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Video: Go Behind the Scenes of Kyoto Animation's Liz and the Blue Bird Title Track
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
Music is central to the emotion and setting of the Liz and the Bluebird anime film, the latest entry in Kyoto Animation's Sound! Euphonium anime series. The newest installment focuses on high school flutist Nozomi Kasaki and oboist Mizore Yoroizuka, who are paired for the duet "Liz and the Blue Bird" as part of their school's competition piece. When it came time to create the film's soundtrack, composer Akito Matsuda was considering using programmed brass music. The instruments would be programmed into a computer, not performed by musicians. That is, until director Naoko Yamada saw the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music perform.
"When you record live music, you actually hear every breath," Yamada said. "Every sound within that atmosphere becomes a part of the music."
The music piece "Liz and the Bluebird" becomes central to representing the relationship between characters Nozomi and Mizore. The two have a long standing friendship but as the end of their high school careers approach, Mizore finds herself unsure of how their relationship will withstand the change. This uncertainty spreads to their duet performance, a time when both girls need to be the most in tune with one another.
The emotion the characters feel had to be represented in the musical performances themselves. Yamada praised both oboist and flutist behind the characters' performances.
"The oboist and flutist both fully understood and appreciated the story. In the final band scene, they performed as if they really were playing the main characters," the director said.
The film will open in the United States theaters with English subtitles on November 9. Eleven Arts will reveal the film's Canadian screening date at a later date.
The Japan Film Festival of San Francisco, which ran from September 28 to October 7 at the NEW PEOPLE Cinema, screened the film. LA Femme International Film Festival also screened the film on October 14. Anime Expo screened the film in July.
The film opened in Japan on April 21, and earned 53,573,900 yen (about US$492,400) in its opening weekend.
The film is the first of two planned all-new anime films for the Sound! Euphonium franchise, based on Ayano Takeda's Sound! Euphonium novel series. Liz and the Blue Bird is based on the Sound! Euphonium ーKitauji Kōkō Suisōgakubu, Hanran no Dai Ni Gakushō: Kōhen (Sound! Euphonium - The Kitauji High School Concert Band's Turbulent Second Movement: Part 2) novel.
Source: Press Release
