Rock bands and record players: The psychology of musical sources in Anime.

Does it matter if the background music is coming from a rock band or a record player?

Note: This article contains potential spoilers for K-On!, Tamako Market and Toradora.

It’s not uncommon for Anime series to use music as a way to enhance the mood of a scene. In an episode of Tamako Market, for example, the title character meets with a classmate in a coffee shop. Asagiri had to spend the last afternoon with Tamako and her family. Despite her social anxiety, she managed to have fun and wants to thank her. Asagiri tries to gather the strength to express this, and she eventually does. To her embarrassment though, her words come out in an awkwardly loud voice. Seeing her reaction, Tamako comforts her with a kind smile and a playful “I did too”. The scene is filled with cute facial expressions and gestures. It’s also accompanied by a slow but beautiful piano piece. The music feels sad enough to increase our sympathy for Asagiri, and appreciate Tamako’s kindness; making the interactions even more adorable. Musical attributes like the instrument being played or it’s tempo are frequently attributed with this type of effects. But there might be another factor in play.

Tamako and her friends visit this coffee shop frequently. During each of these scenes, a record player is shown either being set-up or playing tracks from different genres. Explaining where the background music is coming from might have the purpose of presenting the owner as a sophisticated and wise individual. Which makes sense given the role of passive counselor he plays in the series. But there could be another reason. Film theorists believe that, when music is unexplained, it appears as an obvious attempt to manipulate the audience. Placing its source within the character’s environment should reduce this perception, making it more effective. The idea is supported by an experiment in which a chase scene in a mall was perceived as more tense, when the music sounded like it came from the building speakers (Tan, Spackman, & Wakefield, 2008) (1). It’s possible then that showing the owner picking up an album and setting it up made the referred segments in Tamako Market more emotionally intense. Sadly, directors can’t put a record player or a loudspeaker on every single scene. There are, nevertheless, other, less mechanic alternatives.

Tamako Market's team went as far as composing a sixties-style song, hiring a french interpreter
and designing a fake album cover, just to give the right background to another, bitter-sweet, scene.

It’s not unusual for series to include musicians among their cast of characters; providing another method for inserting music into the story. Series about bands, like K-On!, have the advantage of being able to explain the presence of songs through rehearsal and concert scenes (2). The plot doesn’t necessarily have to revolve around music though. The fantasy drama Angel Beats!, for example, has a couple of characters capable of singing and playing instruments, ready to perform as soon as the plot allows it. Animated musicians don’t even have to be that skilled. In an episode of Tamako Market, the protagonist's father is revealed to have composed a song for his late wife, while they were both in high-school. His performance, shown through flashbacks, is clearly amateurish. But instead of disrupting the story, it ends up making it more believable and endearing.

Including an animated performance might have other benefits. People tend to rate acapella or instrumental compositions better when they are able to see the interpreter (Wapnick, Darrow, Kovacs, & Dalrymple, 1997; Wapnick, Mazza, & Darrow, 1998). And while, in the case of instrumental melodies, this doesn’t make people experience more positive, tense or exciting moods (Vines, Krumhansl, Wanderlev, Dalca, & Levitin, 2011; Vuoskoski, Gatti, Spence, & Clarke, 2016), it can make the audience more interested on the music, or even happier, depending on how expressive the performer is (Broughton & Stevens, 2009; Vines, Krumhansl, Wanderlev, Dalca, & Levitin, 2011). The results suggest that the presence of a performer adds very little to the experience of music, at least in the case of single-instrument pieces. Interestingly, they also imply that, when their appearance does make a difference, it has something to do with the way they move (3).

Unusually detailed or realistic movements during animated performances
might have an ulterior motive.

Musicians’ behavior tends to receive a special treatment by animators. Particularly in music driven stories. The openings for series like Sakamichi no Apollon, K-On! and even Angel Beats! depict musical performances with an unusual level of detail and realism. In the intro for Angel Beats!, for example, some notes are accompanied by shots of Kanade’s fingers pressing specific piano keys. This type of synchronization could be making the referred notes more noticeable, facilitating the identification of features like tempo and structure. Two variables that seem to play an important role in the induction of tension and excitement through music (van der Zwaag, Westerink, & van den Broek, 2011), as well as on its enjoyment (Rolison & Edworthy, 2013), respectively. The referred sequence also displays the performer’s hands, torso and head moving in the same manner as an experienced interpreter’s would. The depiction of both fine and gross musical gestures might permit a vicarious participation in the performance. In other words: Being able to see in great detail how an artist produces music, could be allowing viewers to feel like they are singing or playing an instrument, in the same way watching an avatar's hands turn a steering wheel make gamers feel like they are driving. There are plenty of reasons to believe that the additional effort put into these animations didn’t go to waste. But we should also remember that this particular technique hasn’t been properly tested. So it’s still possible that it has no measurable effects on the audience whatsoever.

Behavior isn’t the only attribute that could enhance the experience of music. Experiments have shown that sang or instrumental pieces are rated better when the performer is more attractive (Wapnick, Darrow, Kovacs, & Dalrymple, 1997; Wapnick, Mazza, & Darrow, 1998). A factor that can be particularly useful in a highly stylized medium like Anime. In Toradora, the female lead secretly rehearses a song for the school’s Christmas party. The dress and hairstyle she wears during her performance, as well as the delicate gestures she uses, contrast with the informal appearance and rough behavior displayed in previous episodes. The effort Tiga puts into her interpretation and the reaction this provokes in her friend Ryuji are probably intended to insinuate an increasing attraction between the characters. But her charming appearance could also have made the hopeful song seem more moving, and the scene more romantic. Putting the viewers in the right mood for the emotionally charged episodes that follow (4).

Character designs could become particularly influential during musical performances.

Placing the sources of music within the characters’ environment has, apparently, various benefits. It can make soundtracks more persuasive, while also enriching the experience with the behavior and aesthetics of performers. What makes this technique so interesting though is that it can take various forms. Music can make a gradual appearance as street performer is introduced into a shot. It can also stop just as particular character takes her headphones off. All in synchrony with the development of the plot and the emotions being displayed. Source or Diegetic music, as it’s known, doesn’t just enhances the effectiveness of a soundtrack. It adds a layer of meaning to the scene. Something that can make the whole experience more engaging, moving and memorable for the audience.


Notes:


1. The experiment revolved around a scene in Minority Report, which features a man and a young, debilitated woman, struggling to hide and escape from their pursuers in a mall. All while a slow-beat romantic theme is heard as coming from the building loudspeakers. The melody is probably intended to make the viewers think about a couple caring for each other. This contrasts with the rough and fast interactions between the protagonists, increasing the feeling of urgency and threat of the scene. Interestingly, the experiment found that when the music sounded like a normal soundtrack (with higher volume and quality than it would have if it came from the mall), the interactions between the characters were perceived as more cooperative and the scene as less tense. Our interpretation serves as an example of how mood incongruent melodies could contribute in a positive way to cinematic experiences. But, more importantly, the experiment suggests that, even when the mood depicted by the music is incongruent with a scene, placing it in the fictional world can still enhance its effects.

2. Sub-plots involving musicians can also justify the existence of particular lyrics and melodies. Around the final episodes of K-On!, for example, it becomes increasingly difficult for Azusa, to cope with the fact that her older friends will be leaving both the school and the band after graduation. As usual she tries to control her feelings, but in the day of their graduation this becomes almost impossible. It’s at this point where the girls reveal that they have composed a song specially for her. The piece, titled “Touched by an angel!” expresses the positive impact Azusa has had in their lives, and how much they appreciate this. The band proceeds then to perform the song in front of Azusa. Who, while still emotional, also appears comforted and thankful.

3. It’s seems a bit incongruent that adding video to a musical performance provokes music to be rated better, while at the same time it doesn’t lead to more positive or exciting experiences. One possible explanation is that the mentioned studies used different types of stimuli (Wapnick, Darrow, Kovacs, & Dalrymple, 1997, used a singer, while Wapnick, Mazza, & Darrow, 1998 focused on violinists) and collected different measures (like low vs. high ratings of music performance, as well as valence and arousal of the experienced mood). Another cause for the different results observed is the use of relatively simple stimuli, like a single instrument performance. In the lab, this setting prevents the interference of external variables. However, it also makes it more difficult to generalize the results to Anime music, were different types of instruments and electronic techniques are used to create the composition. Finally, other variables like the effect of watching a beloved character compose, and perform music, haven’t been studied. So, there is both, space for speculation, and additional research to be done.

4. It should be noted that while Christmas is a more family oriented holiday in many countries, in Japan is treated as a romantic event, similar to Valentine’s Day.

Note:

I want to give special thanks to Dr. Siu-Lan Tan, for being kind enough to give me additional information about her research on Diegetic Music in live-action films. You can find her Psychology Today blog here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-shapes-film

References:

Broughton, M., & Stevens, C. (2009). Music, enjoyment and marimba: An investigation of the role of movement and gesture in communicating musical expression. Psychology of Music, 37(2), 137-153. doi: 10.1177/0305735608094511

Rolison, J. J., & Edworthy, J. (2013). The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: Local and structural features in music listening. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, 23(1), 33 - 48. doi: 10.1037/a0032442

Tan, S. -L., Spackman, M. P., & Wakefield, E. M. (2008, August*) Effects of diegetic and non-diegetic presentation of film music on viewers’ interpretation of film narrative. Conference Proceedings for the 2008 International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (pp. 588-593). Hokkaido, JP.
[*Revised and expanded version provided by first author]

van der Zwaag, M. D., Westerink, J. H. D. M., & van den Broek, E. L. (2011). Emotional and psychophysiological responses to tempo, mode and percussiveness. Musicae Scientiae, 15(2), 250-269. doi: 10.1177/1029864911403364

Vines, B. W., Krumhansl, C. L., Wanderley, M. M., Dalca, I. M., & Levitin, D. J. (2011). Music to my eyes: Cross-modal interactions in the perception of emotions in musical performance. Cognition, 118(2), 157– 170. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2010.11.010

Vuoskoski, J. K., Thompson, M. R., Clarke, E. F., & Spence, C. (2014). Crossmodal interactions in the perception of expressivity in musical performance. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 76(2), 691-604. doi: 10.3758/s13414-013-0582-2.

Vuoskoski, J. K., Gatti, E., Spence, C., & Clarke, E. F. (2016). Do visual cues intensify the emotional responses evoked by musical performance? A psychophysiological investigation. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, 26(2), 179-188. doi: 10.1037/pmu0000142

Vuoskoski, J. K., Thompson, M., Spence, C., & Clarke, E. F. (2016). Interaction of sight and sound in the perception and experience of musical performance. Music Perception, 33(4), 457-471. doi:10.1525/mp.2016.33.4.457

Wapnick, J., Darrow, A. A., Kovacs, J., & Dalrymple, L. (1997). Effects of physical attractiveness on evaluation of vocal performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 45(3), 470-479. doi: 10.2307/3345540

Wapnick, J. Mazza, J. K., & Darrow, A.-A. (1998). Effects of performer attractiveness, stage behavior, and dress on violin performance evaluation. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46(4), 510-521. doi: 10.2307/3345347

How Anime makes you cry.

If there is something that distinguishes Anime from other mediums is its capacity to provoke strong emotional responses. This is particularly true in the case of sad stories. It’s not uncommon to hear fans recall particularly sad scenes or even recommend a show based on its capacity to trigger crying episodes. But why is Japanese animation so good at this? What makes it such an effective tear-jerking machine?

One of the reasons Anime is capable of making people cry is because of how much the audience ends up caring for their characters. This might have something to do with the way they are designed and animated. Characters like Nayuki from Kanon (Futono, Nakamura, Hatta, Nakayama, & Ishihara, 2006) and Mirai from Beyond the Boundary (Tanaka, Senami, Saito, Nakamura, & Ishidate, 2013), for example, are given delicate features, and cute mannerisms. At first glance this seems to be a superficial choice, but apparently it can make characters more emotionally relevant. Research has shown that people tend to care more for aesthetically pleasant movie characters (Konijn & Hoorn, 2005). Protagonists don’t have to be perfect though. While Nayuki and Mirai are presented as both emotionally and physically strong, they are also clumsy and immature in at least one aspect of their life: Ayu needs an army of alarm clocks in order to wake up early, and Mirai has trouble making enough money to eat properly. Writers probably do this to give them an occasional image of helplessness. An attribute that could elicit a protective attitude in the viewer. Regardless of this, many experts believe that the spectators’ tendency to care for a fictional character has more to do with how they treat other people. Affective Disposition Theory argues that one of the first things an audience does is assess the characters’ moral behavior. If they are good, they wish for their success and fear their misfortune. If they are bad, the opposite happens (a detailed explanation of this process can be found in Zillmann, 2011). Research has found, for example, that people tend to feel more emotionally involved towards a movie character if they show good intentions (Konijn & Hoorn, 2005). Making their protagonists kind isn’t a rule creators follow strictly though. The title character from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya (Ishihara, 2006), is both attractive and energetic. But her tendency to impose her will onto others and physically abuse them may have ended up alienating some viewers. This changes in the movie, were the story focuses on the efforts of her schoolmate Kyon, trying to restore his timeline with the help of the extremely shy Yuki. Following more sympathetic characters might have allowed viewers to experience a higher level of involvement; which would explain why the film received more positive reviews.

Kindness seems to go a long way when trying to win the viewer’s heart.

While the audience disposition towards characters explain why they feel sad, it doesn’t tell us how emotional arousal reaches high enough levels to trigger a crying episode. Excitation Transfer Theory (Zillmann, 1996) states that residual arousal from previous events can combine with those provoked by a current situation, elevating the intensity of the experienced emotion. This makes sense given that certain aspects of the emotional experience, like the feeling of excitement, is maintained by the release of hormones in the bloodstream. A process that can take a couple of minutes to dissipate. The tone of the previous experience also seems important: People tend to feel more involved when watching a depressing scene, if they’ve previously seen another sad clip, instead of a happy one (Zillmann, Mody, & Cantor, 1974). Excitation Transfer would explain why people feel progressively sad with each adversity the brothers from the movie Grave of the Fireflies (Hara & Takahata, 1988) have to experience. But what happens in the case of a TV series? People watching Clannad (Ishihara, 2007) had to wait days between sad events; and even months just for the second season to start. More than enough time for their arousal levels to normalize. In spite of this though, the series is referred to as one of the most emotionally intense dramas ever produced. How is this possible? Well, one explanation could be that watching Tomoya and Nagisa face another misfortune, reminded viewers of all the past difficulties the protagonists had to go through. And, given that recalling unhappy memories is enough to induce people into a sad mood (Westermann, Kordelia, Stahl, & Hesse, 1996), it’s possible that these past scenes may have increased the emotional arousal of viewers. Something that would have made the current event seem even more depressing. If this is true, it could explain why viewers feel more emotionally involved with every additional sad scene, even when they are separated by several days or weeks. Interestingly, it also suggests that, as a series progresses and the depressing moments accumulate, the capacity of a scene to remind viewers of past adversities will have a stronger effect on their emotions. Maybe even more so than actual tragedies. One of the saddest moments in Clannad, for example, isn’t the result of suffering or dead, but of Ushio, standing in a flower field, crying over the loss of a toy Tomoya had just bought her. When he tries to explain that they can buy another one, she calls it: “Dad’s first gift”. A phrase that reminds the audience of all the time together they have lost in the past years.

Longer dramas might benefit from reminding the viewer of the
protagonists’ past misfortunes.

The repeated exposure to sad scenes eventually puts the viewers in a position where they can barely control themselves. And given that we are naturally biased to express intense sadness through crying, tearing-up becomes almost unavoidable. But just to be sure, Anime directors like to introduce a very effective technique: They make their characters cry. The referred scene in Clannad, for example, is followed by a close-up to Tomoya’s face trying to contain his tears, only to burst up crying. Exposure to this type of content has a predictable effect on people. In an experiment with vignettes, participants reported a higher tendency to feel bad and offer their support to someone in trouble, if they saw them crying (Hendriks, Croon & Vingerhoets, 2008). This result can also be improved by the appropriate soundtrack. A recent study showed that when people listen to sad music, they tend to rate images of individuals crying as more pleasant and kind (Hanser, Mark, Zijlstra, & Vingerhoets, 2015); making them even more deserving of sympathy. Additionally, watching someone tear up has the potential to stimulate any related ideas in the user’s mind; a process known as Spreading Activation (Collins, & Loftus, 1975). It’s possible then that a scene depicting a beloved character’s eyes filling with tears could be promoting the activation of a similar response, in an already highly aroused viewer. In other words, crying scenes would have a dual effect: They push the audience to an unbearable emotional state, while also showing them a way out of it (1).

Well animated tears could make crying unavoidable during states of
high emotional arousal.

The theories and studies we’ve discussed allow us to understand how Anime manages to provoke such strong emotional responses. But there might be other variables involved. For instance: People could feel either engaged or detached depending on the type of adversity the main characters have to face. Viewers of The Pet Girl of Sakurasou (Ishizuka, 2012) may feel fully invested in the love-triangle, but completely disregard the vocational setbacks the male lead has to go through. It’s also possible that individuals with different age, gender or beliefs would develop opposite attitudes towards the same character. There are still many questions to answer. Sadly, while there is plenty of research in respect to video games and movies; empirical studies that focus specifically on Anime are hard to find. We hope that this type of articles motivates fans and academics to perform their own investigation. Maybe even their own experiments.


Notes:


1. While crying is a natural response, it’s not considered an acceptable behavior in most social contexts. As a result, many people actively try to avoid crying while watching a movie. The effort put into blocking any unwanted behavioral response could work in favor of the emotional experience though. According to an experiment, people who inhibit themselves from crying while watching a sad short, show higher arousal levels than those who allowed themselves to tear up (Labott & Teleha, 1996). This would facilitate the accumulation of emotional arousal. Thus improving the involvement experienced in future scenes.


References:


Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). A Spreading-Activation Theory of Semantic Processing. In Psychological Review, 82(6), DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.82.6.407.

Futono, N. (Producer), Nakamura, S. (Producer), Hatta, Y. (Producer), Nakayama, Y. (Producer) & Ishihara, T. (Director). (2006). Kanon [Television series]. Japan: Kyoto Animation.

Hanser, W. E., Mark, R. E., Zijlstra, W. P., & Vingerhoets, Ad. J. J. M. (2015). The effects of background music on the evaluation of crying faces. In Psychology of Music, 43(1). DOI: 10.1177/0305735613498132

Hara, T. (Producer), & Takahata, I. (Director). (1988). Grave of the Fireflies [Motion picture]. Japan: Studio Ghibli.

Hendriks, M. C. P., Croon, M. A., & Vingerhoets, AD J. J. M. (2008). Social reactions to adult crying: The help-soliciting function of tears. In The Journal of Social Psychology, 148(1). DOI: 10.3200/SOCP.148.1.22-42

Ishihara, T. (Director). (2006). Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu [Television series]. Japan: Kyoto Animation.

Ishihara, T. (Director). (2007). Clannad. [Television series]. Japan: Kyoto Animation.

Ishizuka, A. (Director). (2012). Sakura-sō no Pet na Kanojo [Television series]. Japan: J.C. Staff.

Konijn, E. A., & Hoorn, J. F. (2005). Some like it bad: Testing a model for perceiving and experiencing fictional characters. In Media Psychology, 7(2). DOI: 10.1207/S1532785XMEP0702_1

Labott, S. M., & Teleha, M. K. (1996). Weeping propensity and the effects of laboratory expression or inhibition. In Motivation and Emotion, 20(3). DOI: 10.1007/BF02251890

Tanaka, G. (Producer), Senami, R. (Producer), Saito, S. (Producer), Nakamura, S. (Producer) & Ishidate, T. (Director). (2013). Kyōkai no Kanata [Television series]. Japan: Kyoto Animation.

Westermann, R., Kordelia, S., Stahl, G., & Hesse, F. W. (1996). Relative effectiveness and validity of mood induction procedures: A meta-analysis. In European Journal of Social Psychology, 26(4). DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199607)26:4<557::AID-EJSP769>3.0.CO;2-4

Zillmann, D. (1996). Sequential dependencies in emotional experience and behavior. In Kavanaugh, R.D., Zimmerberg, B., & Fein, S. (Eds), Emotion: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. (pp. 243-272). New Jersey: Erlbaum.

Zillmann, D. (2011). Mechanisms of emotional reactivity to media entertainments. In Doveling, K., von Scheve, C., & Konijn, E. A. (Eds), The Routledge Handbook of Emotions and Mass Media (pp. 101-115). New York: Routledge.

Zillmann, D., Mody, B., & Cantor, J. R. (1974). Empathetic perception of emotional displays in films as a function of hedonic and excitatory state prior to exposure. In Journal of Research in Personality 8(4). DOI: 10.1016/0092-6566(74)90025-7