sanzo wrote:It's pretty safe to say that if Yoko Kanno had anything to do with it, it's gonna be awesome
No shit.
And the very first time I saw
Cowboy BeBop on TV the opening theme knocked me off my feet, because I was completely unable to figure out if it was original or a standard jazz theme. Granted, I didn't know much of jazz back then, but I'm still flabbergasted of how
Tank! sounds like an instant classic. I like Yoko Kanno's work in general (did you know that Ed was designed after her, by the way?) but the whole soundtrack of
Cowboy Bebop (including the movie) is a supernova of awesomeness. I once read someone stating that music is one of the main characters of the series, which is an accurate way to put it IMHO. And it spectacularly broadened my musical horizons, making me more receptive to jazz and blues, and I know I'm not the only one for whom it played that role.
But since this thread is about opening and ending themes, let me dwell on
Tank! a little more. While there are many opening and ending themes I like, there are only a few I care for completely independently of the anime and, for that matter, the opening and ending visuals.
Tank! is one of the exceptions, but
with the (completely atypical for anime) opening visuals? Total kill.
I'm not quite so fond of
The Real Folk Blues, the ending theme for most of the episodes... err, sorry, I mean sessions, but I still like it a lot. It just doesn't particularly stand out in an already awesome soundtrack. And then there's the special endings.
Space Lions, the ending theme of the two-parts session
Jupiter Jazz in the middle of the series, is several kinds of brilliant. And then there's
Blue, the ending theme of the final session of the series, for which I actually run short of superlatives, and that makes me cry
almost every time I hear it, even out of context.
One final paragraph about
Cowboy Bebop, this time about the movie: the opening theme of
Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven's Door, titled
Ask DNA is a killer too, all the more when associated with the visuals. As for the ending's
Gotta Knock a Little Harder, it really is a jewel, and in my opinion Mai Yamane's voice shines in it more than in
The Real Folk Blues.
I have other themes to mention, but I'm tired for now. I'll get to it later.