Yoko Kanno and lots of music

Before I recently decided to really absorb Cowboy Bebop from first episode to the end, I downloaded the first OST (out of what I thought the total number of OSTs was FOUR... but there are more soundtracks out there) because I knew I would love it if it was Yoko Kanno who worked on it. She quickly became one of my favorite Japanese anime composers after I got the Wolf's Rain soundtrack, PAR EXEMPLE:

(So much batucada it hurts... I truly felt she did an incredible job with all of her samba pieces in the soundtrack, and everyone's favorite, Valse de la Lune, too.)

To be honest I have a natural affinity to samba and bossa nova or anything pretty darn close, so I felt the winning piece in the Cowboy Bebop music collection was Wo Qui Non Coin:

I also really appreciate how appropriately timed each song is in the episodes. When WQNC was playing while Faye left the coast after finally getting an idea of who she really was, I bawled instantly. That was episode 24, and it was perfect even at episode 4 when Faye and Spike were speeding out of hyperspace to Too Good Too Bad before it closed. The last two episodes? Okay. I bawled when Faye found her identity and lost it again. That was an emotional experience for me, but the last two episodes drained all my emotions for the next few days. If you'll remember, Yoko Kanno took The Real Folk Blues, transposed it down by 1, took the bass to a new level, and called it See You Space Cowboy. That's is how you say goodbye to a protagonist. I was not okay stable immediately after finishing the series, but she treated Spike well. She also includes Ilaria Graziano in all her projects, too, which I found in Einstein Groovin' just today.

So anyway, those were the animes that should have consumed my childhood but in reality I had Sailor Moon and .hack//SIGN. I had and still have a lot of love for those animes, too, definitely. I just think I might have grown up to be a much cooler musician and high school student had I grown up with Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain along with the others. No matter, love is love, and these will stay by me forever, and hopefully Kids on the Slope - which I just watched last week... which makes me all psyched for the rest of the series... which, in comparison to the incredibly boring animation of Nodame Cantabile, makes me all psyched to see a music-based anime with convincing animations.

TR TR TR TRAILER!

 

Directed by Shinichi Watanabe, music by Yoko Kanno
There isn't any question about whether or not this is a good anime.
It is. Watch it.

-Out.