This topic is about the usage and placement of songs in Key anime and VNs. Whether you think that the usage of a song for a particular scene is really good, or you think that any other song would’ve been better, or if the VN used a different song for the same adapted scene in the anime, feel free to write your opinion about it.
Please mark appropriate spoilers with [spoiIer] [/spoiIer] tags, providing adequate context in parenthesis.
Rewrite does its soundtrack well in my opinion by placing it in scenes which are really fitting.
Its album consists a vast array of differing tones when you compare them to each other which are each accentuated when put into context. Each song has its different meaning and emphasize the scene that is taking place.
Take Toxoplasma and Reply for example.
Toxoplasma has such a powerful feel to it utilizing deep instruments like the bass drums, timpani, tuba, and low pitched synthesizers. Accompanied also by rhythm that feels like as if you’re going into war, it really is a overpowering tune. Putting it into context, this song played when Kotarou is within the vicinity of the Earth Dragon. You can tell already that the dragon is overbearing in itself, but as Toxoplasma played in the background, it adds another dimension of alarm.
On the other hand, Reply focuses on giving a soft and an almost lullaby feel to the audience. This piece feels very ‘sleepy’ with how the instruments are dealt with. Showcasing xylophones and the piano together offers a piece that is if it is being played to comfort a distressed child. This plays throughout the VN but it stood out to me most during Shizuru’s route and her diary. This tune is really emotional and during her scene after being separated from Kotarou shows its highlight by acting as a lullaby to soothe Shizuru’s pain
I personally think that Key works have one of the best songs placements, especially in the drama parts of them.
A great example is 恋歌(love song) from Shizuru’s route, I consider this as my favorite song placement ever. the song playing while Kotarō is hugging Shizuru while the world is being destroyed in my opinion Yangi Nagi did a great job there and the placement was just… Perfect
Also, I’d like to point that Key has some music placements that made no scene yet was so funny.
One of them is the Rocket chairs scene from Angel Beats where the ending song would play every time someone hit the ceiling.
The other one is in rewrite the scene when they used reply when Tomoko died in Kotarō’s dream
This kind of music placements never fails to make me laugh
We seem to be talking about Rewrite here, so here’s some of mine. One of my favorite track placement in Rewrite has to be the kissing scene in Lucia route. Yuriha made it even more heartwarming.
Another one is from the Clannad anime. Roaring Tides II (the more melancholic of the two arrangements) played when Nagisa broke down in tears, but the BGM was replaced by the Roaring Tides (the one in 8 beat and has a faster tempo) when Akio stood up and shouted what he felt to his daughter. It still makes me teary-eyed a bit, even now.
I also liked how in Little Busters, they use Just One Magic Word, an arrangement of Magic Ensemble, when we see (Komari route) the more painful side of Komari. This is especially the case in (Refrain) the scene where Komari bade Rin farewell. That hurt.
Going back to Rewrite, I don’t think I can ever see Reply the same ever again after they used it in the (post-Terra extra) very climactic scene of the Oppai route. :((
Key almost always does not fail when I comes to using their music correctly. However, one particular instance at first left me confused, and many others pissed. That is… Clannad After Story ED: Torch by Lia. Don’t get me wrong, the song is great. But once you got to watch episode 16 and episode 21, it completely kills the mood.
Key also has some of the best song placements including my favorite, again in Clannad After Story, Nagisa -Momento- Saka no Shita no Wakare aka Nagisa Warm. I really love this one because it keeps Nagisa’s theme intact and starts off somewhat sorrowful but branches off in a more hopeful direction by the end (or that’s how it seems to me anyways).
I agree with @cjlim2007 that KEY generally has done all the song usage and placement correctly. And then there’s Torch…
But anyway, I just wanted to share what for me is KEY’s best music placement (I don’t know if music without lyrics still counts in this topic though). It is found in Angel Beats! First Beat. (Iwasawa’s route ending spoilers) It is when Otonashi reads the ring/letter that Iwasawa left for him after she disappeared. Still here can be heard as the letter starts. Since the letter is not a boxed text, but rather a video, the music is perfectly timed with the sentences and, after it finishes, Otonashi tears the letter apart and throws it in the air, being left for the wind to carry away. At this moment, the music rises majestically and comes to its climax, before dying slowly as both Otonashi and the reader wipe their tears off and recover their composure.
Torch was KyoAni’s fault, not Key.
I’ve always loved the musical placement in various Key works.
Kanon’s use of Mukai for example, has always been a personal favorite of mine in that VN. It just portrays a tone of being a little bit unsettling, which matches the scenes where it’s used exactly. It’s an excellent use of music to evoke a general feeling, especially in such an old VN.
Additionally, one of the defining musical moments of that Rewrite, for me anyway, was the (Shizuru) end of the Sizuru route, when Finale kicks in. A relatively overpowering piece of music compared to the rest of the OST being used for the (first)? time there was absolutely perfect in my mind’s eye.
You also have the more amusing and/or classic pieces like A Pair of Idiots and The Day’s Leisure, which establish a baseline for the reader when certain characters or general emotional states are trying to be portrayed. The Day’s Leisure is a piece that I’ll actually pop on when I’m trying to unwind for a few minutes at work.
THE PLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE CHANGES AND GOOOOOOOOOOOOOES
This is far from something unique to Key, but I always found it extremely satisfying when the credits theme starts playing after a long route. When I was playing CLANNAD I kept getting bad ends during Tomoyo’s route, so when the ending theme started playing and the screen faded to white, that was very cathartic.
I also really liked how in Little Busters! (spoiler tagging for safety) different routes had different ending themes. Alicemagic, Faraway, and Regret were all fitting for the routes they were used for.
Torch wasn’t the only instance of a terribly chosen ending song, come to think of it. Episode 11 of Charlotte comes to mind. Yake Ochinai Tsubasa was forever ruined no thanks to that.
Key’s pretty good at choosing the right moments for songs at certain points in their VNs, and it never fails to move me. I’m a sucker for sad songs playing at emotional moments. Their selection of background music is stellar, and they make pretty solid choices for background music, whether for emotional, dramatic or even comedic effect.
If there was one thing music related I could think of to complain about, Two Shadows felt way overused because Clannad had so many routes and they all had that same ending song. Not a bad song, but I got tired of it pretty fast.
Speaking of Charlotte, lets not forget the transition to ED in episodes 3 and 4. Or wait, we cant forget it, because it never existed in the first place!
Seriously, the was not even a simply fade in. And it wasnt like there was a dramatic, suddenly black screen ending. It was just “show ends” > “blank space…” > “Oh yeah, I forgot, lets start the ED now.”
Charlotte did make up for it with the episode 6 ED though; I love when shows do a credit scroll on a black screen with a unique ED to emphasize the dark mood of the ending scene. Very reminiscent of a certain track and moment from Little Busters that I hold very dear…
I really loved the end of After Story in the CLANNAD anime when Nagisa Warm Piano Arrange starts playing before the illusionary world “ends” and “fuses” with the current timeline to reset time.
That was just such a great music placement. It gave such a powerful and impactful feeling. It also gave a sense of closure to the story, having a melody that basically screams out "my life is perfect with you/was perfect with you, and I’ll never want to ever regret being with you
I also loved when " Reply" was playing near the end of Shizuru’s route in Rewrite during the Diary scene. I honestly thought the song was actually made for that scene. Considering its a diary, and the song is “Reply”, which was something Kotarou could never do for Shizuru’s during that time, no matter how much she was worrying about him.
That scene was just perfect in many, many ways.
Then we have Angel Beats! I loved the part during Yui’s route when they put Ichiban No Takaramono in the final Yui scene before she got obliterated. I especially loved that it continued and rolled on until the end credits were done
It’s honestly just perfect and beautiful. Beautifully placed, and very emotional.
For Little Busters! (anime), I know that a lot of people didn’t like this particular music piece being used in the anime, as opposed to the visual novel, but for Refrain, I personally loved Song for Friends playing when Riki and Rin were rescuing people from the bus crash. Yes, it was supposed to be a serious scene. But I actually did like it because it made the scene stronger, because it was basically inferring that it was a song for the LB gang, making it more emotional if they possibly died. It was going for feels, rather than seriousness.
And then we all know Key’s ED’s are all beautifully placed. Canoe, Koibumi, Aozora, Song For Friends, etc.
The things I’d want to differ
Definitely. Planetarian and Rewrite for their adaptions.
For Rewrite, near the end of Terra, Radiance is playing and honestly, I didn’t like it playing there. Yes, it was very fitting, but it just didn’t have the impact. The scene was impactful, but the song was not. I do hope they change that.
And for Planetarian, I’ll be honest and say the BGM’s could be better for the final chapter, when it gets animated. Just doesn’t have impact.
I think there are definitely aspects of game design that don’t get enough attention and sound direction is one of them, big time.
KEY games have the benefit of having a main writer also acting as a composer, so he has the ability to project the specific emotions he’s fishing for more efficiently than a writer and a composer could do separately. This is especially noticeable in the trademark KEY climaxes.
On top of that, it aids in the direction of the games. Jun Maeda just has to say, “this song goes here because that’s how I wrote it” instead of writers, composers, and directors all convening to decide what songs go where.
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I already disliked the song to begin with, but that instance just felt like the producers (KyoAni, not Maeda-sensei) were insulting me. I have half a mind to do an edit where I switch the EDs between the two seasons; have Torch for season one and Dango Daikazoku for AS.
That’s another point where I agree fully. I trust you also caught the Negai ga Kanau Bashou/Place Where Wishes Come True leitmotiv there as well, which hints at the nature of the scene.
Ana was another one that struck me as a bit insulting–not to me, but to Lia: Listen to her accent–she clearly has a better grasp of English than whoever wrote that nonsense.
Now, for several that haven’t been mentioned yet (Angel Beats!):
1. Alive: When Yuzuru speaks to Hatsune, the orgel version of Memory plays softly under the sound of his voice, but when she dies, it switches to the full orchestra. This is repeated again at the end of the Graduation ceremony, just before Naoi heads off. The way it shifts from the simplicity of the orgel to the elegance of a full orchestra serves nicely to go along with the shift from nostalgia to melancholy in these scenes. And speaking of Graduation…
2. Ichiban no Takaramono (ver. karuta)–I mentioned in the AB! screenshot thread that the final scene before the end credits gets me every time, and that it’s always on one particular line of dialogue, but I doubt that wouldn’t work on me if it weren’t accompanied by this beautiful song playing under it.
And how about this? People often forget about the Clannad movie, and even when they remember, they don’t usually think of it getting things right, but I have to say the people at TOEI picked a great place for the OP (Megumeru): They put it over the opening scene in the cherry orchard. It starts off with just the sawtooth countermelodies as Tomoya and Nagisa get acquainted, and then, when the dialogue is over and they start up the path, the full vocals and all other tracks burst in. I can only imagine how satisfying it must have felt for those premier audiences to hear that for the first time, thinking, “this is it–this is really happening–this is a real Clannad movie”. The hype must’ve been real. Short-lived, but real.
Blegh. Other than the OP, which sounded gorgeous and well-fitting as you stated, Toei ruined the soundtrack and music placement with their new OST’s and BGM that did no justice. I felt like I was watching some southern horror movie when listening to their soundtrack.
The fact that they also changed Dango is a wtf… all the emotional scenes (excluding their version of the ending to After Story) were not emotional at all because of the music.
Glad KyoAni actually used the original soundtrack.
Anyways, I don’t know if this is necessarily music placement in the show itself, but I have the movie version of AIR from Toei, on DVD, and I loved how they put “Tori no Uta” as the main-theme on the title screen. It gets you hyped up.
Oh, no, I wasn’t saying the whole OST was good; I totally agree with every point you made, I was only praising the OP (one of only two songs they kept).
As far as I heard, the original Dango song wasn’t really an arrange of Nagisa in the VN. And I personally liked the Dango song in the movie – it felt like it suited being a kids’ show song (well Dango Daikazoku is an in-story kid’s show) more than the Nagisa arrange. Though I understand that the Nagisa arrange had more reason to sound that way.
The movie soundtrack, while being decent for the most part, was used in an in-your-face manner so amazingly that everything came off as cheesy. Just watch the (movie ending) reunion with Ushio scene. Well the whole movie was very cheesy, but that’s another topic.
In the original vn, there was no dango related song at all. It was literally Nagisa just saying dango like two or three times.
Buuuut if we get technical, it was established that the Dango song has the same melody as Nagisa’s theme at the end of After Story when the Girl in the Illusionary World sings it.
