The producer of NEXTON reveals the voice cast for the eroge

He voice casting in it eroge The decision is made through two methods: open auditions and direct appointment. Matsui, general producer at NEXTON, dedicates the 43rd installment of his monthly column to explaining how the voices for the heroines are chosen, a process rarely discussed outside of management.

NEXTON brings together labels such as BaseSon, azarashi soft, Liquid and Ms Toybox, so what its general producer describes about voice casting is not the anecdote of a small studio: it is the working method of one of the houses with the largest catalog in the sector.

Audition or appointment: the two paths of voice casting

In the audition process, the audio recording company sends each voice actor agency the project materials, budget, and test lines. The agencies record these tests in their own studios within the deadline and submit them; then the studio listens and makes a decision.

The budget is communicated on a per-character basis. Those who apply assume they will work within that range, although occasionally a candidate submits a higher rate. The great advantage for the producer is that it brings in voices they hadn’t previously considered.

The price is paid in time. Organizing an audition, one of the phases of voice casting, requires setting aside time for the announcement, the waiting, the listening, and the comparison of candidates, and that pushes the process forward. According to Matsui, that’s his main reason for not abusing the system.

What you don’t see in an audition

The process has opaque aspects. Some voice acting agencies never received notification, even though the manufacturer specifically requested that the material be sent to as many agencies as possible. From the studio’s perspective, it’s impossible to know if an agency simply didn’t show up or if they were never even notified.

There’s also a preliminary screening process within each agency. Recording the tests costs time and money, so not all members participate: the agency itself decides who to send. The process is more like an internal elimination round before the final exam.

In voice casting, there is no obligation to choose someone from the audition. Some roles are filled by direct appointment even if the rest of the cast is selected through the auditions.

Direct appointment, the most common method

Naming a specific voice actress is almost certainly the most common method. Matsui usually names all the main heroines; he divides up the secondary characters without H-scenes and, when he’s in a hurry, delegates to the audio company.

The advantages of direct appointment in voice casting are clear: the result better matches the producer’s vision of the character, and there’s more time between production and recording. The disadvantages are equally significant: it’s easy to go over budget, requiring negotiations, and without extensive knowledge of the voice actor landscape, choosing becomes a real ordeal.

When the team asks in their internal chat which voice actor each person wants, the usual response is that no one has a preference and it’s up to them to decide. There’s also an unconfirmed rumor that some manufacturers simply provide the budget and leave the entire casting process to the audio company. It’s best to treat this as a rumor and not as widespread practice.

The censorship that affects the entire cast

The voice casting process doesn’t end with the name. Before finalizing the deal, you have to establish the smallest details: how much weight the H-scene carries in the dialogue, whether profanity needs to be corrected, and other script details.

There, a detail emerges that affects the entire work. If a single cast member requires the censor beep for vulgar language, the treatment is applied to all characters in the game. An individual decision becomes a global feature of the title.

NEXTON faces a few months of preparation

The column about voice casting also serves as context. NEXTON has a backlog of releases through October 2026 and is now entering a phase of internal development. There are no talks about moving dates, and the studio continues working on what’s to come.

The final stretch of that streak yielded three pitches: in September came Aibeya 3 (azarashi soft) and Gyaru to Papa-katsu! (pakopako soft); on October 30th it was the turn of Sakurabu Triangle (azarashi soft +1), with art by Fujiwara Fujiwara and script by Marutani Hideto, a tandem that is working together again and has caused quite a stir.

Outside of the game schedule, the activity doesn’t stop. For the winter event, an acrylic stand shaped like a figure with a slot for cards, the Oshikatsu Card Case Acrylic Figure, is in development. It’s designed to display both the player’s favorite card and the character figure. The prototype was shown on Matsui’s X account.

Between auditions that take weeks and appointments that eat up the budget, voice casting in eroge games functions as a balancing act between schedules, money, and intuition. The part the player never sees is precisely what determines which voices they’ll hear for hours.

Would you prefer that the heroines be chosen by open audition or that the producer handpick them during the voice casting?