Anime is very popular, with millions of fans all over the world. Although mistakenly called ‘cartoons’, these animated stories are seen as a work of art by admirers and fans. However, without good voice actors, even the best anime can fall flat and disappoint fans.
Anime is often made to tell the story of a manga, a Japanese comic book, and when the right voice actors are chosen, the story can be represented exactly how fans hoped. In some cases, the voice actors are even better than expected.
Table of Contents
How Much Do Anime Voice Actors Make?
Anime voice actors can make $500 per episode, if they’re very popular. On the other hand, some freelancer voice actors only earn $10 – $100 per job. Anime voice actors are loved for the energy they bring to the stories and the colorful way they bring the characters to life with their voices. Sadly, despite being hugely popular, anime voice animators don’t always receive the payment they deserve. This can be especially true for Japanese voice actors, unfortunately.
The Different Salaries That Anime Voice Actors Earn
There are different sides to anime voice acting: the Japanese voice actors, the English voice actors, and the many other languages that anime are dubbed into. To keep things organized and coherent, we’ll only look at Japanese and English voice acting in this article.
Professional Voice Acting
The voice actors who have worked many years in the industry and became well-known for their voice acting abilities are considered professionals. They have a lot of experience and also have huge fanbases who support and love them.
As you might expect, professional voice acting is more lucrative because of the quality of the work that is done.
Professional voice actors can earn $500 per episode, and sometimes even more. Depending on how long the anime is, the voice actor can make between $6,000 and $12,000 per season. If the anime has multiple seasons, they obviously earn a lot more.
There are highly experienced anime voice actors who earn a lot more, though. For example, one of the most well-known voice actors, Megumi Hayashibara – known for bringing Evangelion’s Rei Ayanami to life – earns about $630,000 a year.
This is depressingly low when you consider she is one of the top Japanese anime voice actors. Cartoon voice actors in The States can easily earn a lot more per episode.
Freelance Voice Acting
The freelancing side of the anime voice acting industry doesn’t pay as much as the professional side does. With that said, there are many projects to choose from, although most of them aren’t from big companies and don’t have big budgets.
Freelance anime voice actors can expect to earn anything between $10 to $100 per voice acting job. It is a very competitive industry because there are so many people who want to make a career in voice acting.
Dubbing Anime
Dubbing is a part of the anime voice acting industry that is very important to non-Japanese speakers. Dubbing is when an anime is translated into English and other languages so more people can enjoy it.
The pay in this part of the industry isn’t too bad and voice actors can earn between $60 and $80 an hour. It can be a difficult job though, because the English voice actors have to sync their performances to the existing animations, which can be tricky.
How Much Do Anime Voice Actors Earn?
It is difficult to truly say how much anime voice actors earn because they like to keep their finances private. We’ve managed to gather some basic and approximate numbers of some of them, though. Here is a look at what some of the world’s best anime voice actors make, and what characters they give voices to:
Megumi Hayashibara – Net worth of about $1.5 million
Megumi is a talented voice actress, radio personality, and singer. She has voiced Jessie in Pokemon, Rei Ayanami in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth, and many more interesting characters.
Justin Briner – Net worth of between $1 million and $12 million
Justin is one of the most popular English anime voice actors and is known for his brilliant voice acting in the hugely popular My Hero Academia. He gives a voice to the main protagonist, Izuku Midoriya. He also voices Black Clover’s Luck Voltia.
Masako Nozawa – Estimated net worth of $20 million
As one of the most popular and beloved Japanese anime voice actors, Masako has worked for many years in the industry. She is known for voicing Son Goku, Vegito, Bardock, and many other important characters in the Dragonball series.
Matthew Mercer – Net worth of about $1 million
Matthew is another successful anime voice actor who worked on bringing Attack on Titan’s Levi and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Jotaro Kujo to life in English. He is also known for other voice-acting roles, such as that of Trafalgar Law in One Piece and Sinbad in Magi: Adventure of Sinbad.
Frequently Asked Questions About How Much Do Anime Voice Actors Make
Who Is the Richest Japanese Voice Actor?
In Japan, the highest-paid anime voice actor is none other than the legend, Megumi Hayashibara. She is admired and beloved and has a very long career, which is why she takes this title today.
How Can I Become an Anime Voice Actor?
Becoming a voice actor may sound exciting and like a dream life, if you love anime, but it takes a lot of hard work. You’ll have to work on your acting skills because it affects how well you can do anime voice acting. Many auditions and hours of hard work are also required to build your portfolio until you get the jobs you want.
Anime Voice Actors Deserve Better
Although well-known anime voice actors can say they earn enough to be satisfied with, the average pay of these hard-working professionals should be a lot higher. When compared to the salaries of cartoon voice actors, anime voice actors are badly neglected. Hopefully, this is something that will change in the future.