{"id":6152,"date":"2019-07-31T21:17:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T04:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/?p=6152"},"modified":"2024-10-16T23:16:25","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T06:16:25","slug":"yoshihiro-ike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/2019\/07\/31\/yoshihiro-ike\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Anime Composer Yoshihiro Ike"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Anime Expo 2019, Anime Trending was fortunate enough to sit down with renowned anime and film composer Yoshihiro Ike and talk with him about his career and his writing process.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Anime Trending (AT): How has your time in Los Angeles been so far?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Ike (I)<\/b>: I actually spend half my time in LA and half my time in Japan.\u00a0 The reason is because I\u2019m a sound supervisor for Toei, the production company for <\/span>Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 All the post-production work is being done in the United States.\u00a0 But I also compose while I\u2019m in LA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: You spent some time in the 80s with a group called AIKE BAND.\u00a0 Did your time in the group influence your compositions later in your career?\u00a0 Is there a particular instance that you remember?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b>: It has influenced me greatly.\u00a0 After I left the band, I came to LA to play the bass.\u00a0 There I became acquainted with some legendary musicians, especially percussionists.\u00a0 I learned what rhythm really is, and that has had a great influence on my style as a composer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: Are there any musical styles you like to incorporate into your soundtracks?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b>: Numerous styles have influenced me.\u00a0 I\u2019m a jazz musician, and also as a kid, I just loved soundtracks.\u00a0 One thing that stood out and influenced me as a kid was written by Jerry Goldsmith.\u00a0 What was it\u2026 <\/span>Papillon<\/span><\/i>!!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: I was at the panel earlier today for the screening of To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts.\u00a0 That show is based on a manga, but other shows you\u2019ve worked on are based on other media or are original stories.\u00a0 When you have source material to work with, do read any of it or play any of the games before you begin composing? And if there isn\u2019t any source material, what helps you choose what direction the music will go?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b>: Every time there is any sort of source material, like a manga, a game, or any kind of reference material, I will try to read it or play it.\u00a0 If I read it and there is already some form of adaptation, I discuss deeply with the producers and directors to make sure there isn\u2019t too much of a gap between what I make and what already exists and to keep things consistent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: You\u2019ve done the soundtrack for both <\/b>Bahamut: Genesis<\/i><\/b> and <\/b>Bahamut: Virgin Soul<\/i><\/b>, which have very different tones, but are part of the same franchise.\u00a0 What changes did you have to make while working on Virgin Soul knowing about this tonal difference, but still keeping everything in the same universe as Genesis?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b>: We tried to keep the tones consistent between the two works. For the first one, <\/span>Genesis<\/span><\/i>, we tried a different music production method. We did film scoring, something that is not normally done for animations. We would produce images first, and then create the music to go with the images.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The practice of film scoring is common in the United States, but not in Japan, so that was a new challenge I was able to do through the <\/span>Bahamut<\/span><\/i> works. The tone of the story of the <\/span>Bahamut<\/span><\/i> series, with <\/span>Genesis<\/span><\/i>, is rather sad. It\u2019s a very sad story.\u00a0 However, the <\/span>Virgin Soul<\/span><\/i> story is warm, but with a bit of sadness.\u00a0 It\u2019s about Nina, who\u2019s a very positive character, who finds love, and tries to achieve love with\u2026 I don\u2019t remember who it is, but she tries to make it a fruitful relationship. So it\u2019s kind of a warm yet sad story. So the tone of the stories are quite different from each other. However, the world view of <\/span>Bahamut<\/span><\/i> is the same, so that is why we try to keep a consistent tone between the stories.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: So you\u2019ve had a long career, are there any projects you\u2019ve worked on that have stood out to you particularly, whether they were the most fun you\u2019ve had working on it, or possibly the most challenging, or just a funny story that was a funny mishap that worked out in the end?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b>: The example that we would discuss is, working on <\/span>Bahamut: Genesis<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Virgin Soul<\/span><\/i>. In my musical experience, it was a record-making hard work, but fun and, at the same time, it taught me so much. For each and every work that I do, I try to do my best and put everything into each work. So every piece is hard, but at the same time, I\u2019m fine.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For one of the more recent works, <\/span>Dororo<\/span><\/i>, we used a more pure traditional Japanese music style, which was new to me and it was a very educational experience.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: Speaking of <\/b>Dororo<\/i><\/b> and the use of traditional instruments, is there a style of instrumentation that you prefer to use based on the setting, whether its period instruments for the time period of the piece, or just music that will fit the tone but is not necessarily in the time frame or setting of the story?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b>: When I see images through my eyes, I get influenced a lot. For <\/span>Dororo<\/span><\/i>, I tried not to use synthesizers, but rather I wanted to use more traditional instruments such as shakuhachi (Japanese flutes), Japanese harps, and Biwa (Japanese mandolin\/lute), and match up with the orchestra. This might sound self-satisfying, but I think that I was able to do pretty good work, and the story was really well done too.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The players of those traditional instruments actually came from the real traditional Japanese music playing world, such as kabuki. They are the genuine players. The players are going to play in the concert, you\u2019ll get to see them!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: Speaking about the concert coming up on Sunday, what would you like the audience to take away from it?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b>: First, we want the audience to have fun and simply enjoy the music, but if possible at all\u2026 I guess many of the audience are familiar with Japanese culture, but if it’s possible it would be wonderful if they could watch pieces like<\/span> Dororo<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Bahamut<\/span><\/i> and learn more deeply about Japanese culture, and that way enjoy anime even more.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: One last question, do you have any closing thoughts or comments?<\/b>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I<\/b>: If anyone can, it would be wonderful if they could listen to my soundtracks, from the old ones to my new ones, you may be able to discover something.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: Thank you!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yoshihiro Ike joins us at Anime Expo 2019!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":6153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,138],"tags":[10046,85,6615,10045,141,142],"class_list":["post-6152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-interview","tag-anime-conventions","tag-anime-expo","tag-convention","tag-events","tag-feature","tag-interview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ike-san_no_Border.png?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n4QV-1Be","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6152"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6250,"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6152\/revisions\/6250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anitrendz.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}