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I'll defer to anyone who knows more (and can back it up), but just from what I personally know I rather doubt there are any nuances in the term "seiyuu" that are lost by translating it, which would be the only real justification for using it. So I'd go with "Japanese voice actor".
I go with "Japanese voice actor". It's clearer than using a Japanese term that not everybody knows.
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I think there's merit to using the term, particularly in context regarding "idol" seiyuu (which has been a common phenomenon as of late) and celebrities, since this is something exclusive to Japanese media as of now, where the character and the voice actress/actor are two sides of the same coin, and both perform, with an element of keyfabe thrown in.
Besides "idol japanese voice actress" is a mouthful compared to "idol seiyuu".
This site actually has in rules, when possible, to not use jargon and Anime Speak that casual readers wouldn't get.
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I prefer seiyuu though. It's less wordful and more gender-neutral that "Japanese voice actor".
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Actor IS neutral. Sure I know the word Voice Actress exists but it is neutral. Also not everyone knows immediately what a seiyuu is so it would require us putting translator notes on every page that used it which would defeat the entire purpose of leaving it be.
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While "seiyuu" does typically mean "Japanese voice actor" (barring Alternate Character Reading that is), it's also a common anime term used by fans to distinguish Japanese voice actors from those of other language dubs. Many wiki sites I've been to officially use seiyuu to list Japanese voice actors, so for the sake of cultural authenticity, I would keep the seiyuu term for Japanese voice actor pages.
Change it to Japanese Voice Actor. It's far less confusing and we have readers from all around the world. Many don't know what Seiyuu even means. It's still jargon at the end of the day. It's a good redirect word to add in where applicable(if anywhere), but it's no good for regular pages.
...It's weird having so many websites and no way to properly display now, lol.
Change to voice actor is my opinion as Irene says it's jargon you can't expect a reader with no knowledge to understand.
Edited by dcutter2
Also if we did use Seiyuu to mean Japanese voice actor we would have to call Spanish Speaking voice actors Actores de Doblaje.
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Speaking as an outsider, I had no clue what a seiyuu was when I stumbled on some of those Creator/ pages. Seems like jargon to me, as a result.
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Ironically jargon is to me a bit more obscure than seiyuu... checks out what it means Oh I totally agree.
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In general, yes, cut down on unexplained non-English fandom jargon.
In cases where using "seiyuu" is necessary or even beneficial (such as in quotes discussing the career, or the 'idol seiyuu' case above where there is no clean English equivalent) the term can stay, but would ideally be accompanied by a translation.
Seiyuu is an existing redirect to NamesToKnowInAnime.Japanese Voice Actors.
Something I noticed that a few creator pages (for examples Ai Nonaka and Tomokazu Sugita) call the VA in question "Seiyuu" (The japanese term for a voice actor). This is in contrast to other pages (like Aoi Ichikawa) which simply calls them a "Japanese voice actor". This seems to be a relic of the older days of the site, which made me wonder: should we change seiyuu to japanese voice actor or just leave it be?
Edited by Ayumi-chan