/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>Studio Ghibli is known for its beautifully crafted, touching, animated fantasy feature films, but at the helm of the lauded animation studio is a man with a famously stern demeanour — director and co-founder Hayao Miyazaki.
>Over the years, the outspoken Miyazaki has ruffled feathers with some surprising comments, once saying that the anime industry’s problem is that it’s full of anime fans, and then revealing the kind of otaku he hates the most.

>Interviews with the legendary anime director are rare, however, so sometimes the things he’s said years ago pop up again to surprise a new legion of fans. That’s what happened this week in Japan, when an article detailing Miyazaki’s feelings about female voice actors resurfaced.
>In the interview, given to the Guardian in 2005 ahead of the U.K. premiere of Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki was commenting on the foreign actors cast for the movie’s dubbed version. When the discussion turned to Lauren Bacall, who voiced the Witch of the Wastes for the English-language dub, Miyazaki spoke approvingly, describing her as a “a fabulous woman”. He then went on to say: “All the Japanese female voice actors have voices that are very coquettish and wanting male attention, which was not what we wanted at all.”

>True to form, Miyazaki knows how to throw shade at the anime industry like nobody else. However, in this situation, the large majority of Japanese people who heard his statement for the first time, 15 years after it was first made, tended to agree with him.
>“I totally understand — the flirty voices of female characters in late-night anime made me feel so uncomfortable I stopped watching them”
>“I’ve been saying the same thing for years.”
>“I can’t stand it — it’s like they mass-produce voice actors with a template at training centres.”
>“The voices aren’t natural but sadly, the viewer is accustomed to it.”
>“The voice acting is too exaggerated. It’s ridiculous to think girls talk like that all the time.”