Authorship in Music and Sound Design / 3: The Music and Method of Kenji Kawai

This chapter focusses on composer Kenji Kawai and his work, known for providing the music to several (animated and live-action) movies by Mamoru Oshii. It discusses Kawai as a composer through a musical analysis of his masterpieces, such as the scores for the films Patlabor, Kōkaku kidōtai, Innocence, and The Sky Crawlers. The chapter also examines Kawai’s relevance and artistic authoritativeness in anime culture, as well as the impact of director Mamoru Oshii on the changes that the practices of music creation for animation have undergone. Kawai and Oshii have played a significant role to produce a turning point: creators of anime music came to be recognised socially and professionally, after having been for many years basically in a status of half-anonymity. In addition, the number of songs to be composed has increased, and the name recognition of composers themselves has grown higher. Chapter 17 dialogues with Chapter 42 (Part IV), a long interview with Kenji Kawai.