However, when we are stagnant, Japanese animation is developing at a high speed. With this situation, animation music has also developed unprecedentedly. Today, Japanese animation music has developed into a specialized industry. 1982 with the appearance of "fortress of time and space", animation music has been paid more attention by animation producers, and at the same time, the economic benefits brought by animation music have been discovered. While developing visual effects technology, music production has reached a high level. At present, it seems that Japanese pop music is far from the production level of animation music. On the contrary, China vigorously develops pop music but ignores the market of animation music.
A survey of Japanese animation music
IN Japan, the music in an animation includes: OP (opening), ED (ending), IN (episode), IM (image), TM (theme song) and BGM (background music). The music albums released around this animation are: OST (soundtrack), chara CD (role CD), Drama (radio drama CD) and single (single).
How much music an animation has depends on the investment in production. The number of tracks is relative, not absolute. Unlike in China, there is always only one song from the beginning to the end. Take the most common OP and ED as an example. How many ops and eds can an animation have? This question is basically difficult to answer. 1996 "Detective Conan" will change the OP and ed every 20 episodes. At present, it has been staged for 10 years. With the theater theme song of 10, a large number of different versions of CDs can naturally be produced. Of course, Conan is definitely a miracle in the history of Japanese animation. Japanese anime is more like our online novels. The more people read it, the less publishers will let the author stop writing. In the incredible match 1995, Yuu Watase has played all the plots in 13 singles, but because of the unrelenting heat, he was forced to continue to draw the singles from 14 to 18. A few years later, there were other surprises. Thanks to this rule of Japanese animation, Conan was able to set the longest animation record in the history of Japanese animation. Because Conan has a large number of theme songs, the record company can make a lot of money every year. If the record company wants to promote a singer, it is best for her/him to sing Conan's songs. Kuraki Mai, Irene, Boyce, Aya Ueto, etc. Are all famous for Conan. Record companies can make twice as much money as they make excuses. As long as they change the soup, change the packaging and give the record a name, such as "collector's edition" and "limited edition", they can create economic benefits several times.
To measure the success of an animation, just look at the number of her theme songs. For Japanese animation, the theme song is the best packaging for an animation. Conan has 17 OPs, 25 EDs and 10 theme songs in the theatrical version, which is definitely the animation with the largest number of animation music.
The animation with high ratings mentioned above is usually stretched by the production unit, as is the theme song. Whether to add a theme song on the original basis is obviously related to the ratings. Although some animations are not large-scale, the ratings are unexpectedly good after broadcast, so the production units will generally re-create new ED or OP, and the black cat in 2005 is a good example. It was originally a small production of 25 episodes, but Black Cat jumped to the fifth in 6 episodes. In Chinese mainland, the black cat also jumped to the sixth place on the greedy mainland download list. At this time, the production department immediately replaced the black cat with a new OP MV and a brand-new ed, so that after 15 times, the packaging of the black cat was completely brand-new! However, the repeated appearance of old scenes and the mismatch between music and MV show that these are all made in a hurry. The negative example appeared in the 2004 series "Start Being the Devil Today". This animation is absolutely economical, but it can be serialized to more than 70 episodes. So the production committee of The Devil Comes added a theme song after the 1970s. Unfortunately, after the theme song was changed, the ratings of "Devil" plummeted (it was broadcast at that time as high as the fate of seeds). Although barely able to survive, the production unit has not produced more OP and ED since then.
In Chinese mainland, the classification of animation music is very single, and it can't achieve such huge economic benefits as Japanese. First of all, we can see the prejudice and neglect of Chinese animation, followed by insufficient investment and rough production. Producers often find any child who sings from the first episode to the last, and they all sing the same song. It was not until the appearance of the American animation Lotus Lantern that China began to take music seriously.
The animation music production of Bao is not imitating Japan, but more like American style. 1994, moved by The Lion King, Jin began to plan the animated film Lotus Lantern after returning to China. 1999, the animated film Lotus Lantern by Shanghai Animation Film Studio was officially painted. In the film, the producers really began to notice the importance of animated music, instead of just looking for a few children to rap as before. Lotus Lantern is greatly influenced by The Lion King. Almost the whole animation is imitation, even the music mode is the same. Invite big-name stars to lead the singing, release the theme song and publicize before the performance. Lotus Lantern has two theme songs and one episode, which are Wen Li's 365 Days of Missing You, Jeff Chang Shin-Che's Xinche's Love is a Word, and Liu Huan's Heaven and Earth in My Heart. This is not to say that these three songs are particularly well written, but it is a breakthrough in the history of domestic animation. In the history of animation development in China, she is the first animation that really selects singers rather than looking for someone's children to rap, and uses two theme songs and an excellent episode, which shows that animation production in mainland China has finally got rid of the mode of single theme song.
The music of "Bao" only pays attention to the role of propaganda and packaging. Although it is a great progress, the whole animation looks a bit gorgeous and empty. The theme song can't let people see the deepening of the theme, and the background music is not professional. Jin really hopes that this animation will be an opera-like animation like The Lion King, but no matter how you look at the music of this animation, Bao has become a Peking Opera-like animation. Animation music production has always been done by laymen in China, and the lack of professional talents is also one of the reasons for the slow development of animation music.
Professional talent+unique style = perfect music
So far, it can be said that it is the most representative work in the history of Japanese animation music. Of course, Miyazaki Hayao series is a movie animation, among which City in the Sky and Valley of the Wind are the most prominent. The other is the Battle of Rhode Island, which stands for TV animation.
Miyazaki Hayao's two most classic works are City in the Sky and Valley of the Wind. The music of these two works was written by Joe Hisaishi. Gorgeous orchestral music, extremely tense expressions and extremely high standards are enough to make it a god-like existence in the animation music industry. His perfect performances in "City in the Sky" and "Valley of the Wind" also made these two works become Miyazaki Hayao's classics.
Joe Hisaishi's music style is biased towards newage, which seems to have become the music style trend of most animation musicians, emphasizing the combination of various music techniques and main melody melody. In his masterpiece "Carrying You" ("City in the Sky"), he fully integrated the characteristics of electronic music, such as strong lyricism, strong expressiveness, strong sense of rhythm and strong sense of movement, and brought the tension of orchestral music to the extreme, showing his profound skill in grasping music. And the music he made for Valley of the Wind, especially the ending song-the violin is dotted with the timbre of the harp, and the long chords stacked by the piano are inexhaustible.
I can't help but mention the battle of Rhode Island. Why take this work as an example here? Because the music of this work is mainly done by two masters, including my favorite yoko kanno and another talented woman in the animation music industry, Akino Arai.
In sharp contrast to Joe Hisaishi's style, yoko kanno seems to have been using an orchestra to provide background music for his music full of strong electronic style. Speaking of yoko kanno, I think most people's familiarity with her comes from the game of Wandering Wild Hope. And I think what best represents her style is all the music of Laxephene, especially the Garden of Everything. In addition, there are the thumbwheels in Escakoni in the sky, and the music in Wolf Rain is impeccable. These animation music not only make singer Maaya Sakamoto the best singer in the animation field, but also make yoko kanno and Maaya Sakamoto the rarest golden combination in the animation history in the eyes of fans. Yoko created a sea of miracles in the Battle of Rhode Island. The Indian aria and Aoi sora's illusory chorus in front of this song both reflect yoko kanno's magical and changeable musical style, as well as his specialty in electronic music and folk music. She is also famous for her performances in animated music, such as Cowboy Bebop and Gundam Transformation.
Wolf Rain is recognized as one of the best works of animation music.
The words "Hajime Mizoguchi (another anime composer with a similar style to Yoko) and yoko kanno are husband and wife, and their daughter is Akino Arai" appeared on the Internet. However, as another master of Japanese animation music, it is unfair for Akino Arai to be said to be yoko kanno's daughter.
Akino Arai is a typical talented woman. Besides composing music, she often arranges the lyrics and sings of her own works. Similarly, her and Yoko's songs always have a mysterious color, but Yoko's is a magical mystery, while her style is a quaint mystery. Her style is elegant, her music is slow, stretched and full of classical flavor. The same lyrics and magnetic voice as her poems are often accompanied by amazing music. Her well-known "Forever Inflammation" captivated a large group of fans, and yoko kanno's "dubbing" in "macross plus" became a classic, showing her strong musical skills. In her CD "Falling Platinum" released some time ago, there are many expressions and tunes that Akino Arai has never used, which shows that her current style is in a transitional period.
(Battle of Rhode Island Forever)
In fact, animation music is all about animation and is centered on animation. So these masters may not be able to write such classic anime music if they don't meet good scripts. If the flamboyant Joe Hisaishi met a detective Conan instead of City in the Sky, and the magician yoko kanno and the mystic Akino Arai met cherry maruko instead of Battle of Rhode Island, they are still unknown composers. Composers' style determines what kind of works they can only create. Whether the music production of an animation is successful or not largely determines whether it is suitable for the composer who composes music for it rather than investing. In May, 2004, Kloc-0/collected The Alchemist of Steel, which contained many theme songs of the star lead singer, but it was not brilliant, only one song, Brothers, was not bad. Although the Gundam series of music is praised as a "classic" by many people, its achievements are always far less than a novella animation of the Battle of Rhode Island, which means that money and quantity are not the key points.
In addition to these famous artists, there are many outstanding animation composers and their masterpieces in Japan. There are no such people and works in China? Yes But not in the mainland, but in Hong Kong.
Localization of Hong Kong and Japanization of Mainland China
When it comes to anime music, we must mention Xu Ke's works Xiao Gan from 65438 to 0997. When Chinese people look down on themselves because of their own animation, Xiao Gan was born! The appearance of this work indicates that Hong Kong animation has finally got rid of the shadow of Old Master Q Q. The movie animation Xiao Gan, which was adapted from the movie Ghost Story, completely changed the horror of the original story and turned it into an absurd and funny love story. Although this animation is based on ancient times, it boldly adds elements of pop music. Lei Songde, a famous composer, also played his usual electronic style, creating the theme song "Kissing Peach Blossom" and "Dark Man and God" for Yan Chixia, the voice of David Henry Hwang. After mixing electronic music, "Xiao Gan" added a modern flavor, and at the same time well matched the loose rhythm and absurd plot of the film.
It is worth mentioning that Hong Kong animation music has made a leap-forward breakthrough at this time, that is, the emergence of role songs. What is a role song? What matters is the music that represents a role. Xiao Gan's role songs are all tailored for each role, such as grandma's songs and the old demon in Montenegro. A character has other expressions besides lines. With the help of character songs, Xiao Gan shows the character incisively and vividly, making the character full of flesh and blood.
1997' s incredible game created the role song in Japanese animation music. Although similar animated music appeared vaguely before, it was the game "Unbelievable" that was first defined as "role song". It is also the work of 1997. The planning and production of "Xiao Gan" took four years, while the game "Unbelievable" began to serialize comics on 1996, and was animated on 1997. Therefore, Tsui Hark never noticed the role songs later than Japanese, which can be said to be something to be proud of in the animation history of China.
After Xiao Gan, McDull Story 200 1 paid more attention to role songs. For Xiao Gan, the role songs in McDull's story have reached a new level. Localized language and classical music have become cartoon music with Hong Kong characteristics. In the animation, McDull's role song McDull and Chicken adopted Schubert's tune and filled in Cantonese slang as lyrics. Except for the role songs, all the music in it is Cantonese classical music with a bright rhythm. The Cantonese lyrics reflect the ordinary life of citizens, making people feel more intimate and can resonate with local audiences. While the animation in the mainland is desperately changing into daily necessities, Hong Kong has been successful because of the "local" animation music.
On the other hand, in mainland China, the daily use of animation music is becoming more and more serious, and it gradually loses its local flavor. Also produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio, 52 episodes of domestic animation "I am crazy about songs" indicate that TV animation has begun to take the Japanese route. According to Xu Yiyuan of Beijing Wei Ti Advertising, at the end of 2002, I'm Crazy for Singing, as the first cartoon with the theme of campus music in China, swept across the country from East China. East China alone sold 500,000 records, which became a hot topic in the market. It is not difficult to find the shadow of Gundam seed and famous detective Conan when selling records with animation. By 2003, the biography of heroes in Sui and Tang Dynasties had become a daily work. Although the painter is still far from it, the music has been imitated by 80%. The Legend of Heroes in Sui and Tang Dynasties perfectly integrated pop music into the wonderful animation program, and the music producer Rolling Stone International Records Company used almost all its popular singers to play together.
There is only a slight difference between this method of making animation music and the Japanese model: Japan uses specialized animation music talents; A star who uses pop music in China. With the passage of time, people's enthusiasm for Japanese animation is getting higher and higher, and the animation music in the mainland will inevitably continue to be Japanese.