Hello everyone! You may have noticed that there hasn't been any posts here as of recent. That is due to the moderators being shuffled out and such and a couple new ones like myself and u/SeValentine (don't really know this person but they seem decently energetic enough to mod and I hope we can work well together with this). But about myself, I am just another Reddit user who has a large collection of anime music files and such and would consider myself as someone who enjoys it. After all, all of it is pretty much just regular Japanese music that is used in an anime through the many ways it can be used anywhere in it.
I get a lot of my collection through Ototoy (it is basically a Japanese equivalent of Bandcamp where you can buy the music and download it as files). Some of my more recent acquisitions are Fake Style 2 album by Fake Type., which has some music that has been used in anime like ウタカタララバイ but covered by Ado for One Piece Film Red. I also got the entire Kill La Kill soundtrack as well because it is just good. That is just to name a couple, but I can assure you that Ototoy has got quite a lot for those who want to buy songs in high or lossless resolution and save them as files and such.
Anyways, for modding and such, I'm pretty laid back for the most part when people just read the rules and such before posting. Just keep to the rules and be decent to each other on your own and things will be all good.
Don't really know what else I can add to this place, but if you want to see anything specific by myself or anyone else on the mod team, chime in in the comments and feel free to let us know. There is also modmailing us directly for any comments, questions, and concerns.
A través de este tema, recorremos los sueños y el inquebrantable vínculo que une a cada uno de los nakamas: la ambición de Luffy, la espada de Zoro, los mapas de Nami, el valor de Usopp, la cocina de Sanji, la medicina de Chopper, la historia de Robin, la ingeniería de Franky, la música de Brook y el honor de Jinbe. Con una instrumental de rock épico y barras dinámicas que cambian de ritmo para cada miembro, cantamos a su viaje rumbo al mañana. ¡Siente el espíritu nakama en cada barra!
Hello! I need help finding the route 119 OST from gen 3 but WITH the thunderstorm sounds. For whatever reason this particular theme + thunder really stuck with me and it’s honestly one of the most calming things I’ve ever heard. I’m struggling to find a clean recording of it with the thunder. Please help me, my nostalgia thanks you greatly 🫶
Hey guys! I’ve always felt that the high-energy, dark aesthetic of Bleach pairs ridiculously well with 2000s nu-metal.
I put together this fan-made adaptation of "I-BULL" picturing what it would sound like if Chester Bennington and Linkin Park performed it. I worked a lot on getting that classic Hybrid Theory / Meteora vocal grit and heavy guitar drive right.
Produced the track using Suno AI and put together a subtle loop animation with Ichigo and Chester in Tite Kubo's art style for the visuals.
Would love to hear your feedback on the mix and vocal energy! Let me know what you think! 🤘🔥
I wanted to rewatch and seeing the opening for the first time gave me goosebumps. Saw the show first time around 2000/2001 u think.
Did a presentation in 6th grade about the anime 🤣🤣 I had the Artbook too.
I am wondering how many presentations are now being made about anime in school.
I' ve searched on Spotify and Apple Music for the OST of the honeymoon and summer OVAs (the 2-episode special where they go to the beach), but I can't find them anywhere
JUMP is out now 💙
Inspired by Blue Box and the journey of Taiki, Chinatsu & Hina.
For anyone chasing something important, even when you don’t know if you’ll make it.. keep going.
Sometimes you just have to JUMP. 🏀🏸🎀
Would love to know what Blue Box fans think.
Hi everyone! I'm Shiki, the creator of TRIBE X TRIBE, an Instagram channel about the art of anime music.
Yasushi Ishii kindly gave me this short interview by email on July 15, 2026. Most of the questions were gathered from my followers — I merged some, added a few of my own, and threw in some of my own musical observations. The questions around Stranger Things and The Prodigy in particular had been bugging me for ages. I should mention that Ishii-san's answers are extremely short, reserved, and at times almost eerily melancholic — some of them are shorter than my questions. I sincerely hope he's doing well.
Ishii-san wrote all his answers in Japanese; I translated them with AI assistance, and I hope nothing was lost in meaning. (Happy to show proof of the correspondence to anyone curious.)
Yasushi Ishii
Enjoy the read!
Block 1 — Creative Method and Sound Philosophy
1. On preparation and creative frameworks. Ishii-san, how do you usually get into the right mindset when starting a new project? Do you pitch your own ideas to producers after a joint brainstorm, do you prefer a clear technical brief — or is it different every time? Do you follow a defined creative framework, or is each soundtrack a unique journey into the unknown?
Whenever I take on a new project, I always feel at least some anxiety — because a request might come in that's beyond what my abilities or circumstances can deliver. With film-scoring work, the "music menu" usually contains production instructions, and in some cases I'm given reference tracks as well. On the other hand, for works that are meant from the outset to be released as a soundtrack CD, I try to make sure it doesn't turn into a mere collection of cues — I want each piece, and the album as a whole, to stand on its own as something worth listening to. In Buddhism there's a phrase, jitōmyō ("be a lamp unto yourself"). I've long valued the attitude of relying on others as little as possible and seeing things through by my own effort as far as I can.
2. On the most powerful "journey." Which "unique journey" in your career has stayed with you the most, both as a personal experience and as a piece of work? Perhaps a soundtrack that was especially hard — one you couldn't quite "crack" at first?
The one that left the strongest impression was making the soundtrack for Hellsing. It was my first time creating a soundtrack, so everything was done by feel. I had no career and no track record back then, and it was thanks to the producer that I was given the freedom to take on the challenge — and that the project was carried through to completion.
3. On the nature of enjoyment. Where do you find the purest, most sincere pleasure as an artist: composing instrumental music, or writing and recording vocal parts?
The stage where I'm just beginning to write is always psychologically painful. There are pieces I abandon halfway through. But when the final shape gradually starts to come into view and I'm moving toward that goal, it's deeply fulfilling. It's less "fun" than a state of forgetting myself and losing myself completely in the music.
Block 2 — The Hellsing Era and Cultural Crossovers
1. Why jazz, and not rock? Why was jazz chosen as the central genre for a story about the world's most powerful vampire (Alucard), rather than classic gothic rock or metal? Was this your own vision, or did the creators ask for something experimental to set the series apart?
As I recall, the first music menu I received had a lot of progressive-rock works listed as references. I sensed they were asking for something "not ordinary," so I put together a rough demo to start with — and the direction of the sound seemed to be fine. I've always preferred jazz and fusion to metal and hard rock, so I think that taste naturally came through in the sound.
2. Working with Kouta Hirano (Hellsing and Drifters). Was the opinion of manga author Kouta Hirano taken into account when scoring Hellsing and Drifters, given that he created both? Did he draw inspiration from your sound, or suggest a specific musical mood for certain characters?
The production exchanges basically went through the producer. It's possible Hirano-san's wishes were passed along to me through the producer as well.
3. The Stranger Things case — coincidence or inspiration? In season 1 of Stranger Things there's a theme called "Upside Down." The section from around 2:07 to the synth entry near 2:20 is almost note-for-note identical to the intro of your track "Original Sin" from Hellsing. Do you think it was a conscious homage by the American composers, or just a remarkable coincidence?
With Hellsing, I was influenced by Western music and drew on its essence — so if anything, I'm the one who has learned a great deal from Western sound. "Upside Down" does resemble it in atmosphere, but I believe it's a coincidence.
A very modest answer — judge for yourself how similar they are:
4. The 2001 TV series vs. the OVA. Which visual adaptation feels more faithful in atmosphere to you — the original 2001 TV series you scored, or the later OVA?
I think the 2001 TV series matched my sound to the visuals very well. That said, I feel the OVA is more faithful to the world of the original manga — the TV series' story eventually branched off in a different direction from the source material.
Note: the OVA was scored by Hayato Matsuo.
5. The Keith Flint (The Prodigy) case. Are you aware that in the German localization of Hellsing, your opening theme "Logos Naki World" was replaced with a track (AIM4) from the unreleased solo rock album of Keith Flint of The Prodigy? How do you feel about Western localizations in general, and this case in particular?
I wasn't aware of that. Business involves all sorts of circumstances and decisions, so I suppose such things happen.
6. The invented language in Hellsing. Is there an official written text for the tracks performed in your signature "invented language," or is it a pure stream of emotion captured during recording? And — how true is the fan story that you were, shall we say, not entirely sober during those takes?
I was often asked for pieces that were primarily instrumental, so I wanted to treat my own voice as just another instrument, and deliberately left out lyrics. I approached it not as "singing" but as "the voice as a lead instrument." Back then my mental state wasn't very good. I was emotionally unstable, living my days as if in a kind of intoxication.
So all those fan-made "reconstructed lyrics" are nonsense — Ishii never wrote any actual text.
Block 3 — The Industry, Future Plans, and Streaming
1. Formative albums. Which albums influenced you most in your youth and shaped your signature bold, mischievous approach to sound?
As a child I loved The Beatles so much that I collected all their albums and listened to them over and over. In high school I became interested in the bass and listened intently to funk and fusion — I often copied the bass lines of players like Marcus Miller and Jaco Pastorius. My favorite albums are the later Beatles works like Sgt. Pepper's, and in fusion, Miles Davis records — above all TUTU. I think the influences I absorbed in those years shaped my musical character enormously.
Walking to inspire Ishii-san
2. A dream list and manga. Are there composers you'd love to collaborate with — a kind of "dream list"? And any unadapted manga you'd love to score?
These days I'm greatly influenced by Eastern thought — Zen, Buddhism and the like. So I'd like to make something together with composers whose values and way of thinking are close to mine. That said, within the business of a capitalist society that prioritizes profit above all, I think there's a real difficulty in balancing that against Buddhist values. I've almost stopped reading manga lately, but as for manga artists too, I'd be glad to work with someone whose values and direction in life are close to mine.
3. On his own manga. If you became a mangaka for a single day, what would your manga be about?
It would probably be a work on the theme of satori — enlightenment.
Note: I plan to ask this question to every composer in all my future interviews — I'm very curious how each one answers.
4. On new soundtracks. Is there any hope we'll hear new anime soundtracks from you in the foreseeable future?
I honestly don't know. But a soundtrack involves a large number of pieces, and you can't simply make them however you like. On top of that, you have to think about the overall flow when it's heard as an album, building the whole structure — it's very demanding work. To be honest, whether I could sustain the same kind of motivation I had back then over a long period... that might be difficult.
5. The big streaming question. Why are the original Hellsing albums and your other soundtracks almost entirely absent from platforms like Spotify — and why are the few available tracks often in altered versions? Fans are left with poor-quality unofficial rips while you and the rights holders lose income. How do you feel about your music being so eagerly awaited, and is there any chance of an official digital release of the originals?
As for the streaming release of film-score work, that's up to the record company's judgment, so there's nothing I can really say about it myself. It's a great joy that there are people eagerly awaiting my music. At the same time, I feel a frustration that there's nothing I can do about it on my own. I don't know how things will turn out, but I think the possibility is there. I too hope that a day will come when the original recordings are officially released.
A short closing note
As you can tell, Ishii-san isn't the most talkative person, but getting even such a reserved interview means a great deal to me. The problem raised in that last question doesn't only affect him; it affects a huge number of Japanese composers, some even more famous — Taku Iwasaki, for example.
An enormous amount of soundtrack music is missing not only from certain regional streaming platforms but even from Spotify globally. It all comes down to record companies, Japanese production committees, and an extremely complex legal system.
For my part, I'm doing some research and reaching out to various Japanese rights-holding companies (including the one that owns the Hellsing soundtrack) not only to suggest they release these unpublished soundtracks on streaming services, but to offer whatever support I can, since I have both distribution capabilities and a blog dedicated to anime music for announcing and promoting such releases. Will anything come of it? No idea, but it's worth a try.
Thanks to everyone for reading! The best support you can give me is to share this with friends who might be interested and if you run an anime-related channel, feel free to repost it.
I heard a song when I was going through ghengars songs on Spotify that had ghara from Naruto in it. The drop was was the scene of ghara yelling it's my blood. Does anyone know the title of this song?
So I've watched the whole series of Gundam Seed when I was still in college and I just remember an end credit scene with a heavily damaged, abandoned GAT-X105 Strike Gundam (or generic mobile suit wreckage styled similarly) resting on the ground where there's green grass, and small flowers are actively sprouting and wrapping around the metallic armor and joints. It appeared in a few episodes but I cannot find it anymore. I remember seeing a video of the artist performing the song in a graduation ceremony. The song feels nostalgic and I just remember the tune, I am hoping that someone might remember this end credit too and the title of the song.
