Voices of a Distant Star Recommended

Publisher
ADV
Director
Makoto Shinkai
Production
Mangazoo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Running time
25 mins (plus 75 mins of extras)
Year
2002

Voices of a Distant Star OST

By Marq Mosier
20th May 05

If you have read my review for Voices of a Distant Star, then you know that I very much enjoyed the anime, and was anxiously looking forward to tracking down the OST. Well, it has been a little bit over a year, and here is my review for the OST, which I found about two months ago at a Suncoast Motion Picture Co. store in the mall of all places.

The presentation of the packaging is very nice, with artwork taken from the anime. Japanese text is thrown in with the English, to give western audiences a bit more feel of authenticity I suppose. Besides the normal booklet included with most cds, there is also a fold-out poster (who uses those?) that is extremely nice from an art perspective. What is more interesting than the poster though is what is on the reverse side of it.

Included on the back of the poster are short summaries of each individual piece of music in the film, and how they came to be created. These explanations are given by the composer Tenmon, who also has another section on the reverse of the poster about the music production. There is also a segment on vocal preparation for the OST written, or transcribed, by Low, the woman who sings the main theme. The final “interview” section of the writings is by VoaDS creator Makoto Shinkai, and it discuses his relationship with Tenmon regarding the composition of the music, and the situations in which it would be used. The lyrics to the main theme, "Through the Years and Far Away", are also included since the song is sung in English.

Here is a track by track breakdown of the songs included on the OST.

1. “Through the Years and Far Away” ~ An absolutely breathtaking song, the reason I wanted to track down the OST so badly

2. “Introduce” ~ Very short, and not much to it

3. “Rainy Bus Stop” ~ Sounds similar to “Introduce”, but with more substance and a bit longer. Very effective piece of music when played in the film

4. “Letter From Mikako” ~ Another slow piece that has a very calm atmosphere to it, would be good to go to sleep to. Gives you the feeling of a lazy spring/summer day

5. “Battle” ~ The most aggressive piece on the album, but it just doesn’t fit, although it is well composed

6. “Sadness at Separating” ~ Sounds similar to “Rainy Bus Stop” and “Introduce”, just a rehash really. It does have an even more somber feeling to it though

7. “Noboru’s Decision” ~ Good piece, and noticeably different from the other tracks

8. “Agarta’s Rain” ~ Beautiful. Similar to a couple of other pieces on the album, but absolutely soars in it's arrangement

9. “Through the Years and Far Away (In-Story Version) ~ Another great version of this song

10. “Preview 1” ~ A trailer version of the theme song, very nice

11. “Preview 2” ~ Same as above, but with Japanese vocals

12. “Beginning” ~ A solemn end to a solemn soundtrack. A more dense and lengthy version of the same stuff you have been listening to

Man, I waited almost a year to get this OST?

I should have just left well enough alone and forgotten about wanting this altogether. While the music on the disc is excellent, and very well composed, it’s all the same! Almost every single song sounds like another, or three, on the album. This OST seems like an unnecessary afterthought, released to make a few bucks off of fans of the anime. It worked on me, but hopefully not on to many others.

This OST succeeds in ruining the great musical experience I received while viewing the film. It’s not that the music is bad, in fact, it is astonishingly good…it’s that it is all the same and most of the tracks are alarmingly short, even for an anime OST.

Overall: 3.0

-- Marq Mosier 20th May 05

Voices of a Distant Star Images