Ghost In The Shell: Original Soundtrack (1995 Anime Film)

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Music reviews of Ghost In The Shell: Original Soundtrack (1995 Anime Film)

Music Review: Hypnotic, but still flawed.
Rating: 4 Stars

Kenji Kawai's score for the film is breathtaking, beautiful, and very hypnotic. There is a great deal of open space surrounding the music, giving a feeling of being lost in the mechanical jungle that is the computer-generated world where the ghosts travel from shell to shell. This ambient vibe suits this story better than any techno or industrial instrumental. While those styles of music may relay the chaos and noise of such a world, Kawai's music portrays the feeling of loneliness that must also accompany it, as it did for the characters in the film and comic. "I-Making of Cyborg," "II-Ghost City," and "III-Reincarnation," the three variations on the theme are easily one of the best composed themes for any film. They would not have been out of place on "Blade Runner." "Nightstalker" and "Floating Museum" also contain a sense of emptiness that fills the mood of the story, but also somehow capture the violence of the story with mesmerizing results. "Virtual Crime" does the same, accurately portraying the shock and realization of finding out one's life is a lie.

However, this album is flawed as well. "Ghost Hack" is nothing more than the pounding drum that ends the first track that continues for another five minutes. "Puppetmaster," while fitting the scene for which it was used in the film, does not work well on the CD. "Access" and "Ghostdive" are very much the same music, just one slightly longer than the other. The last bonus track is just the obligatory J-POP anime song, and it seems incredibly out of place on this album. Yes it was used in the film, but you could barely hear it amidst the action in the scene.

Flaws aside, I still give this album four stars out of five mainly because I find myself skipping tracks. In my opinion, Geinoh Yamashirogumi's score for "Akira" was superior, but I can see how some will disagree, so I won't make that debate. It does, however, still fit into the same class of quality as Vangelis' score for "Blade Runner." Kenji Kawai is certainly a good composer who does well with capturing the emotions of a film and translating it into an appropriate musical format. The one problem with that, oddly enough, is that some emotions work better visually than they do through music. That said, this album should still count as one of best film scores ever composed, in any genre of film. Kudos to Kenji Kawai.

Description of Ghost In The Shell: Original Soundtrack (1995 Anime Film)

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