Wednesday, October 19, 2016

T5W#62-Top 5 Anime Series Soundtracks


Sometimes when watching an Anime, something hits you.  As great as the animation, storyline, action, characters or anything really plot related grabs you (or doesn’t depending on your choice of show), there might be one thing that’s catching your attention more than any of that…the fact that youre humming the theme song or a characters theme.  Yep, Anime Soundtracks are just as popular as the series (or movie) theyre set to and sometimes truly are their most memorable attributes.  And I don’t just mean the opening and ending themes (I did both of those lists a while back) I’m talking about the music you hear throughout the show.  So today, I’m looking at my 5 favorite Anime Soundtracks.  This list will be from SERIES ONLY.  Not sure if ill have a more event focused Top 5 for next week (it is the week before Halloween, I should think of something related), but I’ll do a separate list for movies another time.
 
Side Note: I’ll include some Youtube links with each entry.  But naturally there’s a risk the page they originate from might drop them, so apologies in advance.  Just do another search and you can find a sample pretty easily.

 
#5-Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Yuki Kaijura)
Everytime I heard a song even just start to creep into my ears, I got teary eyed.  And in those tears, I always felt a mix of hope, excitement and sadness, basically everything about Madoka in one little note of music.  Not to mention, it takes a special kind of hand to compose music to fit all of the craziness happening on screen from the fights to the always moving backgrounds when Madoka and allies are battling Witches.  So yes, Yuki Kaijura, who also did the soundtracks for .hack//sign and Fate/Zero, deserves all the praise possible (though in retrospect I could have put .hack in it’s place but I thought .hack was boring save for the soundtrack.  Madoka kicked ass all across the board).  Never before has a musical score left me in so many tears since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.  Madoka may be praised for it’s animation and heartbreaking story, but the music should never be overlooked.

 

#4-Hellsing (Yasushi Ishii)
Ok so, again, thinking about this series might have triggered this list in the first place.  Hellsing is hardly the soundtrack you’d expect to hear in a zombie hunting slaughter fest (that more so goes to Hellsing Ultimate with it’s bombastic choirs and orchestrated numbers).  The smooth mix of piano, light jazz and creepy sound effect combinations fit the tone in an almost scary way.  I can just imagine Alucard walking down a hallway with an ipod in his ear, humming and nodding his head to the random gibberish of tunes as he mows down undead ghouls and other creatures of the night with little effort.  Sure, you’d think of massive church choirs or hard rock gothic beats when dealing with Vampires.  But the Hellsing soundtrack is your ultimate undead hunter mix and should be ready for any Halloween party.


 
#3-Macross Plus (Yoko Kanno)
Macross Plus is the sequel most Anime, nay most scifi should strive to be when it’s created.  It expends the universe a bit, continues to give us strong characters, ups the ante on any and all action elements.  But what I think Plus did the best was the soundtrack.  Music is a core element in any Macross story: it unites cultures across galaxies and even ends wars when used correctly.  Leave it to Yoko Kanno to make you forget the horrific vocals of Lynn Minmei by replacing her with the hauntingly beautiful words and voice of Sharon Apple.  While I love the booming beats of the action pieces, Sharon’s slower, more seductive songs are so hypnotic and inviting it’s kind of scary.  Let’s not forget the awesome orchestrated songs used during the dog fights between Isamu and Gould and that painfully amazing Cello Only rendition of the main theme “Voices.”  There have been other Macross sequels and all have had great scores…but none have ever topped this one.


 
#2-FLCL (The Pillows)

From the very first tune played in the first episode, I knew I was going to be listening to something special throughout this short series that still stands as my favorite Anime of all time.  The J Rock score, done entirely by The Pillows, knows when to be chill and methodical before switching to all out chaotic and insanely fun.  A lot of scores don’t have the same quality that this one does.  Granted not a lot of Anime I have seen have used Rock as their main musical choice.  But here it is a great way to further enhance the experience of Naota’s adventures with the willy Haruko, smashing robots and avoiding shady agents with Giant Eyebrows.

 
#1-Cowboy Bebop (Yoko Kanno)
You, this list could just be all Yoko Kanno.  The woman is so amazing with her musical craft it’s uncanny.  I was only going to do one Kanno produced score (this one actually) but settled for two cause as hard as I tried, I couldn’t leave off Macross Plus.  So if one or two of you are wondering why Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex isn’t on this list, that’s why.  Honestly, it was close between SAC and Cowboy Bebop, both are almost perfect in quality.  But Bebop is freaking legendary.  The Jazz, the Blues, the mashing of just about every single musical genre on the planet into one series.  This score is just straight pure genius.  And each track fits the mood of the scene perfectly: a sad detectives them for a film noir style flashback; the sound of organs and choirs singing in an opera or the build up to a shootout in a church; the beat of the drums when Spike goes to kick some ass.  Naturally I could talk about the theme song “Tank” but I already said I wouldn’t touch openings or endings.  If you can track down the complete soundtrack, I highly recommend it.  And if, for some reason, youre still on the fence about Cowboy Bebop, just listen to it and I guarantee you will be buying the Blu Ray and not regretting it.

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