Last week on Joe’s Anime Talk, a listener asked what my favorite anime soundtrack was. This got me thinking recently about my love and appreciation for anime soundtracks. I began listening to movie soundtracks when I was in high school, with my favorites including Hans Zimmer and James Horner. Naturally, I began to have an affinity for the background music in anime.

This is an article series from last year that I’ve neglected to keep up with. Rather than suddenly resume the countdown, I decided to start over and go through all ten of my top 10 favorite anime composers in the next few months. Besides making some changes to my list, I have also updated the audio and rewritten large sections. Enjoy!

Oshima Michiru is decently well known in the realm of videogame music, composing scores for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Ico. She’s done a bit of anime music, her work for Full Metal Alchemist and BECK standing out notably. To me, Sora no Woto is the soundtrack that best exemplifies Oshima’s work.

Sora no Woto is a 13 episode slice of lifer set in a fictionalized pre-modern Europe. The scenery is beautiful, but Oshima’s score really brings much of the flavor out of the show.

Apres la pluie le beau temps

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Brass is a thematic element of the show (playing a central role of the plot as well), and it appears in the soundtrack in various ways, from loud and bombastic to soft and melodious. “Apres la pluie le beau temps” has that classic, reminiscent feel.

Destinee

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I really like the contrast in this track — the dramatic buildup leads to a gentler melody and develops as the song progresses. The song sounds rather similar to John Williams’ “Across the Stars” from Star Wars Episode II, though the theme is quite different. As underwhelming as I found Sora no Woto to be, the soundtrack really saves the anime from utter mediocrity. It served to accentuate the conflict in the series far beyond the quality of the exposition. I found myself being tricked into empathy with a particularly well placed score, and there’s no better example than with “Servante de Feu” (more…)