Category: Song Reviews

Album: 紅の豚 サウンドトラック In 1992, Hayao Miyazaki handed Joe Hisaishi six handwritten poems. Among them were verses titled ‘Flying Boat Tango,’ ‘Twilight Adriatic Sea,’ and ‘Secret Garden.’ These weren’t just creative inspiration – they were musical blueprints for what would become one of cinema’s most emotionally complex soundtracks for ‘Porco Rosso’ (Crimson Pig). The centerpiece…

Album: となりのトトロ イメージ・ソング集 What happens when a composer abandons the traditional path of scoring to picture and instead begins with pure song? Joe Hisaishi’s work on “Fushigi Shiritori Uta” (The Mysterious Word-Chain Song) from the My Neighbor Totoro Image Song Collection reveals a radical creative process that would reshape how animated films approach music. The…

Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 Deep within the soundtrack archives of Studio Ghibli’s beloved Kiki’s Delivery Service lies a haunting piece that audiences never heard. “Tobenai!” (Can’t Fly!) represents one of Joe Hisaishi’s most emotionally charged compositions—a crisis theme written specifically for the moment when young witch Kiki loses her magical ability to soar through the skies.…

Album: 紅の豚 イメージアルバム What happens when two creative minds unknowingly orbit the same artistic vision? In 1992, something extraordinary occurred that would forever change how we think about animation scores. Joe Hisaishi was deep in composition for his personal project ‘My Lost City,’ a jazz-influenced album inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writing and the intoxicating…

Album: となりのトトロ サウンドトラック集 In the rain-drenched forests of Studio Ghibli’s imagination, even the spirits need shelter. “Zubunure Obake” (Soaking Wet Ghost) from the My Neighbor Totoro soundtrack represents one of Joe Hisaishi’s most intriguing compositional challenges: how do you score the supernatural without overwhelming the delicate world of childhood wonder? The track emerges from a…

Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 Deep within the enchanting world of Kiki’s Delivery Service lies a musical secret that never made it to the silver screen—a track so bold and thrilling it could have transformed our entire perception of the beloved witch’s adventure. ‘Grandpa’s Deck Brush’ (おじいさんのデッキブラシ) stands as one of Joe Hisaishi’s most fascinating creative experiments,…

Album: 紅の豚 サウンドトラック Sometimes the most profound artistic collaborations emerge not from careful planning, but from serendipitous alignment of creative minds. This is precisely what happened when Joe Hisaishi composed ‘Friend’ for Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso, a piece that would become emblematic of their extraordinary partnership and the mystical intersection of music and cinema. The…

Album: 魔女の宅急便 サントラ音楽集 What happens when a composer must capture the exact moment childhood wonder lifts off the ground? For Joe Hisaishi, the answer came in three-quarter time with a distinctly rural European flavor in “Propeller Bicycle,” one of the most ingeniously structured pieces from his Kiki’s Delivery Service soundtrack. The track serves as Tombo’s…

Album: 紅の豚 サウンドトラック What happens when a minimalist composer known for sweeping orchestral arrangements suddenly dives headfirst into 1920s jazz? For Joe Hisaishi, this creative challenge came in the form of ‘Addio!’ from the Porco Rosso soundtrack, a piece that would fundamentally reshape his approach to film scoring. The genesis of this musical transformation began…

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～ What happens when a composer faces the impossible task of capturing humanity’s most precious gift to children through music? For Joe Hisaishi in 1986, this philosophical challenge became the driving force behind one of Studio Ghibli’s most beloved soundtracks, particularly embodied in the haunting piece “Ushinawareta Rakuen” (Lost Paradise) from Castle…