[GirgleMirt]

Its strange, lately I've watched some anime and was amazed at the quality if the music...

Yakono Kanno (Macross+ & Escaflowne), Yuki Kajiura (Noir), actually, the more I think about it, the more I remember liking the music of most asiatic material (movies, animee, video games) over what is done 'here'...

Right now, I have noir in mind. Remove the soundtrack and IMHO you'd have missed a huge part of the experience; almost removed the soul of the serie. Actually, a few days after seeing the serie, I think I understand a lot more about the characters just by listening to the soundtrack and reminiscing a few scenes... Amazing how some of the tracks can bring forth strong emotions...

So why would there be a huge gap in the caliber of the music?! Could it be that the asiatics scene is just much more 'advanced' than here?

Do we lack good composers? Or maybe there's just much more talented composers there?

Its as if I was just slapped in the face: "Thats how it should be". As if I was listening for the first time to something really good...

I have heard some good soundtracks from here.. Some which come to mind: Braveheart, Requiem for a Dream, Memento, I think Eyes Wide Shut wasn't bad either, but even so, seems that in general, asiatic soundtracks are much much better than here!

 

[Braver]

well, I'm guessing it's because Hollywood has certain unspoken rules about how stuff should be. tends to smother creativity.

the asiatic scene, and especially anime seems to be much more free in their style.

or just just because anime rules

 

[saint.panda]

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[redshifter]

anime ost's follow the action and emotions in the film more closely than many real-life films. for example, the scene in "ghost in the shell" where the chorus of traditional japanese singers accompanies the visuals of travelling through the city at night, showing the loneliness of living in a huge, crowded city--a very powerful combination.

 

[saint.panda]

Quote:

Originally posted by redshifter anime ost's follow the action and emotions in the film more closely than many real-life films.

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i second that. it's also easier for animes to create a synergy between the visuals and audio. you can let an anime character fight as if he/she is dancing to the music, but i doubt real life actors can acutally do that.

i also think that many animes put a lot more emphasis on music than western series/movies. the best example is hackSign, where there's pretty much music all the time. or in noir. damn, just how sweet is that strings-theme "canta perme"...
anime music also has more different styles. whereas in hollywood movies it's almost ALWAYS orchestral music (modern classics), in anime you have jazz (cowboy bebop), japanese traditionals, medieval-like music in fantasies, orchestral music, rock (bubblegum crisis), music with biblical themes (evangelion) and so and so forth.
you are simply given more diversity.

 

[D-EJ915]

I think the fact that most people that write for an Anime or the producers, etc. actually know what they are doing unlike most american people in those professions. If you listen to theme songs these days, they aren't really in-touch with the material...maybe it's just me.

 

[strohmie]

The anime and film industries are simply very different beasts. With film music, you're generally stuck with orchestral, choral, or light electronic music -- that's what American moviemakers want and what American filmgoers expect. The largest deviation is perhaps the Media Ventures group (Zimmer et. al) who add some rock elements into their scores. You've also got the vast majority of composers with classical training, with few exceptions (Danny Elfman being a notable one). Most of those rules just aren't there for anime music.

 

[Guardian]

neon genesis evangelion?

 

[rsaavedra]

Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke both have excellent soundtracks. In Ghost in the shell, those drums and the singing of the opening song, wonderful. Also, when she goes down deep sea diving in the ocean, great background music, as well as in the city scenes. Don't know why anime music is so good, in any case I do like it a lot!

Neon Genesis Evangelion Dirth & Rebirth, don't have this movie but rented it once. As a movie I didn't like it, but that Bach Cello suite is just so gorgeous.

BTW, speaking about anime, check out the top animations of all time according to IMDB, three of the top 5 are Japanese movies (top 1=Spirited Away), the 2 non-Japanese being Pixar made computer animated movies, rather interesting:
http://us.imdb.com/Charts/Votes/animation

 

[LargeSock]

Apologies if I assume too much here, but it seems to me as though only the most popular/best anime series and movies make it over to North America. As such, they'd have a larger percentage of good soundtracks, since it's more likely that the ones with bad soundtracks simply wouldn't achieve much popularity.

It's the same reason, I feel, as the feeling that foreign films are better than American films, simply because so few come over here and the ones that do are the cream of the crop.

Again...just a theory.

 

[saint.panda]

Quote:

Originally posted by LargeSock It's the same reason, I feel, as the feeling that foreign films are better than American films, simply because so few come over here and the ones that do are the cream of the crop.

i think that statement is very true although it might apply more to movies than animes.
if you consider music that accompanys animations by disney or dreamsworks, their music is also great and uses different musical backgrounds (african in lion king, asian in mulan) but it's always a very western-adapted-version.

 

[xtreme4099]

really dig some of the music for Naruto -- some the tender flute work for hallmark moment scenes ..are really amazing .... anyone know if i can find some more of that genre of music ... very ambientic flute with drumming, piano etc...

 

[strohmie]

Quote:

Originally posted by LargeSock Apologies if I assume too much here, but it seems to me as though only the most popular/best anime series and movies make it over to North America. As such, they'd have a larger percentage of good soundtracks, since it's more likely that the ones with bad soundtracks simply wouldn't achieve much popularity.

Yes, generally only the best animes come over to the U.S. But many of the best anime soundtracks never make it over here just the same. Jin-Roh by Hajime Mizoguchi, Brain Powerd by Yoko Kanno (horrible anime, supposedly, but a fantastic score), Heroic Legend of Arslan by Noriyuki Tsuru...you'd never hear any of those if you simply waited for the anime itself to show up in America.

There are some absolutely crappy anime soundtracks. Some of the better animes have "meh" scores, and some crappy animes have great scores.


edit: As another note, Americans are going to hear more Jo Hisaishi scores in general because there are a number of Ghibli films that make it oevr to the U.S. All the same, there are well over a hundred albums Hisaishi has released that never see their way to America. American won't get all of Yoko Kanno's great soundtracks, etc. etc. So even though we do get some great soundtracks over here, there are plenty more fantastic ones that we'd have to import.

 

[Guardian]

Quote:

Originally posted by rsaavedr Neon Genesis Evangelion Dirth & Rebirth, don't have this movie but rented it once. As a movie I didn't like it, but that Bach Cello suite is just so gorgeous.

Yes, it is. The original music written for both the movies and the television series, as well as the use of classical works and the jazz/bossa nova standard 'fly me to the moon' are very excellent.

If you watched Death & Rebirth without first seeing the television series, then that's why you didn't like it. It's no more than a recap and a thirty-minute preview of End of Evangelion. This is one of my favorite movies/series/artistic anythings and I highly recommend a proper viewing of both the entire tv series and the EoE film.

 

[GirgleMirt]

What does OST stand for?

Need other recommendations for anime with good music

But if the anime is good it dosen't hurt either