


This is a beautiful piece played during one of the season’s most enthralling and poetic (pun intended) episodes. The largely jazzy soundtrack for S1 was composed by Yoko Kanno, and its final track is “Yin’s Piano”. In context with the series, this is unforgettable for a wholly different reason, so do check out PMMM before trying the OST if you can.ĭarker than Black had a significant change when season two came around, not just in its storytelling, but also in its music. “Credens justitiam” is like how a character first takes flight in their arduous journey, featuring an uplifting chorus and an overall pace indicative of utmost joy. It captures how Madoka Kaname (and the rest) feels toward being a wish-fulfilling powerful magical girl.

The first track of OST Volume 1 “Sis puella magica!” already casts a distinct spell over the listener, but its mood is neither just pure happiness nor melancholy. You don’t even need to listen to all the (equally impressive) soundtracks of this franchise to discover its enchanting appeal. People will likely never agree on whether PMMM was a deconstruction of the magical girl genre or just a different take on it, but its stunning cinematography and epic soundtrack are hard to deny.
#Given anime soundtrack series
I recently had a rewatch of this phenomenal series from the mind of Gen Urobuchi - and it was only then I realized how effective Yuki Kajiura’s music was as a moodsetter. Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) It’s worth seeing this new Cowboy Bebop through to the end, if only because the best bits are in the back half, but also because the series ultimately comes so close to vanquishing the bad rap on live-action anime adaptations. The live-action Cowboy Bebop never gets so wild, but at its best the series seems a lot more fun and unrealistic than any other live-action series on Netflix.
#Given anime soundtrack movie
Still, the gold standard for live-action anime adaptations remains the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer, a supersaturated movie with a rare and extreme determination to immerse its fleshy actors in volatile cartoon physics. It’s also a bit similar to The Fifth Element in its colorful, off-world charm.

The live-action Cowboy Bebop works so shockingly well on those terms that ultimately I didn’t mind the series working a lot less well on the terms set by its own source material.
#Given anime soundtrack tv
It’s a rare style of TV these days: modest sets, goofy props, and stagy performances redeemed by great characters and thoughtful dialogue. But really-and rather unexpectedly-the live-action Cowboy Bebop more so resembles the 1980s and 1990s TV versions of Star Trek. Netflix hired Kanno to rerecord songs, produce new pieces for the score, and recapture the magic of the original series. And Cowboy Bebop is an exceptionally tall order given the sophistication in Shinichiro Watanabe’s animation, bolstered by a tremendous jazz soundtrack from the composer Yoko Kanno and her band, the Seatbelts. Typically live-action anime adaptations struggle to reconcile the cartoonish elements-the character styles, the exaggerated movement, the stark colors-with the practical constraints on real actors and real sets, CGI notwithstanding. It was never going to be easy for live actors to reimagine Cowboy Bebop. The live-action Cowboy Bebop gets good-dare I say, great-once Spike, Jet, and Faye have warmed up, Vicious has toned down, the choreography has smoothed out, and the story has branched from the familiar setup into its own alternative direction. It takes the series a while to hit its marks on other counts, too. The penultimate episode culminates in a one-man army massacre, captured in a long tracking shot, at last making good on Spike’s badass reputation and Cho’s painful training for the role. The early fights are badly staged, but later fights with higher stakes are much better. Cho’s Spike is strong but not especially graceful or clever in combat. By contrast, the fights in the live-action adaptation, especially in the first couple of episodes, are rather slow and stilted. He’s hard to hit and quick to contort his lanky profile out of harm’s way. But then there’s his choreography: In the original series, Spike moves through the world with a certain invulnerability. Cho, as the lead, balances the humor and melancholy in Spike rather capably. Cho, Shakir, and Pineda each excel in their respective roles, and they’ve got great, contentious chemistry together. Sometimes the live-action scenes track the original series beat for beat sometimes, for the better, the adaptation takes great liberties with the chronology and characterizations.
