This is how anime is synchronized during Corona!

In conversation with the anime voice actors Julia Bautz, Maxi Belle and Yannick Forstenhäusler  

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Dubbing anime in German is an underrated activity. From the point of view of anime fans in particular, both publishers and voice actors hear a lot of prejudice and insults. Nobody really wants to admit that it is a demanding job. I was able to address this and many other topics during a visit to the Bavaria music studios and explain them to you!

I got the opportunity to speak to Julia Bautz, Maxi Belle and Yannick Forstenhäusler. Julia Bautz is a voice actress who lives in Berlin and is known to many anime fans as Mansherry in One Piece and Holo from Spice & Wolf . Maxi Belle is known to many as Taki Tachibana from Makoto Shinkai's box office hit Your Name. and Weathering With You . The third in the group is Yannick Forstenhäusler, sound engineer, screenwriter and dialogue director, among others, in One Piece (Stampede) and Inu Yasha .

The introduction of the three voice actors

Thank you for the opportunity to interview. Let's start with an idea. Who are you, what is your job and, above all, what is your favorite anime?

Julia Bautz : I'm Julia Bautz and a voice actress. Currently living in Berlin, I've been a trained actress since 2018 and have been working in the profession since 2015, at that time alongside my training. My already known favorite project is currently Spice & Wolf . There I was allowed to speak the main role of the wolf goddess Holo, my actual favorite project, or my favorite role will appear in July.

Maxi Belle : My name is Maxi Belle and I am 25 years old. I've been a voice actor since I was five and can call it my main job. My favorite anime are Spirited Away and Your Name .. I was allowed to participate in both.

Yannick Forstenhäusler : My name is Yannick Forstenhäusler and I have several jobs. Actually, I'm a trained sound engineer. This made it possible for me to get a speaking role as well as directing the first anime, in the meantime even quite a few. However, I am currently more behind the scenes, directing anime dubbing and writing dialogue books. Favorite anime? Since I belong to the older semester * laughs *, it's Captain Tsubasa and Dragon Ball, among others . Other favorites of mine are anime that I am allowed to take care of myself, such as One Piece and the upcoming Astra: Lost in Space !

 

COVID-19 and the impact on synchronization work

Thank you for the introduction! Now to a serious topic: the Corona crisis. What is it like to be back in the studio after a long break? The dubbing association “Die Gilde” had completely stopped work for a month; were you affected by it too?

Maxi : We completely stopped work in Munich from March 20th to April 20th. Of course, after such a long period of abstinence, it was good to be back in the studio. The subsequent hygiene and distance regulations have changed the way we work so far. For example, the interpersonal from speaker to director that is taken for granted is missing.

Yannick : Exactly! Changes to the planning are already in place before the recording. There are takes that are recorded in what is known as an ensemble. These are recordings in which several speakers speak in front of a microphone at the same time. Something like that is completely eliminated by the distance regulations and the voice actors have to enter the room individually. In addition, there are ventilation breaks that last around 10 minutes depending on the size of the room. 

In addition to such regulations, there are of course also the safety regulations. There are several lists in which you have to write down how long you have been in the studio, which one you were in before, in which one you will record next, etc. 

Did you feel any other effects? Do you think there will be changes in the order situation?

Yannick : For the publishers it meant that jobs and publications were postponed. There were changes mainly financially for voice actors and other service providers active in the industry. This one month forced break meant no money was being made. This is especially bad for those who have no reserves. Many colleagues even had to apply for a loan for this period! In some cases there were great fears of existence, which fortunately have subsided with the relaxation. As a lot of things came to a standstill, we now have an enormous amount of work to catch up, which of course benefits the wallet.

Maxi : We are still working on the titles that have been postponed. Many colleagues think that there may be a lack of orders afterwards. Personally, I don't believe in it. There are enough already produced anime or Hollywood productions that can be licensed.

Difficult information gathering for freelancers

Voice actors in Germany work as freelancers. Would you agree with me if I said that the state had given you enough support during this time?

Yannick : Super difficult topic! Unfortunately, the first state aid for companies was not for service providers like us. Of course, professions such as doctors, bus drivers and so on are extremely important and rightly relevant to the system. But they too listen to music, watch anime or films. The time in isolation would not have been nearly as easy for many people without the entertainment industry!

Maxi :  There was also the problem of obtaining information. Because we are networked with each other as voice actors, I have, for example, heard the discussions about emergency aid. Because the different professions in the synchro industry are assessed differently by law. As far as I know, voice actors are not considered artists. Authors and directors, however, do. Of course, you also have to say that this is an exceptional situation for everyone. You don't experience a pandemic every day.

Have you noticed pressure from publishers, for example when it comes to meeting deadlines?

Julia : On the projects I was involved in, the publishers came to us earlier and decided to postpone the anime.

Yannick : Of course you have to see both sides. Both the studios and the publishers were obliged to work from home. Accordingly, there wasn't much that was possible in terms of planning and organization. Otherwise we don't notice any pressure. The time specifications are customary in the industry.

Maxi :  I was asked about the missing synchronization of some titles at an American streaming provider, because there the German synchronization is missing or will only be submitted later. Apparently, the companies behind couldn't wait and published the series in original sound.

The entry-level voice actor

Thank you for the insight into a very difficult time. Change of subject: How did you become a voice actor?

Maxi : I was fortunate enough to be born into the industry through my family. I was involved in a lot of recordings early on. Then I was allowed to play my first role at the age of five. In general, it can be said that children have fewer problems establishing themselves in the industry. There is a phase in puberty when you either find it really cool to be a voice actor or not and stop. If you survive this time, you belong to those people who are then permanent guests in a dubbing studio. * laughs *

Julia : As a child, it was always my dream that people should hear my voice on TV. * laughs * When I was older, I happened upon an ad for a workshop. There it was possible to get a speaking role in an anime after the workshop was over. That was the case with me and I was given the tip of completing an acting training course. Although my family was consistently against it, I continued my training and successfully completed it.

Was it worth? Can you make a good living from the synchro industry?

Julia :  You shouldn't expect to be able to make a living from it right away. Above all, it means one thing: You have to keep talking, prove yourself, clean the handles and work on yourself. Many small roles only become larger over time, insofar as one is convinced. It is important to show that you absolutely want to and to be very hard-working.

Maxi : It should be clear to everyone that it is a freelance activity. There may be times when you get job offers all the time. But it can also happen that nobody wants to book your voice. If you want to get started in the industry, it would be important to always have an emergency plan in place in case it doesn't work.

Yannick : The synchronization industry is extremely fast moving. Sometimes you can't keep up with the jobs, then there can be a downturn in jobs because your voice doesn't fit any project. Even if you are good and have a concise voice, there are moments.

You already talked about a take. What is it exactly and how is payment made?

Maxi : The dubbing association “Die Gilde” once stated that a take is a sentence with a maximum of 12 words. However, this can be interpreted, because a take can also be just a breath or a sound. It all depends on the role. A take is written by the dialog book author.

In many of the Facebook groups in which I am active, the question often arises whether you can only be a voice actor for anime.

Julia : If you take the job seriously, you shouldn't deliberately pigeonhole yourself. Unfortunately, that's not how it works in the industry, especially since it is not so popular. In addition, you run the risk of not being taken seriously if you fixate on anime, especially since real synchronism has even higher demands.

Yannick : You should have the right to want to play other roles. If you only speak anime, you quickly reach your limits. Be it orders or the opportunity to gain a foothold in the industry.

Preparing for the speaking role 

What does the process of a voice actor actually look like? How do you prepare for a role?

Julia : Not at all. * laughs * In most cases you don't even know what you're coming into the studio for.

So you traveled blind to Munich?

Yannick :  I said two things to her and ended the sentence with “You will see the rest tomorrow”. * laughs *

Julia : And that was a lot what he told me! Sometimes I have three appointments in one day and then only in the evening do I really realize what I was talking about.

Maxi : I think that is precisely the beauty of the job. You may have to put yourself in the shoes of multiple roles and characters in one day. And mastering this challenge is a lot of fun for me personally. For me, too, it always came down to the role I was offered. I usually work with very little preparation. For more demanding roles, the studios give you material in advance, but that varies a lot.

Yannick : I think it always makes the role special. If I, as a director, give the narrator information about the role and he prepares himself, it may be that he interprets the character differently than me. Which of course then has to be discussed and adjusted. You do not have this danger without preparation. It is often the case that emotions are generated better without preparation than with a certain amount of preparation.

Maxi : That's a good point! Of course it helps me to be able to prepare myself for a difficult role. But it is often important not to know how the character will go on. Because then the emotion is real.

What is an easy role and a difficult role? Do you have an example?

Julia : Difficult roles are those in which the character shows completely different character traits than you and acts far from what you would yourself. You first have to put yourself in the shoes of the character.

Yannick : As a speaker, you fall back on emotions that you know. You have to see yourself as a character to show how he feels. That is the difficult and the challenge of a demanding role. So roles that are marked by an illness are extremely difficult for me.

Maxi : I received material in advance for a role in The Good Doctor , in which I was allowed to synchronize a doctor with autism. That really helped me to empathize with people.

The recording starts right away in the studio

How can you imagine working in the studio? Do you have a moment to read through the text?

Julia : It starts immediately after a greeting and a short project introduction!

Yannick : You read the first take, then you have the opportunity to watch the whole scene. Then you practice while the sound engineer moves through the scene. Then you have four seconds to put yourself in the place of the scene, to take a breath and then the recording comes.

How do you feel about the statement that the anime dubbing were better "back then"? How big is the nostalgia?

Maxi : Yeah, nostalgia is a big factor. However, it should be mentioned that far fewer anime were dubbed then than today. Due to the few projects it was possible to fill these with a correspondingly higher quality. That has all changed. There are a lot more anime to dub and these need to be cast qualitatively. We are doing very well in Germany.

Yannick : Many "old" voice actors have now arrived in Hollywood and are dubbing big roles. Of course, you have to weigh which is more important. If you have to dub an anime one day and then learn that you can speak a big, well-known Hollywood character the next day, I think it's understandable for a voice actor to prefer the latter. Especially since the requirements for an anime role are often much higher, for example when it comes to the vocal cords. If the speaker generally no longer wants to work with a particular company, that's a personal decision.

^{You can get an interview from the perspective of a dubbing studio here!}

"Creating a synchronization is teamwork"

How do you mean?

Yannick : Synchronization is only good if everything is coordinated with one another. If the dialogue book is badly written, it has to be rewritten in the studio. That in turn leaves the voice actor waiting for nothing or he also works on the book - which is not his job. This creates a bad mood, takes have to be reset in the dialog book due to the changes and so on. All of this has a corresponding effect on the synchronization. It can of course be that a voice actor is completely aware of this and therefore no longer speaks various projects.

Maxi : Creating a synchronization is teamwork. As a voice actor, it can always happen to you that you and the team present save the project.

Yannick : Right. If the studio does not fill essential positions correctly, quality can suffer. There is a quality standard in Germany and “Die Gilde” is very committed to this. Unfortunately this is not always the case.

How do you feel as a voice actor when there are problems in the team?

Maxi : As a voice actor , you are a tool and the take is the end product. Much is regulated through team communication. When the mood gets worse, the tone among each other gets rougher and the end product gets worse.

Accordingly, there are days when you regret decisions, right?

Julia : In the end I decided that I would no longer work with studios that do not have a quality standard. A bad dialogue book can have a significant negative impact on the voice actor's work. Even if you change something in the dialogue book, there is still time to speak the role well.

Yannick : That's a good point that Julia is addressing. You can hear this decrease in quality immediately. It then automatically says that the synchronization is bad. Or the speaker is not good enough. Of course, many do not know that it is not the speaker's fault at all, but rather the circumstances of how the work was done.

Julia : If the director doesn't give you precise instructions based on the dialogue book, it can happen that a lot of things sound unnatural or bad.

Maxi : As a voice actor, you are the showpiece of the series. And of course: Of course you shouldn't stop the project in the middle and say “I can't work like this”. That doesn't show professionalism. However, you will remember whether you want to work under the same conditions or not for the future.

Julia Bautz on her role as the wolf goddess Holo in Spice & Wolf

Julia, your latest role is the wolf goddess in Spice & Wolf . I know a lot of critical voices who have a problem with your speech in the role. What can you say

Julia : Many fans criticize the synchronization because I supposedly speak in the third person as the holo. But that's not the case! Holo is a 600 year old wolf goddess. I “ore” Lawrence. This is a pronominal form of address that has been around for centuries. It's an expression of respect. Many fans don't know that this form of address exists. Even in Japanese dubbing, an old Japanese form of address is used. When we started the synchronization, we made a conscious choice for this form of expression. Fortunately, we also hear a lot of positive voices when it comes to our decision to synchronize them!

Maxi : Spice & Wolf is a good example of how much a well-written dialogue book can make. It starts with the translation of how good something can be. Be it historical backgrounds - a lot has to be taken into account in anime.

Yannick : You can't translate the Japanese language 1: 1 into German. That does not work. Something similar can be said about suffixes such as -kun, -chan, -tan. In my opinion, that has nothing to do with a translation in the German language. For me it is a quality feature of a German anime dubbing if it is taken into account but not pronounced directly. For example, belittling such as -chan is possible in German. This is the case in practically all areas, be it the type of speech, emotion and so on. The Japanese and German languages ​​are just too different.

Our job is to synchronize, not translate. Anime is an art form and our job is to translate it into the German language.

And what about dialects?

Maxi : Also a very difficult topic, which comes with the dialogue book. On the one hand, there are certainly companies that do not like this because it does not correspond to the original. On the other hand, using dialects can ridicule the scene or series. It definitely has to fit the character.

Julia : A very good example is the German synchronization of Food Wars! While Megumi speaks a Hokkaido dialect in the Japanese original, in German it is Bavarian. Ela Paul did an incredibly good job with Richard Westerhaus!

Yannick, you have worked on many works not only in front of the camera, but also behind it. How high is the learning curve for writing or speaking?

Yannick :  As a writer, I think it's very difficult. Either you are active in the studio with your own books or you write for others. I think it should be important that you are there at the beginning when you write for others. You have to form your own opinion about something like that and see how the speakers react. You should take this time. Such references teach you a lot and know what you can do better with the next book. 

It's faster when you speak, as you get direct feedback on what you can or should do better.

And how is it as a voice actor?

Maxi :  You never stop learning! Not only do you as a person grow with experience, the roles also grow with it. For example, speaking to a young boy or a teenager makes a big difference.

Julia : You shouldn't just work on yourself. It also helps a lot to see how other colleagues are speaking about their role.

Yannick : It's the little moments that help you get better.

There is no direct competition from voice actors

How can you actually imagine the competitive behavior among voice actors? I mean, it's definitely not everyone's right for a colleague to sit down and listen.

Julia : Of course, there is something like that in every industry. Nevertheless, I would say that this is not as pronounced as one might think.

Maxi : I would also say that there is no great competitive behavior. As a voice actor, you're extremely individual, not just in terms of your voice. Every narrator can approach a role differently than you do yourself. And then of course it depends on the director who wants you as narrator.

You certainly watch anime privately. Do you pay particular attention to the work of your colleagues? For example, I am a trained hotel manager and I cannot judge the work of the waiters when I visit a restaurant.

Julia : Once you've started your job, it won't go away. Whatever it is, you will immediately notice every mistake that has been made. 

Yannick : But I think it's the same everywhere. But I'm also happy that after an 8 to 9 hour working day I have nothing more to do with synchronization. Nevertheless, I try not to always have this professional perspective, but just enjoy the series or the film.

Where do you think comes this constant negativity and rejection of the German dubbing in Anime?

Julia : It used to be that you couldn't compare the anime. Often you only knew the German language version and that was it. Nowadays everyone has the opportunity to watch and compare the series and films in the original sound. This creates an image of the characters as they should or must be spoken. If the character doesn't sound the way the fans imagined, the synchronization is automatically bad.

Yannick : Of course it's a matter of taste and of course there are fans who want to watch everything in the original sound. However, often just a trailer is enough and many then say that the synchronization is not good. It can also be a voice actor who has already spoken in Hollywood productions - the dubbing is still bad. However, the sound makes the music. Anyone can spread hatred on the Internet. It is important that the criticism is presented objectively. Unfortunately only very few do that. If one of these dub haters stands in front of you, you only hear positive things.

Julia : How often do I read in the comments that the German voice actors sound emotionless. Unfortunately I always have to tell those people that nobody in Germany would speak as exaggerated as the Japanese interview suggests. And only very few want to admit that.

Yannick : It's just part of Japanese anime culture that everything is so over-the-top. And where do you always yell at each other in Germany? Almost every conversation is held at a normal volume.

What is the attraction of a German dubbing, especially compared to the Japanese?

Maxi : You should bring the anime you are supervising as close as possible to the German viewer. Many anime fans don't know that Japanese fans pay attention to completely different things than German fans. At the same time, we want to transfer this feel-good experience, which we have when watching a good synchro, to the fan.

Julia : You don't have to limit it to anime. The attraction is to create such a good synchronization that you think the characters speak German from the start.

Yannick: That's the art form behind it. You have to offer the viewer an experience as if they were watching the original.

Now I need an assessment on your part: What will the future bring? How much will the industry change?

Yannick :

Corona has questioned many topics that must first be answered. This makes it difficult to say what the future will look like. Attempts have already been made to produce an anime synchronization with so-called cloud dubbing. However, this led to additional costs because you had to re-record various takes and the voice actor still had to travel to the studio. 

With cloud dubbing, the synchro work is done from home, similar to the home office. What is argued as a security measure applies above all to cost reduction. This affects the quality of the synchronization in all respects.

You can find out more about cloud dubbing under this link!

Maxi : It would be naive if one believed that the synchronization would not change. For example, if you compare today's production with what it was then, you can see the great progress. Things that were critically viewed back then are now established. No matter how you see it or what may come: It should not affect the actual quality.

The fans are particularly in demand here and I can speak for Julia and Yannick: If you notice that the synchronization is bad: say it - but please be constructive! Just saying that the synchro is horrible doesn't do anyone any good. Neither us speakers, nor the studio, nor the publisher. We can say that everything is read; as long as it is kept constructive and objective.

Finally, is there anything you would like to say to the fans?

Yannick : I can only repeat what Maxi said here. If you want to help us, please be constructive and support the German publications! I can say that everyone puts their heart and soul into the projects.

Maxi : Right. We can't work without the support of the fans. Of course it can be that it does not meet the requirements or that something does not suit you. But if it is justified, we are the last ones who do not want to do better next time.

Julia : A lot of anime fans think they pretty much know how the industry works. Unfortunately, these are those who loudly and, above all, baselessly rail against synchronizations. Please make up your own mind and don't listen to such “fans”! Don't be afraid to ask us directly! As far as we can, we are happy to answer any question. Thank you for your support and for consuming synchronized works!

Thank you three for taking the time for the interview!

A big thank you to Julia Bautz, Maxi Belle and Yannick Forstenhäusler! Now my question to the community! How do you feel about the work of the voice actors? Which ones do you particularly like, which ones don't? Feel free to write it in the comments!