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The Official Anime Music Thread


Arpy

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Couldn't find any threads on Anime music, so why not start this one?

 

I've been intrigued by the music of Japanese composer Yoko Kanno's music for the last few weeks after watching the series Cowboy Bebop. It made me want to find more her music and I came across some really great cues from other anime series.

 

I haven't seen this anime, but I found the sound of this cue to be reminiscent of Williams' music for A.I. in spots.

 

Another score I love is for the series Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood:

 

Anyone else watch/listen to Anime and their scores?

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*coughs*

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my favorite from Cowboy Bebop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheaper than live action, animation can go places any other medium can't, and Japan is perhaps one of the few places that takes animation seriously. As such, the good anime can be far more adventurous and imaginative in their scenarios, actions, and themes, giving composers a wide swing of the bat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yes, animation in general is given greater creative freedom and more lively scores! A lot of the time I've noticed the music in anime plays a huge part of being able to communicate ideas with the audience - especially when it's just exposition and scenes with little to no dialogue.

 

I also love how they have an appreciation for the orchestra and the symphonic sound, but also allowing for hybridization with other styles and genres.

@Not Mr. Big I'm afraid to start One Piece as it looks like a long series! I've just started Hunter Hunter, which is in the vein of Dragon Ball and Naruto which seems to be good so far, yet it's 150 or so episodes...

 

@Nick Parker Real Folk Blues is great, I love the version from the end of the series!

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  • 2 years later...

Wow I'm surprised this thread doesn't have more replies. I guess there really aren't that many anime fans on this forum.

 

A couple other shows with excellent music that haven't been mentioned yet are the music for Dr. STONE by Tatsuya Kato, Hiroaki Tsutsumi, and Yuki Kanesaka, and the score to Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba by Yuki Kajiura, and Go Shiina.

 

You can't really call Dr. STONE a score because very few tracks are written for specific scenes, rather most of the music was written ahead of time as a collection of cues with certain moods or feelings, and then was applied to the show later in editing. Even so, many of the tracks are absolutely beautiful, with Some Primal Survival Gourmet, The Return of Chrome, STONE WORLD, and Fantasy vs. Science coming to mind as particular standouts.

 

I made a playlist a while back with most of the music in the order it first appears in the show (like I said most cues appear in multiple episodes):

 

 

Kimetsu no Yaiba on the other hand does have a proper score with many recurring motifs and is also absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately though, as far as I know it's not legally available for streaming/purchase outside of Japan so it's rather difficult to get your hands on. Fortunately on the other hand, due to its insane popularity, nearly its entire complete score has been released across a bunch of different promo albums, assuming you can find them:

https://vgmdb.net/search?q=kimetsu+no+yaiba&type=

 

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  • 5 months later...

I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but I think the score to Attack on Titan is so great! This is a small suite highlighting a couple of the main ideas repeated through the whole score, but there is a lot of greatness in what Hiroyuki Sawano has done through the series.

 

And then, for the final season, Kotha Yamamoto joined and composed some insanely epic pieces, like Ashes on the Fire.

 

Also, all of the opening and ending songs are great, and I especially love the ones by Linked Horizon

 

I'd like to add that some of the scores mentioned above are absolutely worth checking out, especially Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion, top tier anime both the series and their scores.

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  • 5 weeks later...

At last I find a thread on Anime soundtrack!! I was starting to lose hope. 
Anime scores have so much to offer and clearly nothing to envy to other field of film music.

Yoko Kanno, Yuji Ohno, Joe Hisaishi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kenji Kawai, Shin-ichiro Ikebe, Oshima Michiru and many others...

I'd like to highlight a couple composers a recently discovered and love.

Yutaka Yamada who score the Netflix anime GREAT PRETENDER.
I'm amazed at how versatile and rich his work is on this show.
Here are three tracks that cover the whole range of styles he's demonstrating

 

 

And the other composer is Kevin Penkin, an Australian composer who composed the score for Made in Abyss
Maybe not as impressive as the one above but I find his music very pleasant.
 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd like to mention the unfairly ignored anime show Michiko & Hatchin. Which was the directorial debut of Sayo Yamamoto (who also directed the very popular Yuri on Ice).

The whole team for this show is composed of most of the people who made Cowboy Bebop. They even had Shinichiro Watanabe as Music producer
They hired the Brasilian DJ Kassin to produce the music.

 

 

 

I encourage everyone to check this show out. it's one of the best anime I've ever watched. With very mature character writing and masterfully directed.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

So ready for the soundtrack to Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3. Tbh it’s my favorite TV soundtrack ever and almost every track from that series is incredible. I can only imagine the shit the two composers have come up with for the conclusion; especially with knowing what happens in the manga…

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4 hours ago, MaxMovieMan said:

So ready for the soundtrack to Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3. Tbh it’s my favorite TV soundtrack ever and almost every track from that series is incredible. I can only imagine the shit the two composers have come up with for the conclusion; especially with knowing what happens in the manga…

I'm personally more excited for the Final Season parts 4 and 5

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just finished the first part of the Final Chapter of AOT and ngl it definitely subverted my expectations but in a good way, especially with the music. They used tracks in certain scenes that I would’ve never expected or used had I been the music director but it’s still really good. Now we gotta wait till the final part in the fall🙄

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16 minutes ago, MaxMovieMan said:

Just finished the first part of the Final Chapter of AOT and ngl it definitely subverted my expectations but in a good way, especially with the music. They used tracks in certain scenes that I would’ve never expected or used had I been the music director but it’s still really good. Now we gotta wait till the final part in the fall🙄

I remember thinking in 2020 "I've gotta catch up on AOT, the final season is coming out now"

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1 hour ago, Not Mr. Big said:

I remember thinking in 2020 "I've gotta catch up on AOT, the final season is coming out now"

You gotta watch it if you haven’t it’s genuinely peak storytelling IMO. Especially in the final season overall with Eren’s arc.

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So I think you will like the music of Kaina of the Great Snow Sea as well.

 

 

Oh and by the way, my favorite anime composer is Sato Naoki. And his Heroic Age is one of the very best anime score.

Others Anime score I highly recommend are 交響詩篇エウレカセブン (Eureka 7), 蟲師 (mushishi),  Vinland Saga, Romeo X Juliet, ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ (Planetes), 幕末機関説 いろはにほへと(Intrigue in the Bakumatsu – Irohanihoheto)

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Yeah, that last episode of AoT was so great! The first part with the rumbling was both scary and sad as hell! And it was great that they brought back Bauklötze from S1 for

Spoiler

Hange's epic sacrifice

 

And the last minutes were so intense (with Splinter Wolf playing almost in full!) and I just got mad when it ended, knowing we have to wait at least 6 months for the final resolution. But if they do such a great job with the animation and the character development, I'm sure it will be worth the wait!

 

I agree that the AoT soundtrack is one of my favorite anime soundtracks ever and Sawano and Yamamoto have really done such a great job in conveying all the different emotional aspects of the story with lots of memorable themes!

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  • 5 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

What I only dreamed of and truely thought would never happen is happening.

 

The label Light in the Attic is going to release a 11 LP boxset of Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts' masterful soundtrack for the Cowboy Bebop anime series and movie.

 

Pre-orders are open.

https://lightintheattic.net/releases/9894-cowboy-bebop-lp-box?mc_cid=6132f36879&mc_eid=7536e9d303

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  • 1 month later...

Attack on Titan finale (The actual finale) comes out in about 9 days. I’m really hoping they bring back the track “Vogel Im Kafig” from season 1 since it hasn’t been used since I believe season 2 and at one point was like the main theme of the show. There’s a particular scene from the manga that I’m hoping gets scored with that track but we’ll just have to see. Either way I’m super excited for this and also bummed because this might be my favorite show of all time so for it to end is upsetting. The music is also some of the best I’ve ever heard from a piece of media.

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Agree! Really looking forward to how they close up the story, as I don't know anything about what happens in the manga. I've heard it's divisive, and I think it's not gonna be a very happy ending but I'm really excited to watch it as it's one of my favorite shows ever!

 

As for the music, Sawano's work is amazing, as well as Yamamoto's contributions in the Final Season, and I also feel that they should bring back some of classic themes from the first seasons for emotional closure, like "Vogel Im Kafig" or one of my favorite ones, "body-motion".

 

Anyway, really excited for this and I hope it doesn't disappoint!

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I can’t say I’m expecting much new Sawano music sadly, but I do hold it sliver of hope that Linked Horizon comes back to write one more song for the finale.

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I love his student Yamamoto just as much tbh and I’m sure he’ll be writing new tracks. I bet Sawano will write at least one or two tracks he has done that for the last two final season albums.

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Linked Horizon would be awesome! As for Sawano, I think there's a track from the last release that hasn't been used in the show yet, so perhaps they will use in the finale, which btw is already to be confirmed 1 hour and 30 minutes long approximately!

 

And I agree that Yamamoto's music has been as good for the most part. All the variations on Ashes on the Fire are brilliant, and I also loved his piano tracks like The Reason or Guilty Hero.

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Speaking of variations of Ashes on the Fire, it looks like we’re getting a remix of that track and the main Attack on Titan theme.

 

Honestly I’m at a loss for words I never would’ve imagined that they would do this my excitement has reached a new height. Also holy hell what a trailer I got emotional just watching it the animation is incredible.

 

Apparently Linked Horizon is back doing the opening and ending songs. The score for the final arc will be released on November 8th. This finale is the gift that keeps on giving!

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On 28/10/2023 at 5:38 AM, MaxMovieMan said:


Speaking of variations of Ashes on the Fire, it looks like we’re getting a remix of that track and the main Attack on Titan theme.

 

Honestly I’m at a loss for words I never would’ve imagined that they would do this my excitement has reached a new height. Also holy hell what a trailer I got emotional just watching it the animation is incredible.

 

Apparently Linked Horizon is back doing the opening and ending songs. The score for the final arc will be released on November 8th. This finale is the gift that keeps on giving!

That would be great! I should mention, I believe the trailer music is from this (officially written collaboration between Sawano and Yamamoto a few years ago, albeit I only see it released on… YouTube):

 

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It looks like the soundtrack for the last part of the Final Season it's going to be released on November 8th. It's just a few tracks, with only one Sawano track, meaning that most of the music will be based on old tracks. And I think the OP and ED songs will also be released that day!

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There’s actually going to be 15 songs on that album. And the track used in the trailer is a remix of the one Sawano and Yamamoto previously released. It’s on the album and is called “ət'aek till we are Ashes.”

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Nice! That's much better. I went back to the link and realized I hadn't read the part where it says 15 tracks. I hope that remix from the trailer posted above appears in some form or another in the episode, because I love how they mix Sawano's and Yamamoto's themes!

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A few of us (from JWFan and elsewhere) recently started to do curated “listening sessions” to the AoT music on discord (https://discord.gg/4vF4AzAx), if any of you would like to join! We’ve only done one session so far but intend to redo it in the next few weeks with people who missed it the first time.

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This is some of my nerding out speculation on the final album and what I think certain tracks will be:

 

There are 15 tracks total. I believe that there are 2 tracks that were new to the previous special which leaves the other 13 to the final special or just as bonus tracks. There are 2 of the 13 we already have officially heard and know about; one of them is the Attack on Titan x Ashes on Fire remix and the other is the music from one of the previous trailers that is still unreleased.

 

So 11 tracks remaining. I’m assuming Hiroyuki Sawano will have 3 tracks to himself like he has in the last 2 final season albums. One of these tracks is the ashes on fire remix I mentioned before which leaves the last 2 to be reprises of previous themes based on the fact he has only reprised his past themes on the final season albums so far. I’m gonna assume and hope that one of these is a reprise of “T-Kt” and the other is a reprise of both “Apple Seed” and “Vogel Im Kafig” like what the track “YouSeeBIGGIRL/T:T” did since it’s been a while that we heard them in the show and he hasn’t reprised them yet.

 

The last 9 tracks will all be Yamamoto I’m guessing. I did accidentally get spoiled on a couple of these tracks on Twitter and they are very good which makes me hyped for what’s left.

 

Anyways those are my theories on what the final album holds for us. If you were able to follow my ramblings bravo I applaud you.

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The Attack on Titan finale is out. So it’s over! Not gonna lie, not a fan of most of the track spotting in this final special. At least it’s definitely not what I would’ve done. I feel they could’ve gotten a lot more emotion out using different music at certain parts.

 

Besides that though what a finale! It followed the manga for the most part but there was one newly added scene that really did make the whole plot work better for me. It explained a lot more of Eren’s thought process and showed the truly futile situation he was in. Also animation and voice acting was top tier. Super happy they took their time and it turned out this way. Beautiful episode and beautiful series.

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Agreed on all points, I don’t think there was a single new piece of score in the last half. The new song is great though (but not sure if it really fits tonally either in the middle?). I hope the upcoming OST has some unused / concept music…

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Exactly if there are 15 tracks on this new album then I am dying to hear them. Where was this new music they recorded? In the finale I heard the Ashes on the Fire x Attack on Titan theme as well as a few stripped down versions of other themes and maybe one new action track for under a minute. Besides that though nothing. They never used “ELO” or the trailer music or “Vogel Im Kafig” at any point. Damn shame.

 

Spoiler

They seriously used the track “Traitor” for the most pivotal scene in the entire series with Eren’s death. What the fuck?!

 

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Great final episode! I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed it after reading so many negative opinions about the manga ending, but as far as I know, the ending is pretty much the same. I have some minor complaints with some details, but overall it was a really satisfying ending, even if quite tragic and sad. What a brilliant show!

 

As far as I recall, the only important new piece of music is the Ashes on the Fire x Attack on Titan mix, which I think worked great within the scene! Lots of music from the first seasons came back, and while I wish they had done some reworkings on old tracks, like Vogel im Kafig, I really liked that the found some space to play tracks like BARRIchestra or 2Volt almost in full! There are some weird decisions, like TRAITOR in that moment, which works for the action scene right before, but doesn't work as well with emotional beat of the moment, and I think something like Vogel im Kafig or even eye-water would have worked better.

 

Anyway, these are some small complaints on what is a fantastic ending and fantastic show, and I cannot wait to hear what kind of music the album will have. I'm also really looking forward to hearing the full versions of the songs! I particularly liked the bit that recalls Linked Horizon's Akatsuki no Requiem.

 

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That song has actually already been released in full (as a single), it’s the other LH song (for the Japanese broadcast, which rearranged it into episodes with a 90-second intro) which I really need to hear expanded.

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Yeah, found it!

 

What I'm wondering is what those other two songs are. Because they're supposed to be the opening and ending songs, but the episode as streamed on Crunchyroll didn't have them, so I don't know what they really are. Great songs anyway! I particluarly like Ai Higuchi's ED song, since Akuma no ko is one of my favorite endings in the whole show!

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The final two movie-length episodes are being rebroadcast in Japan as 7 normal-length episodes, with the OP and ED being the aforementioned extra songs.

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The website changed to only 5 tracks… disappointing. Even still I’m excited to see what these last 5 tracks have to offer. Makes a lot more sense to be honest for there to only be 5 songs considering how little new music was in the final specials.

 

Dumb how an official website can mess up that kind of info. Got my expectations way out of check. Was really looking forward to those last 10 tracks! :(
 

https://youtu.be/UdV7-zcrv0c?si=o_Xdy_7HxM7-6u5O

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Yeah, 5 tracks makes more sense, but I had also gotten my hopes up. Anyway, great stuff in here, like ət'aek till we are Ashes, which in the first half mixes parts of 0sk! I love the interplay between the Sawano and Yamamoto themes, and it's a perfect send off to what have essentially become the main themes of the show. I think that tracks plays in full when they're fighting all the different titans on Eren's back.

 

An Ordinary Day is the Rumbling scene after Eren's apology to Ramzi, and Liar is the Paths scene both from previous episode. I also really like Aim of the Fate which is the trailer music. I'm not sure if it appears in the last episode itself, so I will check it out again to be sure. And the same thing goes for Vanishment.

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