Skilled Band Girls Challenge Themselves as Voice Actors in Anime ‘Girls Band Cry’
Girls Band Cry” is a girls’ rock anime about music and youth. It was aired on TOKYO MX and other terrestrial channels during the spring season from April to June 2012, and is currently being distributed on Amazon, ABEMA, and various other platforms.
The program was an unfamiliar format of “completely original without an original story,” “new voice actors were used for the main characters,” “the voice actors were originally skilled band girls who actually performed the songs in the play,” and “3D animation with an illustrated look. The season was a fierce one, as it coincided with a popular animated series and other popular productions.
However, immediately after the first episode aired, the popularity of the anime exploded, the number of views of the official music video jumped, and the number of views of “Bakuzete Saku” on YouTube, which was released before the TV anime aired, exceeded 12.5 million. The number of Blu-ray and DVD sales of this work was the highest of any anime in the spring season of 2012, giving it the appearance of a so-called “dominant anime. The project was launched by Tadashi Hirayama, a producer at Toei Animation, who played a central role in the project. We interviewed Mr. Hirayama about Reiwa’s current situation, what he tried to depict in “Girls’ Band Cry,” and the future of the story.
–Please tell us about your career.
I have always loved animation and entered the industry. The film that made me decide to enter this world was “Mobile Police Patlabor 2 the Movie. I wanted to do this kind of work, and I wanted to become an animation director. There, I learned a lot about the director, Gisaburo Sugii, and realized that I had no talent for directing (laughs), so I decided to go into producing.
–You are a legend among legends in the animation world, having worked on “Astro Boy” since its inception. What kind of works have you produced since you decided to become a producer?
I moved from Madhouse to a company called Sunrise, where I produced a variety of works, but I think the one you are most familiar with is the idol anime “Love Live! I think the one you are most familiar with is the idol animation ‘Love Live! In 1919, I moved from Sunrise to Toei Animation and started producing “Girls Band Cry”.
–The “Girls’ Band Cry” will begin airing in the spring of 2012, so it has been five years since the project began. What was the reason for the project’s longevity?
In “Girls Band Cry,” we tried to create “illustration-look 3D animation,” in which the illustrator in charge of character design, Nari Teshima’s, drawings are used as they are in the 3D animation, The main reason for this is that it took a long time to develop this technology. It took us five years of trial and error before we realized it.
–The extended development period must have increased the budget.
Was it profitable? But thanks to the great support we received from our customers, we were able to make it work. That was a real relief.
–Were you ever in danger of having to cancel the project?
There were many times. “There were many times. The work on the scenario was difficult because we didn’t have a work to benchmark against. It was also difficult to overcome the technical challenges because there was no work to benchmark the project against. We had to solve various problems one by one as the budget continued to increase along with schedule delays.
–Now that you have made a big hit, it seems like a reckless plan, with a 3DCG look that users are not yet accustomed to, a young band girl taking on the challenge of voice acting, and an original work without an original story.
How did it all start? series, I approached director Kazuo Sakai and scriptwriter Juki Hanada, and we started brainstorming. At that time, the first thing that came to mind was “let’s do a music piece. We had experience working together on a film with a focus on music, and we thought we could use that as our strength. We discussed various ideas, and Mr. Hanada suggested that we make it a “Kamikyo Monogatari” (a story about a man who moves to Tokyo). In the process, Mr. Hanada suggested that we make it a “Kamikyo story. When I received the first draft of the first episode, I thought, “This is something that has never been done before, so let’s give it shape.
–The five main characters that make up the girls’ band “Spiny-Nosed Spiny Ants” are: Nina Iseki, who is the main character of the band; Momoka Kawaraki, who meets Nina and changes their destiny drastically; Subaru Anwa, a beautiful girl who is a balancer and a worldly-wise woman without talent; and Satoshi Ebizuka, a genius girl who joins the band later. The five main characters are: Nina Iceri, the main character; Momoka Kawaraki, who meets Nina and changes their destiny; Subaru Anwa, a beautiful girl who is a balancer and a worldly-wise woman; Satoshi Ebizuka, a genius girl one step younger than Nina who will join later; and Rupa, the oldest and most popular female character with a gentle yet poisonous personality and half South Asian origin.
How did you come up with the five? “We decided on the five at a very early stage. We wanted to create a work that would be seen by today’s anime fans, so we decided on a band formation that would be familiar to that age group, and with the Vocaloid culture in mind, we needed five members: vocalist, guitarist, drummer, keyboardist, and bassist.
–One of the five members is the popular character “Rupa,” a soft-spoken, yet radical character who is half South Asian. In the past, when there was a foreign character in anime, it was usually a Westerner.
We decided that it would be rather unnatural for all five to be Japanese. When I thought about where the people who come to work in Japan today come from, I realized that most of them are from the Asian region. We decided to choose this location because it is likely that people from Asia are the ones we encounter in our daily lives.
We have entrusted Rupa with the reality of Kawasaki as it is today. Nowadays, less than 10% of the population of the waterfront area of Kawasaki is of foreign origin, and I could not imagine not depicting that as long as the film is set in Kawasaki. I also felt that I had to depict what she experiences in her daily life. In episode 8, there is a scene where Lupa is working part-time at a beef bowl restaurant and is blamed by a businessman for being a foreigner, but the businessman is not a bad guy either. Such things are part of everyday life. I wanted to create a down-to-earth story that did not turn away from that everyday life.”
–I think it is an impressive scene that symbolizes the work when Lupa smiles at a customer who had spoken unreasonably to her and then says to Nina, who is worried about her, “It means I need a rock, too.
Everyone is carrying a lot on their shoulders. And I believe the same is true for the viewers.
–The members of the “spiny ants and spiny ants” were selected in an audition and are performing as a band in real life while trying their hand at character voice acting for the first time. The band’s activities precede the broadcast, and an album has been released. And the official music video on YouTube was posted about a year before the broadcast. Why did you take so long to create a full-fledged band?
We thought that if we were going to do a music animation, there had to be a proper band in the background to make the video convincing in the first place. I thought that by creating a solid music background, the video would be more compelling to music lovers and people with high antennae for music.
–The single that was released before the main series began airing also includes a voice drama depicting the daily lives of the characters.
For example, we thought it would be fun to have daily episodes like this. For example, we thought it would be fun to have daily episodes like this. The main TV anime is very tense, so we hope that the audience can relax and enjoy this kind of characterization. In the initial About 60% of the music videos were viewed by people outside of Japan. I think to some extent we succeeded in our attempt to have multiple points of entry and to provide an opportunity for a large number of people to see the video.
–Why did you stick to 3DCG animation with an illustration look?
We knew that hand-drawn animation was approaching its technical ceiling and that it was going to be a battle of capital strength, but there was still a lot of room for improvement in CG animation. If this is the case, I thought it was necessary to do something that only Japan could do and show the world that Japanese CG animation could do this and show the way for future development. To do this properly, research and development would be necessary, and I had a vague sense that it would be a difficult road to walk, but it was still very difficult.
–Why did you insist on using 3DCG?
In 2006, a 3DCG movie called “Spider-Man: Spider-Verse” came out from the United States. It was shocking, and I thought, “What will happen to Japanese animation if something like this is done in a foreign country? I thought, “What will happen to Japanese animation if something like this is done abroad? I thought to myself, “I have to make something even better than that, I have to be ahead of the curve. The scenario of “Spider-Man: Spider-Verse” was wonderful, and I analyzed the scenario, but the story was interesting, and the art was something I had never seen before. Moreover, the fact that it was a worldwide hit, rather than just being appreciated by enthusiasts, was significant. In other words, the Americans had taken the look of Japanese hand-drawn works, chewed it up, gave it a new, good-looking look, and presented it as wonderful entertainment. We had to come up with a way to compete with that.
–You mean “3DCG animation with an illustration look”?
Yes. In the case of “Girls Band Cry,” Teshima Nari’s drawings were very popular, so we decided to make them work as they are. If this became a hit and established as a methodology, it would take other countries several years to catch up. In an age when V-tubers are gaining popularity, wouldn’t 3DCG characters that don’t have a hand-drawn look and feel be accepted? I thought so.”
–I think it is an effective sales tool to attract the attention of fans by gathering famous voice actors, but why didn’t you do that?
I have always believed that if the film is interesting, the audience will watch it, and in fact, if the film is interesting, they will watch it. So I decided to trust in the power of the work.
–What was required of the members of the “spiny ants and spiny ants” this time was to be both a “band member” and a “voice actor. Which did you ask the members of “Togenashi Togeari” to focus on more this time, being a band member or being a voice actor?
I was asked to be a “band member” or a “voice actor. People who play music well definitely have a good ear, so I had the expectation that I would get good at voice acting right away, and in fact, I got really good at it.
–Her performance in the voice test in episode 11 is so engaging that I could listen to it for a long time.
Yes, Mirei got better very quickly.”
–As a producer, what was the one thing that you really wanted to do in the production?
I just wanted to promote the whole work. I would venture to say that I wanted to take Mr. Hanada’s script and turn it into a film at Toei Animation under the direction of Sakai. Mr. Hanada’s scripts require a lot of information and reality, so the person who draws the storyboards needs to have a great deal of ability. Director Sakai is someone who can do that. Director Sakai’s storyboards also demand a high level of skill from the animators, and the CG animators at Toei Animation were all capable of doing so. It was my duty to make sure that the storyboards were completed on time for broadcast.
–The role of a producer is to coordinate relationships with various parties, isn’t it? Girls’ Band Cry” was a great success because it was supported by all the stores, facilities, and other places in Kawasaki City, the main stage of the show, which was very exciting together with the local community.
The production team at the studio, including myself, worked very hard to make this happen (laughs). We made phone calls to each shop and told them about the animation and how we would like to use it in a particular scene, and if they said yes, we would visit the store and take pictures. If they said yes, I would visit the shop and take pictures, and if they said yes, I would visit the shop and take pictures. I tried to make everyone involved happy and to make it a win-win situation.
–Why did you choose Kawasaki as the stage? Why did the main character, Nina, who came from Kumamoto, choose this city as the setting for her story about coming to Tokyo? Were there any other candidates?
At first I thought Yokohama might be interesting, but I thought it might not be stylish enough for this story (laughs). (Laughs.) Then I thought about the 23 wards of Tokyo. But when I thought about a young girl coming to Tokyo and trying her best to play in a band in a very poor environment, the rent in the 23 wards would be too expensive to be realistic. So we thought about Kawasaki, which is next to Yokohama, which was the first place we had in mind. When we went to the location, we saw a banner saying “Kawasaki, City of Music” as we exited the station, and there were music stores and live music clubs. I was surprised to see such a rich musical background in the area. And when I checked the rent, it was quite inexpensive.
–How much is the room Nina lives in in the movie?
When I did location scouting in ’20, it was about 50,000 or so. Prices have become so high that it may not be possible to live there for that amount now. At that time, there were apartments in the 30,000-yen range that Nina could live in, and I thought this would be doable.”
The program’s attempt to portray Reiwa’s current reality in a challenging and experimental manner, and to tell a down-to-earth story, gradually took shape, and it quickly became a hot sensation after its broadcast.
In the second part of the interview, we will focus on what happened after the program actually started, and ask about the mysteries and key points in the story, as well as the much-talked-about final episode.
Profile : Rishi Hirayama
Tadashi Hirayama graduated from the University of Tokyo and joined Madhouse in 1999 before joining Sunrise in 2000. In 2000, he joined Sunrise, where he worked as a producer on “Love Live! Sunshine! Sunshine! Sunshine!” and “Horizon on the Threshold. He joined Toei Animation in 1919. Produced “Girls’ Band Cry
Interview and text: Miyu Kurusu
Miyu Kurusu is a freelance writer. Her main areas of expertise are humanities, social issues, and subcultures, and she is active in interviewing and writing articles for magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and other media. He is the author of numerous books.
X ID:@mewzou
Girls’ Band Cry
Available on Amazon PrimeVideo, ABEMA, BANDAI CHANNEL, hulu, U-NEXT, etc.
Official website: https://girls-band-cry.com/
Official X: https://x.com/girlsbandcry
Photo： ©️ Toei Animation
