Interview with producer Makoto Nishibe about the music for "Ship This Movie," which has been completely renewed from the TV series.

The Movie" opened in theaters nationwide on November 26, 2016. The soundtrack "Ship Hibiki Vol. 2" has finally been released, which was newly produced using the "film scoring" method, which does not use music from the TV series, but instead adds music to specific scenes. The key to the soundtrack is music producer Makoto Nishibe. We spoke with him about the origins of the music for the "Shippo the Movie," including the theme song "Homecoming," sung by Yukikane Nishizawa.

It all started when I said, "Let's make new music!

─ I'm here to ask you a lot of questions about the music for "This is the Movie". Thank you very much for your time. First of all, please give us a summary of the soundtrack.

Nishibe: It all started when I said that we would not use any accompaniment (soundtrack) from the TV series. During the meeting, we discussed whether we could use the same soundtrack used for the TV series, even though we were determined to make a theater version that would surpass the TV series. So, we decided to take the plunge and create a new music for the "Ship This" movie.
It was really difficult to create music from scratch while maintaining the sound of the TV series and aiming for a higher level. And since we were doing film scoring this time, we had to make sure that all of the music was used in the scenes that were used.

─ So all the songs were created according to the scenes in which they would be used.

Nishibe: In other words, the number of seconds for each song is predetermined, and each song is created for a specific scene, so basically it is used only once. We calculate the number of seconds at the storyboarding stage and start making demo soundtracks to match to some extent, but that inevitably changes during the video production process.

───The length of the scene may change from what you had envisioned, or the timing of the cut may change.

Nishibe: That's what I mean. The music had to be reworked accordingly. Therefore, it was not possible to concentrate on the production for a certain period of time and complete the work, but rather, we continued to create the music as the video production progressed.

Nishibe: When I saw the movie version, I got the impression that the music was just ringing.

Nishibe: The fleet battle is one of the main attractions of this film, so there are a lot of explosions, screws, and other sound effects.
(Laughs.) I think it looks cool when the battle at sea is fueled by uplifting rhythms. On the other hand, we added music full of emotion to the drama parts to create ups and downs. For the movie version, I used live instruments more than for the TV series, so the music was more like a live-action movie.

───"Ship Symphony Vol. 2" contains 30 songs, some of which are longer than 3 minutes.

Nishibe: Longer songs are those that are developed within a single song in accordance with the direction of the picture. For example, a song that starts out with just a rhythm line may start out with a melody line triggered by a line, and then the characters start to run fast. Or the sound of a bell when the torpedo reaches the seafloor. We also tried to liven up the scene with music in addition to the sound effects.

─ You think the music plays a part in the function of the sound effects?

Nishibe: I think so, especially in terms of rhythm. In a scene where the boat is gliding on the surface of the water, the rhythm of "dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah" adds to the sense of dynamism and excitement.

─ It seems that the battle on the sea also influences the way you create music.

Nishibe: Sea battles are spectacular, and the speed with which the water is cut makes the music sharper and sharper. In the case of the "Ship in the Theater," there are also ship-borne aircraft and other armaments, and I think the sight of the little fairies at work looks cool when the music is on.

───The music was composed by Natsumi Kameoka. What do you think of Kameoka-san's talent?

Nishibe: He has co-composed the accompaniment for other productions, but basically he has been active as an arranger, and I have had many opportunities to ask him to work on other productions. At that time, I thought that he was very skillful and quick to materialize the image that I conveyed to him. The first time I worked solely on a TV anime accompaniment was for the TV anime "Ship This," but my strength in arranging is that I have worked in a variety of genres, including anime, games, and live-action, and I think he is very versatile in the way he expresses himself.

─ ─ How exactly did you go about composing the music?

Nishibe: First, we discussed the overall concept and the image of each piece, and then, when the music was completed to some extent, I went to her place of work and we discussed the melody and instrumental structure.
I would suggest phrases for the brass, and while playing the keyboard on the spot, she would say, "How about this? and then we would exchange ideas with each other.

Nishibe: It was like we were working in tandem, sharing ideas.

Nishibe: Because we were both flexible, we had to go through a lot of trial and error to create something good, and as a result, the progress became more fluid, but in the end, I think we were able to successfully match the video.