If you trace the history of Japanese TV animation, the first work to be mentioned is Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" in 1963. At that time, animation was not called anime, but "TV manga", which means "a picture that can be moved on a television screen", and it is not difficult to imagine the crudeness of the production. But it was such a work that opened the door to the glorious era of Japanese animation, and it was during this period that the first anime voice actors were born.

In fact, most of the first batch of animation voice actors were part-time actors in the troupe, such as Mari Shimizu, who played Astro Boy in "Astro Boy", and Hisashi Katsuta, who played Dr. Tea, were both from the troupe. In terms of the history of voice actors, there have been two golden periods of development for Japanese voice actors, the first was dubbing in the early 60s of the last century, when a large number of foreign film and television works were introduced, and the second was driven by the boom set off by "Space Battleship Yamato" in the late 70s.

From that time on, the first anime voice actors such as Akira Kamiya, Toru Furuya, and Noboru Furukawa began to perform music activities and release records. The emergence of a large number of excellent animation works made the Izuku edition see business opportunities and began to publish the の version of the animation information magazine. Hideo Ogata, the editor-in-chief of Animage at the time of its founding, proposed a policy of "idolizing voice actors". Since then, voice actors have begun to take the road of idolization.

We can calculate that if the voice actors who have been dubbing anime since the sixties and seventies of the last century** are in their twenties and thirties, then they should have been born in the late 30s at the earliest. So in this feature, we generally regard the post-30s voice actors as the first batch of animation voice actors.

Now that more than half a century has passed, some post-30s voice actors have left us forever, some have retired, but some are still working. In total, they should be seventy or eighty years old. In other industries, there are probably not many people who have not left their jobs at this age, right? The author believes that the elderly who are still working at this age are not only because they feel that they have not earned enough money, but because there is something similar to a "sense of mission" that spurs them.

The works that will give them such a heavy "sense of mission" are undoubtedly national-level longevity animations that have accompanied the audience through decades of wind and frost, snow and rain on the TV set, and are household names. It is in such works that the issue of the aging of voice actors is particularly prominent. The audience is reluctant to let them leave, and they are reluctant to let the characters they have created for decades, but the silent passage of time has made them slowly enter the fate of farewell. Here, we will briefly summarize the aging of voice actors in Japanese longevity anime.

"Miss Conch" - 45 years of companionship with voice actors

Not long ago, on January 27, voice actor Ichiro Nagai, who voiced Isono Hahei for about 45 years in "Miss Conch", died of hypohectic heart disease at the age of 82. The death of Ichiro Nagai has caused mourning from all walks of life in Japan, and at the same time, the issue of the aging of longevity animation has once again attracted everyone's attention.

The original work of "Miss Conch" is a four-panel manga created by Machiko Hasegawa, which tells the daily story of the heroine Conch. The TV anime version has been on the air since October 1969, and in September 2013, it was awarded the "Longest TV Anime Program" certificate by the Genesys World Records, and 2,250 episodes had already aired. Incredibly, this work is still the ratings champion of its kind to this day, with an average rating of 22.9% after the 80s.

The voice actors walk into the studio on time every Thursday, and then "Miss Conch" can meet the audience at 6:30 p.m. every Sunday. If a child starts watching "Miss Conch" when he is 10 years old, he is now 55 years old and can receive a retirement salary. Although the domestic audience may not be familiar with the work "Miss Conch", you might as well assume how you feel when you watch "Cherry Maruko" or "Detective Conan" with your grandson at the age of 55, so that you can appreciate the status of "Miss Conch" in the minds of Japanese audiences, and the ratings of these two works in Japan are not the opponents of "Miss Conch".

Born in 1931, Ichiro Nagai was also a theater actor, and he was introduced to voice actor work by dubbing foreign TV dramas, and later became a professional voice actor. He has been dubbing Isono Awahei since the first episode of "Miss Conch" and has been doing so for 45 years. Before his death, he said: "I will dub Bopin until I die." Just 4 days before his death, he was still recording the latest episode of "Miss Conch" in the studio, and he fulfilled his promise to the audience with his actions.

Ichiro Nagai's version of "Miss Conch," which was the last to be performed by Hirohei Isono, was broadcast on Fuji Television on February 9 with an average rating of 23.7%. This is the first time in 1 year and 3 months that the ratings of "Miss Conch" have exceeded 20%. Now, Ichiro Nagai's successor has been determined as Cha Feng Lin. The 52-year-old Cha Fenglin is the voice actor of Nagasawa-kun in "Cherry Maruko" and the sunset police department in "Detective Conan", and he is also a powerful voice actor that everyone is very familiar with. Starting with "Miss Conch," which aired on February 16, he will let Isono's voice continue on TV.

Shortly after Ichiro Nagai passed away, the majority of netizens actively discussed who would be the next Isono Hahei, and many of them nominated Cha Feng Lin, thinking that "his feeling is very close", "Cha Feng Lin must be allowed to take over", "This is the best". Although Cha Fenglin has not yet officially taken over and has been expected by the audience, the sudden change of voice actor in a familiar role will inevitably make some viewers who have watched "Miss Conch" all year round feel emotionally uncomfortable. However, intellectually speaking, it is inevitable that the longevity anime will change the voice actor, because the voice actor will not live far enough to break the Guinness World Record.

Not only Ichiro Nagai, but the members of the entire voice actor team of "Miss Conch" are already "very young". Midori Kato, who voiced Miss Fugu Tana, is 74 years old, Doko, who voiced Isono bonito, is 72 years old, and Miyoko Aso, who voiced Isono Boat, is 87 years old. The second-generation pufferfish field trout Masuoka Hiroshi is 77 years old. Aside from the occasional substitute class for other voice actors due to physical discomfort, they have been spending a good family time with the audience on the television set every week.

The four generations of voice actors of "Doraemon" have been replaced

In Japan, the longevity anime second only to "Miss Conch" is the very familiar "Doraemon". Unlike "Miss Conch", "Doraemon" was cut in half in the early days due to lack of popularity, and the remastered version after 5 years finally became famous in one fell swoop and became a long-lived anime, but in 2005, the voice actors and production lineup were changed once.

The TV anime version of "Doraemon" can be roughly divided into 3 parts. Part 1 is an old version produced by Nippon Television Animation from April 1973 to September 1973. Part 2 is a new version produced by TV Asahi from April 1979 to March 2005. The third part is also produced by TV Asahi, but it has undergone a major change and has been broadcast since April 2005.

It can be seen from the longitude and duration of the broadcast that "Doraemon", which the audience is most familiar with, is undoubtedly the second part. Because the second and third parts are both produced by TV Asahi, and the broadcast time is almost uninterrupted, since 1979, when the second part was broadcast, "Doraemon" has accompanied the audience for 35 years.

Because of all the ups and downs, it should be easier for "Doraemon" to change the voice actor than "Miss Conch", but this is not the case. When it comes to Doraemon's voice actor in Japan, everyone is most familiar with the 1979 Oyama Kendai version, so in 2005, when the voice actor was changed from Oyama Ken to Mizuda Wasabi, it was resisted by the audience, and there are still viewers who react that "I'm not used to the voice of Mizuda Wasabi".

In fact, before Mizuda Wasabi, Doraemon had already changed voice actors twice. The voice actor of the 1st generation is Doraemon, Kosheng Tomita, the 2nd generation is Masako Nozawa, who later voiced the Son Goku in "Dragon Ball", and the 3rd generation is Oyama Kenyo. It is worth mentioning that the 1973 version of "Doraemon" has a total of 26 episodes, but episodes 1 to 13 are voiced by Koo Tomita, and from episode 14 onwards, it has become Masako Nozawa. This is rare in the Japanese animation industry, and although it is no longer possible to find out what the exact reason was, you can imagine how surprised the audience who enjoyed the work at the time.

Among the 4 voice actors of Doraemon, only the first generation Kosei Tomita is a male, and he has been changed to a female since Masako Nozawa. Koyo Tomita was born in 1936 and has been playing tricks in Osamu Tezuka's animated works since 1963's "Astro Boy", and is a professional who specializes in dubbing "Uncle Beard" - you can imagine what his voice is, right? Although the male voice is more in line with the gender setting of Doraemon in the original manga, after getting used to the Doraemon of "Big Mom's voice", I feel uncomfortable just imagining Doraemon's uncle's voice.

The first two voice actor changes should have nothing to do with age, but in 2005, when the blood was changed, the 69-year-old Daiyama Kendai was replaced by the 31-year-old Mizuda Wasabi. At 38 years old, it is not difficult to see that the producers are worried about the aging problem. Of course, in addition to the aging problem, there are also people who say that they were replaced because the treatment demanded by Oyama was too high. But 35 years ago, Oyama Kendai was able to fix the role of Doraemon, a "male robot cat", with a woman's voice and impression, and it would not make the audience feel strange, this difficulty is like Ye Tong's version of Xu Xian in "The Legend of the New White Lady", it is impossible to achieve without a certain strength. Therefore, the difficulties and pressures faced by the Daiyama Xiandai back then were not necessarily smaller than those of the paddy field wasabi.

In Japan, a big country of voice actors, it should not be difficult to find a voice actor with a voice similar to Oyama Kenyo, but the producers deliberately chose the voice of Mizuta Wasabi, which is obviously different from Oyama Kenyo. Maybe it's out of the hope of changing the impression of Doraemon in the audience's mind, but as a long-lived anime, maybe inheritance will be more important than innovation.

"Lupin III" has a big change of blood - aging and inheritance

The original work of "Lupin the Third" is a monster thief manga that Kato's comic began serializing in 1967, and was adapted into a TV anime in 1971, and it has been a very popular masterpiece until now. In recent years, it has become more and more familiar to domestic anime fans because of the many joint works with "Detective Conan", but in fact, the history of "Lupin III" is much longer than that of "Detective Conan".

The first part of the "Lupin the Third" TV anime was broadcast from 1971 to 1972, and it was not until the rebroadcast that it was gradually loved by the audience. Five years later, the second part was produced, which was broadcast from 1977 to 1980, and it was only then that the popularity of "Lupin the Third" was completely launched. Then in 1984-1985 it aired a third part.

Unlike family-friendly and child-oriented productions such as "Miss Conch" and "Doraemon", the subject matter of "Lupin the Third" is a little more mature, so it is impossible to continue broadcasting for decades. From 1971, when the first part was broadcast, to the present, in addition to the TV anime that aired every week, many theatrical anime and TV anime specials have been produced, and this work has never left the audience's field of vision. I believe that the latest TV animation of the alternative style "Lupin III" in 2012 "The Woman Named Mine Fujiko" left a deep impression on everyone, right? So "Lupin III" is undoubtedly also a long-lived animation.

As you can see from the previous two examples, Changshou Animation is under a lot of pressure to change voice actors. In 1995, Yasuo Yamada (b. 1932), the voice actor of the protagonist Lupin III, died, and the special "Lupin III Burns the Iron Sword" broadcast in 1994 became his farewell stage. From the 7th special in 1995, "Lupin III's Quest for the Treasure of Harimau", the voice actor of Lupin III was replaced by the younger Kurita Kanichi (born in 1958).

This is just the beginning, probably because the death of Yasuo Yamada has made the producers start to think about how to deal with the aging of voice actors, and in October 2011, the latest TV anime special of "Lupin III" held a press conference to announce the change of the voice actors of the Kanagata Police Department, Ishikawa Goemon, and Fujiko Mine.

Goro Naya (1929-2013), who starred in the Gengata Police Department from the first part, was replaced by Koichi Yamadera (b. 1961), Makio Inoue (b. 1938), who played the role of Ishikawa Goemon from the second part, was replaced by Daisuke Nanikawa (b. 1976), and from the second part, Miyuko Masuyamae (b. 1936), who played Fujiko Mine, was replaced by Miyuki Sawajo (b. 1985). It is very clear from this that the new voice actors are thirty or forty years younger than the old ones.

It is worth mentioning that Kiyoshi Kobayashi (1933), who starred in Daisuke Dimension since the first part, still did not leave this work, and Daisuke Dimension in 2012's "A Woman Named Mine Fujiko" is still voiced by him, it's hard to imagine that it is the voice of a 79-year-old man, right? In fact, the aging speed of the voice is indeed much slower than the appearance, so there are so many old voice actors born in the 30s who are still fighting on the front line. I hope they can take good care of their bodies and throats, and let the familiar voices continue to accompany us.

Aging voice actors – not so far in the future

If "Miss Conch" is the champion of Japanese longevity animation, and "Doraemon" is the runner-up, then the ranking from 3rd to 6th place should be "Bread Man", "Cherry Maruko", "Crayon Shin-chan" and "Ninja Rantaro". Among them, "Bread Man", which has been broadcast since October 1988, and "Crayon Shin-chan", which has been broadcast since April 1992, do not have to worry about aging for the time being because the protagonist is very young.

The first part was broadcast from January 1990 to September 1992, and the second part of "Cherry Maruko", which has been broadcast since January 1995, although the protagonist is also an eternal elementary school student, but the voice actor who played the grandfather in this work has changed twice. The grandfather in the first half of the first part of the first part of the first and second parts (January 1995 to September 17, 1995) was played by Kei Toyama. I believe that the familiar voice of Grandpa Maruko in most people's memories is his voice. However, he was born in 1938 and died on September 25, 1995. Like Ichiro Nagai, who voiced Hirohei Isono for "Miss Conch", he worked until the last moment of his life. After Kei Toyama's death, he was replaced by veteran voice actor Takeshi Aono (1936-2012), who began dubbing anime in 1964's "BIGX", but unfortunately he only dubbed until June 2010, and later replaced him with Toshitoshi Shimada (born in 1954). Therefore, even if the protagonist is very young, the voice actors who dub for the elderly are also facing the problem of aging.

The same story also happened to the head of the school in "Ninja Rantaro", Heiji Uzumaki. Since 1993, the voice actor of the head of the school is Mato Tsujimura (born in 1930), and he is 84 years old this year. He has been fading out of the voice actor circle since 2010.,The head of the school can be said to be a role that he has always insisted on dubbing to the least.。 In 2013, the head of the school was replaced by Pushan Xun (born in 1956).

Speaking of which, a legendary figure must be mentioned, that is, Masako Nozawa, a post-30s voice actor who voiced Son Goku in "Dragon Ball". There are a total of 4 TV anime of "Dragon Ball", namely "Dragon Ball" which aired from 1986 to 1989, "Dragon Ball Z" which aired from 1989 to 1996, "Dragon Ball GT" which aired from 1996 to 1997, and "Dragon Ball Kai" which aired from 2009 to 2011. Both Chinese and Japanese post-80s generations were deeply influenced by this work.

From Part 1 onwards, the voice actor of Monkey King is Masako Nozawa. Not only Sun Wukong, but even Sun Wukong's two sons, Sun Wuhan and Sun Wutian, were also taken care of by her. Born in 1936, she is now a 78-year-old grandmother. In the theatrical version of "Dragon Ball Z Gods and Gods" released in 2013, she still brought wonderful performances.

Compared with the change of the voice actor of the turtle immortals, it can be seen that Masako Nozawa is still standing domineering for 30 years. The most familiar Kamesen is the voice of Kohei Miyauchi (1929-1995), and he is the Kamesen from "Dragon Ball" to "Dragon Ball Z" Chapter 260. However, from episode 288 of "Dragon Ball Z" to the later "Dragon Ball GT", the voice actor of Kamesen became Hiroshi Masuoka (born in 1936). In the latest theatrical anime "Dragon Ball Z Gods and Gods", it was replaced by Masaharu Sato (born in 1946).

epilogue

Birth, old age, sickness and death are the fate that everyone can't escape, working hard when they are young, and enjoying their old age after gray hair is the wish of many people, but there are still a group of post-30s voice actors who have been with the audience all the way since the 60s of the last century when Japanese animation was just emerging. Perhaps it won't be long before they disappear from our sight. Here, let's pay tribute to the voice actors who are getting older.