Kill La Kill General Discussion Thread

[SeijiSensei]

Does anyone know how the voice acting was directed? I'm watching again from the beginning, and the intensity of the interplay among the actors makes me think they must have recorded some scenes together. If so, the sessions with Koshimizu and Yuzuki must have been hilarious to watch while they screamed at each other.

I've also wondered whether the voicing sessions happened in advance of the animation. That worked well in Kurenai. It enhanced the realism of the performances since characters could interrupt and talk over each other as people do in real life. Most anime consists of a character speaking a line followed by another character responding. That works well in quiet settings like a cafe scene, but doesn't translate so well to a hot-blooded series like Kill la Kill.

I once met the American actor Edward Everett Horton who narrated the "Fractured Fairy Tales" segments on the classic Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. That show had a veteran cast in including people like June Foray and Daws Butler. Nevertheless, Horton told me they often could not make it through the first run through in one take because the cast was laughing too hysterically to go on. I'd bet Kill la Kill sessions might have some of that flavor, especially ones including Mako.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Does anyone know how the voice acting was directed? I'm watching again from the beginning, and the intensity of the interplay among the actors makes me think they must have recorded some scenes together. If so, the sessions with Koshimizu and Yuzuki must have been hilarious to watch while they screamed at each other.

I've also wondered whether the voicing sessions happened in advance of the animation. That worked well in Kurenai. It enhanced the realism of the performances since characters could interrupt and talk over each other as people do in real life. Most anime consists of a character speaking a line followed by another character responding. That works well in quiet settings like a cafe scene, but doesn't translate so well to a hot-blooded series like Kill la Kill.

I once met the American actor Edward Everett Horton who narrated the "Fractured Fairy Tales" segments on the classic Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. That show had a veteran cast in including people like June Foray and Daws Butler. Nevertheless, Horton told me they often could not make it through the first run through in one take because the cast was laughing too hysterically to go on. I'd bet Kill la Kill sessions might have some of that flavor, especially ones including Mako.

In Japan the voice acting is done—in groups—off of storyboards, well before the show is animated. They might have to come back in post-production and rerecord some stuff one-on-one for one reason or another, or logistical issues might require one-on-one sessions, but generally that's how it's done. That's pretty much how most pre-animation voice acting is done here in the States, as well.

I honestly think that's to the detriment of dub acting, since there seems to be more interest in whether the mouth flaps match than how natural the acting is or whether there's any chemistry between characters.

[immblueversion]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

I honestly think that's to the detriment of dub acting, since there seems to be more interest in whether the mouth flaps match than how natural the acting is or whether there's any chemistry between characters.

Funimation's been pretty good at doing both, especially in the past few years. Sadly, Funimation's not the one with the Kill la Kill license. I haven't really followed any Aniplex dubs in recent memory, so...

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Does anyone know how the voice acting was directed? I'm watching again from the beginning, and the intensity of the interplay among the actors makes me think they must have recorded some scenes together. If so, the sessions with Koshimizu and Yuzuki must have been hilarious to watch while they screamed at each other.

Eh? I always had the impression that voice acting is done together with the whole cast? Then they just interlace the audio on top of everything at the end

At least that's how it is for most shows/games anyway...

[SeijiSensei]

What I've read in the past does not square with the process quigonkenny describes when it comes to anime. I always thought most shows do the voice work after animation, and the actors adjust their timings to fit the mouth flaps. Largely this is driven by budgets, as the voices-first method requires more care during the animation process and thus more expense. Matsuo Kou (Red Garden, Kurenai) is often singled out as one of the few anime directors to record the voices in advance of animation:

Red Garden employs a technique often used by animated productions outside Japan, but rarely used in Japanese animation. The characters' dialogue is animated after the work of the voice cast, synchronizing the animation with the voice actors' voices. The synchronization is particularly evident in scenes where characters are singing (occurring in some of the earlier episodes).

Searching around the Internet for guidance on the question brings up postings that say "voices first" and others that say "animation first." For instance,

In anime, animation is typically completed before the voice work is done, with all the actors in the studio at once. This cuts down on production time, and also allows actors to play off each other's performances as well as see how the actual character looks while the dialogue is spoken.

Traditionally for Western cartoons the animation is done after all the voice work (this technique is known as "pre-lay"), and the animator's job is to match the actor's performance. This can lead to higher animation quality. However, due to the nature of the voiceover industry in North America—a combination of professional full-time VA's and other types of actors doing voice acting on the side—sometimes performers cannot be gathered together for a single group recording session because of scheduling conflicts. How much this affects the final product really depends on the production and the competency of the actors, directors, and sound engineers.

Whatever the order of production, it does appear that most anime are voiced by the ensemble rather than individual actors performing alone, so my image of Koshimizu and Yuzuki yelling at each other is probably apt.

[CptChaos]

Do we have an official or trustworthy source on the number of episodes? I've seen different statements saying it's either 24 or 25 episodes.

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by CptChaos

Do we have an official or trustworthy source on the number of episodes? I've seen different statements saying it's either 24 or 25 episodes.

24 TV episodes + 1 bonus OVA episode on final BD/DVD for a total of 25.

[CptChaos]

Originally Posted by Tokkan

24 TV episodes + 1 bonus OVA episode on final BD/DVD for a total of 25.

I knew about the OVA, but wasn't sure if it was 24 or 25 episodes plus OVA, since they usually aren't part of the series' episode count.

[speck123]

Wonfes 2014

[SeijiSensei]

I wonder if Aya Suzaki always wore her hair that way, or has she been taken over by Mako?

[CptChaos]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I wonder if Aya Suzaki always wore her hair that way, or has she been taken over by Mako?

It was an accident.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by speck123

Wonfes 2014

Shame they couldn't get Ami Koshimizu to show up, but it's good to see Aya Suzuki, Ryoka Yuzuki, and Tetsu Inada having fun together .

And Suzuki winding up with Mako's hair by complete accident is hilarious .

[Gravitas Free Zone]

Crunchyroll has already gone and put up the "episode is probably going to be delayed" note on the page for Episode 21.

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by Endless Knackwurst

Crunchyroll has already gone and put up the "episode is probably going to be delayed" note on the page for Episode 21.

You can blame Aniplex for the delays, the delays also affect subs going up on their own site and English subs (but not other language subs) going up on Daisuki.

[Gravitas Free Zone]

I know that the delays are on the source end, not CR; it's just that the past few weeks have been more a game of "Is it going to go out on time? Pleeeeeeease?"

[SeijiSensei]

SHAFT has a long-standing reputation for delivering shows at the deadline; perhaps Trigger is doing so, too? I wonder if the issue has to do more with timing than with the scripts. You'd think the translators would already have their work done well before release, but timing the subs to the finished product might be trickier.

All this is speculation, of course, but I've never encountered a series on CR before with these kinds of repeated delays. Something in the production process is not working smoothly.

[Kanon]

French and Spanish simulcasts come out on time every week, the problem isn't on Trigger's end.

[XFire]

Hey, quick question.

You know Ragyos theme, with all the awesome german chanting?

Anyone else notice a line that sounds like "Is this my hiney?"

[Master Chibi]

By the time this show is over I will still have not accepted the whole 'clothing are evil aliens' deal. It just never sat well with me. I've done this with other shows in the past mind you, I thought 'surfing robots' was dumb with E7 and didn't watch it, only to go back to it years later and fall utterly in love with it, and I thought FMA's original run was horrible because of the art style. Same with OP. Eventually went back and fell in love with them all over again. I started with this show from the start and well I still think the premise is moronic. Ah well lol

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Master Chibi

...and I thought FMA's original run was horrible because of the art style.

Wow, that's weird. FMA (in all its iterations) has a pretty standard, and very clean, style, though I guess it does look more "Western" than most (for obvious reasons). I can see someone being "meh" about it, but dislike? What kind of art style to you see as ideal?

Originally Posted by XFire

Hey, quick question.

You know Ragyos theme, with all the awesome german chanting?

Anyone else notice a line that sounds like "Is this my hiney?"

I think you're thinking of the line "Vergiss die Wahrheit nicht", which means "Don't forget the truth" in English. It's one of the more poorly pronounced lines in the song.