A Network of Voice Actors in Anime Based on Casting History

This paper examines the similarity of casting tendencies among voice actors by focusing on the casting history of Japanese anime voice actors and representing them as a network. Voice actor casting is important for Japanese anime because the performance of the voice actor has a great influence on the quality and popularity of the animation itself. Therefore, anime characters are usually cast by voice actors who suit the character’s personality. Some voice actors are continuously cast as characters with specific personalities. We believe that we can analyze voice actors’ performance by observing casting history, even without utilizing audio signal processing. A network analysis was performed to examine the similarities, substitutability, and trends in voice casting in anime by visualizing voice actors with attributes of fictional characters performed by that voice actor in the past. Based on the results, the discussions found voice cast tendencies, such as differences between male and female voice actors or between senior and young voice actors. We believe that our network visualization will serve as reference information for acting instruction and character casting decisions.