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Before I became an anime director, I was a huge music fan, a connoisseur, Watanabe says.
But as I came into the industry, I noticed that the use of music wasnt satisfying.
Watanabe has spent much of his career changing that.
Hes been in charge ever since.
As Watanabe tells me, I always thought the relationship between the music and the visuals should be 50-50.
For this first project, we decided that it was going to be a space-adventure show.
But if you give that information to the composers, you will get a song that sounds likeStar Wars.
I forbade any space opera.
I had to consciously break through the stereotypical music for science fiction.
So we made a lot of jazz, blues, and other types of music.
Each week we tried to do things differently.
Ive been trying to do that for all my shows ever since, includingLazarus.
The jazz standards in the manga were all pieces I knew and loved.
I didnt want anyone else to ruin it.
This scene exists in the original manga.
In making it into an anime scene, we stretched it to maybe three times longer.
I also have this experience, listening to records and then trying to replicate it on keyboard.
But I wasnt quite able to do it myself.
Its why I gave up trying to be a pianist and musician.
Yoko Kanno is a different kind of person.
This genre is called Shima-uta.
Its an Amami Shoto song, from the islands in the south of Japan.
The masked character is called Pantoo, a traditional character from Okinawa.
This was an existing song, it wasnt made for the show.
It gave me a lot of inspiration for startingSamurai Champloo.
The scene was inspired by this song, and planned before the first episode was even created.
Both Okinawans and the Ainu are, in Japan, minority cultures.
I really wanted to introduce more than just the main majoritys culture.
There are many offers coming in that I refuse.
When I offered him the project, I discovered he was also a fan of my work.
ForBlade Runner, there is obviously the famous score by Vangelis, and I didnt want to imitate it.
I have heard lots of Vangelis music, not justBlade Runner.
This was a different experience from what weve done before.
With this short, the visuals were completed first, then the music was commissioned for the scene.
So he changed the style a little bit and made something different.
Its a memory the character doesnt want to remember, or go back to.
But I am not reviving them, Im doing something new.
It is futuristic, but theres something profoundly sad and melancholic.
So with those moods and themes, I picked musicians I thought would fit.
I was of course a big fan, and he offered to introduce us.
The series goes into a lot of big questions, and Kamasis music is suited to that.
Its still my favorite.
The producer, Mike Arias, initially just slapped on some music for the concept animation.
It was meant to be temporary.
And since they were financing everything, we werent able to go against their choice.
We worked closely together with the sound directors on the direction of the effects.
seele, Yoko Kanno
Terror in Resonance,VON
This is basically the climax scene.
The suspense is getting more intense, the tension is building, and then the explosion happens.
But I didnt want it to look like a Hollywood-style movie.
But it acted like an EMP, where it basically destroyed all electronics.
I wanted to create a surreal mood, and thats why I chose this track.
The anime was very rooted in reality, it was very realistic up until this point.
But its at this moment where the realism becomes fantastic.
I have a go at put one of these kinds of transitions into every one of my series.
This scene is the one I wanted to do most inTerror in Resonance.
This is why I wanted to work on the show.
Yoko Kanno recorded this in a band setting, its not really orchestration.
The reference I gave her was the Kings of Convenience.
This scene is about sneaking out of school and going somewhere.
So theres a kind of calm, but it also embodies the excitement of them going on an adventure.
The song is titled Criminals Always Head South, from a line a character says in this scene.
So Shingo rapped over the track I chose and that was supposed to be the opening.
But Nujabes didnt like the finished version.
He said it was too light, too airy.
So he didnt let me listen to the final version of the track.
I was eagerly waiting to hear the final version, but he never sent it.
When we asked him for it, he sent us something completely different.
Fortunately, I liked the new track he made.
Im not sure exactly what became of the track I originally chose, because it never came out.
The music suits the themes of the show, but thats something that comes later.
Usually I dont have a specific theme when I start.
It will emerge later on.
It usually starts with the characters.
InSamurai Champloo, it was Mugen who arrived first.
That image of him persists even after the show has finished.
Usually in anime, you dont put in the whole seven minutes.
It was quite an experience.
Usually I work hard to edit the scene, but in this case, it was perfect.
