quote:
Originally posted by Kumiko Kamiyama:
FYI, there are various adult seiyuu who are most certainly legends in their own right and justly so. It is no longer a negative thing as you seem to imply. This is brought out by Hitoshi's synopsis of the Doukyuusei event where everyone was quite happy to see the woman who plays Kurumi-chan, but who began her career in 1984 by playing one of the most famous (if not THE most famous) adult heroine of all time, Nonomura Ami from Cream Lemon. Back then, she had to hide her name and what she did, but that is no longer necessary - she is very well-loved and well-respected for her work. There are various seiyuu who do both adult and non-adult roles, so let's not imply that there is some sort of negative stigma attached to them for the adult roles they perform. There are levels, yes, but the adult industry has levels just like the non-adult industry. There is plenty of crappy non-adult animation that people might be embarrassed to admit to doing, or they might have other reasons for using pen names or whatever. Authors do this, and so do other creative artists - it's nothing related specifically to "adult is bad".
I don't really want to get into an argument over this. But I still don't see how adult-oriented seiyuu are in the same league as non-adult ones. If you look at most of the legendary seiyuu which are big enough to produce a number of CDs and have a fan-club, they tend to have non-adult backgrounds. A very few number do get into the big time, but it's not common.
Look at Sakurai Tomo. She used to be a Lemon Angel. The key words are "used to be". She has stated that she will never return to those roles again, as she finds them too embarrassing.
Hayashibara Megumi, probably the biggest seiyuu of current times, has openly stated that she will never do any hentai roles. I don't think that she would have said this unless there is some sort of stigma out there.