・Between analog and digital
How did you come to hold auditions for voice actors in the spring of 1998?
I wanted to work with a voice actor who could think outside the box.
So we did auditions in the same style as for a live-action film.
Instead of having the candidates read their lines one by one in a recording booth, several candidates met with the production staff at the same time to show their performances and answer some questions.
This is the usual audition for live-action films.
However, we were the first ones who did this for an animated film, and it made several candidates offended.
On the other hand, stage actors and newcomers accepted it without problems.
I wanted to create sound in a way that was not a traditional, conventional post-production system (editing, sound editing, color correction, exporting to a delivery format, etc.).
In my own sense, sound in animation is as important an element as the picture.
When it comes to characters, it is not only the design and movement, but also the live "voice" that is connected to the real world, not the fictional "picture," that is the most important because it brings the final "life" to the characters.
Therefore, I wanted to select actors based not only on the quality of their voices and performances, but also on their personal atmosphere and character.
This is the reason why I wanted to hold auditions in person.
There will be improvisation, and since it is a shoujo manga, there will be many places where the flow will consist of still pictures and monologues.
I wanted the voice to have a presence as a character.
As a result, I was blessed with a cast that included Atsuko Enomoto as Yukino.
It was also a test to make the best use of the pictures from the original manga as much as possible.
The original manga already has visuals that have been completed as a work of art.
We thought it would be more cost-effective in terms of quality control to create a manga-based work.
For example, if a scene does not need to be drawn from a different angle than the original frame, it could be used as is.
I focused on drawing the images without changing the amount of information as pictures and dialogues of the original work as much as possible.
In the case of a background-only cut in a film, I increased the amount of information, and conversely, in an image cut that omits the background, I reduced the amount of information to the extreme.
I was working to achieve a balance in terms of art.
Around the same time, J.C.STAFF started using Animo.
I was experimenting with various ways to bring out the best of digital photography.
At that time, digital processing was still in the early stage of its development.
There was a kind of allergy to digital screens, both in the industry and among ourselves.
But we tried to use it as much as possible.
Since the delivery format was Beta Cam, we were able to mix film and Animo digital images.
It is true that the atmosphere of the screen is different, so there is a kind of discomfort when they are mixed together.
But we decided to give it a try without worrying about it.
However, I didn't know much about digital photography, so I was trying to make my way through the process with the help of lectures.
I started to understand the characteristics and where to use it, so I tried to use it a lot in the OP and in episode 6.
Especially in episode 6, I used Animo as the main content.
The camera work and sound effects are showing a still picture.
I often put in bold cuts, such as having space on either side of the TV screen and only vertical panels from a manga.
That was also done as a depiction in "Love & Pop" (1998).
In film, the shape of the frame you draw is fixed.
For example, standard size or Vista frame.
It is difficult to reproduce on film the flexibility and unique expression that manga has in terms of panel size, guiding the viewer's eye, the effect of turning the page, and the power of the spread.
In Kare Kano, we were also trying to see if we could replace the fun of black-and-white printed manga with a film.
The size and shape of the frame of a recent manga read on a smartphone is fixed and the same as that of film.
I feel that this reduces the fun of the unique expression of manga.
Even though the world is becoming more smartphone-centered, I feel a little sorry for the loss of manga expression.
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