Hey fellow anime fans, you're probably well-acquainted with the voice actors behind your favorite characters, right? But when it comes to the nitty-gritty of voice acting work, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that most people don't know about. Take "voice acting scripts," for instance – they're packed with secrets and considered serious trade secrets in the industry.
Recently, on TOKYO FM's late-night radio show "TOKYO SPEAKEASY," popular voice actor Yuuichi Nakamura, known for his role as Satoru Gojo in "Jujutsu Kaisen," opened up about the crucial importance of "scripts" in a voice actor's job. His revelations have sparked quite a buzz online.
Joining Nakamura on the show was Shinya Arino from the Japanese comedy duo Yoiko. The two chatted about voice acting, and Arino, who has done guest voice work before, shared an anecdote:
"Variety show scripts are usually super thin, and I never write anything on them. After recording, I'd just leave them in the green room. But when I did a guest voice spot for 'Crayon Shin-chan' in my twenties, I was about to leave my script behind as usual when Akiko Yajima (the voice of Shin-chan) told me, 'Mr. Arino, can I tell you something? Scripts are really important in voice acting; you can't just leave them lying around. You have to take them home with you.'" Arino was shocked, thinking, "Oh, so that's how it is! Mind blown!" He learned a lot after that.
But you're probably wondering, why exactly do voice actors have to take their scripts home?
Nakamura, speaking as an industry insider, explained: "Dealing with scripts is a huge hassle. I've heard stories in the past where people outsourced their destruction, only for the scripts to leak. But if you don't dispose of them, the sheer volume would be insane, especially since anime scripts are super thick. You can't just pile them up at home forever. So, I had no choice but to buy a shredder and destroy them myself."
Arino was puzzled, asking if agencies or studios couldn't help with the disposal. Nakamura pointed out that a script leak would be disastrous, and the industry standard is basically, "figure out how to destroy them yourself." Most of the time, you just have to take them home. Plus, scripts are numbered, so they know exactly whose script it is. If it leaks, they can trace it back to the owner.
After this revelation, many netizens were confused about why agencies couldn't handle the disposal on behalf of the voice actors. However, in practice, voice actors' scripts are incredibly thick, and shredding them isn't easy. You might even need a custom-made shredder, or some kind of bulk destruction method. But hardly anyone would spend that kind of money, so it's understandable why they just leave it to the VAs.
Some netizens also recalled that veteran voice actors, like Hirotaka Suzuoki, who voiced Bright Noa in "Mobile Suit Gundam," once mentioned having all the Gundam anime scripts from back in the day stored at home. These scripts contained not just plot details that could leak, but also personal notes and records.
But for many popular voice actors, their workload could mean working on over a dozen titles a year. Just how many scripts do they end up hoarding at home? Perhaps that's what many netizens are curious about!
via： togetter