[FANBASED] YuYu Hakusho Beyond! Episode 1 : Reunion

[Refi-chan]

Life goes on, but it is not always “happily ever after.” New adventures await the YuYu Hakusho gang as they start new lives…as adults! Yusuke is a daddy! Kurama’s foxy siblings come to call! Hiei learns about his father! Kuwabara is pursuing education; but what keeps him from proposing to Yukina? All the while, trouble brews in Demon World as another tournament for the crown is around the corner!

The series starts off about 5 years after the original ended. Kokou (Enki's wife) is currently running spirit world...and the main characters have gone through some major changes themselves!

This is kind of like a DBZ to DB series for YYH so it answers and expands things. I have over 7 sagas planned (and lots of plans for the younger generation when they grow up!) but currently I'm just over half-way through the first saga ^^

First off ^^; Thanks to all those who have been patient as I have struggled to make my first production. I hope to do better next time!

For critiquers: Yes this is my first time so if you have anything you don't like about it, please tell me HOW to improve because I won't get better unless I know WHAT I'm doing ^^; thanks!

READY TO LISTEN?
YuYu Hakusho Beyond! Episode 1 : Reunion (http://media.putfile.com/YuYu-Hakusho-Beyond-Episode-1--Reunion)
Upload at Putfile (http://www.putfile.com)

CAST (in order of appearance)
Kuwabara ~ Shawn Gage
Hiei ~ Cyberbanjo
Yukina ~ Neko
Yusuke ~ MaskedDrifter
Kayko ~ RikuXHarada
Kurama ~ Treg
Yokira (human form) ~ Refi-chan
Yokira (monster form) ~ Refi-chan and LordSesshomaru

PRODUCTION
Script ~ Refi-chan
Mixing ~ Refi-chan
Opening/Closing Music clips ~ Cassie
SFX ~ Refi-chan; 100 Sound Effects Vol. 3; The Freesound Project (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/forum/index.php)
BGM ~ From the creators of YuYu Hakusho

CARE TO READ WHAT'S OUT?
TEASER/TRAILER video
On My Forum (http://bomanime.proboards92.com/index.cgi?board=yyhb)
All Together on My WebPage (http://www.freewebs.com/cartooncopscentral/ccmissions.htm)
My Blog where it first comes out (http://www.myotaku.com/users/tiggerola)

[Refi-chan]

Okedays! I think I might have already done critisims w/ my cast, but I would like to accent their good points again (and mention some of my favorite parts and downfalls incase anyone knows how to fix them)

Shawn: Impressive voice matching Chris Sabat skills and age factoring! I think the food in the mouth parts were good that the audience could still understand the words but we knew the character was stuffing his face! And thank you for the random line XD I should have scripted that when I was converting the story to radioplay, but still good call!
Cyberbanjo: Heehee, Hiei makes me laugh...he's so...Hiei! I think you got the attitude down to a T in the performance.
Neko: Don't think I should say much here since I talk to you a lot over editing my stories ^^ I'll just say I'm real happy for you for doing this! :D
MaskedDrifter: Talk about a trooper, of course that goes into everything beyond Episode 1. Even though you phrased/used voice inflictions on most of the lines different that I envisioned them when I wrote them, it was great! You exceeded my expectations voicing Yusuke, and that was simply wonderful how you did the "next time" preview at the end even though that was recorded later.
RikuXHarada: Thank you for your contribution. I hope you had as much fun as I did with this. Good luck in the future!
Treg: You're Kurama voice gives me goosepimples! I LOVE IT! I hope the stuff you were going through with your voice isn't giving you problems anymore, because your aud for Remayolo was good too!
LordSesshomaru: We make a great team! I can't wait to exploit your voice on villians that will be coming up in the future! You too have the Sabat skills of versitallity!
Cassie: I wish we could get that opening theme into a full song, that would be so cool! I know I tell you a lot how cool I think your music samples are ^^ but that's because they are!

Refi-chan (me XD):
Yokira- She's so evilly cool! You could probably guess who she was even though her name has not been introduced yet since she is the only non-cannon character so far, and being the antagonist that should be perfectly fine to start off a new YYH adventure. I have fun with her! (well I have fun w/ all my OCs when I'm writing ^^) So for the record, Does Yokira spark your interest? Scare you? Entice you? Stike you as sinister, fun, or *blah*?
Script- ^^ Converting from a visual script to audio wasn't exactly easy. Please let me know if I missed over anything I should take note of. For sure I have come up with a bit extra dialouge for running through the forest (yes it took a whole 45 seconds, that's where the big action sequence happens for the screenplay XD so imagine them running and getting knocked down and running into trees and such lol) so that segment will make a bit more sense. With the plot, I was going for the feel like at the begining of DBZ where everyone sees each other after not being together for some time and then after the catchup KAPOW! DANGER! we get into the plot. I hope it's not too slow for anyone, I personally like the pace XD
Mixing- Yeah, don't know anything about this. I tried to blend all the different recordings to sound like they were on the same level. But other than volume, what other Audacity effects can I use to help, or did that turn out ok as I did it? (everyone had their own track for mixing...I know that much! XP)
SFX- This part killed me!!! I hope all of you listeners could tell what was going on with the setting. Was it too much? Not enough? Did you sit and wonder what on earth is making those noises? This is the issue I'm sitting chewing my fingernails like a typewritter over! >O.O<

TO MY WHOLE CAST:
After sharing this on my MyO blog, there are people wanting more! I will want to redo the first episode to it will be better and include revisions so there won't be problems later (and it should take quicker for me to finish now I have a new compy w/ dual-processor! as well as I know more about what I'm doing). I think I'll see if I can recruit animators first (I wish I knew how to do flash XD) before I put this in the works again, but I'll keep you updated! As far as I've heard on MyOtaku, this was a success so great job and Thank You!

[Cyberbanjo]

Wow! I almost forgot about this!

On another note, I can't get the file to work. Could you maybe offer a download link?

EDIT: Finally got to listen to it. Here's my critique. As this is my first in-depth critique (I think), bear with me.

MaskedDrifter Great job as Yusuke! I could definitely sense his attitude and you sounded a lot like his dub voice!

Shawn Ah, yes. lovable Kuwabara. I must say, I'm impressed. I've rarely heard anyone do a good Kuwabara impersonation, so it was nice to hear this. At times, your voice sounded a little strained, but overall your performance was handled very well.

Treg Amazing is all I can say. You got Kurama's voice down perfectly and sounded nearly identical to his actor. Bravo!

Cyberbanjo Ugh. I hated having to hear such old clips of myself. I think my major problem was in the recording itself and not the acting (although the acting did need work). Now I've got better software and more experience, so I promise I'll do much better next time!

Neko I can't seem to recall Yukina's dub voice, but your voice definitely fit her. I heard a microphone puff once or twice, but other than that I thought you did great!

RikuXHarada Your Kayko sounded pretty good. I don't really remember Kayko's dub voice either, but I think she sounded a little...young, especially if she's an adult. Make it a little deeper and is should be great.

Refi-Chan (Yokira-Human) Your Yokira sounded very sinister and had a distinct anime-quality to it! I detected a bit of an accent at "I didn't realize. Do you find that bothersome?" Just thought I'd point it out.

Refi-chan and LordSesshomaru (Yokira-Demon) Wow! Very evil and demon-like! It sounded really great and I don't have any pointers with this one.

Mixing Overall the mixing was effective and moved the story along, but I did find a couple problems with it: My only major gripe was the running scene. It was pretty confusing and I don't think it should have been a full 45 seconds. Perhaps more talking would make it better? (I think you mentioned this in your post). Aside from that, I only had a few minor problems with the mixing. At a couple of points it seemed that characters waited too long to respond to each other and it broke the flow of the conversation. This happened rarely, but it was there. Finally, that little musical intermission, while true to the show, was loud and made me jump. Aside from those minor problems, I thought the mixing was great overall. Keep it up and you'll get even better!

[Imiko]

Hehe I did forget about this site for a while :sweat. And thanks for the shout out. And as for you were asking about the sfx, the only thing I thought to be a bit off was how loud the noise was of them walking on the grass, it's hard to do without animation but I just thought I would give you my opinion :)

~Neko

[Refi-chan]

Wow! I almost forgot about this!

On another note, I can't get the file to work. Could you maybe offer a download link?

Link sent via email, let me know if you didn't get it (for some reason only half of the emails I write show up in my sent box o.O)

Neko-thanks for the imput, I'll see what I can do about it next time around!

[Cyberbanjo]

Got the email, and I edited my previous post with a critique.

[Imiko]

Wow! I almost forgot about this!

On another note, I can't get the file to work. Could you maybe offer a download link?

EDIT: Finally got to listen to it. Here's my critique. As this is my first in-depth critique (I think), bear with me.

MaskedDrifter Great job as Yusuke! I could definitely sense his attitude and you sounded a lot like his dub voice!

Shawn Ah, yes. lovable Kuwabara. I must say, I'm impressed. I've rarely heard anyone do a good Kuwabara impersonation, so it was nice to hear this. At times, your voice sounded a little strained, but overall your performance was handled very well.

Treg Amazing is all I can say. You got Kurama's voice down perfectly and sounded nearly identical to his actor. Bravo!

Cyberbanjo Ugh. I hated having to hear such old clips of myself. I think my major problem was in the recording itself and not the acting (although the acting did need work). Now I've got better software and more experience, so I promise I'll do much better next time!

Neko I can't seem to recall Yukina's dub voice, but your voice definitely fit her. I heard a microphone puff once or twice, but other than that I thought you did great!

RikuXHarada Your Kayko sounded pretty good. I don't really remember Kayko's dub voice either, but I think she sounded a little...young, especially if she's an adult. Make it a little deeper and is should be great.

Refi-Chan (Yokira-Human) Your Yokira sounded very sinister and had a distinct anime-quality to it! I detected a bit of an accent at "I didn't realize. Do you find that bothersome?" Just thought I'd point it out.

Refi-chan and LordSesshomaru (Yokira-Demon) Wow! Very evil and demon-like! It sounded really great and I don't have any pointers with this one.

Mixing Overall the mixing was effective and moved the story along, but I did find a couple problems with it: My only major gripe was the running scene. It was pretty confusing and I don't think it should have been a full 45 seconds. Perhaps more talking would make it better? (I think you mentioned this in your post). Aside from that, I only had a few minor problems with the mixing. At a couple of points it seemed that characters waited too long to respond to each other and it broke the flow of the conversation. This happened rarely, but it was there. Finally, that little musical intermission, while true to the show, was loud and made me jump. Aside from those minor problems, I thought the mixing was great overall. Keep it up and you'll get even better!

Ah thanks! And thanks for the tip as well, I'll try and watch how I say things more. Just need to practic more with the mic ^^. And practic my acting a bit more.

Refi - Alright sounds good :D. But as Cyberbanjo said I think the running scene was a bit long for just running as well, they probably should have talked or something a little bit. And as for everything else with the radio play I think it sounded really well :D!

[Imiko]

TO MY WHOLE CAST:
After sharing this on my MyO blog, there are people wanting more! I will want to redo the first episode to it will be better and include revisions so there won't be problems later (and it should take quicker for me to finish now I have a new compy w/ dual-processor! as well as I know more about what I'm doing). I think I'll see if I can recruit animators first (I wish I knew how to do flash XD) before I put this in the works again, but I'll keep you updated! As far as I've heard on MyOtaku, this was a success so great job and Thank You!

Well it seems it's been a while since anyone has posted on this thread :sweat I was just curious if you were still planning on doing the re-dubbing... well actually I came here wondering when the next radio play was going to be out, lol. But I read the thing around re-dubbing and was curious if you were still going to do it? I can't even remember if you sent me something for me to redo the part @.@. Well you know how to get a hold of me either way :P. And at any rate it would be awesome if we got ep. 2 in a radio play :D!

[Ducky Patterson]

Good stuff guys! was nice to listen too :) I also really enjoyed the demon voice stuff you guys did too :D

[Shawn Gage]

Wow... I vanished for half a year and somehow this ends up at the top of the stack again. The production came out really well for the first set. I'm really amazed at how well it transitioned for a RP since I generally find it difficult to grasp stuff in merely audio format. Though... I am curious, what line did I add? I honestly can't remember adding a line in there ^_^;;