Search - Japanimation :: Space Pirate Captain Harlock: Eternal Edition File No. 1 & 2

FIRST CLASS SOUNDTRACK !

bispro | France | 12/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Eternal Edition series has set out to present the (almost) complete recordings of great Japanese animation soundtracks. Seiji Yokoyama's score for the original Captain Harlock series of 1978 is simply out of this world.I have had the pleasure on several occasions to play that music and wait for people to ask me what it was... There is always curiosity and often fascination about it. I even have a friend who first laughed when I told her to listen to this music (Japanese animation? You gotta be kiddin'!) and who was struck by its beauty and originality. At times, she could even hear echoes of great Scandinavian composers!Now everybody knows that the Japanese are not great inventors in most fields, but when they set about doing something "in the manner of...", there is no match for them. They have outdone the rest of the world in music, animation, comics, electronics, cars... you name it! Originally, they borrow the concepts and technology from everyone else, but always come up in the end with a better, even idiosyncratic product.Well, this music is certainly a case in point, and there is nothing quite like it, though it certainly has drawn on the influence of a lot of earlier stuff and made the most of it. Finding the perfect atmosphere for each of the settings, Yokoyama created an opus that stands the test of time.My only qualm is that Amazon doesn't state clearly here which of the CD sets you get when you order. Whichever... none of the Captain Harlock music is bad, anyway (this said, Shunsuke Kikuchi's music for the "Youth In Arcadia" series, though good, is more predictable and uninspired).If you have the proper budget for these beautiful and expensive two-CD sets, also go for the Galaxy Express 999 and Yamato collections (leave out the Drama ones, which consists of talk in Japanese). These rank among the very best Japanese animation soundtracks you will ever hear!"