Credits unavailable
Shop: Fushigi Yuugi Music, VHS, DVD, Graphic Novels and Artbooks, Toys and Games

Track Listing:

1. Star
2. Full of Vigor and Do With Guts
3. Destiny
4. Shinning Inside The Hands
5. Black Moon
6. Arigatou (Thank you)
7. Everlasting Story
8. Eyes - The S-H-E
9. Blue Freedom. White Hope.
10. Heart Rending Forever
11. Mizu-Kagami
12. It Might Be A Dream
13. A Moonless Night
14. Let’s get Happy!

The arrangement came out to be well… mediocre to say at best. I miss Yoko Kanno’s World Theory in Turn A Gundam OST 1 wherein the music gradually shifts from tribal drumbeats of Africa to oriental to chants from Indian to Irish. Now that is great flawless transition and a good mix of genres. These kinds of melodies are what makes me dizzy on a long road trip. The satisfaction came after since I realized the old adage that, “Silence is Golden.”

All in all, I find no phenomenal piece I like here except for Kuroi Tsuki starts with a music box type of music and moves on to a keyboard and acoustic guitar accompaniment. Very gentle, soothing voice by Akemi Satou. Could pass for a lullabye or a gentle ballad. It’s endearing. It’s wonderful and peaceful. At last… something really good! It also ends with the same music box prologue. Yoko Kanno is fond of doing those and it reminds me of her. I do wonder though why it’s kuroi tsuki — black moon.

Meccha Hajikete Gattsu Tobashite (Full of Vigor and Do With Guts) by the four bishounen members of Fushigi Yuugi is a fun piece. Tasuki and Chichiri opens no da! Let’s say this is an enjoyable number because four bishounen are singing. One thing I can tell though is that Tamahome sings better here… Thank goodness he’s not alone and 3 other seiyuu drowns his voice. Let’s just say that this is another of those pop numbers where it sounds a bit ‘macho’ what with all the guitars and synthesizers and the boys just singing as loud as they can. Hnn… methinks, those four won’t be as big a boy band but a bishounen group from Fushigi Yuugi coming together to sing? Why not? Watch out for the occasional dialogue samples placed in here. It looks like the boys are having fun!

The others are a mix of Chinese Oriental ancient melodies mixed with guitars and synthesizers to seemingly ‘update’ the feel such as the eight and tenth tracks. Everlasting Story’s style of singing reminds me of the band, Queen, but that’s all there is and nothing else.

Actually, considering that this is the Best Collection for the OAV series, I was rather disappointed. Oh well, the OAV itself wasn’t as impressive as the TV series as well. I loved Fushigi Yuugi. But there are the only two tracks that I like and they won’t make me buy this.

CREDITS: Yoko Kanno.
Shop: Turn A Gundam Item Shop

Track Listing: Spiral Re-born World Edge Theory Memory of Military Boots Chi yori hazumeto The First Advent The Second Advent The Third Advent Final Shore Moon Yoigoshi no inori Oshaberi Soshie Days Ojousan, naishobanashi desu Gwen Lineford’s Limousine Girls Rule Quiet Landing Air Plant Koujiku no nazoru mono Ondori no you ni Kyuuyaku no kataru tokoro The Song of a Stone Boys about 16 5′4 Moon Felicity

Can’t Yoko Kanno get any worse? This one proves she can’t. Wonderful
arrangement, great experimentation, eclectic taste in music. I guess
she has proven herself worthy to be chosen to compose and arrange
for a classic series like Gundam. Turn A Gundam’s soundtrack is
different from Gundam Wing’s. While Gundam Wing’s opening and ending themes sound mostly like typical pop sounds, Yoko Kanno’s touch has added a bit of classical melodies.

Memory in Military Boots is sounds as its name. It’s a mix of military and royalty overtures and fanfares. Another favorite is Moon where you are just mesmerized by the medieval melodies. I really love that Yoko Kanno is very much inspired by medieval melodies and how she incorporates in other genres to produce something magical. Oshaberi Soshie in the meantime, sounds like playful wind instruments with a melody I usually associate in portraying the Greek god Pan.

A most remarkable track is World Edge Theory. It is a mixture of all these — tribal drumbeats, chants, a mix of middle eastern melodies, trumpetic fanfare, soft keyboard fantasy samples and Western jazz inspired melodies. It’s like music moving from one edge of the world to the next sampling the best of each. Each one gradually segways into another genre without a pause so that you don’t notice the transition! It’s as though African tribal music with the heavy beats of the percussion going to the shaman chants of the East could actually blend well with Western jazz!

Actually, if you listen to this album, you will notice the mix of World music. It has choral chants, songs inspired by church choirs, Irish music, medieval inspired melodies and even a pop sounding number with Boys About 16, that reminds me of blues type of singing or those I associate with Ken Hirai, Japan’s most popular R&B male singer.

CREDITS: Yoko Kanno.
Shop: Turn A Gundam Item Shop

Track Listing: Turn A Turn (opening version) White Falcon London Bridge falling Down ALFA and OMEGA Barbarian Moon flower Ju-kikai Gaku (Mechanical Engineering) Pan wo Koneyo (Let’s Knead Bread) Winter Sun Tsuki no Tamashii (Soul of the Moon) Kabocha Matsuri (Pumpkin Festival) Drum Head Triad Jig Lily Puff the Pussy Puzzle Until Blond Uka (emergence) Morning of NOCIS Mokusei Hikoki (a wooden airplane) She’s so high AURA (acoustic version) Joy

Don’t be fooled by Turn A Gundam’s opening theme Turn A Turn, which also opens this album. True that while Gundam Wing’s Rhythm Emotion depicts more action and Turn A Turn sounds more like the opening theme for sentai or live action hits like Bioman or Maskman (the original Power Rangers in Japan, if you will), the other instrumental hits are just as great as Yoko Kanno could be. True enough that as I listen to the tracks I was never disappointed.

London Bridge Falling Down reminds me of Shibuya Kei sounds. Simple keyboard distortions and a fun fun beat. Could dance to it! Barbarian starts with African tribal drumbeats (a Yoko Kanno favorite) with typical sounding Irish melodies, the sound of accordions and festivals with the melody ending with a series of crescendos. You’ll hear the melody getting louder and louder. Ju-kikai Gaku (Mechanical Engineering) lives up to its name but innovative nonetheless since it is the sound of machines that together create a symphony with the pounding of nails as the rhythm and the forging or the iron as the bass.

Winter Sun’s light guitar riffs and chords sounds easygoing as lounge music and Puff the Pussy Puzzle is a combination of ambient tunes and old ’30s blues rendition. Until is a lovely song. It is an old ’30s blues with the piano or a bit of those old classic jazz bars in the ’30s when beautiful girls sing by the piano. I can imagine this being sung in black and white tv a la Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s Casablanca. The lyrics are even simple,

“Love me till the sky falls down Love me till the world’s not round O love me ‘just’ forever and maybe some more Just as I have vowed to…”

If you’re THE Turn A Gundam fan, this is one CD you should get. It’s easygoing. Turn A Gundam OST 1 is more of a mixture of most genres. I don’t know what to choose. I think I prefer this one!

CREDITS: Yoko Kanno.
Shop: Turn A Gundam Item Shop

Track Listing:

1. White Falcon Medley
2. Jig
3. Moon Flower
4. Blond
5. Mokusei Hikouki
6. Gunka no kioku
7. The First Advent ~ The God’s Scorn
8. Second Advent ~ The Clash of God Strike the Beach
9. The Third Advent ~ That which hides in the Earth
10. Final Shore ~ Ah, to Meet Again
11. Spirit of place
12. Moon
13. Felicity ~ Back to the river
14. Back to the River - Original Vocal Version

Wish you could hear Yoko Kanno live eh? This is one in a concert she produced for one of Japan’s longest running and most popular series Gundam’s 20th anniversary. The bonus DVD is even special because it has some behind-the-scenes and actual takes from the concert where you can see Yoko Kanno herself conducting the orchestra!

Why is this even more special? If you’re a Turn A Gundam fan and don’t know which to choose between Turn A Gundam OST 1 or Turn A Gundam OST 2, this one has of course more selective in tracks and arrangement. Yoko Kanno has to choose the best for her concerts so you can be sure the best of both Turn A Gundam’s OSTs are in here.

I find that Yoko Kanno usually starts everything with spirited pieces where her instruments then try to build a momentum… BUT… they always end on a softer note. There’s the Advent Trilogy. Yoko Kanno of course has to choose of all her composition which one has the best musical score and that utilizes all areas of her orchestra from brass to percussion. You notice that this is in the middle of the performance? All great ones are in the climax. There’s just a different emphasis per Advent. The Third Advent starts with drum and bass but ends with strings to emphasize its melancholy mood.

There’s a vocal piece here called Moon. Moon is always always so great in both Turn A Gundam OSTs. It’s as magical and ethereal as always. The live version though has added percussion to emphasize more drama. I think you should hear this! I love this!

CREDITS: Pony Canyon
Shop: Key the Metal Idol Item Shop

Track Listing:

1. In the Night (5:17)
2. Night Flower (4:39)
3. Memories of Sand (4:23)
4. Lullaby (6:35)
5. Fugitive - Run Away (4:27)
6. Aria (4:47)
7. I’ll Be Here for You (5:14)
8. In the Night - short version (1:48)
9. I’ll Be here for You (1:54)

Don’t let my title deceive you. This is a vocal collection, not an instrumental or BGM album. It’s just that this atmospheric and surreal soundtrack is a compilation of eclectic tastes in accompaniment. Would you imagine, it wasn’t Key: The Metal Idol ’s opening song that had me purchasing this, but it was actually the instruments that permeated excellence despite the lousy singing skills employed by the English dub voice actress? It’s actually quite a surprise to find that I had missed listening to a talented, albeit unpolished, Japanese singer when I chose to watch the English dub instead of the Japanese version. Good thing this OST features the original Japanese songs and not those musically impaired English adaptations.

We start off with In the Night, the opening theme with excellent vocals by Chiyako Shibahara. She croons like the seductress that Miho Utsuse (Key’s idol singer) is, as if luring you into her arms and beckoning for you to rest your head on her bossom. Night Flower, on the other hand, is one of the songs that Miho performs in her concerts. This is quite a different cut from the rest of the tracks in the album as this is jrock with a mean snare drum (80’s like) and lyrics that is ironically almost the polar opposite of the beat! You almost wouldn’t believe it’s a love song. Memories of Sand and Aria sound like something you’d listen to while you’re on a gondola in Venice. Memories of Sand, especially, is like a serenade that takes you on a dream ride. With Aria, I was actually expecting an oratorio, an opera, or a cantata (since an aria is supposed to be any of the three as long as it’s a 2-3 part vocal session). Nothing really much to say here except that it sounds too much like a Christmas jingle despite the wistful romance resonating from the lyrics. Then there’s Lullaby, the definitive track that can survive well even without the vocals. That is how powerful the arrangement is. The vocals are pretty raw and husky-a picture of Tokiko (Key) Mima’s mother humming this night time hymn to her child. It would have been more pleasantly dramatic if it had been sung in falsetto, though.

With Fugitive - Run Away, try this: Turn on an electric fan, face it directly, and lightly say “aaah” without exerting any effort, just get the vibration off the tip of your throat. How do you sound? That’s how Miho is in this song. Quite quite different from how her voice actress sounded in the English dub. As if for emphasis on the lyrics that go, “Sore wa rasen no universe, ochiru yo na speed (That’s a spiral universe, a speed that feels like a fall ),” the percussions’ point of concentration lie mostly in the high hat.

Nine tracks. Nine beautiful tracks empowered by the sweet raw voice of Chiyako Shibahara and accompaniment that speak volumes. This is truly a CD worth adding to one’s collection even if one hasn’t seen Key: The Metal Idol.