Animation Expression Beyond the Imagination
—I love the various deformations of the characters in "Bocchi the Rock!”, but you had not yet seen them during recording. How did you feel when you saw the actual animation?
Aoyama: I was very surprised. In the script, there is a note at the top that says "Hitori Goto will become a polygon and fly to the edge of the universe.” There were so many lines that I wondered what they meant, but when I saw the tv broadcast, it really was exactly as written in the script.
Mizuno: (laughs) It was amazing, wasn't it?
Aoyama: I think it was written "being in a trance" in the scene where Bocchi-chan thinks about how to divide the ticket quota among her father, mother, sister, and dog. But I didn't think it would turn out like that. When we were dubbing, both Akiko Fujita, the sound director, and I would try out various plays based on our expectations of how the scene would turn out. Everytime we recorded, we asked the Director, Keiichiro Saito, to stay and asked for the acting direction for every episode. He gave us instructions like "This picture is going to be like this, so please do it like this.”
Mizuno: During the broadcast of the animation, the LINE chats of Kessoku Band were incredible, weren't they? People were like, "What was that?
Aoyama: Yeah, that’s true. Suddenly the Haniwa, which looked like an octopus,started running, and the Tako-sen was live-action. It was like, "Wasn't that a live-action Tako-sen? (laughs)”. There are a lot of techniques being used in this animation, and I think that's one of the reasons for its popularity.
Mizuno: That's right. I have always been an anime fan and have watched a lot of anime, but this was the first time I saw the live-action in the anime. It was shocking.
— It has exceeded your imagination.
Aoyama: That's right. This anime easily exceeded my expectations. Nijika's choice of words and commentary were very interesting, and the post-recording process was not simple, so we spent a lot of time on each recording. I was confident that the audience would find it interesting even if they heard only the voices without pictures. So if the interesting pictures were added to the voices, it would definitely be even more interesting. I think I had confidence in that. It was truly fun.
Mizuno: Yes, It was really enjoyable!
—Were there many side notes in the screenplay of the scene where Bocchi-chan is watching SICK HACK's live performance?
Aoyama: Just before recording, the director gave me three or four A4 sheets of paper and said, "Please read this because it won't fit in the script," and I read it.
—Bocchi's comments on the songs were also very accurate. She was commenting like a real music critic (laughs).
Aoyama: Really (laughs). It was like she was talking with her arms folded in the back of a live house.
— Isn't it one of the best parts of being a voice actor to see what happens when your voice is combined with the animation?
Mizuno: Yes, it is. It made me very happy to see what we had done come to life in the pictures and make them even better.
Aoyama: When I played the guitar the song "Guitar, Solitude, and Blue Planet" for the live concert scene in episode 8("Bocchi the Rock!"), I was quite shaky. The vocalist Ikuyo Kita, played by Ikumi Hasegawa, dubbed her vocal scene while she was recording the lines, so there was a lot of tension in the studio. The drums were a little sluggish, and the guitar was not in tune at all. The vocals also expressed the feeling of being on edge.
During recording, Ms. Hasegawa suddenly is asked by the directors, "Can you sing today? and she said, "Oh, you mean now?” and she was suddenly handed the lyrics and a music stand brought into the recording booth, then the music was played, and she sang live for the first take!
The first take of the song was used in the animation. We were watching it from the side room. We couldn't even say "good luck," we just watched it happen with our own eyes. It was very tense, and even though we were not singing, our hands were shaking. You can feel the atmosphere of that time in the animation, and many people said they couldn't watch it anymore (laughs).
Mizuno: (laughs).
Aoyama: It is so realistic that it boggles my mind, too.
— I didn't know there was such a behind-the-scenes story.
Aoyama: I was also very particular about the acting. As I mentioned earlier, we spent a lot of time, and there was a lot of pressure for this animation. I later heard that the sound director, Mr. Fujita said that she wanted to make Bocchi's fear of everything look realistic, which made sense to me. I am glad that Ms. Fujita was the sound director. If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have been able to create that atmosphere. Everyone was a little nervous.
Mizuno: That's right. In a good way.
Aoyama: Yes. I feel that the combination of Kodawari (the obsession) and the pressure toward the cast created a sense of reality. Under such a condition, Saku, you were the youngest of all casts. How was playing Ryo-san who is a very eccentric character?
Mizuno: Compared to the other members of the cast, I was allowed to play her more freely. At first, I was told that "you have to act like this because this is the kind of girl Ryo is," but that was almost completely stopped in the middle of the recording series.
Even though there were some retakes, I didn't feel pressured. I did get a lot of instruction for important scenes, such as the scene where Ryo taught the lyrics to Bocchi, but I think I didn't get many corrections for other daily scenes. Thanks to that, I was able to relax and even Ms. Fujita praised me for it. I get happy when I receive compliments, so I think I was able to play the role of Ryo in a way that felt right for me.
—Aa a character Ryo-san seems to be able to go at your own pace and not be afraid at any time, doesn't she?
Mizuno: That's right. Ryo seems to be at her own pace. I also go at my own pace (laughs).
