Tokyo: Who would still fall in love after being spoiled?

Chapter 102: Besides Takeda, he also has the possibility of becoming an idol voice actor.

Takeda's first reaction was to be stunned, but he quickly became angry. He jumped up from the sofa, pounced in front of him, and pinched his face hard with both hands.

"Do you treat me like a child?" Letting go of his hand, Takeda asked him condescendingly.

"I suddenly wanted to try it."

Takeda's hands were a little cold, so cold that he wondered if his face was also hot.

"Then I'll try it too!" Takeda reached out again and continued to do whatever he wanted on his face.

First pinch his cheeks, then open your palms and push from his cheeks toward the center to make him look embarrassed.

Seeing that he didn't resist, she gradually became bolder and started making faces.

Until he had had enough, was satisfied, let go of her hand, and kept his distance.

"It's interesting." She nodded, and the grievance in her tone disappeared temporarily.

"When are you going tomorrow? Can I sit in on the voice actor interview?" He put aside the grudge of pinching each other's faces and got down to business.

"Eight in the morning," Takeda said, frowning slightly in disgust, "but my interview won't be until about eleven."

"Can't we go at half past ten?"

"It's the same as dubbing," Takeda said. "Voice actor auditions can only begin after everyone is present."

"Corrupt," he concluded, echoing Takeda's sentiment.

"Rotten!" Takeda repeated with great approval.

"Then what? Can we leave only after everyone has been interviewed?" he continued to ask.

"Well, you have to wait until noon," said Takeda.

"Can I go in for the interview?" He remembered that he had a system and he still had a lot of points, enough for him to squander a little and buy a Lv.3 dubbing skill to experience the life of a voice actor.

"You?" Takeda was stunned and couldn't believe it.

"'Let the world feel pain--!'" With no experience in dubbing, he thought of a line at random and shouted it in a pretentious voice.

"Hahaha... Not bad, traitor Inoue." Takeda was still laughing heartily in his real voice in the first half of the sentence, but in the second half of the sentence, he suddenly changed his voice almost completely, and sighed neatly in a clear voice that was close to neutral.

“Forget it…” He truly felt the gap between amateurs and professionals – those online bloggers who started drawing illustrations halfway probably had the same feeling when they saw the illustrations on his social media accounts.

It’s the same in all walks of life, and no profession should be looked down upon.

"You're still a long way off, my junior Inoue." Takeda patted his shoulder and consoled him, "Even if you can do dubbing, it won't work! You're not even on the list for the voice actor audition."

"Even if my dubbing skills are strong enough, it won't work?" he couldn't help but ask.

Every rule has a limit that can be broken, just as if the pay is high enough you can always hire capable people to help you do things.

"No." Takeda thought for a moment and shook his head. "Those guys are interested in fame, which is the exact opposite of the animation team."

Talking about the voice acting industry, Takeda suddenly became experienced and explained the various rules and current situations to him with familiarity. "Voice acting agencies are only concerned about how to quickly develop newcomers, and they will do anything to get them to prosper."

"We encourage cute female voice actors to participate in various public events, such as entertainment variety shows, TV and radio programs, and pre-scripted interviews... We encourage them to build their personas and become idols."

She snapped her fingers.

"For newcomers with some talent, they spare no effort to arrange them to compete for the character they are best at, without considering how to broaden their future development paths. They just hope that they can become famous faster, increase their dubbing prices, and then increase the commission they extract."

"It's essentially the same." He listened patiently and continued to summarize, "It's all about reducing costs and increasing efficiency."

"Reduce costs and increase efficiency...? Reduce costs... Increase..." Takeda was like a fool. He pondered for a long time before he understood the meaning of the words and applauded. "That's what I mean! In short, they're all the same stuff!"

Animation crews like to use newcomers in order to save costs; voice actor agencies hope that their reputations will be as good as possible in order to increase their commissions.

It's all about making money.

Such examples are common in society and are widely used in all walks of life, giving rise to different but all-sounding terms.

The serious phenomenon of voluntary overtime in companies on the island is closely related to all these factors.

But no matter how he laments now or how Takeda criticizes, it will not improve today's society at all.

Ultimately, it can be summed up in one sentence - if he becomes Prime Minister...

"What if I have the potential to become a famous voice actor quickly?" he asked.

"You?" Takeda stared at him and was silent for a moment.

"Hypothesis." He said it again and again.

"Hmm... I think he'll be pulled into the idol route." Takeda looked at his face carefully, pondered for a moment, and nodded his judgment. "It's hard to find male voice actors who can become idols. If it's you, you might really gain a lot of fans."

"And then I can receive gifts every holiday?" he asked.

Now there are quite a few people sending him gifts and handwritten letters.

Although there are not many on weekdays, only a few packages occasionally, all of them are deposited in the publishing house.

But once a certain festival comes, readers will find an excuse to send gifts and letters, and launch a general attack on the publishing house like snowflakes.

The types of gifts are varied and include everything from handmade books and postcards, simple but thoughtful paintings, homemade snacks... to practical gifts such as large gift boxes filled with local specialties, chocolates and various snacks.

In addition, there are clothes printed with some of the characters he drew, which are basically given to those struggling light novel authors - somehow, he always receives more gifts than the authors he has worked with.

Fans of famous voice actors are probably similar. The only difference is that they deposit the gifts they receive with the publishing house, while the voice actors deposit the gifts with the voice actor's agency.

"Don't you think I can become famous based on my own abilities?" He collected his thoughts.

"Didn't I just say that?" Takeda asked doubtfully, reiterating, "The agency is naturally looking at how quickly you can become famous and how you manage operations! Being an idol is, of course, the fastest way."

"Are today's animation audiences really so superficial?" he couldn't help but ask.

"There are also audiences who have very high requirements for dubbing and like talented voice actors." Takeda said, "But most audiences watch anime to relax. As long as there are no major problems with the dubbing, they will naturally prefer those who look good." "Just think of it as a compliment." He began to think about whether these conclusions of Takeda were drawn from his own personal experience or from the experience of teachers in the voice actor training class.

Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered that he didn't even know which class Takeda was in school or what his academic performance was like. He knew very little about him.

Maybe Miss Takeda, who looks like a fool on the surface, is actually better than him in academic performance.

"Ah...you!" Takeda couldn't help laughing, but didn't know what to say. He just sighed like this and nothing else.

They sat down side by side on the sofa, no longer at one end and the other, with a square sofa pillow between them, and watched together as he lied to her that it was a "second-hand" TV that Kuroki had discarded and sent to him.

The information fee was paid by Takeda, who said he would feel bad if he had to share the cost.

Takeda held the remote control and searched for the channel he liked. He stared at the TV screen, which was using light dots of the three primary colors to create a colorful animation effect, and let his mind go blank.

Skip the ridiculously funny variety shows, the obstacle course races where puppies in training compete under the command of their trainers, the anime and TV series that are currently airing...

Finally, the horse racing replay stopped.

"Do you still follow horse racing?" he asked.

"Father loves to watch it." Takeda stared at the screen, but his attention was not at all on the horses galloping at each other.

"This horse racing competition is held in the place where my father is on a business trip. Maybe I can see him in the audience," she said.

"Is there a horse your father likes?"

"My father said his favorite was Xingmu, but that horse no longer competes." The TV camera returned to the horses, no longer visible in the bustling stands. Takeda looked away and continued to explain, "Xingmu was the name of the horse my father loved."

"I see." He knew nothing about horse racing, and his understanding was probably about the same as his impression of the voice actor industry.

Another set of shots facing the audience appeared.

Takeda watched it intently for a while, then shook his head regretfully and switched to another channel.

"Do you miss your father?" he asked.

"No," Takeda shook his head, his eyes reflecting the flash of the TV screen constantly changing channels. "It's just that my mother is in the hospital, in a wheelchair, coughing constantly, and I'm busy running around. If my father really went to watch the horse racing... I would definitely call him and have a big fight."

"But I didn't find it," he said. "That means I didn't go to the races."

"There are still so many viewers who haven't appeared in the camera!" Takeda wrinkled her nose and glared at him subconsciously.

Like complaining about how he was speaking for her father.

He thought about himself and how he would feel if he were Takeda, his mother was in a car accident and was in the hospital, and his father was on a business trip.

Would you be angry if you saw your father watching horse racing?
Possibly, but it is more likely that he would not even have the thought of "confirming whether his father went to watch the horse racing". If such a scenario really happened, it could only be that he accidentally saw the other person sitting in the audience of the horse racing program while changing channels.

He doesn't tend to bother other people. In other words, he doesn't care much about other people either.

Even when dealing with relatives, we only show the necessary care brought by blood relationship, and make necessary contact during holidays or when we think "it seems like we haven't been in touch for a long time."

I never care what my parents are doing when we are far apart.

"You went on a business trip and didn't say when you would be back?" he asked.

"At least a month," Takeda said, then complained, "Mother doesn't want me to tell him about her hospitalization."

The TV screen finally stopped flickering and stopped on an entertainment variety channel.

"Look." Takeda stopped talking to him about his father and asked him to look at the pictures on the TV screen.

A rather cute young woman approached a black human head model under the instructions of the staff.

"This is one of those variety shows that idol voice actors participate in," Takeda explained to him. "The model in it is called a human head microphone. They say one of these microphones costs over a million yen."

"and then?"

"They have cute female voice actors imitating anime girl voices into microphones," Takeda said, his tone tinged with dissatisfaction. "Confessions, coy whispers, pretending to pick their ears and blowing on them... After watching the show, you can buy the corresponding audio files to satisfy the strange quirks of the idol voice actors' fans."

"Incredible." He watched for a while. The female voice actor on the screen was quite dedicated. She spoke politely to the staff and spoke the various lines into the microphone vividly.

I can truly feel how difficult life is for idol voice actors in the industry.

"Amazing...Who?"

"These people who are willing to become idol voice actors and work hard without complaint."

"...Yeah." Takeda continued to watch with him for a while, and nodded involuntarily.

It can even be said that society is composed of such people who make up the majority of its flesh and blood, enabling the entire society to operate healthily and smoothly.

People who possess color and refuse to be ordinary can be said to be the skin, facial features, and finery of society—they determine the overall appearance of society, whether it is majestic, full of vitality, in a comfortable old age, or shaky and perilous...

On the other hand, it can be said that the majority of people have already sacrificed themselves and become part of the social machine. No matter how society changes or how difficult life becomes, they continue to live as usual, according to their own pace of life, according to their daily inertia, until they pass on their responsibilities to the next generation.

In the early 1990s, when the bubble economy was still going on on the island, a mainstream newspaper on the other side of the ocean published a large photo of people walking down the stairs of Tokyo Station during the morning rush hour.

The office workers in the photo seemed to have agreed in advance. They all lowered their heads, like fish in a can, lifeless and with gloomy expressions.

The report said - maybe the island has indeed become prosperous, but most of the people on the island still keep their heads down, as if they are still deeply trapped in misfortune.

This photo has been passed down because of a sentence in the report.

In fact, if the person who took the photo paid attention to his own movements when squeezing into the train during rush hour, he would understand why they all lowered their heads - on the crowded station steps, the employees going to and from get off work had to be careful with their steps to avoid tripping and losing their shoes.

This is the real reason why those people who walk with their heads down in dark coats do so.

But the shooting of the photo does have its extraordinary skills. The photo with dark colors as the main body will never look happy, and the shooting angle also highlights this point.

He prefers to interpret it as human beings always migrating to more prosperous places until they become overcrowded, while their hometowns become increasingly desolate and uninhabited - as long as this situation continues to exist in the world, most people who are the flesh and blood of society will have no way to escape misfortune and obtain happiness.

He watched the voice actor variety show with Takeda, but his mind was filled with such humanities and social philosophy - whenever he thought of this, he felt that he was also deeply trapped in some kind of misfortune.

(End of this chapter)