Let's talk about music. "Despacito ft.Daddy Yankee by Luis Fonsi plays" No no no, not that stuff. I'm talking about music in anime. The good shit. "Dreaming Traveler of an Integrated Circuit by Hiro Shimono plays" With any medium music can be used as a powerful weapon, and anime is no exception. As all through its history there have been some absolutely beautiful examples littered throughout. With this video I wanted to show a little appreciation about some of the ways music has been used in anime. And for anyone who got confused with my animation video, this is not meant to be an in-depth breakdown. This is not a deep analysis. This is just my casual music appreciation thread. So to clear things up, this time let's just name the video Let's just call this "Music In Anime". To make things easier to digest this time, I've separated everything I want to talk about to some nice little bite-sized categories. So let's start things off with By having a unique quality to the soundtrack or even a single song, perhaps using a genre or instrument you wouldn't normally associate with that type of show allows the score to stand out even more, and if done right enhances the experience or even revolutionizes the perception we have between a type of music and a genre of media. I'm talking about the use of bagpipes in Fairy Tail, how Nujabes' beats in Samurai Champloo (sponsored by Herbal Essences) completely transformed the association we have of lo-fi hip-hop beats to traditional samurai, with Eurobeat and Initial D doing a very similar thing to street racing. And using free jazz in Gundam Thunderbolts, perfectly blending the controlled chaos of jazz with the actual chaos of a battlefield. Strengthened by its innovative use of mixing the diegetic jazz music our characters are listening to with the non-diegetic score. Wohoo, yeah look at those big boy words. A unique score can add so much personality to a show giving it that extra layer of appeal. And I think the best example I can use to hammer this point home is when comparing the original Hellsing anime to Hellsing Ultimate. Now anyone who's watched both series can pretty much agree that Hellsing Ultimate is better in basically every way, except for arguably the music. Now this isn't to say the music was bad, far from it. If we look at the soundtrack that's mainly comprised of orchestral tracks with the occasional opera choir, it's very suiting for the themes and tone of the show, but that's kind of it. It does its job and does it well, but there's nothing really distinct or unique about it. And that's saying something for a show about modern undead vampires fighting nazi zombies. Now if we listen to some of the tracks from the original (Hellsing anime) (Alucard's Theme from Hellsing OST plays) You hear it and you just think "Oooh man. What is this sexy piano? Is it getting hot in here? Am I being seduced?" "Damn, Alucard you smooth motherfucker." "Butter me up and take me home because I'm sure you're about to show me a good time." Alucard: "Nice.." The jazzy influence beats of the original anime's OST just has so much more character and style in it, than the epic orchestral choir even if the latter is more thematically suited. And for that reason It's just far more memorable. When I think of Helsing my mind immediately goes back to these tracks, even if I only remember the events of Hellsing Ultimate. Now I'm not saying the music always needs to stand out, sometimes its job is to not detract from what's happening on screen. I'm just highlighting what it could possibly add to it. But there are some anime where the music is definitely one of, if not the main stars of the show. Here I'm talking about anime where the music is such an essential part of the show's identity, that to replace the music would be to essentially change the anime at its core. I'm talking about things like Cowboy Bebop's legendary musical numbers, Radwimps' contribution to Your Name and Daft Punk's full-on animated album in Interstella 5555 5, 5, 5, 5 Hi, is this Domino's Pizza? I think a lot of these can be attributed to the fact that in these examples there were scenes in the anime that were tweaked according to the music, as opposed to the music being composed after the visuals had been done. (Makoto) Shinkai changed up scenes in the scripts according to the songs Radwimps composed, with very similar things happening in how (Yoko) Kanno and (Shinichiro) Watanabe were working during (Cowboy) Bebop, and Interstella five-six-seven-eight was a music video stretched over an album. So yeah, we could play You Say Run over it, but why would we? Stupid question, let's do it anyway. (You Say Run from My Hero Academia OST plays) As I mentioned in my Your Name video though, the series that epitomizes this the most is FLCL's iconic rock soundtrack done by The Pillows. Now I've already said that the entire show feels like a string of loosely connected music videos. I mean, fuck they certainly weren't connected by plot, He says watching a red robot pop out of a literal dickhead to suplex a bigger robot hand before being domesticated by getting his head smashed in with a bass guitar. God, I miss this fucking show! Which is why one of the few things that holds the series together and gives it a bit of cohesion is The Pillows' music. The songs don't feel like they are tracks written to accompany any kind of visuals, it feels like just a full-on album as even the tracks without vocals are instrumentals of tracks with them. But because of this and because of the way the scenes were integrated with the songs, these songs and the band are a central part of the show. It's to the point where all my pessimism and skepticism surrounding the newly announced sequels culminated in this reaction for the trailer. Okay, this is looking all right. I mean, I'm still not too excited cause we don't really need a sequel, and I'm still highly wary cause none of the original team are behind- This thing is gonna be amazing! It's gonna be the best thing ever! Nothing could possibly go wrong! WHOOO! As with entire soundtracks that we associate with the show, singular tracks can also carry the same if not a much heavier weight behind it. And I'd like to talk about that in this section called Heh, I know what you're thinking. "Gigguk, you literary title genius." I know. We can look at how music can be used to condition you into feeling an emotional response. Let me give you an example. For anyone who's seen Anohana. What do you feel when you hear this track? (Secret Base from Anohana OST plays) Uhh, be right back, gonna go cry myself to sleep again! Now I actually love Anohana but even I have wised up at the use of this song at the end of every episode which plays at the most emotional moments. And because of this, every time we hear the track we associate it with feeling sad and emotional which builds and builds culminating in the final episodes which I can only describe as a full-on bukakke of ugly cry. It's like with Pavlov's Dog, the experiment in the 1890s where Ivan Pavlov managed to condition a dog into salivating by ringing a bell every time the dog was given food, to the point where the dog would start salivating at the bell sound even when there was no food. Ivan Pavlov was probably there looking at his dog like "Heh, what a stupid dog." "What a stupid dog to be tricked by such a simple trick." And here humanity is a 100 years later going "Uhuhu Menma!" And you see this in use all over anime, Clannad, Little Busters, hell pretty much every Key show. And it's not just limited to sad responses either. You have How about the... And... You know, the character that's hired a guy to follow them around with the boombox everywhere so every time they appear on screen the music shouts "HEY GUYS, IT'S YA BOI COMING AT YOU LIVE!" "BE SURE TO SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON TO SEE ME ANNIHILATE KIRA." By building association you build the impact it can have on the audience. You can even boil it down to a melody, for example, you can have a simple baby version where you lay out a melody so the audience builds some familiarization. Then when you really needed it to hit you, inject the testosterone, increase the musical layers, and you just let it rip for full effect. Conversely it can also be used to subvert your expectations. Bleach had one of the most unique victory songs in Shonen. I mean speaking of hiring a boom box carrier, Ichigo hide a full-on group of soul singers to follow him about every time he was about to do something awesome. But one effective way they were able to frame how completely overpowered Aizen was as a villain was to have him do this. Did you catch that? No, it's not the fact that he caught the sword with one finger. It's that he literally stops the bloody victory music! Fucking what?! By completely subverting the association of that track with Ichigo kicking ass, it told us that there was absolutely no safe space with this villain which was a fantastic way to build up how much of a threats this individual was. Wooh, that was a long segment. What are we talking about next? (Sorairo Days from Gurren Lagann OST plays) Oh, yeah. How could I forget, ...or as I like to call it... You know the drill. We've reached the end. It's episode 24. Episode 12, for all you hip millennials out there. We're in extra time, bases are loaded and all hope looks lost. But as your main boy gears up for one final attack you hear the first few beats of a familiar tune. It's the opening. You look over to your pal Tommy and he's looking at you. Both of you aren't prepared, but you both know what has to happen. You give a final approving nod, and as the chills run down your spine, in sync you both unzip your pants because you know, IT'S TIME, TO NUT. What I described was probably a 100% accurate description of an experience you've had in a climax of an anime. And this goes back to the music that we associate with stuff. As you have to listen to an opening every time you watch a show, or you know at least once if you end up skipping most openings like me. What this means is- Wait, what?! "If you end up skipping most openings like me." "If you end up skipping most openings like me." "If you end up skipping most openings like me." "911, what's your emergency?" "Hi, I need to... I like to report a hate crime please." What this means is there is that guaranteed association we talked about earlier. But because most openings are designed to hype you up to see the actual show, that is the perfect emotional association to have which is why playing the opening at the show's climax is pretty much a guaranteed insta-cum even though everyone uses this technique. Lastly, I wanted to quickly mention Great music can elevates a good anime into all new heights. But what I finds way more interesting is for me, how it can make bad anime kind of watchable and enjoyable. I remember watching the first few seconds of Guilty Crown and being immediately captivated by the opening scene playing this beautiful song. What a way to open a show. You look at this opening and you think "Man, this is gonna be something special." "This is something I need to pay attention to because it could turn out fantastic." And then the second half of the series hits, and it's just like.. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU FOOL! But what gets me is that despite the complete mess that the show turned into, there were still scenes that grabs me when it had absolutely no right to do so. Because it's hard not to be just a little bit engrossed for a second when you have beautiful tracks alongside the absolutely bombastic action music. even if the scenes that accompanied them were a fucking mess of a dog turd. See, that's the thing about good music pieces. It can make you, for a second, forgets about the rest of the shitshow surrounding a series to help engross you into a scene or a moment because that's the power it has. As much as I have memed this scene from Tokyo Ghoul √A, even I have to admit that the acoustic version of Unravel is powerful as fuck. Never before has the voice of a man who sounds like he permanently has his bollocks trapped in a vice grip sounded so soothing. In fact the entire soundtrack of Tokyo Ghouls second season, out of nowhere was pretty damn awesome compared to the previous season, despite the season itself being... Uhhh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Because you know what, taken by itself I actually really really fucking liked this scene. The raw musical piece paired with the slow pacing of Kaneki and the long shots made for this soothing experience. But taken in the context of the rest of the series, and it's just like.. "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams by Green Day plays." Uhhh Okay, what about the rest of the characters? Is, is Tokyo (Ghoul) still running? What I want to end on is just talking about Zankyou No Terror for a bit, because to this day it remains one of the most unique scores I've heard in an anime and one of my favorites. Not only taking inspiration from beautiful atmospheric Icelandic music which in itself is rare in anime, but juxtaposing that against the hyper realistic art style in a chaotic plot about terrorism which really shouldn't have worked, culminated in some of the most beautiful and poetic experiences I've had watching anime even through its suspect writing. It's what cemented Yoko Kanno as my favorite anime composer of all time. Which is a very cliche answer in the mountains of talented anime composers out there. But what this showed me is how diverse she can be, and after many many years of outstanding work in her years of working in anime, was still able to pull out something so entirely different from anything we've heard before yet still have it be an absolute masterpiece. In the end what I really wanted to hammer down is that music is something I highly value. Not only in anime but in my own work as well. One of my favorite compliments I can get from a comment is.. "Hey, I love the music choices for this video!" And that's because I'm a dumb fucker who spends way too much time trying to pick the perfect song choices to match the exact tone I have in my head as I apply a lot of the things I've talked about in my own work. And I didn't even get to talk about everything I wanted to talk about. Music isn't always at the forefront of a show, Sometimes it's simply the scores job to support the visuals, character and plot, which take the spotlight. But I have a soft spot for composition that go that extra mile. So, I hope in the least that this video has reminded you about some of your favorite uses of music in anime. Because, it's thanks to this magical world that I can proudly shove my phone playlist on the speakers at a party to have people turn around and ask.. "Wow, where does this beautiful music come from?" (Dreaming Traveler of an Integrated Circuit by Hiro Shimono plays again) ("Ride on a Shooting Star" by The Pillows plays, under the following) Hey guys, hope you enjoyed that video thank you very much this month to - and everyone else on Patreon for helping to support me for this month and making this video possible. This probably won't be the last time I make a video with focus on music in anime, but these are just all the small things I wanted to mention that I feel didn't warrant their own video. Anyway, I'm going to go back in my cave now till the end of year review, so until then I've been Gigguk and I will see you all next time.
The Instant Nut Moment
That's one way to describe it.
Mentions of music:
Literary genius Gigguk speaks to my heart.
I feel he forgot one of my favorite ones:
"When the ED breaks out of its boundaries"
When the ED breaks out of its usual 90 secounds to blow your mind at the last moments. It becomes more then just a ending jingle, it becomes an actual part of the series.
With great examples as
JoJo S1 E6
Shokugeki no Soma S1 E9
The most recent Love Live Sunshine episode
and many more.
These are the ones when you think it ends, but the ED wont let the ride end yet. Instead it gives you a few extra seconds at the very end of the episode to blow you away. It isn't always epic, but it always sticks with you.
"He literally stopped the victory music"
Reminds me of the time inJoJo Part 3
Always makes me laugh when he does that Re:Zero vocal track.
And god damn I completely agree with his assertion on Zankyou no Terror. The story and characters were borderline ass in the second half, but the music and the visuals kept me going and I still consider it a 8/10 almost entirely because of the aesthetics.
Fuck yes.
Surprised Gigguk left out ED inserts, given his love of JoJo and Re Zero.
Fuck man playing that anohana music was not fair. ;_;