Category: Song Reviews

Album: 天空の城ラピュタ イメージアルバム ～空から降ってきた少女～ When Joe Hisaishi sat down at his piano at 11:30 PM one fateful evening in 1986, he had no idea he was about to compose what would become one of Studio Ghibli’s most beloved themes. The melody that emerged in just twenty minutes would later be known as “Kimi wo Nosete”…

Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 In the summer of 1989, Joe Hisaishi found himself in an impossible situation. Fresh off a plane from New York where he had been recording other projects, the composer had exactly two days to prepare for what would become one of his most beloved soundtracks. The film was Kiki’s Delivery Service, and…

Album: 天空の城ラピュタ イメージアルバム ～空から降ってきた少女～ Picture this: you’re a composer tasked with creating music for sky pirates, floating castles, and lost civilizations. The directors breathing down your neck are none other than Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, fresh off their acclaimed work on Nausicaä. No pressure, right? This was exactly the situation Joe Hisaishi found himself…

Album: となりのトトロ サウンドトラック集 In the gentle world of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro, there exists a moment where childhood terror transforms into magical discovery. The song “Kowaku nai” (It’s Not Scary) from the film’s soundtrack captures this delicate emotional shift with remarkable subtlety, embodying Joe Hisaishi’s philosophy that sometimes the most profound musical statements are…

Album: 天空の城ラピュタ サウンドトラック ～飛行石の謎～ Picture this: a composer hunched over a Fairlight III synthesizer, stopwatch in hand, counting seconds as animated characters move across a screen. This wasn’t just any soundtrack production—this was Joe Hisaishi crafting the musical foundation for Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, where every note had to align perfectly with every…

Album: 天空の城ラピュタ サウンドトラック ～飛行石の謎～ In the summer of 1986, something extraordinary was happening in a cramped Tokyo studio. Joe Hisaishi sat hunched over a Fairlight III sampler, watching grainy rushes of an animated film frame by frame, counting seconds with scientific precision. This wasn’t typical film scoring – this was musical archaeology, digging for the…

Album: となりのトトロ サウンドトラック集 When Joe Hisaishi sat down to compose the soundtrack for My Neighbor Totoro, he faced an unusual challenge. Unlike the grand adventures of Nausicaä or the sweeping narratives of future Studio Ghibli films, Hayao Miyazaki had presented him with something far more subtle: a collection of quiet, everyday moments centered around two…

Album: 紅の豚 サウンドトラック In the dimly lit corners of an Adriatic speakeasy, a piano tells stories of lost love and fading dreams. This isn’t just any piano piece—it’s “Sepia-Colored Photograph” (セピア色の写真), one of Joe Hisaishi’s most emotionally charged compositions from the Porco Rosso soundtrack, born from a remarkable convergence of artistic destiny and musical intuition.…

Album: となりのトトロ イメージ・ソング集 Picture this: Joe Hisaishi is simultaneously composing music for a whimsical children’s film about forest spirits and a dark theatrical production featuring demons and supernatural terror. Most composers would lose their minds juggling such dramatically opposed projects, and Hisaishi admits he nearly did. Yet from this creative chaos emerged ‘Sanpo’ (The Walk),…

Album: 風の谷のナウシカ イメージアルバム 鳥の人… What happens when a composer abandons the conventional wisdom of scoring to emotion and instead follows the protagonist’s gaze? Joe Hisaishi’s ‘Fukai’ (The Toxic Jungle) from the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Image Album offers a fascinating glimpse into a revolutionary approach to film music that would reshape anime…