background music in anime

Input Tune of the Fatman
1

so I made this thread on twitter about how much I love the background music of 80s-90s anime, and how I feel that being exposed to it at a young age really shaped some of my music sensibilities just as video game music did. I really like how they use orchestral instruments but it’s not a full-blown huge epic orchestra as is the case with Hollywood movies and the big AAA games of today. It’s a really interesting energetic mix of trumpets, guitars, sax, violin, synths, and I think that even without having the context and the emotional connection of the original material, I could appreciate them on their own (though the emotional connection does a whole lot of the work, I feel)

Do you have any favorites? And I must reiterate they must be background music, it can’t be an opening or ending song, or a background song that has a lot of self-importance and attention to itself (like Utena’s duel themes, or Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku, or the evolution themes for Digimon) If a song has lyrics they’re very likely not supposed to be in here.

I’ll start by just reposting what I posted on twitter

8 Likes
2

I was gonna wait for someone else to post but I’m gonna throw in some more


I love this incredible barefaced ripoff of YMO from the Bardock movie of DBZ. I love that the synthesized voice counts up power levels

The Street Fighter II anime’s soundtrack was really good at sounding like a fighting game, even if not necessarily sounding like Street Fighter II. This track feels like an SNK fighting game

I’m holding myself back from just posting every Utena track in here

4 Likes
3

I liked this bit of industrial/noise in Blue Gender episode previews


Boogiepop Phantom’s recurring sonar tone

3 Likes
4

Solid State Scouter is fucking amazingly good.

looks up at my avatar

…yeah, okay, I’ll definitely link a few. Getter Robo: Armageddon’s soundtrack was pretty friggin’ great.

4 Likes
5
2 Likes
6
1 Like
7
4 Likes
8

I feel like a thread like this can’t exist without these Eva tracks

also fuck it, I’m posting a bunch of Utena

2 Likes
9

Would something like this fit the thread?

2 Likes
10

oh 100% when I saw “gundam wing” on the thumbnail title before I pressed play I was thinking exactly of this song. quietly said “yesss” to myself when I pressed play

1 Like
11

Skews heavier on grandiose orchestra but Big Robo has some excellent tracks. That brass call to the experts of justice.

2 Likes
12

my username was a misspelling of ailes grises as a ref to haibane renmei. i don’t know how much of the emotions i feel listening to these tracks is due to the associations i’ve built to them and how much is from the tracks themselves, but i love this soundtrack

1 Like
14
15

this track sounds like something out of Eastern Mind: the lost spirits of Tong-Nou (esp at 1:14)

recently discovered that all of the saxophone qtets and a string orchestra piece from Den-noh Coil were published under new names in a suite for recorder quartet. i wonder if the other movements are from tsuneyoshi saito anime osts too.

1 Like