Piano playing on the Ark: Amazing.

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

This is the most ridiculous tidbit that I'll ever discuss here, but it made me that happy.

The piano-playing in episode 93.... was beautiful. But you know why? Because if you look at Allen's hands he's actually playing the song. You have no idea how many animes have someone playing the piano, but their hands don't actually match the song. It's predone, or used for multiple piano-playing scenes, and just... the body movements won't fit, the melody will be in the lower registers, but the person is playing up high on the keys. Sometimes there's even that still shot, where it's just a frozen image of them in this piano pose with the song in the background. It made me ridiculously happy to see that Allen was playing, if not the actual notes of the song, something that looked pretty close to it, both treble and bass.

This deserves much, much love. It may be because they only have one piano scene to worry about, but the detail they paid to his hand motions is incredible, and I daresay unheard of. I mean, does even Nodame Cantabile, which I know is a music-centered anime, actually bother to accurately mimic the hand movements of the music the characters are supposedly playing?

Comments

[defade.livejournal.com]

Hey, so I'm not the only one who loved that part!

Yeah, you can totally tell they poured quite a lot of budget into the piano scene. I didn't bother to check every scene, but in a few scenes that I noticed Allen's fingers were actually on the right notes, or close to it, as his arm sometimes blocks out the keys.

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes, it's the music dork in me coming out. I doubt (and the fact that I don't really know says a lot in itself) they hit it all 100% throughout the song, but the basic treble and bass melody was right, and the other notes... you could always argue that they were being doing at that moment by the other hand. So... YEAH. That was WIN.

[arivess.livejournal.com]

*nods* I know. I was squeeing about that, too. XD

[cattheterrible.livejournal.com]

Agreed, I noticed the same thing. Drove my friends nuts ranting about it. XD

[shieyume.livejournal.com]

Seconding that part of your post! Even some music-centered titles would never even bother pouring on effort regarding such meticulous matters. -_-

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Which is so sad, because I mean, I think i would watch a show that did in a heartbeat regardless of the plot or characters or even the art. I mean, if they're making an anime centered on music... it's kinda shameful that all the music people that are going to watch it are just kinda gonna stare at it....

[tenshiyaki.livejournal.com]

In Nodame Cantabile, they do a CG sort of thing where they probably attached those sensor dot things to a person playing the song and scanned it in to animate it. Honestly, the Allen playing piano scene in D.gray-man looks a lot more natural.

I was so, so impressed! The D.gray-man anime is really one of the best adaptations for shounen anime I've ever seen.

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Really? They do that? I'm going to have to find that scene, because that's pretty darn cool. I mean, do they do that for the violin and other instruments as well? But yeah, Allen's playing was more natural, though it was still hesitant, which, whether on purpose or not, makes sense because he's totally baffled by it XD

[tenshiyaki.livejournal.com]

I think I heard that they used CG somewhere. I went back and compared some scenes from Nodame and the Allen playing piano scene. The songs played in Nodame are much more complicated and the CG suits it since they're fast and hard to animate normally. Yes, they do use the CG for the other instruments as well. It doesn't really look "fake" as much as it's a lot more realistic than everything else going on so it doesn't quite match, but it still looks good.

Allen's scene was for a much simpler song, but considering the genre of the show, it is admirable that the studio paid that much attention to the movement of the fingers. It really does match the music, however simple it is.

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Definitely, it's impressive on DGM's part, as you said, because of the genre of the show. But now I wanna watch NC to see what the CG stuff looks like... *goes off*

[kisu-fu.livejournal.com]

For some reason, this part made me cry... the song was incredibly touching to me.
And YEAH! I noticed that too.. I was like "OMG! He's really PLAYING IT!"

Btw, your icon is ADORABLE. <3

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

kjdfhksdja LITTLE KIDS ARE LOVE. (But you have Kanda's hair BRAIDED, that WINS)

It was a really pretty song, and I particularly liked the first line-- "And then the boy fell asleep" or something like that. It was beautiful.

[kisu-fu.livejournal.com]

They SO ARE.
You don't happen to have the original image?? @.@ *totally fell in love with kanda and lavi*

I did so.. it had quite a good mood.

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

No, I don't have the full picture. All I know is I got it from bubblemilk T.T I'm assuming it's from a doujinshi, though.

[kisu-fu.livejournal.com]

Ahh.. yeah, it looks so.. Thanks anyway!
*goes look for it now ò.ó*

[bookman-junior.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, I agree. Earl did that, too. But I think Allen's was more...let's say, accurate (and natural to look at). Or so I think. XD

[yuuumi-sama.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I loved that, too! I understand what you mean. I'm glad the people paid close attention to the minor details! It always annoys me to watch the character play in the opposite direction of where they are supposed to be.

I noticed that, too. ^^ So happy I'm not alone on thinking how amazing that was. :D

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

YES, the ultimate blow, when they're playing in WRONG AREA. I always just shake my head and laugh, and wonder how awesome it would be if they were playing for real. I want to send the studio like, flowers or something for how awesome it was that they paid attention to the details of his playing <3

[yuuumi-sama.livejournal.com]

I always have an urge to write to the studio and tell them, hello, your 'playing' piano animation is WRONG!
I'd like to send them flowers, too. Or at least praise them! :D

[violetabonita.livejournal.com]

Agreed!! It was really amazing how much accuracy that scene held.

Being a music dork, I naturally feel like puking when the piano is misplayed. So... I was holding my breath for this one. But, thankfully, it was amazingly real.

Glad I'm not the only one on the planet who got excited for that! ^_^

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Music dorks unite. <3 I just watched the episode last night and was like... I need to post something about this, IT'S SO AMAZING. I was so excited I posted before watching the rest of the episode XD

[kaiamara.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. I find it very annoying when a show doesn't do that, it just looks bad. And I figure most people can catch it. Lots of love to whomever did this scene, good job.

You've seen other shows where they do this, yes? It's really annoying when it's on a violin, you can blatantly see it when they're playing it wrong.

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

I LOVE IT WHEN THE HOLD THE BOW WRONG. It's like, ultimate fail. It's really disappointing, and yeah, I mean, could they just attempt a -little- matching? Have the animators listen to song while they're making the scene to at least know when they have to go in the higher registers or the lower registers?

[kalium-kx.livejournal.com]

Yeap that's one of the reason I keep playing that scene over and over again..tho' they did get the earls' one wrong..one part when he has to go ow but went high in terms of vision..yeah..

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

You know, someone else mentioned something about the Earl... when does he play? I think I skipped episodes 90 and 92, so that may have been where...

[kalium-kx.livejournal.com]

92..he plays right before allen does..seeing his butt fit in a tiny chair makes the melancholic scene a whole lot funnier if you ask me..

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, that is amazing. Must check that out now.

[kalium-kx.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPhJEE2fLs

there you go..i guess

[kagnomi.livejournal.com]

That's one of the first things I noticed. TBH, my expectations weren't high as I thought they would, like you said, make his hands' movements not match the song.

BUT IT DID! I was pretty darn happy and surprised. :D "OMG! He's actually pressing the key at the right time!"

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't even realize until a little bit in because I just hadn't been expecting it, and then... it happened and I was awed.

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

OMG, YOUR ICON. Is that... crap, I think it's... OMG, it's THAT GUY. T.T Can't remember his name, but it's SO AMAZING.

[kagnomi.livejournal.com]

lol. It's Demetri Martin. The guy with the useless bells. XD

[selvatori.livejournal.com]

Oh~! I was just giving my nephews some piano lessons since it's finally holiday for me, but I don't think I'm good enough since I missed this part in the anime :O *she was captivated by the lyrics actually..*
But thanks for noting that for us sweetie~ =3

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

I was waaaay too excited about it ^_^ So you play piano too? That's awesome! How old are the nephews you're trying to teach?

[selvatori.livejournal.com]

You should C= even in (La Corda D'Oro) the producers didn't pay any attention to this point ... not much anyway ^_^
I do play piano, but it's not a talent really, I'm forcing myself actually (so I'm not so good) woe is me..
they're in elementry school :)

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, teaching little kids. Always interesting. My little cousin has an attention span the size of an ant, so it was rather rough. She did learn a little bit though.

[selvatori.livejournal.com]

Agreed!~ =D

[chloesong.livejournal.com]

*went back to appreciate the scene more after you mentioned it*
<3

I was impressed the first time around, but now that you mention it, I'm even MORE impressed. XDDD

That scene is beautiful~ xP
I love the whole Piano-controls-ARK/Allen&Tim-carry-the-music concept~

Ty for bringing it up again! ^u^b

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a pretty creative and brilliant stroke of the the author, no?

[scratchmist.livejournal.com]

Oh, you make me want to watch the anime so badly. XD Will definitely look out for this scene. Since I play some piano myself I really love it when it's shown in anime, especially if they put effort into the animation like you mentioned. ^^

[animegoil.livejournal.com]

Haha, you can probably find it on youtube here (http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=VFucKixePEw)