Anime Music (Part 2)

By: Brian Mah

The most well known collaboration between artists and musicians in Japan were between the robotic clad techno duo, Daft Punk and the master of the sci-fi anime genre, Leiji Matsumoto. They created the musical masterpiece Interstella 5555. The combination of the fluid sci-fi animation of Mr. Matsumoto and the digital styling of Daft Punk made the anime an instant classic. The basic story of the Interstella 5555 centered on a group of musicians who entertained their planet with digital music. An evil alien stole the musicians and sent them back to earth. A fan of the group, who was also a solider, tried to get them back to their home planet. There were a lot of references to some of Mr. Matsumoto's earlier works, such as Space Pirate Captain Harlock.

Rapper/Producer, Kanye West and Independent artist Takashi Murakami teamed up on the video, "Good Morning." Kanye created the original story and added the audio soundtrack. Kanye's technique complemented with Murakami's use of bright psychedelic colors and unusual anime character designs. The premise of the video was a bear trying to make it to his graduation. The futuristic setting in the video was homage to "Back to the Future Part II."

The British Indie group, Bôa, was best known for the opening song, "Duvet", used in the anime series Serial Experiments Lain created by Yoshitoshi ABe. The approach of how Bôa harmonized together with Mr. ABe's characters and story was a hit with fans that still enjoy listening to the song.

Korean born artist BoA is another foreign musician who entered the Japanese music scene. BoA exploded into the Japanese music scene back in 2001. It wasn't until she sang the closing song "Every Heart" for the anime series Inuyasha that anime fans took notice.