist on respecting 
Hayashibara's rights, they must report on how unpopular voice actresses are 
treated in a very inhuman manner. [Jan.12.2001]

One of the webpage readers requested me to write more about the condition of 
Japanese voice actresses. This week, media exposed that Sakurai Tomo married 
and gave birth of baby girl in 1999 but kept secret. Such odd things happen 
because her office wanted to sell her semi-nude picture collection book 
(stupid reason!). 

As you may know, especially in the last decade, young female Seiyuus are 
treated like idols by Otaku because most of them aspire to be voice actresses 
since they were already a big fan of animation. Therefore, there are very 
ugly fights to get the female Seiyuu among the male workers whose jobs are 
related to this industry. Some of the Seiyuu were really troubled by 
stalkers. Animators are always eager to get female idol Seiyuu, but they 
seldom get the opportunity to meet them and after all marry with their 
colleagues in the same studio^ ^;;. You may think that male Seiyuus have the 
best opportunity to make certain relationships with them. Like Miki 
Shinichirou, some of male Seiyuus are always trying to sleep with them. 
Actually, many voice actresses married with male Seiyuu. Of course, however, 
the bossy guy in the production companies or sponsors are granted the 
favorable position to get them. The most famous couple in this sense is 
Yokoyama Chisa and Hiroi Ouji (producer of Sakura Wars), I think. Many female 
Seiyuus are said to kiss the bossy guy's ass often in order to get a new job. 


I guess this type of thing frequently happens in North America too, but I 
personally believe that this is a negative result by treating voice actresses 
like idols. They must be evaluated by their talents of voice acting like 15 
years ago. Now, most of them are puffed up by fans' attentions, not by their 
skills.[Jan.17.2001]

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As someone who lives in America, that kind of thing doesn't happen here. 
People barely know American (or Canadian) voice actors by name, much less 
think of them as idols. People here don't even know what the voice actors 
look like, so their companies don't market them like idols, (now that I think 
about it, I don't think we have "Idols" here in America, at least not the 
same type of ones in Japan and the rest of Asia).