Yuki Kajiura's own agency - FictionJunction Music [Confirmed]

To my ears, Yuki’s more recent music sounds more harmonically sophisticated but less quirky and original sounding than the early stuff. But I wouldn’t say that one is necessarily better than the other, just different. Some moments (especially in F/0) sound a little too much like Hollywood blockbuster movie trailer music, with the big climaxes ending in a big bass drum thwack followed by low quiet strings, but that’s offset by other really great moments.
 
It's hard not to notice the decline when you listen to her soundtrack from 2000-2009 and 2010-2018 back to back, at least it was for me. Almost nothing in her more recent tracks (especially after Madoka in 2011) came close to her wonderful works in Madlax, Noir, El Cazador de la Bruja, Cosette, the Future Soundscapes, KnK, and Elemental Gelade. She still definitely has some brilliant moments though. Zaregoto is really good, Hanako to Anne is really fresh and so unlike Kajiura, Madoka movie 3 and there are some really nice pieces from the original series, but her works for more mainstream series like SAO, F/Z, and Erased left so much to be desired. The instrumentalization, the melody, the arrangement of both the instrumental and vocals on her works were much better in her 2000-2009 works.

I'm still pissed Kajiura is almost working only with FBM+Rie+Kido Kiyo on her recent soundtracks because the musicians play a great part on how a soundtrack sounds. Korenaga's guitar sound is VERY different from Susumu Nishikawa's. Nozaki's drumming is VERY different from Sato's. Also I am so not agreeing with her works all being rated in the 9s because SAO, F/Z, and erased are 6 at most :p
 
off topic:
Speaking of Hanako to Anne... Kalafina's Samidare and Wakaremichi...

Maybe they were hoping to have Samidare be a special theme song in the drama?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't think it fits the show... but then again the OP is a pop song. It's also too random that such a dramatic song would be turned into a happy pop song, hue.
I'd say it's just Kajiura being Kajiura and not noticing the similarity.
 
^ Ι believe she does it on purpose, thinking we wont mind. I dont think for example that there is any possibility that she forgot about Kalafina's "to the beggining" being performed in so many of their lives, and decided to do SAO "longing".
 
Wait... so most people in here actually gave solid 9 or 10 ratings to all of Kajiura's works before a certain era? I don't care about when the turning point was, what happened afterwards, or whether she recovered. She's written literally several thousands of pieces. Did people really not find a single bad song, or a single bad show, before a certain point in time?

My personal way of thinking is: It's normal for an artist's style to evolve (the opposite would be worrying). It's happened a lot of times that my personal tastes drifted away from the direction the artist decided to take. That's not the artist's fault, that's not my fault. Even lack of inspiration isn't something I'd blame anyone for.
 
^ Ι believe she does it on purpose, thinking we wont mind. I dont think for example that there is any possibility that she forgot about Kalafina's "to the beggining" being performed in so many of their lives, and decided to do SAO "longing".

She's already said that when it happens it's not intentional. I really got no reason to believe otherwise. Some people just have bad memory.
 
This is a strange thread. People are now debating which era of YK was better, or if she's declined. But in either case a change is in order. I think the change to an indepedenent stance is what we should be happy about, it will bring a chance at originality and freshness again.

I don't hate the later YK works but I find them too similar, sometimes stale, and often thin on music and full of ambience/sound. But the music that is there is still good imo.

I think alot of us older fans from 2001-2 era are aware of how fresh and strong-minded her music was at the time, and this coincided with her debut as composer. YK literally defined anime music at this time. She almost certainly changed her style because it takes less work to compose these more restrained music. Keep in mind how she has done so much work on Kalafina in this period which prob. sucked her mental energy among other things.

Do you guys expect a 52 year old woman to have the staying power of a 30 year old man? Bring on the change and the likely screwups that go with it.
 
Interesting how people are blaming YK for the sound track music she makes. It's not her, really. It's the producers / directors of the shows she's writing for. They want some thing: she give it to them. If the music is bland, it's because the production team wants it that way. This "decline" in YK's music being pointed out is the same dates that the over all anime quality started to "decline." Let's wait and see if she releases a Fiction 3 or FJ 3 album to see where she is going now.
 
Back to topic, even though this is Kajiura 1-army agency, i guess there's no stopping for the utahime to work with her, unless there are contractual reason. They not necessarily have to signed to her agency.
 
i hope this 'decline' will be retaliated with her independence
 
Interesting how people are blaming YK for the sound track music she makes. It's not her, really. It's the producers / directors of the shows she's writing for. They want some thing: she give it to them. If the music is bland, it's because the production team wants it that way. This "decline" in YK's music being pointed out is the same dates that the over all anime quality started to "decline." Let's wait and see if she releases a Fiction 3 or FJ 3 album to see where she is going now.
That's really why this shift to managing herself is exciting. Starting in 2011, Kajiura's career took a really specific trajectory towards high profile shows, and I'm guessing this was the Spacecraft's plan since they, as her managing agency, were the ones bringing her work. Now that she's independent, she'll have a more active role in finding her gigs, so theoretically, we'll see more variety in the shows she gets to compose for.

Now, she could just continue on this career path and nothing will change, but for now, things are uncertain rather than predictable and stagnant.
 
For now she still has SAO3 (probably; people it say might be quite long) and Heaven's Feel though so it may be a while before we notice anything.... lol.
 
Right, forgot about that, she probably is. ;p She clearly has a working relationship with Bandai Namco going by FJ Live14 so unless she specifically does not want to do PriPri again...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
For now she still has SAO3 (probably; people it say might be quite long) and Heaven's Feel though so it may be a while before we notice anything.... lol.
I kind of hope A1 brings in a new composer so Kajiura can just get away from this series, but she's independent now so I wouldn't blame her for wanting that SAO money.
 
I dont know how long SAO 3 will be but the Arc that is doing is as big as was the whole SAO so far (from vol 9 till 18 of the novel), so unless she drops it at some point she will be composing till she retires.
 
I dont know how long SAO 3 will be but the Arc that is doing is as big as was the whole SAO so far (from vol 9 till 18 of the novel), so unless she drops it at some point she will be composing till she retires.
The upcoming Alicization anime (starting in October) is supposed to cover the whole thing in one go, we just don't know how long it will be (or if it will have any breaks inbetween cours). tldr: hopefully not til she retires, just a year or two... ;p

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/da...anime-to-cover-entire-alicization-arc/.127914
 
Back
Top