Yuki Kajiura's Soundtracks [pre 2008]

grunty

grunty

I have reached Yuki nirvana
AKA the road to Kara no Kyoukai, where we praise the old shit and possibly hate on new shit in order to give fans of new shit some peace and quiet. ;)

Let's reminisce~

Sister thread: Yuki Kajiura's Anime Songs (pre 2008)

WEEK 01: Shin Kimagure ORANGE ROAD
WEEK 02: EAT-MAN
WEEK 03: Double Cast
WEEK 04: Meguri Aishite
WEEK 05: Boogiepop
WEEK 06: BLOOD The Last Vampire
WEEK 07: Works for Soundtrack (Tokyo Kyoudai, Tsuki, RAINBOW)
WEEK 08: NOIR
to be continued
(Feel free to talk about stuff even if the "relevant" week has already passed.)

Chronology:
Code: 
Shin Kimagure ORANGE ROAD
EAT-MAN
Double Cast
Meguri Aishite (will post my gamerip)
Boogiepop and others
BLOOD
Works for Soundtrack (CD1-2: Tokyo Kyoudai, Tsuki, RAINBOW)
NOIR
Aquarian Age
.hack//SIGN
.hack//Liminality
Xenosaga II
MADLAX   
Petit Cossette
Velvet no Inori
My-HiME
Tsubasa Chronicle
My-Otome
Xenosaga III
Elemental Gelade
Shin Hokuto no Ken
El Cazador

PS. I guess we could include Pandora Hearts since it's the last Victor show she did. I have to revisit that OST some day... I honestly only remember Lost child. Then again, PH has its own thread on the forum already.
 
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@grunty is in the mood for nostalgia

Maybe what we need is another director like Mashimo who practically said to Kajiura to write whatever she likes and from there he'd decide what piece he'd used and deliberately played the music louder than the dialogie. Most of the Kajiura beetrain anime sucked (gdi TRC was mess) but the soundtracks are marvelous. Maybe Kajiura has become too self conscious of people saying her music overpowers the anime...i mean it's not exactly an excuse to become too repetitive but it's quite a limitation.

Off to Future Soundscapes I go...
(@Kowz would definitely kill me but man do I hate Eri's vocals sometimes...)
 
ritardando said:
@grunty is in the mood for nostalgia
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When am I not, though? ;) But what I really wanted is to possibly limit the amount of "good old times" reminiscing in new release threads. Less trolling. (My old hateful self rolls in his grave.)
ritardando said:
Most of the Kajiura beetrain anime sucked (gdi TRC was mess) but the soundtracks are marvelous.
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Opinions. ;p Of the Kajiura shows I only gave up on Tsubasa, though I should add I didn't like El Cazador at all. That's still only 2/5.5(liminality included) suckage ratio for me.
ritardando said:
Maybe Kajiura has become too self conscious of people saying her music overpowers the anime...
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I think it's even worse since it seems like it was her own conclusion that she should allow dialogue to breathe...
 
ok I will reminisce and review the old soundtracks here then! (we were talking of reviewing them quite some time ago I think?)

since you started with Tsubasa ritardando, I'll start reviewing that.

Tsubasa Chronicles OST1:
1. ship to fools: a bit repetitive. I like the xylophone, percussion very much though. Eri's voice fits but it's rather repetitive.

2. believe: classic Kajiura hopeful song! This was the time when Kajiura would NOT leave strings alone haha. Either percussion or synth.
3. black sword & ruthless: ah! what a fusion of traditional elements, jazz, electronica.
4. break the sword of justice : awesome flute, strings, percussion and beats. one of the first gems I've heard from Kajiura.

5. you are my love : ok this is where I don't think Eri was the choice. Eri's voice is too mushy for this song.

6. dewdrops: a bit repetitive but I think I like the blend of violin, harp and strings here. there are similar but better examples like Sakura ver4 in Xenosaga II.
7. a tiny sunshine : very calming and joyful. Tracks like these used to be "filler" tracks!

8. hear our prayer : perhaps one of the most well-known Kajiuran tracks. very emotional strings, I like it. you can't play this track every single time in the show (right?) . This track is one of examples that almost every track used to have its vibe.

9. I talk to the rain: Eri's voice is right on the money in this song. very well done.

10. a song of storm and fire : same as 9. and again more well-known. also clarinet at the end, beats, strings, tokyo konsei are just wondrous. (i think it's clarinet but it's not listed on the soundtrack?)

Overall, I like this ost a lot but there are tracks that sort of foretell Kajiura's trajectory.
 
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how far back are you going with this? eatman? kimagure?

honestly I think hokuto is one of my top favorites of Kajiura's soundtracks. also thanks @grunty for providing those rips. only recently listened to them
 
ritardando said:
(@Kowz would definitely kill me but man do I hate Eri's vocals sometimes...)
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:bloodlust:Muh Eriiiiii
Hue, I kid.

Yesterday, I listened to The Velveteen Rabbit. It's such a warm and peaceful soundtrack. I wish she would do more little side projects like this.

wat11 said:
10. a song of storm and fire : same as 9. and again more well-known. also clarinet at the end, beats, strings, tokyo konsei are just wondrous. (i think it's clarinet but it's not listed on the soundtrack?)
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It's an oboe.
 
aki said:
how far back are you going with this? eatman? kimagure?
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It's not like those old shows have threads here (AFAIK) so, I guess, however back you fancy? :)

PS. I just noticed Pandora Hearts has its own thread.
 
I really like ship of fools and I think it's the best kajiurago track from Future Soundscapes...hard to pick one from those though because almost every kajiurago tracks there are great...

My favorite preKnK soundtrack might be El Cazador de la Bruja.
 
My favs are Tsubasa and Madlax <3. Cazador is very nice too as it has reference to America and i think its the only soundtrack with so obvious and focused geographical refrence. In Noir we get few scotish-ish tracks and a chinese one, and "aime moi" character song reminds me of french song, but most of its tracks dont have geographic reference, and same goes for all the other osts so far.
 
Yup, my favorite is definitely El Cazador de la Bruja. There's no song I don't like from that soundtrack. KnK would be the close second just because her preKnK soundtracks have more 'diversity' to the sound and musical instruments used...but I still really adore KnK soundtrack. Hanae <3

I kinda wish that if Kajiura does another soundtrack special live in more than 1 day just like live vol.12, she'd dedicate each day to different soundtrack...
 
Kowz said:
It's an oboe.
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gawd. that's so true. thanks Kowz!

ok Tsubasa Chronicles II OST : hands down it's my favorite Tsubasa OST.

1. voices silently sing: very haunting. similar feelings as with ship to fools.

2. endlessly: !!! one of my all time favorites. Eri's voice, Tokyo Konsei, flute, percussion, piano, guitar all blend so smoothly.
and also here I want to comment how tracks are organized. This OST mocks your emotions from one end to another and the tracks are organized in a way to maximize the effect imo.

3. storm and fire & the dreamers: love them. the solo violin is just so good.

4. breathless: Kajiura really knows how to control the mood here. First, you are in desperation, getting worse and worse and then...saved by the melody. and the transitions are superb.

5. kaze no machi he: keiko's voice, melody, arrangement, bonus : yuriko's chorus. again one of my favorites.

6. if you are my love: I like this better than one with Eri. a precursor to Hepatica :)

7. 1&0 city: starts with industrial sounds...then strings!... then saxophone!... then the delightful piano. back to strings. fantastic. In TWO minutes, so many things happening. adorable.

8. catastrophe: love love love. again so many levels.

9. break it down again: again a nice jazz track. a much better precursor to Rolling down to UMN :)

10. when to powers collide: very Kajiuran. but it works very nicely.

11. blue clouds: relaxing, calming.

even the filler tracks like lost wings, together for tomorrow, wayside, fatigue work really well in the flow of the OST : you can actually listen to the whole OST in one go which is RARE in a Kajiura ost.

I like the idea of talking about a different show every week!
 
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I think what wat meant is that the soundtrack flows perfectly you can listen it in one go without skipping any...or just fast forwarding to the next song (which happens a lot for me).
 
To me that mainly happens in Elemental gerad because i dislike all the rearrangements or everlasting song, and also in the recent soundtracks when there's an sfx. In Knk they are good but in the ones later of it they are meaningless.
 
hahaha @aki no Kowzy and George won't get away from me so easily!

@Kowz don't get me wrong I actually like that track a lot but it sounded as if it was written for silly happy merry scenes which are filled with "filler" music nowadays (e.g. SAO and even Hanako sometimes). that's why I called it filler but other than that it's great.

ya @ritardando is right. and also there's only so much praise I can offer to any artist, even pre-2008 Yuki Kajiura!! (Tsubasa OST II comes with one of the highest recommendations from me)

Ok. Tsubasa OST III: probably the most inconsistent and my least favorite Tsubasa OST but it has some gems :

1. moebius: my least favorite opening Eri Kajiurago track in Tsubasa. still I like it.

2. we go further, everyday & wings of your imagination: classic Kajiuran hope tracks. I want to like them but I can't help but think she overdoes it here.

3. slipstream & play the game great electronica tracks! though I tend to get tired (literally, so many beats) by the end.

4. fireseeker: one of all-time favs! at first (10 years ago) I had thought Kajiura abused the saxophone but I think I see the appeal.

5. femme: the beats are the same as Hepatica (KOS-MOS)! very calming.
6. masquerade: hmm... lovely. The strings give you both a march/european and arabic style. of course the piano and cello in the middle give away the masquerade.

8. sacrifice: I'LL MAKE US SOME MARTINI!! again an all-time fav. though I wish Eri made something more than just martinis in the song. Matrix series had a similar strings opening in one scene; I always thought they should play this song in one of the fights with the agents mwhahaha

9. dreamscape: Kaori's voice sounds so crisp here and I like it. but it feels so out of place in the ost to me...

10. swordbreaker: akin to black sword and ruthless. love it.
11. siren song: I like it but don't love it. It has a "fatality" feeling from Hokuto but old-Wakana would have been much better here.

12. total eclipse: LOVE IT. Guitar, drums (Masuke Nozaki), strings are just a delight to hear: the mid-section gives me chills every time I hear it and the TITLE is so appropriate. an all-time fav!

13. stay: very calming. reminds me of Death note ost.
14. indian summer: love it. if it weren't for drums, I'd say I got an Oshima feeling in this track :)
15. storm is coming: I thought there was too much synthy effect here.
 
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