Scoring Japan’s Pasts and Futures / 3: The Soundtrack of Shunsuke Kikuchi for Ufo Robo Grendizer. Composition and Selection Criteria

This chapter is a musicologically refined and soundtrack-focussed follow-up to the previous chapter. It is a study of the music for a famous anime series of the 1970s the soundtrack of which may be surprising for some editing choices, detailedly explained and serving as a music lesson on the criteria of composition and track selection for anime. Moreover, an analysis of Uchū enban daisensō, a film usually framed as the pilot episode of the following Ufo Robo Grendizer, allows to more accurately appreciate the composer’s work. Its reuse in the series, where the musical director usually exerts greater authority than the composer, conferred it a different value. Chapter 10 dialogues with Chapter 36 , a precious interview with Shunsuke Kikuchi himself.