Top Japanese anime actors’ voices to be converted into multiple languages in AI voice generation project 

Japanese talent agency Aoni Productions and Coefont, a platform that provides AI voiceovers, announced on October 7 that they are entering into a partnership to develop multi-language AI voice models (source: KAI-YOU.net).  

The Japanese voices of 10 actors who are affiliated with Aoni Productions will be used to develop AI voices in other languages, starting with English and Chinese. So far, veteran voice actors Masako Nozawa and Banjo Ginga have been named as two of the actors involved in the project. Both have extremely long resumes spanning anime and games- Nozawa is known for providing Son Goku’s voice in Dragon Ball Z, while Banjo Ginga is the Japanese voice of Liquid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series. 

However, this does not mean that we will be getting AI voice performances in anime. According to the announcements, these AI generated voices will not be used for “acting” – this includes anime, game and foreign film dubs in Japan. The two companies hope to primarily use these multiple language AI voices for virtual assistants (like Amazon’s Alexa and Google assistant), robots (such as Pepper) and voiced guidance systems (on medical devices, for example). 

In a statement, the two companies explained that they started this collaboration “to enhance the potential of attractive voices while appropriately protecting the rights of performers.”

Commenting on the partnership, Coefont’s CEO Shogo Hayakawa, who founded the company in 2020 when he was a 19-year-old student, expressed his hopes that creating these multi-language voices using the power of AI will allow Japan’s most appealing voices to become better known throughout the world.