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Forum - View topicAnswerman - What Can We Do to Help English Voice Actors?
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4498 |
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Awareness is certainly a factor. A lot of the responses to the coverage around Bayonetta was people saying they had no clue about it. Something I'll see all the time in video game news is that business practices that should at least make customers think about what they want don't go anywhere because the average customer isn't even aware of it.
For anime dubbing, I have serious doubts it will change. Crunchyroll firmly planted its flag by shifting hard towards recording in-person in Texas as soon as it could. The handling of Mob 3 basically gave its response. Individual actors may be able to negotiate for better terms, but that option likely comes down to whether they are a recurring role. Union contracts are not something they want to do. I know that the lead for Ascendance of a Bookworm wasn't going to come back due to pay at first, but then did after they had negotiated terms. My guess is it was probably like with Kyle, where they would pay the union rate, but not use a union contract. I can't blame him for declining that since it defeats the purpose of a union if individuals are fending for themselves. I don't expect Sentai would do it either since it doesn't have the same resources, and it would be pretty hard to justify the expenses when the competition doesn't. It's pretty hard to get people to come around to the idea of going without that thing they want because of issues in its creation. Going back to Bayonetta 3, there were plenty of comments after the first round of tweets with people not wanting to boycott something a few weeks away from a release they have been anticipating for 5 years. Some said they would just pirate it. To me, that sort of illustrates the point. People were ok with not paying money as part of the boycott, but not ok with the hard part, which was going without the thing they wanted. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5542 |
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It would probably help if we stopped supporting people who blatantly lie about payment offers, like in the case of Bayonetta 3. But even 4k for 20 hours of work is not bad pay.
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Aerdra
Posts: 359 |
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Voice acting has, for some time, been a profession with a certain "coolness" factor to it. Professions with the allure of "coolness" tend to suffer from subpar compensation, because labor supply exceeds labor demand.
Voice acting is like any other profession in that it requires significant training and practice, but its coolness factor draws in more people to undergo such training than other professions of comparable compensation, resulting in a larger pool of qualified talent. In addition, newcomers pursuing a career out of passion may accept lesser compensation just to get their feet in the door. There are simply too many voice actors trying to fill a limited number of roles. Now, there are some actors who can make a living off of voice acting alone, but they're the exceptions who've managed to establish themselves in an "upper tier" of sorts. Those who haven't climbed to the top are competing with, perhaps undercutting each other, to continue pursuing a career that they may perceive as cool. |
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KitKat1721
 Posts: 959 |
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God, if I could put this in bold I would. |
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Philmister978
Posts: 323 |
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The point here is people being paid poorly. A job is a job, and not being paid proportionally for the work you do is an issue.
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ShugoYotsuba
Posts: 150 |
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This ain't about the quality of dubbing (which many of us have our own grievances with), it's about workers being paid fairly, something all industries have an issue with
If you can't process that because of your own biases y'all need to get your heads out of your asses and get your priorities straight |
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Vanadise
 Posts: 508 |
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The real problem here, as it is with so many other situations, is that I don't know how to explain to people that you should care about other people. I just... if somebody has reached the point where they're old enough to post on the internet and their attitude is still, "I don't care what happens to anybody else as long as I get my anime," how do you convince them that they're supposed to have empathy for other human beings? Because you need to at least establish that before anything else.
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sirdano1
Posts: 296 |
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It's directly related, actually. You wanna get paid better? Then work better. |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 361 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Obviously you'll never get everyone to get invested about issues such as these, but I've never understood the mentality of people who apparently don't care, yet care enough that rather than just shrug off the article like any genuinely unfazed person would, need to jump into the forums and yell loudly about how much they don't care, and how anyone who doesn't care as they do(n't) is an idiot that needs to be aggressively shouted down. Because again, they don't care.
It's a mentality that's made up of equal parts insecurity and narcissism that I find completely baffling. Perhaps it's a kind of magical thought exercise. By talking about these points, you effectively manifest them into their line of view and disrupt their cozy view of the world in which there are no complaints & problems other than those they personally decide are worthwhile (usually silly things like media criticism as supplied by internet shoutmen, rather than actual socioeconomic or political problems, but whatever). That's how you end up with people aggressively screaming "LA LA LA' I'M NOT LISTENING! I DON'T CARE!" without apparently the faintest shred of self-awareness in how ridiculous they sound. My biggest worry about this debate is how much the Hellena Taylor situation has derailed what was a genuinely positive buildup of momentum in the videogame and anime scene. Granted, even with her actual adjusted fee, there's still definitely a huge discussion about how voice actors, translators and studio staff in general are paid compared to the profits their products bring in, but folks happy to avoid the topic are practically salivating at Taylor's dishonesty and general handling of the situation. Youtube right now is full of accounts gloating about her lie, perfectly content that they can wash their hands of situation and buy Bayonetta 3 without having to remotely consider the social repercussions in how the sausage is made. I'm genuinely scared that the worst spokesmen for the right cause will make the average fan hesitant about supporting similar causes in the future, while the 'bad actor' status quo supporters will have a punch bag they can bring out to hide behind for years to come. Last edited by fathomlessblue on Fri Oct 28, 2022 7:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1423 |
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Even putting aside the subjective argument about what makes a good vocal performance, voice actors in anime work for a set rate per recording session. That rate is the same whether they put in an amazing performance or a simply serviceable one. Doing really well might (might) make you appealing to companies or directors who will cast you again, but the same is accomplished through basic networking, and generally still requires an audition to land that next job.
But then you're not actually engaging with the issue at play - whether or not workers in an ever-increasingly profitable entertainment niche should be compensated better - but just want to argue about how you think dubs suck. |
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Boonabadoopadoop
Posts: 12 |
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Kindness begets kindness. And unfortunately, a lot of the voice-actors (and translators; remember that Crunchyroll translators were asking for more money in the past too) have kind of gotten a reputation for attacking and insulting anime fans for the past few years. So when it comes time for them to ask for help, it shouldn't be a shock that those pleas are going to fall on deaf ears. Why would the average person care about this issue when half a VAs timeline is filled with them spewing absolute bile and toxicity towards them. Obviously not everyone cares or even knows about this. A lot of casual watchers just watch shows without caring about the production details. But in such a niche community and one that heavily relies on fan support, it seems like a very bad move to be so willingly to burn bridges when the people who care enough to notice and care about VAs is so small already. |
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Northlander
 Posts: 903 |
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You can turn this statement completely on its head. Do you want people to work better? Then pay better. |
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Zendervai
 Posts: 199 |
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Especially since a lot of dub actors barely get paid anything. Like...150 for the Jujutsu Kaisen movie? That's nothing. This idea that you have to take on a ton of extra responsibility in order to be paid fairly is incredibly toxic. For dub acting, what does "working better" even mean? You expect people to somehow put in Shakespearean level performances? There are amateur fan productions that pay people more than that and those performances tend to be really rocky because of a lack of good direction, but it's excused because it's amateur. So why is a big professional company given a pass for grossly underpaying people like this?
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ZeetherKID77
 Posts: 981 |
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@Greed1914
This kind of apathy is what kills movements like this. You can't just throw in the towel and say it won't change. |
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Fedora-san
 Posts: 464 |
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That scenario doesn't hold weight though. A cook saying "I'll stop spitting in the food if you give me a raise" is not only unprofessional and juvenile but a quick way to get fired and lose general sympathy towards you cause from customers who learn it was happening. It makes one look entitled and selfish. But a chef who works hard and is rewarded with a pay raise or promotion is a lot more logical and admirable. If a voice actor genuinely did admit to doing poor performances on purpose and said they will continue to do so until they get better pay, then that sounds like a very good excuse to let them go and find someone else and I'm sure most fans would support replacing someone sandbagging on purpose. |
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