What's up with audio continuity in Dragon Ball (and other older anime)?

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LoganForkHands73
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What's up with audio continuity in Dragon Ball (and other older anime)?

Post by LoganForkHands73 » Tue Mar 02, 2021 6:11 pm

Exhibit A) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa9Nm2OS1xI

Ninja Murasaki has had an unfortunate accident with the Nyoibo and is groaning and mumbling in pain. Goku, meanwhile, is having a good schadenfreude at the sight of his humiliated enemy, laughing his ass off. Shots featuring Goku have his laughter audible while having Murasaki's nearby groaning inaudible, and vice versa.

Exhibit B) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wInQ9kzC_iE

Goku is transforming into Super Saiyan 3 for the first time onscreen, and is screaming loudly and continuously throughout the process. This can be easily heard in shots featuring Goku in frame, but as soon as a shot moves to either Babidi or Majin Buu's stunned reactions while they are floating only a few metres away, Goku's screaming is suddenly inaudible.

In short, why do older anime (and probably modern anime as well, I've likely just been conditioned to not notice it at this point) take a lax approach to sound continuity in this way? Is it just a matter of maintaining focus on the subject in frame by omitting offscreen audio?

Big Boss
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Re: What's up with audio continuity in Dragon Ball (and other older anime)?

Post by Big Boss » Tue Mar 02, 2021 6:33 pm

I assume it's done intentionally to not drown out the reaction of the characters currently in frame with loud, off-screen audio. In the case of the SSJ3 transformation, maybe they thought Goku's screaming would be too distracting and viewers would not focus on Babidi's reaction? I don't know. What's the audio equivalent of cinematography?

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