Music Appreciation: RahXephon OST (Ichiko Hashimoto)

This series of posts is my attempt to appreciate some of the great contributions to music that come from anime. I really liked RahXephon and this amazing soundtrack is a big part of that feeling. From early 70s style electric jazz, to large-scale symphonic studies, this soundtrack has it all! By focusing on the RahXephon OST we are mostly looking at music of Ishiko Hashimoto, but we’ll start with the OP from the wonderful Yoko Kanno.

Arakawa under the Bridge – episode 01

A respectable businessman finds himself in a compromising position.

This is the first in a series of posts about Arakawa under the Bridge, a comedy/romance title for the Spring 2010 season. The basic premise is that a self made salaryman (Kou) falls into a relationship with a strange girl (Nino) and ends up living under a bridge on the Arakawa river. The show has a couple of great seiyu in the lead roles:

• Kou – voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya (e.g. Izaya from Durarara!!, and Nozomu, that is Sensei, from Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei).
• Nino – voiced by Maaya Sakamoto (singer of many great anime themes including, Hemisphere, the OP for RahXephon, for which she also voiced the role of Reika Mishima. She has worked with Yoko Kanno on many, many projects, and voiced Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club).

Shaft’s animation is not the most beautiful I’ve seen this season, but its intensity, such as the variety of styles, lends itself well to a comedy title. Also, since it was directed by Shinbo, expect writing to appear in all sorts of places.