Akira - Shoji Yamashiro
Ghost in the Shell - Kenji Kawai
Patlabor - Kenji Kawai
Patlabor 2 - Kenji Kawai
Grave of the Fireflies - Yoshiya Mamiya
Princess Mononoke - Joe Hisaishi (although yes, I know where to find this one, and yes, I already have it. And the symphonic disc. Yes.)

...there are others, but I don't feel like mentioning them all right now. Besides, I'm interested in seeing what others are brought up here.

They have everything you mentioned except the Patlabor discs.

Personally, I think "Ghost in the Shell" was an overrated movie. Some great animation, but it's best elements were done better in BladeRunner.

In terms of what music to add to your list, I would look into these:

* Metropolis - Toshiyuki Honda (BUY IT!)

* Martian Successor Nadesico - (I made myself a symphonic suite from score tracks over the first and third volumes)

* Tenchi Muyo! - In all it's many incarnations. A lot of the music from the series' is mediocre, but some of it is GREAT! Like the cue "Autumn of Life" from Tenchi Universe. The film soundtracks are all fantastic, especially #s 2 and 3. Movie #1 had a score by Christopher Franke of B5 fame.

* Ah! My Goddess - OVA and movie

* Revolutionary Girl Utena

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wedge:
Neon Genesis Evangelion

---

Hmm. I still don't see what's so good about it. I saw parts of it on TV, and to me, it seemed like they simply used a couple of medium quality MIDI files over and over again (and looped, too)?

Mononoke is great (the symphonic suite; haven't seen the film yet or heard the original score)

quote:

---

Originally uttered by Wedge:
Personally, I think "Ghost in the Shell" was an overrated movie. Some great animation, but its best elements were done better in BladeRunner.

---

I disagree. While BR was a good film, and also questioned to some extent what it is to be human, it was far less direct and introspective in its examination of that issue. It raised it and allowed Deckard to agonize over it, but never reviewed it in logical dialogue, nor questioned the motivation to be human, nor the morality of the semi-humans in question. Mostly BR was concerned only with the ethics of creating and destroying near-humans, and only from a human perspective(you may argue that Deckard was a replicant, but in my mind that was never firmly established).

That's where it's at. The movie itself is gorgeous and the score is somewhat John Williams-ey with an extremely melodic and awesome cue that seems plucked out of Carmina Burana. I highly recommend it.

As for anime scores, I just cannot praise Seikou Nagaoka's scores for "Tenchi Muyo!" and "Tenchi Universe" high enough. His work is simply magical. In the future, when I get all the CDs from these series and the right burning equipment (not to mention an inkling of what the hell I'm doing), I hope to burn Nagaoka's BGM tracks onto a cd-r.

The three best anime (score & film wise) of all time IMO.

The Akira score is a blast/powerful.

Grave's score is beautiful and horribly sad when the film comes into the mind. Still, it is one of the best scores around.

Ghost in the Shell. I have always loved the music to this film. It hits me in the right spot for some reason. I still have yet to buy it, but I will someday.

Ghost in the Shell is not overated IMO. While similar to Blade Runner, the moral center of Ghost is quite different. Hence why I loved it, the moral turmoil within the main character's ghost/soul.

Yoko Kanno, who did the music for the Escaflowne movie also wrote music for Macross Plus. There are two Macross Plus albums out there.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Marian Schedenig:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by Wedge:
[b]Neon Genesis Evangelion<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm. I still don't see what's so good about it. I saw parts of it on TV, and to me, it seemed like they simply used a couple of medium quality MIDI files over and over again (and looped, too)?

NP: The Cell (Howard Shore)[/B]

---

As for Ghost in the Shell, Kenji Kawai's music is among the most atmospheric and haunting I've encountered. His work on the Patlabor movies is also fantastic. Kross, if you haven't seen those or heard the music, do so soon. The episodic TV series is not as impressive, but both feature films are very well done, and stand on their own as some of the most intelligent giant robot anime ever, at least in my mind. I know it sounds like a contradiction, but it isn't.

Justin, and anyone else who's interested, I have some mp3s from Ninja Scroll. Email me if you want them.

I was so disappointed by what I saw of Ninja Resurrection, though, that I haven't bothered tracking down the music for it, sorry.

Marian, you have three days to watch Princess Mononoke. If you have not done so by midnight, Tuesday September 4th, 2001 (GMT), then I'll hire a stereotypical Hollywood Austrian (big, blond, not too bright) to beat you up and steal all your bootlegs. It's not really poetic, but it's a threat.

Benford: check www.animecastle.com ... if you're not above buying Taiwan bootlegs. They run about $20 cheaper apiece than the original Japanese editions. If you insist on tracking down the originals, CDJapan.co.jp should have them.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Probable:
Marian, you have three days to watch Princess Mononoke. If you have not done so by midnight, Tuesday September 4th, 2001 (GMT), then I'll hire a stereotypical Hollywood Austrian (big, blond, not too bright) to beat you up and steal all your bootlegs. It's not really poetic, but it's a threat.

---

How will the big, blond, not too bright Hollywood Austrian know which CDs are bootlegs? (Though he might be flattered that I have two Conan the Barbarian CDs .

quote:

---

Originally posted by Probable:
No big secret about where I was; I worked and partied pretty hard all summer, so I wasn't around my computer much.

---