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Favorite Anime Soundtrack
Following up on the Favorite Anime topic I thought I'd see what soundtracks people really like from anime series or movies.
No AMVs please.
Following up on the Favorite Anime topic I thought I'd see what soundtracks people really like from anime series or movies.
No AMVs please.
My favorites:
I've liked lots of others and used to have an extensive anime music collection but found most of them only meant anything to me in relation to the importance of the anime at the time - but the ones I listed have stuck around and even had other folks, not interested in anime, like them as well.
Anything by Yoko Kanno is pretty much guaranteed to be amazing as she is an absolute genius, but the Cowboy Bebop OST #1 is an undeniable masterpiece. Macross Plus and GITS:SAC+2nd Gig are up there amongst her best too though. A Sai Ën from M+ is still one of my all time favorite songs... it gave me chills when I first heard it and still does. Something about those shrill voices gets my goosebumps going, which is also probably why I like Making of a Cyborg from GITS and Doll's Polyphony from Akira so much, too.
The Pillows are great. Apparently they got them for season 2 as well.
Yoko Kanno was great too. The Seatbelts was her band right? When I was in high school, a friend had every single song from the show. They had everything Yoko kanno and the seatbelts ever did and he let me download it. I haven't heard that stuff in Forever.
Just saw The Pillows live in NYC a few weeks ago. Absolutely amazing music. The good thing about their stuff for FLCL Alternative and Progressive is that some of them are remastered tracks of their previous, non-FLCL studio work that I've always been a huge fan of.
And yep, The Seatbelts is/was Yoko Kanno's band for Cowboy Bebop. That OST is outstanding but as Cfabbro said, anything she does is great.
Ost - original soundtrack?
Yep!
I want to listen to the Pillows, but I'll get nostalgic. Lol. I will work myself up to it. Had no idea they were touring.
You could always try to listen to their stuff not associated with FLCL. Albums like Good Dreams, Pied Piper or Trial are great!
I just saw this for the first time over the weekend, how such a fantastic movie went completely under my radar for nearly a decade is mind boggling.
Is Ghost in the Shell cheating? That track in particular brings me nearly or all the way to tears every time.
If not, then probably Boogiepop Phantom or the obvious FLCL.
I recently rewatched Your Name and really love the soundtracks in there. The animation is phenomenal too.
I liked how they portrayed modern Japanese life in a realistic manner, at least as far as I can tell since I've never been there. Subtle things like the girl sleeping on a tatami while the boy sleeps on a bed, difference in room sizes due to the high real estate price in Tokyo, using a lined notebook vertically due to the writing system, the presense of corruption etc; I live for details and subtlety, and this movie delivers.
Just FYI for people that don't know, the entire Kimi no Na wa OST was done by the band Radwimps! Very good stuff.
Samurai Champloo has a pretty great soundtrack. Somebody already mentioned Boogiepop Phantom but I'll second that as being very good.
Yuru Camp recently had a really good OST. Lots of emotive strings and really nice melodies, varied too and they’ve got a lot of character to them. They’re also decently long tracks that move through different progressions and ahhh it’s really good.
Evangelion (Good, or Don't Be) and Gurren Lagann (Nikopol).
Also, the strange comedy song CDs / character song singles of Ranma 1/2, Azumanga Daioh, and Negima.
All links Youtube.
Nobody has said K-On! so I'm gonna say K-On!
All the rest of my favorites has been covered in this post already.
I have a bunch of video game soundtracks I listen to, but generally I don't listen to anime soundtracks because they don't really work as albums. There can be super active loud music and then very muted quiet songs, and that ruins my listening experience. The few that I do have are "split" soundtracks where the active and quiet songs are on different releases. The soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven's Door is a great example.
That being said, I am a huge HUGE fan of Yuki Kajiura. Nobody sounds like her, not even by a mile. I have watched several anime just because I found out she was involved and I have never been led astray.
I discovered the Japanese power metal band Galneryus because Daughters of Mnemnosyne used their songs "Alsatia" and "Cause Disarray" as the opening and closing themes. Not sure that counts as a soundtrack, though. I sometimes listen to the Hellsing OST albums Raid and Ruin while working. Sometimes that weird jazz just does it for me.
Kill la Kill definitely has my favorite soundtrack. Made in Abyss had a pretty good one too.
I love Swordland from Sword Art Online, it is the best OST I've ever heard. I'm even learning how to play it on piano, the piano version from Tehishter sounds awesome.
.hack//signs had Yuki Kaijura do their whole OST, which was great but she was also a member of Kalafina that did some of the OST for Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
The music for Sakamichi no Apollon is are nearly all jazz standards remade by Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts, which are up there as my favorites along with the Cowboy Bebop OST.
I can really relate to the lyrics of Hanasaku Iroha's OST.
But I'm surprised nobody's said Steins;Gate yet, the new OP for Steins;Gate 0 is great!
Cowboy Bebop. I listen to it to concentrate at work