Working in Anime Through the JVTA

One alleged secret to happiness is to get paid for enjoying your hobby. I found some modest luck turning my anime hobby into a convention coverage personality and anime critic. Now I get to immerse myself in my anime hobby and make a few bucks in the process. It was during Anime Expo where I happened upon a panel offering fellow attendees an opportunity to make money working in the very anime they happened to enjoy. Always ready to further my attempts to profit from a hobby, I took a seat and listened to their scheme.

The panel turned out to be a presentation from the Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy (JVTA). The JVTA promoted itself as a fun and educational way to break into the anime industry as a translator, writer, voice actor, and other production jobs needed to turn Japanese media into something English speaking audiences could understand. Scheduled for an hour, the JVTA panel felt like an extended infomercial that was missing a celebrity endorsement to complete the advertisement. And lo and behold, Crispin Freeman-veteran voice actor of Zelgadis (Slayers), Alucard (Hellsing), and many other starring roles-was present to give his endorsement as an actor and as a lecturer for the JVTA.

The JVTA panel explained the production process of adapting anime for American audiences. Companies wishing to adapt the Japanese anime for their audiences first need to translate the script while adapting the imagery to adhere to broadcasting standards & practices. Once translated, the script needs to be adapted since raw Japanese translations often do not sound natural in English. The adapted script addresses addresses sentence syntax, verb conjugation, and the occasionally rewrites a joke for American audience. Voice actors who act out the script are cast to the voice director's intentions. With the English soundtrack recorded and the imagery adaptations complete, the anime is rendered and packaged to sell on retail shelves or air on American airwaves.

JVTA offers classes that help eager students become the translators, dubbing producers, script writers, production coordinators, voice directors, and voice actors that are involved in the US anime industry. They imply job placement after completion of the program and as well as offering related positions within their school. Crispin Freeman himself teaches aspiring voice actors to be the emotional and technical actor needed to be a voice actor that anime viewers do not end up cringing at when they hear them. Crispin also holds seminars discussing the mythology of anime ranging from giant robots to magical girls to help students better appreciate the art that they grew to take in as a hobby.

While the Los Angeles location of JVTA prevents this Bay Area resident from considering attending a class, their presentation during Anime Expo at least shows that they know what they are doing. It is a pity that the learning experiences there do not seem to transfer to an accredited university and I wonder if a degree in Japanese or video production from an accredited university will stand better in a resume. But given its ties to the Japanese anime industry, the JVTA does look like a shortcut course to make money off the anime hobby, which makes it that much more appealing.