Saturday 12 November 2011

Ad Lib Anime Kenkyuujo - Episode 1

When it comes to ideas that are either the product of ground-breaking genius or a disaster waiting to happen, I'm not sure that anything can top Ad Lib Anime Kenkyuujo's premise - what happens when you give three anime voice actors a bunch of cue cards and characters to work with, and then basically let them make stuff up for a while?

Episode one of the series sees regulars Emiri Katou and Kaori Fukuhara joined by Takahiro Sakurai, who has a pretty packed CV but is introduced via his role as Masaki in C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control.


For this episode, Katou and Fukuhara are cast as two prospective Gods (of thunder and wind respectively), both of whom are dunces faced with their teacher (played by Sakurai) having flunked their latest exam.  It probably goes without saying that the ad lib recording is a pretty surreal experience, with the girls questioned on how to straighten a teacher's toupee without them noticing and with Katou's character suddenly enjoying a turn as part of a biker gang.

As concept's go, I can't really deny that this is both interesting and fun, albeit probably more fun for the participants than the viewers - I can't help but think that an English version of this would make a great game for a convention panel.  In a way, the anime portion of the series looks likely to be very much of secondary interest compared to getting a behind the scenes peel of some major anime voice actors and actresses in action - it's genuinely quite impressive to see the energy both Katou and Fukuhara throw at their efforts, and if they love their jobs just a fraction of the amount they seem to then all is well in the world.  Unless you're interested in the world and work of Japanese seiyuu, then this series is probably going to be a hard sell for you - personally, I'm quite chuffed to get this peek at the world (and inside the seemingly lunatic minds) of these individuals.  Hey, episode two features Yuu Kobayashi too, which surely is not to be missed, providing the fansubbers can keep up with the vast amount of work required in translating this particular show.

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