> The Drifting Classroom / Hyōryū
> Kyōshitsu (1987) - **

> Discovery #10.

> The first of several scores Hisaishi did for director Nobuhiko Obayashi,
> this covered a low-budget live action adaptation of a manga about a school
> teleported into an apocalyptic future. Bustling strings and martial snare
> suggest an epic adventure at the start, and if you liked the main themes
> from Nausicaä and Arion then you’ll like this album’s main
> theme too. Alas, the rest of the score is all over the place, ranging from
> minimalist electronics to metallic clangs to trite comedy fare. The album
> also contains pop songs and - well before Clint Eastwood was doing this
> regularly - two pieces written by the director, one a charming
> piano-dominated piece and the other an annoying stock action track (both
> arranged by Hisaishi). Still, devoted fans of the composer should at least
> seek out the 10 minutes of quality melodic material.

> Score album - https://youtu.be/hO7hCXKX3oA?si=UwRINxfbpd0l_I7V

** feels harsh for this one, although I agree with your general assessment. It's an uneven score, but with some attractive highlights, and that was enough to net it a *** from me.

> My Neighbor Totoro / Tonari no Totoro (1988) - ****½

> If you want to understand why Totoro is such a lyrical work, look
> no further than Hisaishi’s image album, issued six months (!) before the
> film’s theatrical release. Most of the thematic components heard in the
> film were first realized as fully-fledged songs with vocals. Hey Let’s
> Go and My Neighbor Totoro sound close to their film versions,
> and it is interesting to hear the largely electronic The Path of the
> Wind in a different format that probably could’ve survived in the
> movie, but by the time you get to Catbus and The Dust
> Bunnies as very 80s tunes you’ll be chuckling to yourself,
> wondering if Hisaishi took a dare to have words alongside every idea. “Now
> put words to Nausicaä!”

> Not every idea on that album made its way to the film. Two unused songs
> are rather folksy: the harmonica-backed Festival of Fireworks and
> the easygoing A Small Photo, the latter featuring Hisaishi’s
> singing voice. As it pertains to the exercise music vibes of A Funny
> Word-Chain Song, I’ll paraphrase Christopher Hitchens and say it’s a
> pity there isn’t a hell for that song to go to, though here’s a fun bit of
> trivia: its singer Kumiko Mori would supposedly go on to be the original
> voice of Pikachu.

> Unlike Hisaishi’s earlier major animated works, Totoro wouldn’t be
> immediately followed by a symphonic album, though a karaoke album came out
> later that fall. It took 14 years for the composer to revisit his score in
> a more orchestral style. The work would be divided into eight pieces, with
> the opening Hey Let’s Go used to introduce each section of the
> ensemble, and all pieces would be accompanied by a narrator (like
> Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf or Britten’s The Young Person's
> Guide to the Orchestra), in this case the actor who voiced the father
> in the original Japanese dub. The album also includes the tracks without
> narration, one of which is a gorgeous orchestral version of The Path of
> the Wind that astonishingly hasn’t been a regular part of the work’s
> usual concert suite.

Consider my interest peaked in both of these. My Neighbor Totoro is a favorite score of mine, so I may be the right target audience for more deliriously chipper interpretations of the material.

> Venus Wars / Venus Senki (1989) - ***½

> Discovery #12. Of all the campy stuff the composer did in the 1980s, this
> is the only one worth regularly returning to.

Interesting! I heard this one once a long time ago and it didn't do much for me, but perhaps I should revisit. I do, however, love the "Wind of Venus" song from this soundtrack.

> Kiki's Delivery Service / Majo no Takkyūbin (1989) - ****

> Miyazaki’s tale of a young witch in a new city may have had much of its
> aesthetic based on Stockholm, but his composer took the film’s music in a
> different direction, layering a fusion of French and Mediterranean sounds
> on top of an occasional orchestra. It’s often a smaller-scale score done
> with impeccable charm, with much of its runtime evoking a breezy, carefree
> summer day. Alas, the fun (and the terrific themes) of Kiki’s Delivery
> Service are counterbalanced by a handful of very synthetic tracks that
> don’t sound that much more evolved from their versions on the image album.
> There’s also the obnoxious combination of what sounds like a theremin and
> honky-tonk piano in Surrogate Jiji, a track I’ve only kept in my
> collection on the off chance I ever need something to torture my enemies
> with, though to be fair Hisaishi wrote that as in-film source music
> accompanying a cartoon being watched by a bratty child and it barely even
> factors into the movie.

Haha, your dislike of "Surrogate Jiji" is practically a running joke at this point. For what it's worth, I've always found that track charming.

Anyhow, lovely score, and "Town With an Ocean View" is a top ten Hisaishi cue for me.

Loved reading your write-up, as always!