An ambitious
two disc compilation from Toho themselves focusing
on their huge library of war films. In total, there
are 15 movies present with a vast majority of the
music in this set having never been released before
on CD. Across the two discs there are several
great themes present, and while Cinema-Kan started the commendable effort of releasing the Masaru Sato soundtracks in complete form, this set still comprises the only way to get a lot of the music from other composers involved in this genre like Ikuma Dan, Harumi Ibe and more.
Now the standout selection of this release mostly
comes from the Battle
of the Japan Sea (1969) score, which was
wisely chosen as the frontrunner movie in this set.
Track 5 (M12) from this will be instantly recognizable
too as the foreboding music heard during the Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) trailer, while the
rest of the selection from the movie is also enjoyable.
Track 38 (M1) by Ikuma
Dan is another winner, and a theme that clearly
would be later used as the main title in The
Last War (1961). Harumi Ibe's work for Zero (1984), while sounding very dated, is also pleasant
to listen to, as is Toshiaki Tsushima's score for Zero Pilot (1976), although it's far from his best
work. One track here that should be noteworthy to
many is track 23 (M19) by Riichiro Manabe, a cue which
is an early take on what would eventually be used
as part of Godzilla's theme in Godzilla
vs. Hedorah (1971). Some will also be surprised
that Manabe's work on this set is mostly reserved
too, lacking the more unorthodox approaches to scoring
present on the composer's science fiction work.
As
for the second disc, it is comprised solely of work
from Sato and Dan's scores. Of particular note to genre fans will be Japan's
Longest Day (1967), as track M-18 of this selection was used heavily in the Son of Godzilla (1967) trailer. Unfortunately, the themes
on this second disc aren't very memorable in contrast to
the first, which is also a problem with this set as
a whole. For a compilation that spans across 15 movies,
there aren't quite as many "great" themes
present as one would have expected.
Overall, the set
achieves its aim well. Given how most of this music
couldn't, and for most still can't, be found anywhere else more dedicated soundtrack
enthusiasts will still likely look to pick this up
regardless. All the same, the quality on a few of these collections range from good to okay. Most are good, but a few, like the selection of material for Battle of Okinawa (1971), are simply okay. This is made more obvious when compared to the dedicated score releases that Cinema-kan started to publish in 2016 and 2017. Their Battle of Okinawa - Original Soundtrack (CINK-23) sounds much better than the comparable music found here for example.
Sadly, one huge pet peeve about this set
is the almost utter lack of track titles, instead
opting for cue numbers on most of the themes, which
just seems lazy. As a result, you can find in brackets below a few of the tracks that were given titles in other releases. Of note are the tracks from Great Battle of the Japan Sea - Original Soundtrack (CINK-13), as it seems that the "Sea of Japan March" was not actually from the film but an anthology record release while the "Warship March" is actually from the film and a different track than its title here suggests. Given that many of these movies aren't available on CD at all, though, if anyone wants to assist in creating a fan track listing for the set please contact
me.
It should be noted that this disc is sold exclusively
online at Toho Music's site or Arksquare.net. |