Pictured: Japanese composer, Reijiro Koroku.
I didn’t plan on dividing this post over 2 days, but as fate would have it, I just had too damn much to say!
That being said, today we’ll be continuing our look at some of my favorite works of composer Reijiro Koroku.
After Godzilla 1984, the next big soundtrack I can remember hearing from Koroku, was his work on the Kyoshoku Soko Guyver OVA series.
Guyver: The Man-Boobs That Kill.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog, my cousin back in Hawaii turned me on to the Guyver manga way back in the day, and ever since it’s served as a huge influence on my creativity.
Something about the incredibly detailed, yet purposely hoaky character designs, combined with the darkness and severity of the storyline resonated with me in a way that makes me hopeful the manga will eventually reach a logical conclusion.
On that note, when I first found out that a Guyver anime existed way back in the day, you can sure as hell bet I went out of my way to track it down as soon as I could.
Unfortunately, as it turns out the 12 part OVA series was actually kind of ho-hum, even by the standards of an impressionable grade-schooler.
The voice cast was pretty good, and the animation was decent if not inconsistent, however the plot was an absolutely horrid distillation of the source material, cutting short many memorable sequences, and outright ignoring a number of important story beats.
Oh yeah, and unless you want to see some of the most hideous animation ever put to film this side of a budget hentai, then you’ll probably want to avoid even looking at a single frame of episodes 7 and beyond.
Aw, come on! Drawing gray bubbles on someone to symbolize melting DOES NOT count as legitimate animation!
Seriously, I loves me some Guyver, but that was some ugly shit.
That ugliness aside, much like the not-always-so-fondly-remembered Godzilla 1984, the Guyver OVA just happened to benefit from an incredible soundtrack courtesy of Reijiro Koroku.
Though the music is stylistically very similar to his work in Godzilla 1984 just a few years earlier, Koroku’s Guyver soundtrack incorporates synthesizer and electric guitar in many of the tracks.
What can I say, it was the late 80’s and synthesizers were very much “in” at the time.
That’s not to say Koroku’s more electronic approach to the Guyver soundtrack was at all a poor choice.
Heavily inspired by tokusatsu heroes like Kamen Rider and Kikaida, Guyver’s inherently tragic character and brutally violent atmosphere made the property a perfect match for Reijiro Koroku’s potent melodramatic style.
Just give a listen to probably my favorite track in the series, included in the first third of this video, to see what I mean:
Once again brooding and downright creepy at times, Koroku’s score for Guyver shows a great deal of restraint for what basically amounts to a superhero story, however in many ways I feel this is it’s strength.
Like chanbara films of old, the style of action present in Guyver is largely efficient, with each movement and attack being distinct as opposed to the more repetitive style found in Dragonball Z among other things:
I sincerely apologize if you were dumb enough to watch all of that.
Because of this, the music actually benefits from keeping it’s crescendos in check, as otherwise the music would overpower the intensely violent, but relatively low energy nature of the onscreen action.
This track, once again featured in the first third of this clip, serves as perhaps one of the better examples of how Koroku’s powerful, but relatively lax music could effectively supply the series with solid action beats:
Despite how much I love the soundtrack for Guyver, the one downside to it is that the score is very limited in terms of breadth.
Composed largely in suites intended to be recycled throughout the series, the music is quite beautiful by itself, but loses some of it’s luster when heard in the OVA, as the tracks become repetitive after a time, and as such, lose their distinction and sense of place.
Even so, the Guyver OVA soundtrack was once of the first import CDs I ever purchased, and to this day I’m glad I picked it up.
Moving on, the last time I can recall hearing Reijiro Koroku’s music, was from his work on the early PS2 title, Kessen and it’s sequels.
That's a pimp-ass mustache.
An RTS set in the Japanese warring states period, Kessen was a big hit that enjoyed several sequels, however it’s not one that I ever really got caught up in.
Chances are I was to busy playing garbage like Street Fighter EX 3 to give a shit about Kessen.
Despite my lack of appreciation for it, Kessen’s music was a whole ‘nother story altogether.
Truth be told, much like was the case with Noozles, I wasn’t aware that Koroku had done the soundtrack for Kessen, however when I did learn of this, I was not at all surprised given his track record.
Booming and proud, the soundtrack for Kessen brings to mind Koroku’s military marches for Godzilla 1984:
Lacking the brooding tone of Koroku’s previous works mentioned earlier, the Kessen series had an appropriately colorful sound to it, though one that was quite dignified despite it’s epic scale and over-the-top design aesthetics.
It’s funny, hearing this music again kind of makes me want to go back and actually give Kessen a try.
Based on what I remember hearing of it, I doubt I’d be disappointed if I did.
Anyway, that’s about everything I could think of to say about Reijiro Koroku.
Hopefully you learned something over these past 2 days, and if not, at least you got to hear to some nice music!
Filed under: Comics, Games, Great Composers You Ought To Know, Movies, Tokusatsu, Uncategorized, 1984, 2, anime, Azn Badger, blog, composer, Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Godzilla, Guyver, Japanese, Kamen Rider, Kessen, Kikaider, Koei, manga, music, Noozles, OVA, Playstation, Reijiro Koroku, Sony, soundtrack, Street Fighter EX 3, Tokusatsu
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