#jizue

A series of surprising developments… “What will this story be about?!”

――First of all, how were your impressions when you actually watched the animation of “Hoshiai no Sora”?

Inoue Norimasa: Before we made the tracks, the staff told us that “it will be roughly this kind of story”, so we had imagined our own versions, but it had a “darkness” to it that went far beyond our expectations, so to say…

Katagi Kie: Right, like the father of the protagonist, Katsuragi Maki-kun… He has a deep darkness inside him.

Inoue: Really disturbing things come with each episode. I thought that was amazing. “This kind of worldbuilding is also possible in anime!” I thought, and became intrigued by in it every week.

Katagi: When I was showed the key visuals for the series, my first impression was that it was a beautiful work. But when Inoue-kun showed us the soundtrack production’s order sheet that he had brought back with him to Kyoto, containing the images of each track that the director and the others had written, we found that there were many words expressing very disconcerting feelings in it. “What kind of story will this one be?” I thought. When I watched the broadcast, I was surprised that there were several even more shocking things in it.

――What was the most impressive scene to you?

Inoue: The most disturbing scene… Sorry for starting it with a disturbing one, though (laughs), but to me, that would be the flashback scene where Ameno Itsuki-kun’s mother poured boiling water on his back when he was a baby. It made me sad, like, “Don’t come with something so realistic in this age where child abandonment and abuse are in the news”. Another one was the part where they decide on new front-rear pairs for the club. I like the way it portrays Maki-kun’s genius throughout the episode. It’s also good that all the characters are adorable.

Katagi: To me, as expected, the most impressive one was the last part of the first episode. The one where Maki-kun says, “Then will you give me money?” in exchange for joining the club. I was like, “Eh? What’s this drama about?”. Like, “I did sense that some parts would have obscurity in them, but you took a full swing, huh!”. “You’re attacking so head-on!” was the spirit I felt from it.

Inoue: “Hoshiai no Sora” has scenes that definitely make people go, “Whoa!” in episode one.

Katagi: I think the fact that each character bears some sort of issue with their families and themselves also makes it a present-time drama.

――For starters, what was the cue for you guys to be put in charge of the OST of “Hoshiai no Sora”? I believe that you taking on anime soundtracks is already rare enough, and for you too, Jizue-san, it is your first time producing soundtrack, right?

Inoue: To tell the truth, it seems that when someone from the music staff of “Hoshiai no Sora” was having a meal at a curry restaurant, there was a Jizue song playing by coincidence. It all began when they took a liking to it and then brought it up to the director, asking if it could be used in “Hoshiai no Sora”. It was a fateful encounter (laughs).

Katagi: We, the other members, heard this story from Inoue-kun and were also surprised.

Inoue: Ever since then, the thought of wanting to produce a work that coordinated with the animation was always strong for us. So having our music accompanying the animation would be a great honor. Hence we replied, “Please let us do it!” immediately.

――By the way, do the two of you often watch anime?

Inoue: To be honest, I am not the type to watch anime that much. I have only watched what my generation did, like “Dragon Ball” and “One Piece”.

Katagi: As for me, on the topic of anime, I really like Kanno Youko-san’s music. Whenever I think that “this music is good~” while watching “Sakamichi no Apollon” and other such animes, it very often turns out to be the work of Kanno Youko-san. Thus, I am extremely happy to be involved with anime through music.

Being able to harmonize well with the animation even while doing something complicated music-wise is amazing!

――I believe you had meetings with director Akane and the sound director, Aketagawa Jin-san, regarding the making of the soundtrack, so generally speaking, what kind of orders did they request?

Inoue: Other than for the order sheet, there were nearly no requests regarding the nature of the music. On the contrary, the director told us that we did not have to think too hard about it. He said it was okay for us to show the colors as the band Jizue, so we could make what we wanted. We were very grateful for it.

――Jizue-san, even while doing band music, irregular time is your special feature, and the genre so-called post-jazz rock is strong in your music style. In the music scene, it is a slightly maniac and difficult sound. Strings are normally the focus when it comes to anime soundtrack, and using a band’s sound for anime aside from the ones that are about music is already rare enough, so the soundtrack of “Hoshiai no Sora” feels truly fresh. What kind of comments do the fans of “Hoshiai no Sora” send you?

Inoue: Every now and then, I hear people who probably did not know Jizue and people who usually do not listen to instrumental reacting to our tracks, and I am very grateful for it. As in, “even music like the one we make can be welcomed by anime fans”. Indeed, we do some pretty difficult stuff musically speaking, so our music might be hard to listen, but when paired to the anime, it can harmonize quite well.

Katagi: And this reminds me, Akeboshi-san made one of the “Naruto” ending themes (“Wind”), and if I am not mistaken, that was a five-beat song. Since we also use irregular time as our signature feature, I thought it was very fortunate that our band’s sound, which has a bit of a sense of misplacement to it, was able to fit into an anime.

――If anything, anime fans might be able to accept music itself more easily than music fans who are well-versed about the standards. After all, there are many compositions more aggressive than average J-pop in anime songs (laughs).

Inoue: I see; that might be it.

Katagi: If so, I am really glad that our first soundtrack was for anime (laughs).

Inoue: Also, when I actually watched “Hoshiai no Sora”, I had a strong impression that “they sure use the music very well”. There were many tracks that had me like, “So they used this track here!” or, “They’re using it for the opposite of the scene I had imagined!” but they matched super well with the situations on top of that, so I was surprised.

――Like having tracks that were made under the assumption they would be used for sad scenes show up in easygoing ones?

Inoue: That’s right. There were also times when I thought, “My piece sounds like a better track in this one scene” (laughs). Like, they thought carefully about the sense of volume depending on each situation too, and it made me think that the power of the sound director and animation director was incredible.

Katagi: There are also times when they use the tracks by extracting bits of them. Makes me go, “So they connected this and that!”. But they sound like a single track without any sense of discomfort. Lots of magical things happen there.

Things that a pianist would definitely never come up with!? A sixteen-note high-speed arpeggio.

――There are thirty-eight tracks by Jizue in the “TV anime ‘Hoshiai no Sora’ ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK”. Which one left a particular impression on you?

Inoue: The one that took up most time was “W -Hoshiai no Sora-”.

――That is a track often used in soft tennis match scenes, right? As a melody, it is the closest one to the original Jizue compositions.

Inoue: Yes. At first, in accordance with the order sheet, this track was split into four or five short ones to match the development of the games. But I discussed that I wanted to link them up into one track and make it into the flow of the game, from beginning to end. It would be great if it could be split up here and there and used depending on the situation.

――So this was the reason for it to become a long piece for a soundtrack, with three and a half minutes. What kind of developments were you thinking about?

Inoue: This is something that also happens when I go into the stage carrying my guitar, but first of all, when the characters are standing in the court before the game starts, I believe they are very nervous. This sense of nervousness is represented by the initial piano phrase that goes “dun, dun, dun”. From that moment on, there is the feeling that they get heated and fight recklessly, taking points and having points taken from them, and I wanted to expand this sensation with the hook.

――So this heated and exciting melody was depicted with a groove-ish climax filled with Jizue’s live concert energy.

Katagi: I also thought this track was very Jizue-like. Jizue has a variety of tracks, from mild ones to intense ones that reek of masculinity, and this turned out to be close to the strongest kind. To the point where I wonder if it is all right to play it in an anime (laughs).

――When you have been watching “Hoshiai no Sora” for a long time, you can get cheered up by the initial piano solo’s 16th note in the first arpeggio.

Katagi: That is right. This kind of arpeggio is also our strong point. We Jizue call it “dun dun phrase”. But it is a phrase that pianists could most certainly never come up with. Because there are difficulties in the fingering. This melody exists precisely because Inoue-kun, who is a guitarist, made it by pounding his fingers in, so it is always hard to play (laughs).

――Could you point out other songs that you like?

Inoue: I like “ickle”. They use it a lot in daily life scenes. The main point is the acoustic guitar, but we normally almost never use acoustic guitar as Jizue, so we redid it several times. We wanted it to be a gentle tune, so since it would sound a little cold if piano keys come in, we changed it to electronic piano.

Katagi: I like the track titled “euphoria”, which consists of nothing but a piano solo. The clear and loud Jizue-like melody matches the changing Inoue-kun-like sound, and I think it is really good. The invasive way with which Inoue-kun patches up the sound of the piano that I had played live is interesting.

Inoue: In the order sheet, “euphoria” had the keyword “sunset”. It is a sad track, but it is used for heartwarming scenes in the anime, and the fact that it instead listen sounded like a gentle melody left an impression on me. We positioned it as second place from bottom to top in the album’s track order, and I really like the way it connects with the ending theme (“Kago no Naka no Bokura wa”/AIKI from bless4), which is the last track.

――The resounding of the free jazz-like trumpet from the 13th track in the album, “sole male”, is quite impressive. The completely different taste it has from the other songs is interesting.

Inoue: I think this one was on the dark side of the order sheet. Katsuragi Maki-kun’s “obscure dad series” (laughs).

Katagi: His dad is quick to bring over the darkness with him, after all (laughs)!

Inoue: Hence why we had wanted to insert the unstableness of free jazz into it. We thought the only thing that would match it was definitely the trumpet. The one who performed it was the owner of Doctor Hasegawa-san, a tavern that I adore and Kyoto musicians love.

Katagi: It is a person who played a 10-feet trumped at a festival named “Kyoto’s Big Plan”, performed together with the band Insist, and is very much loved by the musicians of Kyoto.

Inoue: The melody of this track was also recorded after I asked him to “please play this line”, but his amazing ad-libbing quickly came about, so we left that as it was. As expected of him.

About the titles of the OST’s 38 tracks, to be honest...

――This soundtrack has jazz, rock taste, beautiful piano tunes and electronic tracks with interesting stereo images, so it is worth listening to it even as independent music, and when you listen to it alongside the animation, you are submerged into new sensations. I believe it has turned out as an album that can be enjoyed as a Jizue one and a soundtrack one.

Inoue: It makes me happy when you say that. This goes without saying for the compositions and performances, but we also obsessed quite a lot over mixings, so if there is anyone who became even just a little interested in our music from watching “Hoshiai no Sora”, I would like them to come hang out at our concerts.

――By the way, what was it that you struggled the most with in this OST?

Inoue: In a sense, what gave us the hardest time was… the track titles (laughs). We are an instrumental band, so we do not make lyrics. Which all the more reason why we do not want to give them meaningless names. As expected, coming up with titles for 38 tracks was a hassle, and since I was going through the trouble, I coded hidden messages within them.

――“Coded”!? Where have you hidden them?

Katagi: I also want to know! Still, although most of the track titles are written in English and lower case, there are tracks here and there with upper case mixed in them. I believe that is the key. By the way, how will people feel if they break the code?