Last post - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=129476
See my profile for earlier posts.
-----------------------
What a Wonderful Family! 3: My Wife, My Life / Tsuma yo bara no yô ni: Kazoku wa tsuraiyo III (2018) - ***
The music of this implausible franchise continued its evolution from borderline slapstick silliness to warm character drama territory, with a significantly smaller percentage of tracks on the album having runtimes under a minute relative to the prior score albums in the series. On the whole tolerable if a bit anonymous, the score is bolstered by its bookends, with a terrific large-scale waltz variation on the first film’s main theme at the start and one of the most charming Hisaishi tracks of the decade at the end, the latter finally earning one of these scores that elusive full third star (if just barely).
Album - https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UMCK-1599
-----------------------
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (2018) - ***½
Level-5 released a follow-up game set hundreds of years after their original Ni No Kuni entry from 2010, this time without the official involvement of Studio Ghibli although a former Ghibli animator was on the team. Hisaishi returned as well and got good mileage out of his main theme from the prior game, with several delightful new arrangements scattered throughout the score album. But absent notable new recurring themes, and with the orchestration not quite as intoxicating as the original’s Scriabin-like magical soundscape, what you’re left with is an extremely capable orchestral adventure sound that is a tad indistinctive in the context of the composer’s scoring career - the Tom Thumb of video game music in that it’s entertaining, evocative, and often quite colorful but also incredibly episodic. Given the high standard set by Dominion of the Dark Djinn and the additional material written for the Wrath of the White Witch expansion, it’s hard to view the Revenant Kingdom score as anything other than a letdown.
Album - https://www.wayorecords.com/en/cd-tapes/649-ni-no-kuni-ii-revenant-kingdom-original-soundtrack.html
Promotional video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2nqrS44vHs
-----------------------
Asian Symphony (2018) - ***½
After the abrasive East Land Symphony, Hisaishi’s next symphonic work (released on the 2018 Castle in the Sky symphonic album) returned to the lively rhythms of Sinfonia for Chamber Orchestra, Da-ma-shi-e, and Death Pilgrimage, with the bombast of The Legend thrown in for good measure. At times playing like the composer was trying to fuse Minima_Rhythm with his orchestral adventure scoring style, the Asian Symphony is less a revolution than a minor evolution. Its familiarity doesn’t make it among his most inspired concert pieces, but it’s still a very enjoyable ride.
Album - https://open.spotify.com/album/48BlyQmPIQOZZbJq9UkFGJ?si=0BQfQ5YzQP-kd8WnPkE-xw
-----------------------
Children of the Sea / Kaijū no Kodomo (2019) - ****
“Nowadays, electronic equipment has developed so that they can do as much detail as they want, and it’s the same in Hollywood, but it’s become an extension of sound effects. There’s no point in doing boring things like that.”
Winning praise for its visuals and not much else, this feature film from Japan’s Studio 4°C was the first animated movie not made by Studio Ghibli to get a Hisaishi score since Venus Wars back in 1989. He felt scoring the movie was a challenge since it seemed to necessitate a rather minimalist score, leaving his music often bereft of the in-your-face melodies and resplendent instrumental colors that had become the norm for his animated scores over the last two decades. There are still pizzicato strings, muted brass, layered woodwinds, elegant piano, playful moment, and plenty of other little details that cement it as a score composed and orchestrated by Hisaishi, plus the kind of reliance on repeated figures that had been a hallmark of his concert compositions for the last decade. But there’s a modicum of restraint that’s uncommon for his writing in the genre; it’s not Villain, but it’s the closest any animated score of his has ever come to it.
Helping the work stand out is the variety of nontraditional sounds that Hisaishi layers over his midsized orchestral ensemble. A yearning quena flute melody almost takes the music into James Newton Howard territory, the composer aiming for something “like an old fashioned blowing sound.” Various metallic percussion elements set against piano may remind some listeners of Thomas Newman’s minimalist writing. The jaw harp from Miracle Apples returns, though here deployed less as an instrument of cheer and more as a world music feature akin to the primal wilderness material in A Tale of Ululu’s Wonderful Forest. And keyboards and electronics add some intriguing textures, the composer occasionally injecting dreamy reminders of his 1980s and early 1990s output (think The Universe Within but with an actual budget this time).
Like Minima_Rhythm II, if you approach Hisaishi’s score for Children of the Sea with the wrong expectations you will likely find it a colossal disappointment. It is very much removed from the sound of his beloved and more well-known Miyazaki scores. But that approach would've been inappropriate for this movie. It may be easier for many score fans to appreciate its album rather than enjoy it, but the score - one I unfairly dismissed when it came out - remains a work of fascinating textures and otherworldly vibes, and it compares favorably with the similarly atypical Princess Kaguya.
Album - https://open.spotify.com/album/43COPRuzSnaFNjD8hTJXqt?si=JJEFUs7xSRiZTHuojZAsUg
Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nG1kbKtLAk
-----------------------
NiNoKuni (2019) - **½
Level-5’s Akihiro Hino pivoted from game storylines to screenplays with this animated film set in the Ni No Kuni universe, this one’s plot occurring hundreds of years after 2018’s Revenant Kingdom game. Hisaishi’s score was an adequate extension of his familiar action/adventure sound, but also yet another sign that this series had turned into diminishing returns. The composer crafted a nice new theme for the central group of friends as well as some edgier contemporary tracks for the protagonist’s home world. But much of the score occupies a weird middle ground of being not familiar enough yet also too derivative; the fantastical feel of the 2010 game’s score only returns in snippets and new uses of the magnificent series theme are minimal, yet several tracks still sound like cut-and-paste applications from the earlier game scores. Bizarrely, Allie’s theme from the first game reappears at one point. One gets the sense that the composer was put in a somewhat restrictive creative box, leading to a score that’s rarely bad but occasionally quite frustrating.
Album - https://open.spotify.com/album/2zQqC3s9NSCuDwQIAVb1FT?si=g7KyLSgASK6d1AuTXdRZsA
-----------------------
The ten best Hisaishi scores of the 2010s
10. Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer
9. Children of the Sea
8. The Tale of Princess Kaguya
7. Giant Squid: Filming the Impossible
6. Lady Nobunaga
5. Clouds above the Hill Season 3
4. Clouds above the Hill Season 2
3. Miracle Apples
2. Ni No Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn / Wrath of the White Witch
1. The Wind Rises
-----------------------
Next time: “Pizzicato in the second movement - usually it’s a backing performance, playing for the accompaniment. The idea was so novel.”
| 
