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11. Princess Mononoke (Jo Hisaishi)
At least one of the many scores Jo Hisaishi composed for the various Hayao Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli productions belongs on this list. It might as well be the score for the film regarded as their masterpiece, an adventure / fantasy with strong ecological overtones and a score of great lushness and majesty. Beware editions that don't feature all 30-plus tracks; some run much shorter and are no less expensive.More »
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12. Read Or Die (Taku Iwasaki)
Taku Iwasaki's score for Read or Die hearkens back to the spy/thriller sounds of the Sixties -- not only the James Bond / Our Man Flint variety of pop jazz, but the twangy, Ennio Morricone-like scores composed for countless Japanese yakuza and crime pictures. The spectacular, guitar-driven opening theme is worth the price of the whole disc. Iwasaki also created the equally-impressive score for the TV series, but make sure you know which one you're getting: some distributors misfile one as the other.More »
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13. Revolutionary Girl Utena (Shinkichi Mitsumune)
Shinkichi Mitsumune composed most of the score for this groundbreaking series, which mixes classical and J-pop motifs with some truly strange interjections courtesy of Japanese undeground rock god J.A. Seazer. Six or more CDs have been released to cover all the music produced for the series, all of which are fascinating in different ways. Just don't expect the lyrics to make a lick of sense -- they didn't in the context of the show, either, and are mostly there to add their own aural texture to the music anyway. Fantastic opening and closing themes as well.More »
14. Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku-hen
Taku Iwasaki scored the Read or Die TV series and Witch Hunter Robin, but also provided the moving score for the equally-moving Rurouni Kenshin OVA Tsuioku-hen (a/k/a Trust and Betrayal). We were lucky enough to have a domestic pressing of this disc back when the OVA was licensed by ADV Films, so it's still one of the easier titles of his to track down.More »
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15. Samurai Champloo (Various Artists)
The Champloo TV series fused old and new (samurai honor and hip-hop attitude) in a radical way. The soundtrack has the same swagger and style, with contributions by a whole slew of Japanese DJs and rappers--nujabes, Fat Jon, Ishikawa Yoshimoto, Masafumi Takada, Force of Nature, and many others. Four discs were released in total, all excellent, but the first one (issued in a domestic pressing by Geneon) covers most of the crucial bases.More »
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16. Trigun (Tsuneo Imahori)
Tsuneo Imahori's wild guitar work -- which only adds that much more of a Wild West flavor to a series steeped in it -- makes the Trigun soundtracks worth tracking down if you're a fan of Ry Cooder or the like. He isn't limited to that one style, though: there's a Western touch in everything from the piano-and-flute of "Stories to Tell" to the rapid-fire jazzy lounge beats of "Philosophy in a Tea Cup." It's at least as eclectic as any of Yoko Kanno's similarly inspired scores.More »