animation world led to the increase of anime shown in the Tokyo area. With the Internet, gathering information on their favourite voice actors became easy for fans, and voice actors began to appear in Internet-based radio shows. From to , the world's first digital satellite radio broadcaster, St.GIGA, transmitted episodic video games with voice acted overdubs in a separate and continually streaming vocal track (a technique called SoundLink), to be played in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom video game console with its Satellaview peripheral. BS Zelda no Densetsu was identified by Nintendo as the world's first integrated radio-game. 2000–present: Idol and real-life crossovers During the mid-to-late 2000s, voice acting talents began crossing over with the Japanese idol industry. Prominent examples include Aya Hirano, Koharu Kusumi, and Nana Mizuki, all of whom were established actors or singers in mainstream entertainment before entering voice acting. While character song tie-ins were already common in the film industry by then, some voice actors also began making crossover television, stage, and concert appearances as their characters as well, leading them to be closely associated with one another. The term "2.5D", which picked up frequent usage in the mid-2010s, was used to describe voice actors who would portray their characters in real life, such as television or stage plays. Over the mid-to-late 2010s, multimedia projects where the voice actors would appear as their characters in real-life became popular, such as The Idolmaster and Love Live! The magazine Seiyū Grand Prix noted that over 1,500 voice actors were active in 2021, compared to 370 voice actors (145 men and 225 women) in 2001. See also Seiyu Awards Voice acting Japanese voice actor management companies References Sources External links Seiyū (voice actor) database Miracle voice actors and magical voice actresses Voice actor database Anime News Network Encyclopedia Database of anime staff and cast members. otaku Japan fi:Ääninäyttelijä#Japanissa