The sound of Yamato revived by facing the music left by his father! Interview with Akira Miyagawa, composer of "Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love"!

The third chapter "Jun-Aihen" of the theatrical animated film "Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love" will be screened in theaters on Saturday, October 14, 2017.

The theatrical accompaniment will be provided by Akira Miyagawa, who has been in charge of music since "Space Battleship Yamato 2199. He is a composer whose father is Yasushi Miyagawa, who created the music for the "Space Battleship Yamato" series, the original source material for this film. In this long interview, he talks about what it means to take on the music for Yamato and what Yamato is all about.
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The sound of "Yamato" undertaken with great enthusiasm by General Director Izubuchi

Miyagawa: How did you come to be in charge of the music for "Space Battleship Yamato 2199"?

Miyagawa: I am of the Yamato generation, and I was in the second grade of junior high school when the film was broadcast in 1974, and I can say that I was one of the first customers! I felt that history had progressed in a new way. After that, however, I felt that too many "Yamato" films had been produced. In everyone's mind, why did we say "Farewell" ("Farewell Space Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love" / 1978) and then "Forever" ("Yamato Yo Forever" / 1980)? I think there is a story that goes something like this: "Yamato, Yamato, forever" ("Space Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love" / 1978), and then "forever" ("Yamato, Forever" / 1980)!

But when this story ("Space Battleship Yamato 2199") came along, I was the first customer, and I was proud of my father's music, and from the design to the story, I am really proud of that work. So I said, "Are you going to do it again?" I went to the meeting with the intention of lecturing him. As I recall, Mr. Naoto Otomo (conductor , who performed the musical accompaniment for "Resurrection") was a member of the cast of "Resurrection" and he was a great help to me. He was the conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, which performed the musical accompaniment for "Resurrection," and he called me and asked me to work with him, but I honestly told him that I was expressing my intention by not doing it, and I did not accept the offer. So I was going to decline this time as well.

But Yutaka Izubuchi, the general director of "2199," insisted on meeting me, so I went to see him for the first time. At that time, I may have said half-heartedly that I did not want to accept the project for this reason, but at that time, Mr. Izubuchi said, "I think the same thing. He said that what he was thinking of making was a remake of the first 26 episodes. He also said, "The really creative part is the first 26 episodes. This time, I'm going to remake the first 26 episodes. How do you like it? I thought, "Well, I'm not going to do it unless it's me. I would be shocked if it was "Music: Takayuki Hattori" (laughs).

Well, this is only half a joke, but I once saw Takayuki Hattori holding an LP of Yamato Symphony Suite and asking his father for his autograph. That's how big an impact it had on me. Yamato" was a work that surpassed the Hattori and Miyagawa families. Once that happened, I immediately said, "Let me do this, because if I don't do this myself, I will suffer. As a result, I am glad I did it.

─ Did you feel Mr. Izubuchi's enthusiasm?

Miyagawa: I guess you could say enthusiasm and a unique worldview. He was not someone who was just trying to assemble a story only in animation. Although it never came to fruition, he took on "Yamato" with the stance of "Let's talk about the universe until morning. It was fun to talk with him because he was not starting with "Yamato" for "Yamato" fans, but had a kind of cosmic philosophy, such as "the wonder of the universe," "the wonder of life," "the miracle of meeting," "good and evil were twins," etc., as a general theory.

I think it is bureaucrats who talk 10 years ahead, politicians who talk 100 years ahead, and artists who talk 1,000 years ahead, but he knew what he was talking about. I think that's the kind of story that I understand. For "2202," I didn't have any rituals of refusal or anything like that (laughs). But when I took on the project, there was no way I was going to see only heaven. You have to see both heaven and hell in order to accept a project. For me, "Yamato" is about that much, or to put it another way, it's about raising a family. Raising a child is not just heaven, where you have fun and discover a new you, is it?　That's not all there is to "Yamato," either.

─ Did you experience both heaven and hell when you worked on "2199"?

Miyagawa: With "2199," it was a bit like I ate all the sweet parts first, like I had all the fatty parts. It was like, "Here comes the next one" (laughs).

Miyagawa──Did you notice any changes in "Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love" after Mr. Izubuchi replaced Mr. Habara as the director?

Miyagawa: It was completely different. I don't think Mr. Habara was the type to start with philosophy. Maybe I just haven't had a chance to talk to him that much yet, but he seemed to be very good at judging. He seemed to be very good at judging things, like, "Which would you take? Or something like that. I got the impression that he was very good at choosing which was closer to the goal. Since Mr. Izubuchi is from a philosophical background, I think he suffers from being unable to come to terms with what he says before judging, and falls into his own traps. As an artist, I think he is very masculine, but Mr. Habara makes good choices and chooses his path so that he never falls into a trap. That's why I feel very secure. When I look at the finished work, it is very sleek. The flow of time is very smart, and there is no waste. I got the impression from seeing your work the other day that this is what you call good workmanship.

Struggling and struggling is the essence of "Yamato!

───There was an episode in "2199" when you had to transcribe the score by ear because there was no score left.

Miyagawa: The same thing happened this time. But I knew that there was no score. I have my father's library, and there is really no score for "Yamato" there. I think there were some sound recordings left over from the multi-recordings. But the decision was made to re-record everything.

The amount of visual information would change drastically, as well as the production and design. But the most important thing is the texture. In the past, animated cartoons were like a flip book with colors added, and that was the flavor of the cartoons, but nowadays, CG is more common, and the density of time and music do not match. So I understand the significance of re-recording. But when you have to re-record, you need a score.

When I asked him about "2199," he replied, "Does that mean I have to copy by ear? Mr. Izubuchi said, half amused, "Well, that's the way it's going to be" (laughs). (Laughs.) He said, "Well, that would be a good topic of conversation, wouldn't it? I thought, "Are you serious? I thought to myself, "You're serious! I thought, "I can write that song on the score! I thought. Writing a score means to reveal the structure of a song, so it is not a matter of learning it all over again. So when I tried it, it was really interesting!　Most composers who have graduated from music schools can play by ear, but I felt like I was taking a class there, so it was interesting. It was like I was taking a class there. (laughs). (Laughs.) He is very good at that kind of technique again. It's very clever, but it's really good!　And then, when I wake it up, I can tell that he wrote this song in 30 minutes! I can tell that you wrote this song in 30 minutes!

There are so many discoveries that you can see how they did this, and even though there are only this many elements, just by modulating a semitone here and there, they made the dream so full of life! I would never have noticed it if I had listened to the song normally, but I was able to understand it because I copied it, and that was fun. There were a few songs that I thought were truly geniuses, and that God had inhabited them, and I thought it was a big deal. Yasushi Miyagawa was in the groove at that time.

─ Did you feel the same way about "2202"?

Miyagawa: When I tried to copy by ear, it was clear to me that "this is musically different from the first Yamato," right from the meeting stage. There are an unusually large number of string parts. The first "Yamato" was more of a rock band. There were many scenes where the rhythm section played an active role, but in "2202," there is a tremendous amount of music based on string ensembles. There is a song where the strings are playing mostly in place of the previous rhythm section, so that's what we were talking about in the meeting. My father wasn't trying to create exactly the same thing, and I thought that a change was necessary to maintain my motivation.

─ ─ Did it become more classical?

Miyagawa: Generally speaking, I would say so. Moreover, there was a pipe organ piece in there.

───The song with the impressive pipe organ is "White Comet," and it is widely known that Mr. Miyagawa used to play that pipe organ when he was in high school. The song was recorded in a form close to the original, but was there anything you had in mind?

Miyagawa: I re-copied it by ear. I had my memory of how I played it and a little impression of how the score was written, but I listened to the performance I did in high school many times, prepared a perfect score, and gave it to the organist, Hiroko Yoneyama. I had the option of playing it myself, but I thought that would be a joke, so I decided against it (laughs). (Laughs.) So, at the recording, I decided on the tone and playing style next to her playing the pipe organ, and she said, "You play the rit (ritardando. I asked her about it, and she said, "I got the CD, so I copied it perfectly. I asked him about it, and he said, "I got the CD (and I copied it perfectly).　You mean you studied the one I played when I was in high school? (laughs).

I thought that was a bit of a reversal, but then she said, "No, not this part, play it in marcato, do a ritardando here, and play it hard, one beat at a time! I was conducting hard beside her. Then I remembered, "That happened to me too! I remembered that. Yasushi Miyagawa was conducting beside me, inspiring me and explaining about music. I had forgotten about that. For me, my mind was occupied with whether or not I could play without making any mistakes, so when he asked me about musical matters, I would say, "That's not the point, Dad! I was so preoccupied with whether or not I could play without making a mistake. (Laughs.) So I forgot about it for a long time. But it is true that Yasushi Miyagawa was conducting.

It was musician to musician, musician to performer, parent to child. It was also a passing of various batons, and I really remembered that many things were put into it. It was great to be able to remember that.

From that day on, I repented that I should not only show my back to my own children, but also tell them what I need to tell them from time to time. Even my father was doing that. I thought I was a good, family-oriented father, more so than Yasushi Miyagawa, who came home occasionally to disturb them and then disappeared back to Ginza. But I realized that was not the case (laughs). (Laughs) An unexpected thing happened: I began to realize from that day on that I had to pass the baton to him in a live manner, conveying important things in a concrete manner when I felt it was the right moment.

─ ─ I believe that Akira Miyagawa himself composed some of the music for "2202," but what did you have in mind when you decided to cohabitate your own compositions with the existing ones?

Miyagawa: To answer that question, it would be correct to say that I didn't think about it, but in the beginning I was a little unsure, so I had the sound director, Tomohiro Yoshida, listen to the music and say, "That's good," and I would draw out the words from the people around me before writing.

But when I put the final product together, I felt the same way during the recording, but it didn't feel at all different!　The style is different, and I dared to write songs that my father would not have written.

Also, I knew I was good at planting the seeds for "2199. It was like Mr. Izubuchi had prepared my work for me. He asked me to write the national anthem of the Gamilas Empire and the school song for the military academy. He also told me that he didn't have a melody that would inspire young people to aspire to greatness, so I had to write one. The plan was very reasonable. They had prepared a place where they said, "We don't have this kind of song," so it was easy to work with them. When it was completed, I was glad that there seemed to be no sense of discomfort, not only for me but also for the audience. I wonder if this is father and son.

I think there are different influences, such as similarity or dissimilarity in tune, but everyone has a similar yearning for things like "fashionable harmony," "cool rhythm," and "curvy beauty like a big dragon called melody. I don't know if it is from experience or DNA, but the songs of "Yamato" show this.

The other thing is that they never rush to express the times. There's also the fact that they didn't use computers. Yasushi Miyagawa does the same, and I don't either because I can't use one, but I believe that recording music in one shot is music. So I guess it is a little different from Miyagawa's verse. ...... However, I do feel that Miyagawa's music was a natural and successful joint.

───Do you have any new impressions of Yasushi Miyagawa's music?

Miyagawa: I think my father had no problem when he was in the groove, but when he was asked to "write a song that is not similar," it was really a problem for the artist. There are many well-written songs for battle scenes, but the next time the enemy is different, so they ask me to write something like that. The cumulative total is over 900 songs. In that sense, we were going through hell, writing battle scenes over and over again. I think the previous one is fine (laughs), but I think it was really great to think that my dad was fighting bravely even though he was out of bullets in that area. Even when we were doing "2202," there were a number of songs like that.

But I also realized that the very act of struggling is "Yamato. Yamato" is a struggle, a struggle. Why the World War II battleship Yamato?　Why not the battleship Nagato?

I don't know how the audience feels when they watch "Yamato," but I wonder if they are struggling and thinking with me. I hated the last scene of "Farewell Space Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love" (1978). At the school I attended at the time, we studied war very carefully, and for summer vacation homework we were required to write a book report on "Ki Wagatsumi no Koe" (The Sound of Wagatsumi).

But it's cool!　It made me feel a deep emotion!　And then you start to struggle, "What am I? And then they start to struggle. Weapons are cool, too. Battleships are weapons, too. They are cool. Tools for killing people are cool. ......What am I?　What is a human being? I know, right? But struggling and thinking and debating the unanswerable is what taking on "Yamato" is all about, isn't it? I wonder why I became so obsessed with it when I was in high school, and I guess I will have to continue to live with that illness. So I think that doing "Yamato" is like heaven and hell, a relationship between a parent and child, and a true legacy.

─ ─ Are you struggling now, too, Mr. Miyagawa?

Miyagawa: The other day, I wrote a song without being asked to. I came up with a melody, and when I asked the staff to listen to it, they agreed to record it, regardless of where it would be used. So we spent quite a bit of time recording it, even more time in the studio. We recorded a song that we didn't know where it would be used, just in case something might happen to it. It's "Yamato," so it's like struggling and swinging a bat as hard as you can.

I was just trying to say, "Isn't this cool?　Isn't this new?　Isn't it like Yamato? I thought, "Isn't this cool? It will be interesting to see which songs are used, but for me, "Yamato" started from that point.

When I was a ronin, my father told me to write a song, and I wrote a battle scene in my own way, and he said, "Mr. Yoshinobu Nishizaki liked it. I wanted to revive the mindset of that time, to feel that starting point again. I'm sorry about the budget (laughs), but I guess my point is that if you don't do that, it's not "Yamato. Otherwise, we would only make what sells, and everyone's music would be the same.