Uh, no.

Daisuke Asakura [浅倉大介]
Noriyuki Asakura [朝倉紀幸]

While their family names are pronounced the same, the kanji is different. They're not brothers.

another good set of composers is kou ohtani for gundam wing and Outlaw Star. i hope he comes back to do more music. the only recent one he did was shadow of the colossus

I'm just wondering why americans listen to anime music. I'm confused :( Do you listen to the lyrics that you don't understand (the hibishi koki tsubu stuff)...or the music in general?

I think it's a bit of both. You don't need to understand lyrics to enjoy music. Millions of english people like english music even when they can't make out what the hell is being sung.

If someone wants to understand the lyrics, they can look up translations, and then there's always the people who *gasp* do understand the lyrics on their own.

Don't forget the wonderful Haibane Renmei music.

There's anime music and there's anime songs. We've been discussing soundtracks for the most part, so there's more instrumentals involved than moon language vocals.

While we're on that subject though, I can happily listen to a vocal track whether it's in Japanese, Russian (Origa) or nonsense (Yoko Kanno). Understanding the lyrics might enhance my appreciation of the song, but it's not exactly crucial -- naturally, music plays a bigger role. For the record, I'm Asian and I have a bit of basic knowledge of the Japanese language. Not that being American automatically precludes you from knowledge of foreign language, either.

As for me, I don't like English songs. Not only because of the language: the voice they use isn't appealing to me, japanese voices are more charming), but especially because of the music itself, it's more interesting melodically.

I just don't like to listen to the radio, hearing that sort of pop music.

My reason for preferring Japanese Anime music is the fact that crappy lyrics can be easily hidden from my ears with good singing. Plenty of anime songs that have english lyrics that are just plain dorky. This seems to be the case with almost any song that comes from Japan that uses English. Either they can't judge what makes good lyrics for English speakers or they don't care because they can't understand a word of what's being said to them.

It's kind of funny, but oh well. Also I looked at japanese music videos. They are much much cleaner than americans. I have never seen a Japanese music video with excessive "club grinding". It always tells a story or they are on a concert stage; a stage of some sort. At least they don't have to conform to american ways for people to like them.

Only thing is, I'm sad that people think I am weird because I listen to japanese music. But of course the GFF answer is "who gives a f*ck what people think. Well to succeed in life you HAVE to have connections with people. If you scare them away with playing japanese music in your car it's kinda weird :(

Also, I don't want to know what they are saying, because then I use my other side of my brain while studying maths.


That's the Ashe disease, you follow whatever other people say if you are in minority. (in 30% of all cases, those 30% are people with a weak personality) It's sad.

Does anyone know the track in Brain PowerD OST 2 where you can find the exact same melody as in Music Box (Brain PowerD OST 1) but orchestrated instead. It really bothers me.

Maybe it's my imagination...

I thought nobody listen to CCS OST except me. I love the entire OST. They are so cheerful and unique on its own. I have the OST #4 but sadly, it's bootleg.:(

The Christmas Choir is great you should give it a listen.

What I'm looking for now is Kenji Kawaii's Fate/Stay Night. The OST is scheduled to be released in the end of this month. He's very classical and reminds me much of Kanno's. His compositions are powerful and using lot of SATB.

Rockman EXE soundtrack is very good, a very jazzy album (I love Enzan's theme a lot). But for uncertain reason, only the first album released, I wonder that happens because the 1st album didnt sell well. =(

heh

good anime always has good music :)

Beyond the Clouds (Promise of the ... )
okay i can't remember the other name.

But if you have seen Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe) then Beyond the Clouds is by the same person. Not to mention, it has a Really Really nice soundtrack :)

Its one of my favs, particularly the violin solos :D~
Anyways check it out, or watch the movie too if you have't

heh i didn't know shiro hamaguchi composed for anime ^^; only knew his arrangements for ff piano pieces which are indeed sugoiiii

You seem to have mentioned most of them :p
Joe Hisaishi would be the composer for most if not all of the miyazaki films :)

One soundtrack that I have recently fallen in love with is Kanno's Turn-A Gundam soundtrack. In my opinion, it is her best work by far, better than Escaflowne, Bebop, Macross Plus... all of them. It isn't often that I'm this enchanted and entranced by a soundtrack, but this one has managed to do it, and more.

This soundtrack has it all, classical, pop, techno, ambient mood songs, traditional japanese festival music, and even a little jazzy ditty that sounds like it could have come right out of a 1940's radio broadcast. Truly a work of art.

I find it that although I don't understand the lyrics, a lot of anime/j-pop music still uses the vocals as an instrument, so that it matches the pitch/volume of the rest of the instruments and blends in more. A lot of 80s/90s stuff used to be like that, but its kind of died off now.

Eurobeat stuff is similar to that as well, especially some in particular. I tend to listen to music as a whole rather than just the lyrics, and since they blend in with the rest it means I can do other things while I listen to it without taking my attention away from what I'm doing.

Hmm, does any of you listen to old times anime music? Personally I like the music of the 90s anime, it brings nostalgy. Try this song if you want to know the main stream of anime music in that era. :)

St. Seiya, one of the most influential anime during 90s also have that nuance.

When I say 80s and 90s music I'm talking about traditional artists, rather than music from anime.

Traditional Artists? I can only think of those classic OP's and ED's from the Gundam Animes. Some had a beat to it and most of them were just..80's and 90's like. Definately unforgettable.

It's this song that makes me love anime music. There is nothing else out there that could possibly use these modulation techniques and sound effects.



This Turn-A Gundam must be something good... Have you yet compared it to Brain PowerD? Because Brain PowerD has one of the best melodies I've ever heard.

I dunno if it's counted as Anime music, but the Guilty Gear stage music by Daisuke Ishiwatari is awesome!