I may need hearing aids after this one! Please to go www.patreon.com/keksiweksi to help me afford some!!

You've opened a Pandora's Box, Keksi. The 「Anime KZfaqrs」 will seize on this now, and in exactly five months, they'll all release videos on this topic in quick succession. Our time remaining to Judgment Day is limited. It's been an honor.

You might call it Uncanny perfection, where it takes you out of the experience because it's so perfect. There's no background noise and no ambient sound. As if they were in a soundproof room(which they are), yet we see them walking in the woods or something. Basically it's so perfect, it's immersion breaking.

I've definitely noticed this too. Characters will be in a crowded room full of people and be loudly yelling secret plot stuff to each other and I'm just sitting there like "shut the fuck up every's gonna hear you" but of course nobody ever does.

yeah you are not alone in this, the ambient sound in animes in general frustrates me. kyoto animation stands out in this matter, specially Hibike euphonium, they put so much detail and care in the sound part. In hyouka, there's a school presentation that was a video, and you can hear the noise of the camera being hold by inexperienced hands. kyoto has the best ambient sound

Thank you Keksi for making me realize that I don’t watch anime enough to realize voice acting has gotten so crisp. Now I will go back to my closet underneath the stairs and play Genshin Impact all day until my dad comes back home ready for the good old belt session.

Honestly, this was never a problem for me because I never really thought about it. But now that you said it it makes perfect sense and I can absolutely see it. ... now I can't unhear it and have to suffer together with you

She opened the book and I almost shouted "HARD AGREE"

Re:zero season 2 was recorded from home, I even think they apologized for it In the show, also I agree anime nowadays seems to ignore atmosphere way too much compared to how it was, makes the whole thing feel artificial.

In contrast to western movies/shows where the voice is literally so muffled to the point where its unintelligible. Watching anything that is not a TV series or not having a filter that specifically amplifies human(like loudness equalization on windows) voices is nearly impossible without blowing your ears off. Japan went the other way and made sure the dialogue was actually being heard. Regarding the ambiance, unless its a movie, I don't really expect it to be that good. Each anime episode takes so little time to produce that recording abiant noise for 1 scene is not worth the cost.

the Chainsaw Man anime did a great job by adding backround noise to its scenes. It´s something I appreciate about the anime because it made me feel like I was in the scene. Wish more anime would do that

This is actually great for getting input if you want to learn a language. I've been trying to watch some Chinese shows and sometimes you literally can't hear what the characters are saying over the ambient sound or even the background music.

Yeah. Anime is just not concerned with getting the smaller details right. Although this problem with dialogue being perfectly audible in loud environments would be considered an amateurish mistake in film, it's completely overlooked in anime. It's a bit of a bother when you're the only one who cares about stuff like this, but it's one of those things you just have to live with otherwise you end up like that guy Keksi, autistically focusing on it in every anime.

As an audiophile and audio nerd, i have to agree. And it's not just for anime. Studio technology overall became so good, it's now too sterile, including music, movies, etc... My home country very much relies on dubs, and a lot of old movies are getting re-dubbet. I collect old dubs, sometimes only existing on VHS. This is the reason. Ever wondered why lo-fi hip-hop became so popular? Here you go. Even though older (especially analog) technology is techically inferior, it's more real, more natural.

You see, my headphones are so bad they make everything sound like I'm in a hurricane

I may not understand your videos but I love them ❤

It's kind of the same with background art for me. It's so clean and detailed sometimes that it ends up looking like wayy too real, kind of like how photorealistic art looks almost too real, because that's just not how people see things.. It also sometimes has the affect of looking kind of plasticy, with the colours kind of dull and scientific-y if that makes sense. When you watch old anime, the background art is realistic but the colours really jump out at you and even the most average 80s production will have the most beautiful colours even if the trees look a little wonky or whatever- it's like the pursuit of detail takes the modern artists further but not quite far enough to get to the level of rendering where it portrays colour as accurately. Its not a problem with every production, for example in chainsaw man the textures are smooth a lot of the time but the lighting and general cinematography makes it work a lot better. Also, the most recent anime I've watched, skip and loafer, has the normal background style, but it works really well because part of the anime is the mc moving to Tokyo and experiencing it, so the accurate backgrounds and places make it feel like you're actually there experiencing it with her. Though this whole thing might just be my bias for pretty cel backgrounds showing lol

Funnily enough, live series and movies actually have the opposite problem. Their mix these days intentionally makes it harder to hear things even when nothing is happening in the background as a result of mixing for large theatrical experiences and not home audiences.

It’s not just ambient sounds, even when the characters are far away it still sounds like they are right in front of you. I’ve been rewatching a lot of older (like 2009 - 2014) anime recently and noticed the only times the character sounds extremely close to you is when they are speaking in their mind. Other than that it sounds like they are wherever the characters are in the show, like if they were at the beach and the waves were really strong you’d hear the waves in the background… and if they are near the waves the characters often sound quieter than the waves, or in a big room like a gym you would hear a slight echo. I completely forgot the point of the comment but yeah

This video reminded me of this 90s anime called Muzuiro Jidai. One impression I got from that anime was the amount of background sounds it had. There were people talking in the background, a trumpet in the music room, and plenty others. In one scene, the MC was brushing her teeth, and you could hear her brushing her teeth. I liked the attention to detail.

True King , You tell 'em King . Didnt watch the video and i still know you spittin facts

This reminds me of an audio problem, that shows up in German productions a lot. Due to the German acting schools having been established science the time where there was only theater; the way actors learn to speak is based on the conditions of a stage play. This results in them never doing stuff like mumbling and makes them sound artificial. I could very well imagine there havening developed a similar culture around voice acting for anime. This would also Explain why people think that that's good.

Part of the reason for this would be that for people that do understand japanese instead of reading the subtitles it would be a lot more difficult to hear and make sense of whatever the characters are saying if it always gets interrupted by background noises, like I get your point but like in music, there are a lot of layers of different sounds involved and some have a lot more priority than others, obviously the BG noises help with the ambience but most animes are very dialogue heavy so of course the center of focus would be that the seiyuus are audible and then the rest of layers.

As an anime fan I can confirm that I never noticed this, now I can't unhear it! Help me!

Do you feel like this started to happen more intensely after covid? I've noticed that some games that released post-covid have voice acting that feels super varied because it sounds like the VAs had to record at home with different equipment. I don't know if this is the case for JP VAs working in anime tho.

Holy shit I've been thinking this myself!! Or rather, subtly bothered by it without knowing why. Modern anime voice acting sounds like narration for a movie trailer or documentary where the narrator is like an inch from the mic! The voice acting itself is great but the recording method is different because the room is so sound proofed. Like why do these characters who are outdoors sound like theyre in a radio broadcast room lol?

Dude no way 2 videos in a row???? Am I in heaven?

I prefer this to the alternative, which is live-action english shows that I need to watch with subtitles on, especially if I have to keep adjusting the volume if it changes abruptly between different volume levels.

You’re not the only one, it’s very nice when you’re able to feel background of a scene without looking at the screen. It can even save some running time because some visual exposition can be skipped.

I don't see the problem they just sound like the voices in my head

as a half deaf person i really DO NOT MIND this issue, this is the biggest non problem i've heard anyone complain about, the reason why no one is talking about this is because you're like a dork or something (a dork with good taste tbf i love bocchi the rock)

"They sound too close to the mic." Sir, that's called "Audio Gain" and you can turn it down on most TV/Monitors if it bothers you. It's what I do, when a channel wants to include ASMR without warning the viewer properly.

OMG you're so right! It drives me crazy how perfect they make everything sound!

keksi words cannot describe the immense feeling of joy i feel every single time i see you in my youtube notifications i feel like you have become my favorite content creator and i would unironically pay for your patreon but i am broke as fuck 💔

WHo gave you the right to speak my exact fucking thoughts so accurately :') THIS has been a problem I never heard anyone talk about, and I started to think I'm the only one who thinks this way. Thank you so much for this video. So, about voices in anime, not just do they lack good ambient sounds, my major problem lies with as you said, the characters sounding too close to the mic and sounding so crisp that every little sound they make is way too prominent. There is no dynamics, I feel. Every line sounds the same volume and intensity, and as a result, I don't feel like actual people are talking. Instead I feel like "anime characters are talking", that sounds wrong but I don't know how else to describe it. This feeling is intensified by characters with certain anime personality tropes having the same set voice styles EVERY FUCKING TIME.

They need to hire audio engineers to make 3D spatial audio. Character is miles away but his microphone is in your ear. Takes me out everytime.

Voices are meant to be heard. I'm honestly so tired of american TV making the music or background noise so loud I can't hear what the characters are saying. I always have to turn on closed captioning or rewind a couple times until I can understand what they're saying. Clear, concise speech is a blessing imo

"bocchi the rock more like bocchi the sock #satoko4lyfe" socsk are cool

Two Keksi videos in two consecutive days? We are truely blessed

Beastars solved this by having the voice acters on stage together acting out both the voices and the scene at the same time. It really brought the voice acting to the next level.

Back in my day 5 seconds was the longest you could watch without random cicada sounds or other bg sounds.

i never noticed this but i see your point. also merry christmas brother.

Yeah, that's the Japanese pursuit of perfection. Remove any and all distractions, keep the essence absolutely pure. People love to forget that the "imperfections" are what gives the medium character and identity. They have absolute control over things with anime, so they make it as clean as humanly possible, but it ends up feeling sterile. I'm with you on that one.

I was wondering what that feeling was! Finally got it thanks to you, you aren’t alone in feeling the way you do.

Not thinking about the ambient noises or pay attention to balancing audio out? I’ve been in a media school for a few years now so I think it could also come down to not knowing to think about ambient noise being a playing an important part to a scene 🤔

I think the sound design has become a catch 22 the sound is so good it has no background noise but adding the background noise will make the voices sound weird

this reminds me of how some games display darkness by slapping a dark blue filter on it and go “see! night time” then I play the forest and want to go back to that shitty I’m blue dabidee dabidu filter REAL QUICK

I literally could barely stand to watch bloom into you because it kept sounding like they were whispering right into my ear at all times

i'm pretty sure these christmas gift video sequence will boost the algorithm to making it easier for people to find your channel Keksi, hopefully

Two videos in two days. Yes please kind sir!

I actually just finished the last 2 episodes of Do It Yourself! yesterday, and never really noticed the lack of background noise interference. But I will now!

I havent noticed what youre talking about. From all the anime im watching recently the audio and ambience is perfect.

Keksi youre 100% right, ive had the same issues as well but never knew how to say them, you put it perfect imo, anime needs more atmephere

I really noticed this issue when watching a few episodes of My Happy Marriage. It sounds like the main character is in your ear canal when she has an internal monologue

Is there a list of the shows used in the video? Some look really interesting.

This is the most interesting take about anime I heard in years. Subbed! I’ll have to watch your other videos, I’ll be sharing this video around and seeing what other people think about it.

I was expecting everything but this. Well now I can’t unhear it, thanks a lot! x)

Do you know how people still listen to tape or vinyl recordings? I happen to be one of those guys. One day friends came over and I put some records on the turntable for ambience. Everyone was wow'd because who tf uses such an ancient technology. One friend asked what was on everyone's else mind. - Why do you listen to analog, when there's Spotify? Those LPs have a lot of surface noise. I've just answered that "life has a surface noise". And you've quantified that more elaborately. Imperfections give that degree of realism and connection, this is why people prefer to watch youtube over TV, this is why vlogs gain such popularityty, this is why amateur po- Excuse me, I'll stop there. Good video.

There probably should be some ambient noise, but I don't think we should hear it as loud as the characters would hear it.

I've never had this problem, but after you mentioned it I can't unhear it anymore. Fuck.

Well, now I'm never gonna be able to unnotice this again, thanks mate

Do you remember when summer anime have some crickets sound in the background when the characters are talking? Or the sound of the rustling leaves when the setting are in the forest? Is the current industry standard is to cut down budget for ambient sfx in return for better voice acting/animation? Or there are no budget in the first place? But wait... how about cooking anime? How about the sizzling sounds of oil being cooked and so on.... Is the industry don't have that many talented people in regards to ambient sfx or is there any rule that prevent them to use the ambient sfx while also playing their ost bgm? Alright. This could be a rabbit hole that worthy of an hour long video, but you need to know the history of anime sound effect (and it's definitely worth writing a thesis or two for)

As a sound engineer, the problem is not with the mics/recordings/voice actors being too "perfect", the biggest offender is the crappy TV speakers and dialogue having to be discernable on every TV set then it's bad mixing or complete lack of ambient noises.

Yeah I never noticed this ever, and lowkey now that you mentioned it, I kinda like it lol and dang you been uploading more recently.

Well I can't unhear this now, great.

I understand your point but this is actually a good thing, not a bad thing. Speech intelligibility is far more important than background noise and special effects. This goes for all shows/movies, not just anime. From a sound engineer's perspective, the #1 priority at all times is making sure that people can understand the words that the characters are saying no matter what they are listening to the show/movie with. It doesn't matter whether someone is using the speakers built into their $100 tv or a $1000 pair of headphones with a separate amp/dac. The speech needs to be crisp at all times. I presume that you are using a high-end headphone setup so the crispness of the voices comes through with alarming clarity to you. However, imagine if you were watching anime with the speakers built into an old laptop. Do you see my point? This issue that you have with modern mixing techniques is actually not a mistake at all. It is done on purpose to ensure that the show is intelligible to as many people as possible. They are probably also running a bit of EQ to boost the clarity of the vocals. This is a wonderful thing because it means that even people who are watching shows on their phone's speakers while sitting on a bench outside can clearly hear what is being said. From a sound engineer's point of view, sound effects and background noises are just ear candy for people with high-end audio setups. Their paycheck depends on making sure the conversations can be heard. This is why all of the new shows sound like this. Not just anime but many western shows as well.

omg i will never be able to unhear this now wtf why would you hurt me like this

I would say probably a lack of editing. It's always easier to mess up some audio than clean it so it makes sense, but if you leave it clean I could see that being jarring. It would be interesting to compare to OVAs and movies to see if the problem exists there.

I'm no expert, but its probably because with the numerous of anime coming out, they save time mixing audio. Plus Japan tv anime are mixed for 2 channel audio but if you want something more immersive you mix for 5 channel which takes longer and usually used for anime movies.

I've noticed it too when starting one piece about a year ago.. something about the imperfect voice acting just sounded.. better in a way. The way some words are clearly not picked up as well, the imperfections in the script and acting and the mic quality brought together what i called "lofi voice acting" at the time. I dont mind the new, high quality voice acting in most tv shows, but when its a kyoto animation-style or ghibli style show/movie with very immersive sound design i would prefer it if the voice acting stays "lofi". And as far as i know, miyazaki agrees on that. Thats why his VA's sound so unusual, because he casts people with less experience on purpose to get a more natural sound

I think this is one of the reasons why even though new anime has all looked good, once i watch them i lose interest. Everything feels perfect. The animation average has reached a point where most “good” anime have pretty good animation, with nothing really bad about them, but they just don’t give the same feeling when you watch them, theres no attachment. And i wonder if a part of that is the fact that the characters don’t sound real, the world doesn’t sound real. And how can you be connected to a world like that? I think this is why despite being high quality, not many newer anime are very memorable, at least to me.

you just opened Pandora's Box for me, thanks so much :'^)

Just because something is realistic, doesn’t mean it makes for a good show experience. I absolutely HATE it when the mixing has the voices so buried within music and or atmosphere. Having to constantly turn up and down the volume or read subtitles is WAY more bothersome than listening to an abnormally clear voice.

The one anime I really felt this in was the last season of AoT. When ths rumbling starts you can imagine how defeaning it is to be around the colossal titans, so much so that Mikasa and Armin have to shout to hear each other. But there's no ambiance to convey just how *loud* it is around them, so they just sound like they're shouting for no reason. Obviously, I know that its for the convenience of the watcher, but it would've been cool to have their voices be drowned out of a bit for the sake of artistic expression.

you can put on an earbud and listen to white noise on a very very low volume- or if your just watching alone just play white noise over it; it sounds dumb but it works for me

Have you seen Liz to Aoi Tori? They went as far as to record the sound in the actual school they used as the reference.

If I had to take a guess, I think it comes down to sound direction and cost cutting. In the end, the main sound director has to think it's important enough to include this type of (basic, but often ignored) ambience in the planning for production. I don't always notice, but when I do, it's always glaring and painful like you said. Sometimes not even in the "too perfect" sense, just straight bad. See examples: - Kumichou Musume to Sewa-gakari, a manga I'd been enjoying, was adapted into anime last year with a pretty low budget. It was cursed by mediocre sound direction to the point of becoming unwatchable. - Goddamn Domestic na Kanojo had such bad sound direction that it wasn't even hate-watchable anymore.

This is definitely unpopular opinion that people keep talking about 😮 First time hearing this opinion about voice acting breaking the immersion of watching anime which I never bothered to think about 😅 You're too elite bro👍

Oh god you're absolutely right. Now I'll never not notice this.

OMG YES I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THIS. There was a period where I lived in another country for 6 years where airing dubs of popular Asian TV live-action shows was very popular, and this made me identify the problem much more clearly because I could hear the difference between original dub and local language dub all the darn time. If you watch something like a typical home video it might get pretty immersive because the voices of people there obviously sound the same distance as they appear, but this isn't gonna be wanted a lot of the time for professionally produced shows because they want to make sure the audience understands what the heck an actor is saying as much as possible. Pretty often I'd wonder just how much work it would take for the position of each character, or even the size of each room, to actually be recreated in relation to the POV and if it were possible would it be worth it? I get it I so get it.

God bless u for this

Omg Keksi uploaded consecutively W

PLEASE CREDIT THE ANIMES THAT ARE SHOWN AT THE START I CAN NOT BEG YOU ENOUGH

Never thought about this, but it may just be a great point that I might consider in the future

Omg I'm blushing, those kisses caught me off guard 😂 First time watching your videos, loved it.

Bruh the foreshadow, I noticed the same thing when i was watching Re:Zero on S2 and here i see this video

I think Wave! Listen to me had a few sound design moments that threw me off because of this? I only watched the first few episodes but there was a point where I paused the show because I realized I could actually hear the rest of the restaurant around the characters. But it seemed like an anime about audio dramas(?) so that might be why

oh my fucking god, I always noticed how anime voice acting sounded a bit different, but I never knew why and just forgot about it, and now my mind is blown, simply put, the audio is too good.

If you have tinitus, this doesn't affect you, since you always hear high pitched noise in the background 😅

I never noticed this but I dont think I'll be able to unhear it now so uh, thanks, I guess.

and this FREAKING MUSIC ! AHH XD remeber - ghibli casted untrained voice actors to make the movie feel more natural ;D

The mixing is odd too. There seems to be a strange lack of reverberation. Like theyre in a void

I think the reason for the ambience in Re: Zero when they’re going ungodly speeds with the dragon is because in the light novel the creatures have a blessing that protects them from the wind and it applies to the carriage as well resulting in a smooth quiet ride.

0:38 I LOVE those Chiyo-Chan slippers , are they comfy ?

I thought it was just me! I'm almost certain it's the sound engineer's fault for not mixing ambient sounds properly.

I have never noticed this, but I certainly will now! However, I think it might actually be a stylistic decision and not a neglected feature. Animes are dramatic (as most video media is), and they are still being choreographed using techniques developed for live stage performances like plays. The characters are what is important so when they speak, all other noise is either muted mostly or completely out. Similarly, when the most important thing for the plot is that a character DIDN'T hear someone, the noise is loud and the other character only moves their mouth. For me, and I'm assuming most other people, the extreme difference between speech and bg noise fits naturally in a drama just like exaggerated facial expressions and movements do.

double upload make happy :D

I've missed this guys videos I have no idea what he's talking about but I'm glad 🤣

does anyone know the clips of anime used for these, i wanna try them

Well, this is a problem related to more of the technical/behind-the-scenes stuff. But one could argue this is the case because anime shows and films are being constantly pumped out by various studios left and right, front and center, that some aspects of the production might've needed to be rushed to complete a show scheduled to be aired/released. Add that to some... Sometimes "questionable" work culture/environment factors that are now beginning to come to light even further than before, and I think I might've added at least one piece of the puzzle that could be the answer to this issue.