(percussive music)
- [Mike] Music is a crucial component in any TV series.
However, from OPs to AMVs and OSTs,
the number of music-related shorthands used by fans
abundantly demonstrate that songs and scores
are maybe even more significant to the anime experience.
Few directors in the field understand this
as thoroughly as Shinichiro Watanabe.
From the brassy blues of Cowboy Bebop,
to the scratching rap of Samurai Champloo,
music is as much a character in his shows
as the galactic bounty hunters or sword-swinging ronin.
Some series, like the coming-of-age drama
Kids on the Slope, are entirely about musicians.
(drums beating)
Much like Spielberg's collaborations with John Williams,
Watanabe has worked with composer Yoko Kanno
in some capacity on most shows,
honing a signature aesthetic as collaborators.
Many directors know to hire a composer
who can underscore drama and heighten thrills, sure,
but so sharp is Watanabe's taste for tunes,
he's actually been brought on as a music director
for series like Michiko & Hatchin
and the Woman Called Fujiko Mine.
What truly sets Watanabe's oeuvre apart, though,
is his sense for the ethos of music,
crafting certain shows like record albums.
Music factors into all his stories.
A grim sci-fi thriller about masked teenagers
raising Hell in an alternate Tokyo,
Terror in Resonance already references sound in its title.
And Watanabe has readily explained how inspiration
for the series came from the mental images
that tracks by Sigur Ros conjure in his mind.
The Icelandic shoegazer band's influence was so important,
in fact, he not only had Yoko Kanno compose songs
with Icelandic lyrics in the band's style,
he also insisted on having the soundtrack recorded
in Iceland to ensure authenticity.
Such extreme measures show that music is far
from a mere additive element for the director.
Watanabe also released Space Dandy the same year.
It's a series with the exact opposite tone,
following a lecherous bounty hunter who hunts aliens
with a robot and talking cat by his side.
If this Dandy guy's gravity-defying pompadour
didn't evoke rockabilly enough,
his ship rounds out the tribute in its name, the Aloha Oe,
a clear reference to Elvis and his love of Hawaii.
- [Man] It's Elvis, Hawaiian style.
- [Mike] A stand-out episode could be programmed
alongside musicals like Paradise, Hawaiian Style
that the King starred in, too.
Dandy goes undercover at a performing arts school,
dancing and crooning as he searches for a rare alien,
who, in a textbook twist, turns out to be a Plain Jane.
After an extreme makeover, she and Dandy
show up the school's snooty prom queen at the big dance.
Conflict isn't resolved with ray guns, but a sing-off,
and it's not just one big number,
but a whole bill of songs.
The show goes an extra measure, or two,
or three for the sake of pomp.
As mentioned earlier, there's nothing abstract
about music's connection to story in Kids on the Slope.
The show's specifically about teens learning
to play jazz in the 1960s, centering on Kaoru,
an introverted freshman who finally settles
at a high school after having had to roam for years.
Each angle of his coming-of-age is filtered
through the musical experience.
His big and brash classmate, Sentaro,
seems like a bully until they learn they're both musicians
and have enough common ground to become best friends.
Kaoru's breaking out of his shell is then tracked
by his progress from the rigid formalism
of classical piano to the free-wheeling spirit
of jazz that Sentaro shows him.
The animation's most impressive special effect is by far
the realism of musicianship when Sentaro plays the drums.
It isn't simply an impression of playing.
Extensive detail is paid to his technique
in handling sticks.
Each beat corresponds precisely to what's played on screen.
Being the son of a Japanese civilian and an American GI,
Sentaro also embodies a meeting of East and West
that's often reflected in Watanabe's work.
His most famous series doesn't even just feature jazz,
it's named for a sub-genre of it.
The series, of course, is Cowboy Bebop,
which follows a gang of ghoulish bounty hunters
who chase the scum of the universe
and evade galactic gangsters.
The stylish Spike Spiegel leads,
with ex-cop Jet Black as his right-hand man,
Edward as his quirky hacker,
and amnesiac Faye Valentine as the resident femme fatale.
As mentioned, bebop is a more virtuoso jazz style
characterized by rule-breaking and long, improvised solos,
like when the sax takes over the show's intro.
References span the gamut of genres, though.
Episodes are titled after classic rock records,
like Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic
and Kiss' Hard Luck Woman.
Three are named for Rolling Stones songs alone.
The series' showstopping number, The Real Folk Blues,
also shares its title with a series of albums
played by Chess Records that featured John Lee Hooker
and Muddy Waters, among others.
More significantly, Yoko Kanno was allowed
to start composing before the plot had even been finalized.
Quite often, she'd present songs Watanabe hadn't ordered,
and he'd actually be inspired
to create new scenes to fit them.
Title cards even pointedly refer to episodes as sessions,
as if they're the product of jams at the recording studio.
The conflation is reflected
in how Watanabe structures the show, as well.
A handful of episodes chart the arc
of Spike's escalating grudge with a gang rival
but, otherwise, most installments
are self-contained by design.
In effect, they're more like tracks off an LP
than chapters in a twenty-six part epic.
Viewers don't necessarily need to watch them in order,
and their two-act structure maybe
even evokes the old A-Side/B-Side set-up.
It's an approach Watanabe is fond of.
Space Dandy's continuity is even looser.
Characters die or meet otherwise permanent fates,
only to return next time like nothing happened.
The shows are more accessible overall
than a typical anime serial as a result.
Episodes feel like singles anybody can enjoy
whenever they pop on air,
without needing to be versed in what came last week,
or even before the commercial break.
Bebop's immediate follow-up, Samurai Champloo,
strums on enough common themes as
to feel like a variation on a standard.
Again, we follow a small band of endearing rogues
who navigate a vexing crisscross
of underworld goons and thuggish authorities.
Here, it's a tea shop waitress, Fuu,
who gets caught up with a couple rival swordsmen,
the refined Jin and the belligerent Mugen.
Even the series' titles have a parallelism,
juxtaposing old-time adventurers with terms
that denote modern improvisation.
You know what a samurai is,
but Champloo is an interesting word
from the Japanese prefecture, Okinawa.
Literally, it refers to cooking methods,
roughly translating to stirred together.
More loosely, it means ad hoc,
which relates to freestyle rap easily,
because the series is a history remix.
Mugen fights like a break-dancing B-Boy.
A caddish lord tries to charm Fuu with the aide of a hypeman
who uses a sword hilt like a mic as he beatboxes.
Scene transitions skip and shuffle
with the sound of a turntable scratching.
And a hip hop sensibility shapes the plots, as well.
Watanabe plays fast and loose,
mixing in anachronisms like samples
from a DJ's record stack.
Episodes cover the Shimabara rebellion
and Dutch exclusivity,
even if their Edo era timing rarely lines up.
The most outrageous one features
a baseball game played by bat-wielding ninjas,
despite how Commodore Perry wouldn't arrive
in Japan for another couple of centuries.
These aren't goofs.
The director has granted himself artistic license,
borrowing from whatever interests him,
whenever he feels like it.
Hip hop style Samurai Champloo as exemplified
in Watanabe's collaboration with renowned producers
Nujabes and Fat Jon who he attached
for this legendary meetup.
Watanabe knew he wanted to use hip hop music for Champloo
but since Yoko Kanno wasn't a hip hop musician,
despite some suggesting he worked with him anyway,
he thought the feel of the music would sound fake.
So his natural choice was Nujabes
who was known for the useful use of jazz in his own records.
This is Kaoru comes to scene in Kids on the Slope.
Watanabe treats formalist rules
as an enemy to vibrancy in art.
With improvisation as a mantra,
it's his confident inhibition
that makes him a superstar next to other directors.
The international success of his shows can surely
be chalked up to another quality of music, as well.
With dubs, subs and localization being another set
of anime fan jargon, it's undeniable
that translation is a contentious area of anime,
and one that good songs can easily side-step.
By letting music be such a big part of his work,
Watanabe ensures these shows
will always transcend language barriers,
or any other barriers that might constrain them.
What do you think of Watanabe's use of music in his work?
And are there any other anime
with really thoughtful use of music?
Let us know in the comments.
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