Sword Art Online Movie "Ordinal Scale" (YK on music)

It's not that she cannot recycle her materials being the problem. The problem is that it's too obvious aka literally melody to melody being copypasted and idk how to really describe it but as she got really into this particular style of her, almost all her songs are very recognizable because it's so distinctively kajiura in the way the melody and key change flows and also the instrumentalization. She has this complete fascination towards strings to the point where it's as if she doesn't have any other musical instruments to choose. I know strings have this particular effect of making this epic and grand but imo she able to did that back then without using strings on almost every track.

I don't want to blame FBM either but her soundtracks now are basically performed by them (FBM). Back then (even in KnK) she used more musicians that also contribute to the sound of the music. I've said this before, every musicians have their own playing style that factor in how the overall song'd sound. Maybe it's deliberate, to make the songs easier to translate if she'd ever want to perform them live but i can safely say that the FBM playing style has gotten too stale for my taste because my ears have become completely desensitized to their style.

I still think far on the water is a mess of an album with no variety or general direction what the album wanted to be, just those same melodies and random keychanges tied up together not to mention it's a FJWakana album, not Kalafina

On this particular ost even more obvious that she didn't really try because 80% of the songs are literally nothing...
 
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ritardando said:
She has this complete fascination towards strings to the point where it's as if she doesn't have any other musical instruments to choose.
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honestly, this is the biggest issue I have with Kajiura. as I told someone else the other day, I am 120938% done with strings
 
yuki.n said:
I can actually understand Kajiura about being unable to draw any decent inspiration from the generic shounen she seems to be getting lately. Her music is based on feeling and empathy, and there's not much one can get from such works.
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This is how I feel about Kajiura's music too, and it's why I'm not at all shocked by the scores she's been writing as of late. Still, she there are basic changes she could make in her music that would help break that recycled sound. Maybe instead of a flute she could use another woodwind instrument. Switch out strings for brass for those epic tracks. Even a change in the sounds she uses in her Kajiurago. These are really simple things that would freshen up her music a lot.

And for this soundtrack, there hasn't been a single person in this forum who hasn't acknowledged how awful the source material is. The hate mostly comes from the fact that this series has no end in sight, and Kajiura doesn't seem to have any plans on leaving it.
 
@yuki.n I agree with you and I don't.

Regarding recycling, I think Kajiura was very prolific and very good at the same time. and she actually DID recycle!! If you listen closely, you'll find some synth melody is used somewhere with live instruments and became a completely new song, with the same melody! However, her EXCEPTIONAL arrangement and programming skills made every song give you a sense of originality and emotion, with or without strings. (Despite this, of course, she actually could come up with great original melodies.)

Regarding, songs overwhelming scenes. That depends hugely on sound direction. and for SAO in particular, it is POOP.

I find most artists do some things for money and some things to speak their true art. Kajiura has composed very good music in the recent years: Hanako, RHH, Madoka movies osts. However, she will be remembered by how awful this OST and bokumachi ost were (imo). and the comparison to pre-2008 years is just a saddening thought.

I can be harsh in my critique but it's because of :
https://forum.canta-per-me.net/threads/yuki-kajiuras-soundtracks-pre-2008.8259/
 
Like i honest to god want to cry whenever i listen to her KnK and preKnK soundtracks BECAUSE THEY'RE REALLY GOOD, and it feels evem more so compared to what we got recently

Sadly, as the youngster otakus don't really know Kajiura as the composer to hack madlax noir trc el cazador etc and many other shows (like most of them only know her from zero and madoka) they still think that SAO soundtrack is really great albeit somewhat repetitive (based on online comments i read anyway) so...
 
Soooo... the samples on the first site won't work, that george posted, and I don't have a Japanese iTunes account. Maybe I'll just wait a couple of days until this is out. I liked what I heard of it though... even though it kept cutting out. And while SAO may not have a great soundtrack, there are some memorable tracks like Swordland, she has to overcome her fear (love this in the sing all overtures live), Luminous Sword, for me she is still sleeping, aerial fight, The First Town, a bleak and desolate land and desolate landscape (one of my favorite songs by her actually.) Almost forgot about moon and shadow! Shame on me. lol I wonder if there will be any more movies or short series' after this? Hmm.
 
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The whole ost plus insert songs are on youtube if you want to check them out.
 
^Wow, thanks! Lol listening to the ttb song. I like the beginning, the Kajiurago. She sounds a little like fripSide's singer. I like her, she's not high or squeaky or anything. Once you can get past the ttb similarities, it's pretty great. Is it her singing in the Kajiurago part? lol that ending.

Delete: Wow... love it from the beginning. reminds me a bit of Coppelia's Casket, which I know wasn't her... but the Middle Eastern theme. It's chaotic but I like it.

Smile for You: Pretty.

Listening to the entire thing. Wow, can't believe they hadn't taken it down yet. Heh I like Background, it's different.
 
ritardando said:
She has this complete fascination towards strings to the point where it's as if she doesn't have any other musical instruments to choose. I know strings have this particular effect of making this epic and grand but imo she able to did that back then without using strings on almost every track.
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I agree, recently when she's no able to use strings for whatever reason she's just throwin in SFX, and this is sad. If she even listened to her past works she would have noticed how many instruments she used to used..

ritardando said:
I don't want to blame FBM either but her soundtracks now are basically performed by them (FBM). Back then (even in KnK) she used more musicians that also contribute to the sound of the music. I've said this before, every musicians have their own playing style that factor in how the overall song'd sound. Maybe it's deliberate, to make the songs easier to translate if she'd ever want to perform them live but i can safely say that the FBM playing style has gotten too stale for my taste because my ears have become completely desensitized to their style.
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I agree with this too, she has been using mostly just them since knk, and i can tell every time the difference between Nozaki drums and Sato Kyoichi ones because the first has no obsession with cimbals and thus his drums play ALOT better.

yuki.n said:
I can actually understand Kajiura about being unable to draw any decent inspiration from the generic shounen she seems to be getting lately. Her music is based on feeling and empathy, and there's not much one can get from such works.
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You mean that the problem is that the recently anime have male MCs ?

I'm sure she's getting more job offers than she gets to compose, so if she wanted a non-male MC maybe she can choose one, like it happened with Madoka or Hanako. Heaven's Feel is also like that, even thought its still shounen, it will now have Sakura as the protagonist. What about Tsubasa then ? That was also shounen but we got one of her best soundtracks, and its not like it has some kind of complex basic plot, its all "I need to get stronger to get back the feather-memories who are so important to her" for all the part that she got to compose for, not to menthion that many of the episodes were episodical as in [They arrive somewhere, meet the local people, find the feather that's causing the trouble, defeat the local villain, take it and leave] and thus its difficult to tell where she got so much inspiration from.
 
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^With tsubasa, you also see some of the story from Sakura's point of view, and when I listen to the music, I think that's the character Kajiura had in mind when writing the soundtrack.

Personally, I think Kajiura is a feminist of sorts. We'll never know for sure what she's thinking when she writes music, but all of her most inspired soundtracks come from shows where the female characters get a lot of attention on the characterization front.
 
sora said:
^With tsubasa, you also see some of the story from Sakura's point of view, and when I listen to the music, I think that's the character Kajiura had in mind when writing the soundtrack.

Personally, I think Kajiura is a feminist of sorts. We'll never know for sure what she's thinking when she writes music, but all of her most inspired soundtracks come from shows where the female characters get a lot of attention on the characterization front.
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^ Ι dont remember any point where its from Sakura's POV in the main anime, but there is in the OVA.

I believe so too, either feminist or she likes girls, i think its no coincidense that all her songs except 3 and some chorus ones have female vocalist.

@Kugayama "1st anime since Shinkai's your name. to top box office & Aniplex's best opening yet"

^ they talk as if your name is an old movie while it came out few months ago.

Lets wait for the oversea movie results too, judging from the Hollywood concert sales they arent going to be nowhere close to the japanese ones.

https://akiba-souken.com/article/29269/

^ ΥΚ interview about SAO movie and character songs (thanks to yuki.n)
 
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Wow... another field to overcome: pure awesomeness. Love it. Makes me feel like I'm listening to Petite Cosette a bit. Also like to find her memory (I liked I have to save her in Erased as well heh). Does anyone have mp3's yet? When I download from youtube it won't let me do all of them. I want those two tracks badly. (There are a lot of KnK style sfx tracks in here. Hmm. Don't really care for them though, I mean a couple maybe. But there are a lot that are under a minute. *sigh*)
 
sora said:
^With tsubasa, you also see some of the story from Sakura's point of view, and when I listen to the music, I think that's the character Kajiura had in mind when writing the soundtrack.

Personally, I think Kajiura is a feminist of sorts. We'll never know for sure what she's thinking when she writes music, but all of her most inspired soundtracks come from shows where the female characters get a lot of attention on the characterization front.
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I've said the same thing before when i defended her on why her sao soundtrack was really mediocre, even borderline bad... but imo in TRC case most of the songs are for syaoran since sakura was useless for most time of the animated storyline. Even so, Kajiura really liked ERASED (she was really enthusiasted when she's offered this project) but her work for that anime is not that stellar either -- is it simply because the main character isn't a strong female? I don't think so. Though i also met someone who said her works for ERASED is better than KnK which left me went lmao wtf...

If she really doesn't like sao story then why would she keep doing it? It's all back to money lmao
 
Gotta get the dollah, man.
I would say she does easy, poopy jobs to finance her projects, but there's no sign of a Fiction III or any other personal project, and YKLives have been dead for like a year.
 
Actually, now that I am listening to Delete more, it sounds a bit like Yami no Uta. Hmm. Anyways, will give a review of the ost later, I like it, but it's not the best. I still love Rebellion, I guess I had hopes that it would be like that. Still has some good tracks though.
 
In her recent interview YK says some very weird things that are out of place and literary made me laugh (like that she will keep composing for the anime till Kirito and Asuna have grandchildren :white::ohoho::desksweat:) , yuki.n translated some parts, i will post them in english here later.
 
Some points from the interview, translated from Japanese to Greek by @yuki.n and to English from me @george1234

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On first page she talks about Yuna.

Τhen she says that there are many battle scenes where there are used the Yuna songs many times, so the rest of the tracks were made to balance the soundtrack a bit

Then she says she wrote 60 tracks but most arent even 1 minute

As far as yuki.n understands, they give her the tracklist ready, with what kind of music, what kind of style and what duration they want.

and in the cd there are many that she purposedly made to durate more because they were tiny

She also says that in an anime episode you get the climax in 30 mins, while in a movie you have 1.5-2.0 hours, and so you cant write so concentrated (as in thick) music because it tires the viewer and so you need to ease it.

She also made some tracks more playful, because there are some well-known real life places shown in the movie (like Akihabara) turning into game scenes.

For Asuna she says she makes varied types of music (some more heavy some more light) depending on Asuna's emotional state.

When she takes the order for the musics she's also given storyboards which are read by random actors who read the dialogues (not the character VAs)

The reason why she recycled some melodies from the anime, is because she knew people would hear them in the movie, she got the OK for that, and she believes it was the right decition

And because some people might not have noticed that "swordland" is the series theme, it needed to be heard on various scenes.

Then she says that she doesnt want to make music that surprises viewers, or makes theme come in contradiction with their expectations (in a good sense), because fans where expecting it

Then she says she wanted to portray in the music the agony and excitement of the players as they use new tech in the new game

And that she want to keep composing for the anime till Kirito and Asuna have grandchildren

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My comment:
Some parts were very funny in a bad way.
This interview has alot more tatemae / lying parts than the Holywood interview for ANN. Its like its for a totally different soundtrack or movie. I almost believe she got interviewed while being a little drunk or something. There something really bad happening to her, or she is trying to hide behind her finger, to cover up the lacking of the music, but i believe the result is that she's disappointing/angering her fans even more . (and its not just because of SAO, *looks at bokumachi*)
Im so sad right now :uh..: :faint: :cry:

Anyone who watches the Tsubasa movie or even Achilles to Kame will notice that all the parts of "not wanting to distract" and the thing with the expectations is completely wrong as what's happening is the opposide. Viewers want excitement, they want to be surpised and for the music to be better than they expected!!
 
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Nothing in those snippets come across as anything other than generic promo material. She's never going to say a bad word about something she's working on; that would be professional suicide. Really, everything in that interview is consistent with what she has said about working on SAO and what we hear in the movie's soundtrack.

The big takeaway from the interview: Kajiura's writing music based on what she thinks fans want to hear.

Biggest mistake an artist can make; across any medium, this kind of mindset always leads to failure.
 
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