Do anime with more ecchi scenes pay their seiyuu more than non-ecchi anime?

Question

Seeing the Citrus anime that aired in Winter 2018 got me thinking. This anime has so many ecchi scenes. Yuzu and Mei kissed and did so many perverted acts.

Had this been a boy-girl kissing scene, it might be considered okay and normal enough. Problem is, Yuzu and Mei are both female, thus their kissing scenes are ecchi. Taketatsu Ayana (Yuzu's seiyuu) and Tsuda Minami (Mei's seiyuu) would have to make lots of perverted noises for those scenes.

This reminds me that High School DxD also has Itou Shizuka (Himejima Akeno's seiyuu) and Hikasa Youko (Ria's Gremory's seiyuu) make lots of similar noises for the recording.

While Itou Shizuka is known to be a seiyuu for eroge, even she was embarrassed when she had to do many perverted noises during recording in front of many other seiyuus (I read it somewhere but forgot where, will update with link if I can find the article again). Itou-san went as far as crying to Asakawa Yuu (voice actress of the Megurine Luka vocaloid, and seiyuu for many eroge) due to the embarrassment.

It should also be noted that both Itou-san and Asakawa-san used pseudonyms for their eroge VA work. This suggest that such work is not really desirable, or at least, it definitely is not at the top of desirable jobs to do. Hanazawa Kana doesn't do eroge voice acting, for example.

Now, returning to Citrus, Taketatsu Ayana and Tsuda Minami were not fresh, newly-graduated seiyuu. They have worked in the industry for quite a long time and have built names for themselves.

Does this means that anime with many perverted scenes pay their seiyuu more?

Note: To make things clear, by "ecchi" I mean the perverted noise(s) the seiyuu has to make for the scene, and not the perverted images that go with them.

Answer 1

From what I have read, eroge voice-work is not a desirable path. The pay is less, although I'm not sure how much exactly. I think voice actors are generally paid by the word, and long/complicated lines are not usually required in eroge. I don't know how they would measure a payment for just breathing and other sounds.

Most voice actors are similar to celebrities, in that they want to become well-known and gain reputability for their skills. This will give them higher paying jobs in more popular series, and their demand will grow. However, eroge work is probably viable if you need to make money or start out. A lot of well known voice actors have done eroge work before becoming more established and moving away from it. The voice actor for Vegeta in DBZ apparently did eroge at one point. A lot of "voice otakus"? will try to match eroge VAs who used pseudonyms to their real names, which is a deterrent for some VAs to even do any eroge if they care about that.

I am sorry I don't have any real sources to any of this, so take it with a grain of salt. I've just googled through some message boards about this topic, like the one below

Url may contain content not safe for work

http://blog.livedoor.jp/myonkui/archives/5522517.html

Answer 2

No, Seiyuus do not get pay more for voicing h scene in anime.

In anime, all seiyuus have a fixed salary per episode. As long as he/she appeared in an episode, he/she is going to get paid the same amount regardless of how many words he said. The salary is dependent on the experience of the seiyuu.

This is a mechanism to prevent unhealthy competition between veteran and younger seiyuu, and to ensure the development of younger seiyuu. If they are paid freely or the same, younger seiyuu will stand no chance against vet seiyuu, especially for TV anime roles, where the competition is the most brutal. This is also the reason why a lot of seiyuu will get less main roles after 10 to 15 years. They are getting expensive and are replaced by the newer seiyuu. It's cruel but also sustainable and good for the industry as a whole.

https://www.amgakuin.co.jp/contents/voice/column2/debut/become/income (There is an article in Japanese on how are seiyuu paid)

As to why they are still taking ecchi anime, it is just that they have embraced sexual content as a big part of the industry and culture, and therefore they would take the audition (which even big name seiyuu would fail more than 90% of the time). They know what they are potentially signing up to, and they treasure every role which they get. By the way, Taketatsu Ayana definitely won't mind attending audition for ecchi anime, Ako-ne in Kissxsis was one of her earliest main role. She must have spent a lot of time studying how to make those sounds.

The paying of game (including Eroge) has no such a straight rule, and they are paid more, and in various way. Like they may be paid for a fixed salary, paid per lines, and can directly negotiate with the production side for more. However, not all the seiyuu will voice Eroge, and even if they do want to some agency may ban their seiyuu to do so. (E.g. I'm enterprise) Also even seiyuu are paid more for voicing game, the competition in voicing anime is still much higher, since they can become famous for voicing anime, and appearing in anime is the dream for a lot of them.

It's also simply just more beneficial for them to voice in alias. At the end of the day, even if the seiyuu don't mind R18 content (by literally being a part of it), the general audience may not. It cannot be helped that some audience would associate characters sharing the same voice actor from different anime/game. By use different name in non-R18 anime and R18 anime, there would be less concern form the production side in selecting them for non-R18 roles. They do it to hide it from the casual general audience rather than their fans, fans of seiyuu recognize them by voice, not name.

For example, everyone knows Fukuen Misato voiced a ton of Eroge, but she voiced all of them under different names, so technically "Fukuen Misato" didn't voice any of them, and fans who know generally would just buy the game, but won't bring it up in normal occasion. Therefore, she can still be selected to voice Pretty Cure, a big anime for little girls. Imagine if she does all the Eroge under the name "Fukuen Misato", there would be close to no chance for her to be selected.