Interview with Taisei Iwasaki, composer The soundtrack for the anime "Spriggan" is music that follows the world of the "beat 'em up and win" shonen manga!

The Netflix series anime "Sprigan" began its six-episode run on June 18, 2022. It is an adventure drama featuring Yuu Ominae, a special agent "Sprigan" of Arkham, an organization established to seal the ruins of a super-ancient civilization, who is active around the world.
The original manga was serialized from 1989 to 1996. The original manga was serialized from 1989 to 1996, about 30 years ago, but it is still a masterpiece that has not faded in terms of interest. It has been adapted to film using the latest animation technology and distributed simultaneously around the world.
The music is as magnificent as the scale of the work. Under the direction of composer Taisei Iwasaki, local performers and vocalists from around the world participated in the creation of the theme song and soundtrack. The entirety of the music can already be heard through download and subscription distribution, which started at the same time as the anime distribution.
How was the music for "Spriggan" created?　We interviewed Mr. Iwasaki.

We aimed for authenticity in the Arabic songs, Hebrew choir, etc.

───Can you tell us how you came to undertake the music for "Spriggan"?

Iwasaki: The producer and music producer, Kanji Ogo, who is also present here, was a classmate of mine when we were students. Before this project was born, I happened to meet him at a party for a long time, and we discussed the possibility of working together on something. A few years later, I received an invitation to work on "Spriggan. I also worked with the director Hiroshi Kobayashi on the TV anime "Hizune and Masotan" (2018). Mr. Kobayashi was in as director under the supervision of the general director, Shinji Higuchi, and we worked on the production while meeting each other many times. At that time, we were able to build a relationship of trust by working together to realize what Mr. Higuchi wanted to do. If Mr. Kobayashi was the director, I wanted to work on "Spriggan" even more so.

─ What was your impression of the original "Spriggan" story?

Iwasaki: I read the original manga in real time when I was a child, and I also saw the animated movie that was released in 1998. It has always been one of my favorites, so I was happy to hear that it would finally be made into an anime again, and surprised that I would be in charge of the music.

─ How did you start working on the soundtrack?

Iwasaki: First, I had a meeting with Director Kobayashi and the main staff. At that time, we did not have any specific requests regarding the music, but rather we discussed the worldview of the work itself. In general, for animated series, the sound director writes a music menu for the music, but I always try to create my own music based on my image of the work, without relying on the menu. This time, too, I received a memo from the sound director, Yukio Nagasaki, who told me what kind of music would be needed, and based on that, I tried to create my own music.

─ What was your intention in not relying on a menu?

Iwasaki: It's not that I don't like to follow a menu (laughs). (Laughs.) I need to know what kind of music is required. However, if I follow the menu, it inevitably feels more like work, and I don't like that. I want to start from the point where I don't know how many songs I will make until I try. Sometimes we receive new orders from the animation production side during the process of creation, and there are budget and time constraints, but in the case of "Spriggan," we were happy to create a few additional songs at the request of the director.


─ In other words, there are songs that were created as part of the first stage and songs that were created as part of the second stage.

Iwasaki Yes, that's right. The songs in the second stage were more in line with specific scenes, more like film scoring.

─ ─ "Spriggan" has a total of six episodes, and the country in which the story takes place changes region with each episode. For example, the first episode, "The Flaming Serpent," takes place in Japan, the second episode, "Noah's Ark," is set on Mount Ararat in Turkey, and the third episode, "The Forest of No Return," is set in India. The soundtracks also have a rich international flavor to them.

Iwasaki: There are stories where you don't have to be so conscious of the country or place where the story takes place, but for the places that can be identified, we were conscious of regional characteristics in the music as well.

─ I thought the music that showed the most regional characteristics was the fifth episode, "Crystal Skulls". The main setting of this episode was Alexandria, Egypt.

Iwasaki: In that episode, I composed an Arabic song. I contacted an Arab musician through a friend and had him record it there.

─ ─ You can easily recognize the song title because it also uses Arabic letters. The two songs are "دعاء(Dua)" and "عيد(Eid).

Iwasaki: I chose Arabic names for the songs because I thought it would convey the atmosphere of the songs even if they could not be read. I wanted the songs to have no lies.

─ ─ What do you mean by "songs without lies"?

Iwasaki: The original story was carefully researched and drawn, so I wanted to make sure the music was authentic as well. I composed the music, but all the performers are Arabs, and I asked them to play on Arabic instruments. The recording took place in Jaffa, Israel. For these two songs, we didn't settle for capturing the essence of regionalism, but completely local music. I also used a similar approach for the song with the Hebrew choir.

─ ─ In terms of Hebrew choir songs, I think the three songs "Psalms I," "Psalms II," and "Chant" are the ones you are referring to.

Iwasaki: "Psalms I" was used in the explanation of the plate that precedes the opening theme each time. Psalm" means a biblical psalm, and the lyrics of the song are taken from the original biblical texts written in Hebrew. I found out that ancient Hebrew is basically the same as modern Hebrew when it is spoken and sung, only the notation is older.


─ So you were seeking authenticity here as well.

Iwasaki: It would be very difficult to make mistakes in quoting from the Bible in a work that will be distributed worldwide, so I asked my friend, Satoru Nemoto, a Jewish scholar who had studied at Hebrew University, to supervise the lyrics and show me where in the Bible I should quote appropriately. The choir of Jerusalem sang the chorus, which consisted of 30 members. This choir was arranged by a friend of mine named Shira (Shira Z. Carmel), who herself sang on "Chant".

─ What is your connection with Shira?

Iwasaki: When I made the soundtrack for the TV anime "Bloodline," I wanted to make a Hebrew song. Then, I was introduced to Shira through Nemoto-kun. I had visited Japan a few years ago.

─ ─ "Bloodline" also had an international soundtrack and was produced around the world. So your experience from that time was utilized in "Spriggan"?

Iwasaki That's right. I am working with the same people I met during the "Bloodline" project. I like to go around overseas by myself and record with musicians from different countries, and I thought "Spriggan" would be a good fit for that method. But since we were working on the Corona Disaster, we communicated remotely this time, and I didn't have a chance to go overseas directly.

──Ai Ninomiya, who sang on the English-language vocal piece "One Day feat. Ai Ninomiya," was also a participant in the "Bloodline" soundtrack.

Iwasaki: I knew her long before "Bloodline," and we have worked together several times before. That's why I asked her to work on "Spriggan" as well.

─ What was your intention with "One Day"?

Iwasaki: It is difficult to use a vocal song in an animated film. The image of the song is too strongly attached to the character. However, I thought Director Kobayashi might be able to make a good use of it, so I worked with Mr. Ninomiya to create a ballad full of hope. I thought it would be okay if he didn't use it, since it wasn't a song for a specific scene in a specific episode, but he did use it in a scene that depicted Mikami Miao's past in one of the episodes.