Finally got round to seeing Rebellion. I don't quite know what to think yet, probably give it a rewatch soon to confirm things as the series was better the second time round (regardless of the fact I loved it first time anyway). Visuals were stunning, Kyouko the characters were great, that ending has droves of potential speculah for a follow-up and, of course, the soundtrack.
Damn is the soundtrack good. I prefer it to Beginnings/Eternal's soundtracks by quite a lot, although it doesn't match up to the vanilla series OST. Colorful and Kimi no Gin no Niwa were both great, Misterioso was used effectively and the actual score was fantastic and well placed. Favourite tracks are probably The Worst Ending, Noi!, Absolute Configuration, You Are Here and I Was Waiting For This Moment.
^Gaaah I just need to watch it. I think I will tonight and then watch it again with my brother. (He is not home half the time anymore. We used to watch so much together. *sigh*) I do love the music, and now I believe my favorite off this ost is I was waiting for this moment. And the title fits perfectly too. heh I love Hanae's singing, and everything about the song. Could listen to it all day. It reminds me of The Battle is to the Strong, which I like.
^ I dunno, but since I hear Yuriko most, and a bit of Hanae, I bet its like that, we wont know unless we ask Kajiura-san or wait till they perform it live (now I am going to ask)
And we've actually have had a track with upbeat cello, at least I think it's upbeat. It's 微かなる煽ぎの彩 from the Elemental Gerade ost. (Don't have the English translation of the title.) So I stand corrected.
What did you tell Ms. Kajiura regarding the overall direction you wanted to take with the film score?
TSURUOKA: First, regarding the main themes we'd used in the TV series, we decided to narrow down the ones we were going to use, and I spoke to her pretty specifically about where I wanted to hear them. Like, "We're using Homura's theme for this scene." But really the only part that I explicitly specifiied was Homura's theme.
[THE "CAKE RAP" WITH LYRICS BY INU CURRY WAS CHALLENGING]
Did the director make any requests regarding the score?
TSURUOKA: The director was concerned with climactic scenes, like the scene at the end where everyon fought. Normally the parts where you'd place an insert song or something are special scenes, so he did tell us that he wanted us to make them distinct from the other scenes.
The scene where everyone's battling together to liberate Homura is certainly climactic, but the story does go on from there. Did you consider how to distinguish it from the true ending?
TSURUOKA: The battle scenes are "special scenes" rather than climactic ones. In other words, they're highlights, so we decided to make the music dramatic as a type of service.
I hear that Ms. Kajiura watched the storyboards being shot while writing the music according to the content, but since you re-recorded the dialogue, the image of the music for the second half must have changed.
TSURUOKA: Yes. That's why for the second half especially, when we handed her the video, we told her,"We're re-doing the recording from this point." And we told her what kind of feel the second half would have. That there would also be changes to the visuals, and the voice acting would also be quite different. As for the parts of the recording that we were re-doing, we were specific, and we toldher that the voices would be softer in tone, and that the expressions would also change quite a bit.
So were communications between you and Ms. Kajiura smooth regarding the music for the first half?
TSURUOKA: Yes. As far as the story goes, there's nobody more knowledgeable than Ms. Kajiura, so there wasn't anything for me to say. Maybe just for really unique parts: I told her what we were aiming for in those scenes. Like, "Here, a Cake Rap is suddenly going to start."
That Cake Rap scene did look like a challenging scene.
TSURUOKA: That was the part that gave us the most trouble during the recording sessions as well. The song wasn't finished yet, so we just decided on a tempo and made clicking sounds, and recorded the voices first. We gave that to Ms. Kajiura and had her write the song. But how to take Inu Curry's lyrics and arrange it to this tempo? That was a major headache for us on set. Not only that, but we had to match the action of the visuals with that tempo, so it was extremely challenging.
Regarding the lyrics written by Inu Curry, did they explain them to you in person?
TSURUOKA: Yes. They brough me the lyrics and said, "Please use these." But nobody would've understood what it meant unless we heard Inu Curry's explanation. No one but Inu Curry knew what the purpose of those lyrics was, and no one but Inu Curry could have explained them. Initially, the Cake Rap was written to be recited aloud by everyone. It was like a melody to be hummed at a regular beat.
Do you mean that it was like a nursery son, or a song sung during a game, like "Kagome Kagome (Japanese folksong)?" Along with Inu Curry's song, this movie also boasted a dance motif, making it a film packed with musical elements. Were you conscious of that while you were working on it?
TSURUOKA: It'snot as if I was planning to move it along with music. But since the film iswhat it is, then I thought let's stick these kinds of songs in it - I did have that in mind. And so we ended up with over 60 songs in all.
[I WANT PEOPLE TO WATCH IT OVER AND OVER AND ENJOY IT BY EAR AS WELL]
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[to be continued]
Because it has so many musical elements, the music does add to its allure even if you're doing that consciously. It seems to me that thanks to all the music, the movie has a certain flow that runs through its entirety.
TSURUOKA: I do that that we've created an overall flow. Well we are seeking songs that match the flow of the visuals from the moment that we place our order for music. It's just that this time around, it was so difficult to read the storyboards, I just didn't have a clue what they were about (laugh)! Even if I looked at the story boards, I couldn't envision how these visuals were going to be in the end.
If you can't envision it, it must be hard to decide what kind of song to add, too. Especially for the Inu Curry sequences, maybe?
TSURUOKA: Right. For me, the hardest part about making this film was trying to understand the storyboards in my own way so that I could order the music. I couldn't do it the way I would read normal storyboards. I've been doing this for nearly 30 years, and usually when I flip through storyboards, I can more or less get a sense of the rhythm, the scale of the music, and where to insert songs. That much I can grasp. But in Inu Curry's case, nothing I'd master till now worked for me, and I also had no idea what the visuals would look like in action. First, I figured out what was going to happen in each scene to find a way to grasp the overall story - "OK, that's what's going on here," - and only after that I was able to get a feel for the rhythm and scale.
After you'd seen the finished film, what was your personal opinion?
TSURUOKA: I've been working on Madoka Magica since the TV series, so in some ways I was just following a pattern, but on one hand it felt like a renewal; it really did have the atmosphere of a "New Chapter (Rebellion)." In particular, I felt that we were able to match the music to the film. As for the transformation scenes, I'm impressed that Ms. Kajiura was able to match the music up so perfectly, I was flabbergasted.
With the Blu-ray release, it looks like we'll be able to enjoy the music of the film as well.
TSURUOKA: We deliberately created "secret meanings", so there might be parts that people won't understand even if they watch it over and over. But it's still a fun movie to watch and re-watch, and I'm sure that even those who've seen it in the theaters will find new angles and new discoveries by watching it repeatedly.
It's true that it's brimming over with information, so even those who've seen it in the theaters might not have a good grasp of it all yet.
TSURUOKA: First of all, the way it's presented visually is incredible, so the first time you watch it, all you can do is just follow those visual expressions with your eyes, and you're done. But that means that you won't be able to pay much attention to what we do (laugh), so I hope people re-watch it with this thought in mind: "My eyes are accustomed to it now, so this time let me really hear it." "Maybe this time I'll watch the performances". There are so many little details in this film, so I hope that people don't simply put it away as a collector's item, but watch it and enjoy it from time to time.
YOTA TSURUOKA
Animation Sound Director, CEO of Rakuonsha. Has worked on the sound for numerous animated series such as Monogatari Series Second Season, Saki.
-The Music of Madoka Magica- Taking Advantage of the Movie Format-
[WATCHING THE STORYBOARDS BEING SHOT OVER AND OVER AS I CREATED THE MUSICAL FLOW]
The first thing I'd like to ask is how you felt about Rebellion as it was completed.
KAJIURA: Whenever I write music, I re-watch the unfinished product repeatedly. It's called storyboard shooting, and I wrote the music as I watched the visuals of the animate storyboards with the actors' voices added in. So when I saw the completed film, I was surprised by the visuals. They surpassed my expectations - "I'm sure this scene is going to look intense" - and it was breath-taking to see. Another thing was that there were all these unique pauses that never would have worked in ordinary films, which seemed to have become even bolder than before. When I was writing the music, I wondered why on earth there were such long pauses in certain scenes, but then I saw why. It was really full of surprises for me. But my first impression was straightforward - "This is intriguing".
Did you see any big differences in the final film in terms of pictures and directing?
KAJIURA: In terms of changes, it had become something completely different. The storyboard shoots were in black and white, and the artwork was abridged. That's why, when I saw the finished film, all I could think of for every scene was "Wow! Amazing! Amazing!" But as for how the visuals would be set in motion, or at what timing the dialogue would be inserted, nothing was changed from the storyboard shoot version. I think that's why the music for this film are all timed and they fit the atmosphere perfectly - they sound like music written for each scene.
You've done that before haven't you? Written songs while watching the storyboard shoots for an animated feature?
KAJIURA: Yes I have. I think this is unique to anime movies, but if you can look at the storyboard shoots, it's so much easier to add in the music. It's not as if you absolutely have to have them, but in terms of getting hte timing down, like "After this line, the music whill come in with a boom, and it'll fade out here". I'm really grateful to the animators for rushing to shoot the storyboards, and allowing me to write the music to them.
So what kind of process is it, exactly?
KAJIURA: For this film, there are far more songs than we had for the TV series. So I wrote the music in two blocks, the first half and the second half. But when I started writing for the first half, I'd already decided what I was going to do with the second, so it was already an overwhelming process from the first half. The way I did it was, after first watching the storyboards to the end several times, I'd set music to them based on how I felt - "I want the music for this scene to be like so". But if you focus on just one scene while you're writing music, you start to get stuck in a rut, so I wouldn't finish any of them. Instead I'd think of the overall flow, and just create the atmosphere of each score. I'd make rough demos of each score, just developed enough for me to be able to grasp their respective images, and then I'd be like, "Okay, maybe this is what this part needs", by keeping the overall storyline in mind.
So it's not as though you finish one song at a time.
KAJIURA: It's more efficient that way. If I were to concentrate on just one song - "I want to make the song for this scene adorable!" even if I managed to do well with it, it may stand out in the overall flow. For example, in any story, you shouldn't insert your most moving song before the most moving scene comes up. No matter how great the melody may be, it has to go with the emotional flow of the overall story, or it can never become a masterpiece.
So it wouldn't work if you used nothing but songs to be moving.
KAJIURA: That's right If there's nothing but tearjerker-type songs, it's exhausting to listen to, right? In a single title, there's always something like a wave. I try to grasp what it is in my head, then start the detailed work after I've created the overall flow.
[WRITING SONGS THAT MATCH THE INTENSITY OF EACH SCENE]
What do you mainly use to visualise the intensity of each scene?
KAJIURA: A lot of it comes from my impression of the dialogue. That's why I might be writing songs while watching visuals that were shot before the dialogue was recorded, but then once the dialogue is added in, I have to do it all over. That happened quite a lot. For instance, I'd write a song thinking that someone was going to be saying, "Stop it!" But actually, sometimes the scene would feature a performance with the actor saying "Stop it...". So then the song wouldn't match at all.
How do you go about imagining the sounds? For example, do ideas strike you regarding what instruments you should use for a scene, or chord progressions?
KAJIURA: I think it depends on the situation. But since I do believe that the way the sound is first heard is so important, I often think about how the sounds are going to come in during that scene when I'm writing songs. Sometimes I'll have the music start in a way that no one will notice; it'll be playing before you know it. Other times, I'll try to make an impression with the first note.
I see. What kind of requests did you receive from the animation production staff for the songs for each scene?
KAJIURA: "We need a ballroom dancing song here", and instructions like that. I think that with Madoka Magica, I was always being instructed to use a waltz during the battle scenes. the familiars seem to be dancing, don't they? So this film has two songs that are a little waltz-like, that sound like ballroom dancing songs, and I think that was true of the TV series, too. The battle scenes had no dialogue, and they often showcased just the music and the visuals, so it was very rewarding for me.
[THE SONGS OF THE SECOND HALF WERE DIFFICULT, AS NO EMOTIONS WERE CONVEYED IN A STRAIGHTFORWARD MANNER]
When you were writing the songs, were you conscious of following the pattern of the TV series?
KAJIURA: Yes, I was. Although Rebellion was a bit different in tone than the TV series. At the beginning of the film, there's a slice-of-life scene that's very close to the one from the TV series, but it's not as sparkly as the latter. It is sparkly, but those aren't "true" sparkles. That's why for the first half, I gave the music a bogus sparkly tone, meaning that I made it more cheerful than necessary - an extremely glittery-sounding song. For the transformation scenes too, the songs are like "Transform! Ta-dah!" Almost too cheery.
I see, so in that sense, it was a slightly different approach than the one you took with the TV series.
KAJIURA: While I believe that the musicality and the way sound is used are both similar to the TV series, there just aren't that many songs that are simply about anger and nothing else, or just sadness. There are so many scenes with complex, tangled emotions, and as far as I can see, there aren't many scenes where you can just think, "Oh, I feel sorry for this girl." So I think that compared to the the soundtrack and the TV series, there were a lot less songs that conveyed emotions in a straightforward way. It might sound arrogant of me to say this, but if, for example, there's a scene where the two main characters are talking, and even if they don't really display their feelings clearly, by playing sad music, that scene automatically becomes a sad one. That's why music is such a terrifying thing. I know that I really need to grasp the intent of the movie, and work carefully.
So because there are no straightforward emotions, Rebellion is all the more difficult.
KAJIURA: I think you can divide the film into two major section, the first half and the second half. It was a lot harder to work on the second half once I knew
that the world of the first half was bogus
. It was quite easy to build the musical storyline as well. If the ending,
when everyone rescues Homura, and Madoka comes to get Homura is the climax, then it's easy to build. But although that was the climax, it wasn't the real climax.
But you still had to pump up the intensity there.
KAJIURA: Right. That was something I agonized over from the moment I first read the script. On top of that, in the scene after
Homura becomes a demon
, I think everyone's emotions were all over the map. But there's no music that can make everyone feel the same way. That's why it was hard. Because of that, there were several discussions when I had to consult the director - "What should I do here?" And the director said to me,
"For Homura's music after she's become a demon, basically I'd like something beautiful."
That might have been the biggest hint I was given as to how to write the music for the second half.
Does that mean that
Demon Homura herself was beautiful
?
KAJIURA: I think it's less about her being depicted as beautiful, and more about her being something that you want to play beautiful music in the background to.
Specifically, what kind of beauty do you think that is?
KAJIURA: I think it's an image of tolerance. But regarding
Ms. Chiwa Saito's performance after Homura's transformation
, two versions were actually recorded. I'm sure that they had a hard time deciding which to go with. Because there's no right
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answer, it was the same for me, but I'm sure that there was a lot of trial and error involved.
