Shiina's musical inspirations

[Lena-chan]

I love them too
*.*

[jigenbakuda]

Well since we are talking about karekano, I love it too. Top 10 OSTs in my opinion. Up there with utena, cardcaptor sakura, and Cowboy bebop/ any yoko kanno anime. I love it, the music haunts me and it fit so well with their moods... I was supposed to get the boxset, I wonder what happened. <gir voice> Oh yea </gir voice> me got broke.

To try to be on topic, do you think shiina was ever influenced by anime. She sang a cover of douzo kono mama by keiko maruyama, I think that song was used in anime... Did she watch cutie honey? Both perfume and go!go! did covers of that one, maybe shiina will put it on the next cover album.

[Glathannus]

I could just be a crazed fanboy hearing what he wants to hear, but there's really a very haunting and/or bittersweet theme throughout most of the Xenogears soundtrack, that Hatsukoi Shoujo reminds me of more than anything else.

I don't know what I believe about whether or not Shiina Ringo has actually heard any of that material, but everytime I listen to the Xenogears soundtrack, it grips my soul and makes me want to replay its associated game, more strongly than any other game soundtrack could compel me. Then everytime I hear Hatsukoi Shoujo, I want to eventually listen to the Xenogears soundtrack again.

Prior to the debut of HF, I actually cooled off on regularly listening to the Xenogears soundtrack, so this isn't like some inkblot test where every visual reminds me of my number one obsession. Actually, being introduced to Shiina Ringo (and all the "Related Artists") was the main thing that got me to mostly forget about Xenogears for awhile, until Hatsukoi Shoujo came along.

[zach]

The very first time I heard KSK I was reminded of Beethoven. I hear strong Romantic (more Classical-Romantic, actually) use of chromaticism in a lot of her melodies, but it was always most noticeable for me on Shuukyou, which sounds so incredibly Beethoven.

[jigenbakuda]

Originally Posted by zach

The very first time I heard KSK I was reminded of Beethoven. I hear strong Romantic (more Classical-Romantic, actually) use of chromaticism in a lot of her melodies, but it was always most noticeable for me on Shuukyou, which sounds so incredibly Beethoven.

I was never a musican so I never compared and studied music before. That is so interesting. To think her music is similar to great composers, so very interesting. Do you study music zach? I have heard of a video game composer (in this example it was jeremy soule) being studied in the same way a person studies classical composers. But I have not really heard of it for pop, or rock artists.

@Glathannus
Is xenogears the game with kos-mos? My friends raved about the soundtrack, one even made a (rap) beat to a song in there. Oh and I listen to the secret of evermore soundtrack like you listen to xenogears (thanks god for .spc rips!). Too bad I do not hear secret of evermore in shiina's music...

[Osiris12345]

Originally Posted by jigenbakuda

@Glathannus
Is xenogears the game with kos-mos? My friends raved about the soundtrack, one even made a (rap) beat to a song in there.

Xenogears is an older RPG by Square that came out for the Playstation in 1998. The game you're thinking of with KOS-MOS in it is Xenosaga by Namco for the PS2. They've actually made three Xenosaga games to date. It's related to the Xenogears game, but only a little bit. I won't go too into details but Xenogears is my favorite RPG so I adore just about everything about it. And the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. One of Nobuo Uematsu's best works, if not his best, in my opinion.

Glathannus, I never thought about the connection regarding Hatsukoi Shoujo with Xenogears' music but now that you mention it that could perhaps be a reason I am fascinated by it too. The harmonic vocally-layered style of it almost reminds me of The Nissan Cathedral theme.

[Glathannus]

Originally Posted by Osiris12345

Xenogears is an older RPG by Square that came out for the Playstation in 1998. The game you're thinking of with KOS-MOS in it is Xenosaga by Namco for the PS2. They've actually made three Xenosaga games to date. It's related to the Xenogears game, but only a little bit. I won't go too into details but Xenogears is my favorite RPG so I adore just about everything about it. And the soundtrack is absolutely amazing. One of Nobuo Uematsu's best works, if not his best, in my opinion.

Glathannus, I never thought about the connection regarding Hatsukoi Shoujo with Xenogears' music but now that you mention it that could perhaps be a reason I am fascinated by it too. The harmonic vocally-layered style of it almost reminds me of The Nissan Cathedral theme.

It's one of "Nobuo Uematsu's" best because it's not actually his. Yasunori Mitsuda doesn't get enough recognition among people who embrace RPG music. Check out this Xenogears thread I started a few hours ago. As for specific songs, I'm more strongly reminded of the moment you descend into the deeper section of Melkaba, but there is no one song that Hatukoi Shoujo reminds me of - more like it is the average of the vibe I get from collectively processing the whole soundtrack in my head. Creid (the arranged version of the soundtrack) is probably part of the reason I think I'm hearing a connection, though once again there is no one particular song that Hatukoi Shoujo sounds like it's ripping off.

[Osiris12345]

Argh! How could I have gotten the name of the composer wrong??? ><

Yes, of course it's Yasunori Mitsuda. He's a great composer. I guess I just threw out Uematsu's name without thinking.

I remember that Mitsuda did the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger/Cross, and the first Xenosaga as well. I love his music.

Also, very interesting post you made. It's a real shame Xenosaga is really nothing compared to Xenogears in terms of story. It makes me wonder how things would have been if we had gotten a true series of games, rather than an unofficial version where they had to be careful to avoid copyright infringement.

[NCORE]

Originally Posted by Orenji

love them.

Aya and Sakura were the coolest


oh and



When yukino and the gang go out to karaoke they sing Youkai Ningen Bem.. fun song xD

Youkai ningen bem

For the karaoke part skip to 11:54 into the episode

Kare Kano episode 11

GO!GO!7188

[Orenji]

Thanks for this videos!

I even have the manga version, and when they go to the karaoke, one of the girls says "¡Cantemos "Kabukichou no Joou" de Ringo Shena!" (Let's sing Shiina Ringo's "Kabukichou no Joou"!). I don't know why it doesn't appear in the anime version ...

Wow, now I realized that all is linked