Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Anime Voices Recorded After Animation Is Done?
|
Goto page 1, 2, 3 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shay Guy
 Posts: 2430 |
|
|||||
|
Though apparently there are exceptions to the usual anime process. Akira is said to have had its voices recorded before animation; Kana Ueda has said that ufotable does the same, and I've read Kou Matsuo (Red Garden, Kure-nai) likes to do it too.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
FilthyCasual
Posts: 2444 |
|
|||||
|
Except Ufotable.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Niello
Posts: 302 |
|
|||||
|
His made me appreciate the voice acting in Land of the Lustrous even more. It is really noticeable how much better and more natural many VA sound when they don't have to put their effort into matching the lip movement.
|
||||||
|
||||||
MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5538 |
|
|||||
|
Akira and Redline had pre-recorded voices, however they had complex facial movements, so I assume there was noway around it..
Last edited by MarshalBanana on Mon Dec 11, 2017 2:46 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
ptj_tsubasa
 Posts: 129 |
|
|||||
|
Some veteran Japanese voice actors have actually said that acting is a lot harder these days when you usually have to record with unfinished animation or even just storyboard reels. Apparently it was much easier back in the day when the animation was ACTUALLY already done when the recording started, because then all you had to do was match it.
Quite the opposite view from the American one. |
||||||
|
||||||
Soulwarfare
 Posts: 554 |
|
|||||
|
I got a question, why do some anime studios like to ruin their openings by adding some unnecessary sound effects?
|
||||||
|
||||||
I_Drive_DSM
 Posts: 217 |
|
|||||
|
I would assume also that in modern animation this isn't as much of an issue discrepancy as it once was. Animation & coloring is mostly done on computer now. Even if any sort of minor lip or facial discrepancy exists it can easily be rectified in a physical or subsequent release. In the cel days this had to have incurred more work simply due to having to know what frames to say re-use or time at a particular point.
I'm also imagining a scenario where an editor is like "Oh man this lip movement is one frame off. Lemme touch this up right quick and we'll be on our way." |
||||||
|
||||||
|
FilthyCasual
Posts: 2444 |
|
|||||
Because it's the finale and finales are special. |
||||||
|
||||||
relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
|
|||||
Yeah, definitely. I don't know how often they actually do adjust the lip flaps these days(you still see plenty of mismatched flapping), but it's a really simple process if they feel the need. |
||||||
|
||||||
hissatsu01
 Posts: 963 Location: NYC |
|
|||||
That is a either a really unfortunate typo, or I've forgotten more than I thought about both those movies. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
HolsteinCrab
Posts: 42 |
|
|||||
|
As a voice acting geek from a (failed) animation background, I would love to hear/see more examples of anime where the animation is drawn to scratch tracks of the voice actors but as Justin pointed out, this just isn't financially feasible. Ufotable is an exception thanks to the insane budgets they manage to boast (no wonder their box sets cost a bomb!) but for TV anime... yeah, just not gonna happen in the near future. It's already a miracle they manage to get TV anime produced on time at the quality they do - trying to switch the process to have the audio recorded first just isn't practical. It's much easier to edit in an audio track to what animation you've got done than the reverse and when you're trying to make sure you meet all those deadlines, easiness is less a luxury and more a necessity.
I need to dig up the Japanese source properly (as I originally found it via a Korean wiki because I'm convoluted like that - it cited 'Fate / Zero Talk Session' #6 as its source) but I read that the Ufotable animators had to edit or outright scrap (my korean proficiency is of the 'totally useless so must summon Google' variety) some of the previous drawings they had for Ryunosuke and Caster in Fate/Zero because Akira Ishida and Satoshi Tsuruoka's performances didn't match up with the visuals they'd already done. I am guessing these would've been storyboards/rough designs as opposed to proper animation frames given Ufotable following the western animation production method so at least that wouldn't have wasted much time/material. I'm also willing to bet it's the dubbing after animation process that explains why ad-libbing is such a cardinal sin in Japanese voice acting. The Mawaru Penguindrum Japanese commentary had a few anecdotes of seiyuu either accidentally slipping ad-libs into scenes (and apologizing afterwards) or thinking they managed to sneak one in and have it accepted only to be told after the take it had to be redone. Technically I'd say anime is visually a very forgiving style for adlibs because the lip movements are deliberately kept vague but a sudden ad-lib can still muck up the tempo of the scene or just not fit so I can see why some directors are very strict about that. Seiyuu in more comedic roles seem to be allowed more freedom in that regard though as Tetsuya Nomura commented how he let Shigeru Chiba throw in ad-libs as Kefka for Dissidia and Kenichi Suzumura for Demyx in Kingdom Hearts II - however those were games so different deal
I wonder how long it takes the voice acting students at those training schools to learn how to flip the script pages correctly and get to the mic without making a sound. Sure, learning to act is important but without THAT skill you can't even get through the take 
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
|
|||||
|
Sometimes its easier to 'act' when you have a frame like the animation done before you. Too much freedom...can backfire.
Consider Western Actors often are in a box alone, meanwhile there is sometimes a collaborative effort in recording in Japan. Surely having to time and react with someone next to you is going to be a bit harder. Given the quality of voicework performances I'm gonna hand superiority over to the Japanese studios. Western stuff can get up there too, but still less common and often requires a Hollywood budget. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
MarshalBanana
Posts: 5538 |
|
|||||
A confirmed example(from the audio commentary) of them reusing footage for additional voices, is the Frogut scene. Where they used the back and forth to stretch the scene out.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
WingKing
Posts: 617 |
|
|||||
That isn't necessarily true - it's going to depend on the director and the production, but as long as an ad-lib fits within the timing window of the scene, there might be room for a certain amount of leeway if the production staff allows it. I know I've seen interviews with seiyuus talking about certain shows they worked on like Lucky Star, Hetalia, and even Noir where ad-libs were absolutely allowed, and sometimes encouraged - some of anime's classic memes (like Yui's "Untan" in K-On) have been ad-libs. OTOH, I'm not surprised that a director like Ikuhara would be a lot less tolerant of ad-libbing in his works. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
HolsteinCrab
Posts: 42 |
|
|||||
Oh for some productions and directors yes, I suppose what I was getting at was that seiyuu are generally discouraged from ad-libbing because of the potential trouble involved. Unfortunately I only have passing familiarity with the shows you mentioned but there are indeed projects where the attitudes are relaxed - I swear there's a scene in Gintama's famous Owee arc where Tomokazu Sugita can clearly be heard corpsing over two lines about Zura queueing up to buy a twin famicon. (Along with a squabble on Nico Nico as to whether that was deliberate or a messed up take that the staff decided to throw in because it was sillier that way...) I suppose the directors may also have become more relaxed since the audio recording process in anime switched to digital - I'm not sure when exactly it was they transitioned from tape to digital but I recall a Mitsuki Saiga interview where she mentioned that in her early days (her debut was 1993 iirc) they were still working with tape hence ad-libs and mess ups couldn't be cleaned up as easily. Actually does anyone have a date for when anime sound recording switched to digital or was it just a slow transition? |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group