j1m0ne’s blog

I had actually written this as a comment to my previous coverage of the awards and partly in response to hashihime’s post, but it got too long so I separated it into a new post. Here’s some more thoughts on some stuff that reaaaallly bug me. Bear with me, cos this is gonna turn into a rant so unless you’re a hardcore seiyuu fan, or are generally annoyed with the whole Seiyu Awards farce, skip this bit & go on to my own awards post.

Issue:
The nomination criteria and awarding are questionable.
A little on the awarding process: First, the public vote that leads to the formation of a ’shortlist’. From that shortlist, a ’special panel’ chooses the winners.

Oddities
1.The Seiyu Awards site’s winners page itself does not actually list the role that the seiyu got the award for (it was listed on the Akiba Kakaku news piece though), which led me to believe that maybe, the Seiyu Awards panel awarded the seiyuu based on their body of work for the year and not just the one role. Is it?

Last year’s winners’ page clearly listed the role for each seiyu was nominated or won for i.e. Best Male: Fukuyama Jun, Role: Lelouche (Code Geass). This year? No such thing. The winners’ page this year just vaguely mentions a bunch of roles that each seiyuu did, plus a lot of incoherent crap which should not have had anything to do with the awarding.

So what’s going on? What were they awarded for? Most of the news headlines covering the event I’ve read are so vague. ‘Miyano Mamoru wins Best Lead Actor at Seiyu Awards’, with no mention of the role whatsoever. Can you imagine the Oscars handing out the Best Actress Award to somebody without telling them which film they won it for? It leads me to believe that the Seiyu Awards panel ‘chose’ to award the ‘winners’ based on their body of work for the year - you can see this in the criteria they lay out (more on that later).

2.Last year’s awards saw a 10-strong shortlist of nominees that was announced a few months(?) before the actual ceremony. This time, fans were lulled into a false state of happiness by the mid-point longlists that had every notable seiyuu under the sun, making fans think that maybe, just maybe, this time around the awards would be fair and that one of their faves might actually win a gong. But as the outline of the awarding goes, THE PANEL CHOOSES THE WINNERS FROM A LIST THE PUBLIC VOTED FOR. Which means none of our votes actually contributed to the actual awarding itself.
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No.1 - I simply cannot fathom how the panel, bar external influences, could’ve come up with Hirano Aya, Kobayashi Yu or Hatano Wataru as worthy awardwinners within the criteria that was laid out…..
No.2 reeks of corporate manipulation. I’m not going to argue about it anymore.

Let’s examine Oddity #1. First, look at the awarding page, which describes the flaky eligibility criteria for each category.

Best male/female as an example: その年発表された作品の中で主演として活躍された方 (役柄ではなく、ご本人の性別) - For those who have voiced a leading role in an anime that was announced in the year of awarding (not awarded for the character, but the actor involved). Same goes for supporting awards.

So OK, all the seiyuu fulfill the eligibility criteria, no big deal. But we’re not actually told what criteria the judges use to choose the winners (Are we? Somebody tell me). The site offers few clues.

Earlier I mentioned the incoherent crap on the winners’ page. Take a look at Hirano Aya’s blurb, loosely translated:
Best Lead Female Award
Hirano Aya

Agency: Space Craft Entertainment
‘First Seiyu Awards Best Female Newcomer winner. Some of her most notable works include Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu’s Suzumiya Haruhi, NANA’s Reira, DEATH NOTE’s Amane Misa & Lucky Star’s Izumi Konata. Was active in many aspects this year, with photobook announcements, TV media exposure, a singing career & etc etc. A 20-year old worth taking notice of in the future’.

WAIT. What the heck is that rubbish? Why does it sound more like a media advert than an introduction to an award winner? Photobook? What does that have to do with the Best Lead Female Award? Why aren’t we told why or for what she actually won, i.e. ‘Hirano Aya won for Lucky Star’s Izumi Konata, a role that demonstrated her versatility; a great sense of comedic timing bla bla bla’? And why are they telling us that she voiced Haruhi, Misa and Reira? All those roles were from 2006, not 2007.

No, I’m not deliberately hating on Hirano Aya. To prove that, I’ll look at one of my favourites, Kobayashi Yu’s blurb.

Best Female Newcomer Award
Kobayashi Yu

Agency: Holy Peak
A glossy-mag model turned seiyuu. From Gintama’s Sarutobi Ayame to Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei’s Kimura Kaere plus others, Kobayashi turns in great performances for eccentric characters that are totally unlike her own image. Attracts attention for posessesing a unique personality and unique capabilities.

See what I mean? It really looks like it’s something the seiyuu’s agency wrote rather than a proper announcement writeup. I don’t think she deserved the award based on the criteria they put out, as you’ll see.

Compare this to Kugimiya Rie’s comparatively dull one that says:
‘A seiyuu of a million expressions that built up various different characters. From Hayate no Gotoku!’s Nagi to Shakugan no Shana’s Shana, Kugimiya has voiced many challenging roles in many popular anime’.

And at least the Motteke! one talked a little about the song’s achievements rather than just saying ‘This song is the win!’

Moving on to the ‘questionable awarding’ part:
The Best Newcomer award can only be rigged!
Nomination criteria:
1.Debuted within the last 5 years.
2.Suitable for earning the Best Newcomer Award during the period covered (i.e. 2007), particularly for those who have had oustanding activities (特に目立った活躍をした方 - Pls, somebody with better English skills translate that properly for me)

What utterly bizarre criteria! What does ’suitable’ mean??? Or ‘outstanding/stand out/eyecatching activities’???

I already mentioned the dubious AMG connection. For those who missed it, Best Newcomer Awards are given to 2 males and 2 females. In each of the last 2 years, 2 out of 4 (1 male, 1 female) awards were handed out to graduates from Amusement Media Gakuin (AMG), a seiyuu training school, who had actually done very little of note throughout the year. So I’m not going to talk about it any further cos I’m fed up with all that corporate bullcrap.

For the other supposed ‘winners’. Now, let’s take Kobayashi Yu as an example again. And as a comparison, Inoue Marina, who I believe would’ve won if the awarding was purely merit-based.

Kobayashi Yu’s notable roles in 2007 (lead roles in bold):
Misaki in Saint October, Shoko in Touka Gettan, Dan in Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Kaere in Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei, Nice Holystone in Baccano!, Ryoko in Dragonaut, Satoshi in Higurashi Kai, Aira & Jung in Prism Ark

Inoue Marina’s notable roles in 2007:
Mucchi in Manabi Straight!, Mina in Getsumen to Heiki Mina, Wataru in Hayate no Gotoku!, Erio in Nanoha StrikerS, Yoko in Gurren Lagann, Lirio in El Cazad, Tohn in KissDum, Seki Leigh Shiroei in Terra e, Chiri in Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei, Eve in Baccano!, Rakuta in Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, Kana in Minami-ke, Pheles in Shana II

Now hands up those who think Kobayashi Yu had a better 2007 than Inoue Marina. Who thinks Misaki, Kaere and Dan were characters that ’stood out’ more than Mina, Yoko, Kana, Mucchi or Erio?

Nobody?

Geez.

I only pray that now Marina is presenting Gurren Lagann radio on JOQR, that she might have a chance at an award next year.

I hope I made my points clear, I tend to drift off topic a lot. The gist of it all is that the Seiyu Awards are fixed, and mean nothing to anybody but the companies involved. Screw you, Kadokawa.

Posted on March 9th, 2008 under seiyuu • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback