Favorite Anime Soundtracks / Songs?

[svx]

svx's list:

1.  Clannad soundtrack - it's perfect ambient music for any reason :>. The OP and ED songs and insert songs are airy and pleasant as well
2.  Berserk (TV series) - so awesome!  I listen to this a lot even after all these years. I wish the movies had music even 1/10th as artistic as this!
3.  Hellsing (TV series) - a lot more vocals than Berserk, but still ambient.  I always loved the unique style

If game soundtracks count, Beautiful Katamari (for the 360) and anything Castlevania

what about you guys? :>

[Nichi]

I liked a lot of the music from the .hack franchise, but if I had to just pick one song, it'd be Twilight Sea; the ending theme to the .hack//Liminality OVA

I also like a lot of the stuff from the Haruhi soundtrack :3

[Chocofreak13]

i've lost count of how many anime and game soundtracks i have. @___@;

with that in mind, a few favourites are the Chrome Shelled Regios soundtrack; it really fits the series in that it's upbeat and edgy, perfect for fighting a giant creature with your party in tow.
The Big O soundtracks are simply magical. i've always loved jazz and film noir, so the two together is like a lightning strike. plus, it was composed by Toshihiko Sahashi, one of my favourite composers. he did the soundtracks for Gunslinger Girl and Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino as well, which i also have. :3
Cowboy Bebop is another favourite, mainly because of the diversity of it. though most of it is jazz. -w-
Kimi ni Todoke has a light soundtrack that acts perfectly as background music, though it stands out simply because it has no frills, nothing added. this organic sound compliments the simple sweetness of the story. Please Save My Earth is in the same vein as this, as is Taisho Yakyuu Musume (though Musume has a little more oomph to it). :3
Ben-to is like Kimi ni Todoke in that it acts as perfect background music, not getting in the way of what's going on. however, if Todoke would be a white tea, Ben-to would be a red or darker green tea. not dark sounding, but earthier than Todoke (if that makes sense).
Digimon, though i don't have much of it, is an anime favourite, and the songs i do have of it make me smile. look up Kiseki no Digimental from the 3rd Digimon Movie, you won't be disappointed. :3
Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is another favourite since i'm really into techno and it is almost nothing but techno. what makes it better is that the non-techno songs are even better than the rest of the soundtrack.
i have a couple character songs from One Piece, which i just adore. Sanji is a lovely singer (i pretty much melt whenever i hear it). <3
the ending themes to Samurai Champloo are favourites. i even have the chorus to "Shiki no Uta (Song of the 4 Seasons)" memorized. ^^

as for games, FF7 is basically my favourite game soundtrack. Nobuo Uematsu is a genius and i still regret not being able to see him in concert at AB11'. ;^; them's the breaks, i guess. .hack is another favourite (both anime and game), which i've gone out of my way to get songs for (since the soundtrack didn't have harald's theme), since it was worth it. katamari is another one that inspires love (both 1 and 2), as well as thousand arms, chrono trigger, and disgaea.

DDR, Dancemania, Beatmania, Para Para Paradise, and DJMax Portable are all part of the same genre of games, and i have more of this type of song than i know what to do with. the appeal is that they're short and fast, meaning i can listen to a ton on my commute while keeping my cardio up as i run with the music.

if it counts, i have an ASSLOAD of Vocaloid and Utauloid music. it probably takes up about half my music collection, or at least a third, and covers a wide range of styles (though mostly some form of pop). also in my collection are some j-pop and k-pop artists, though they (and the j-rock artists) are overshadowed by the large wave of anime/game music. though i have a healthy amount of PUFFY.  :3

i usually like songs on a song-by-song basis rather than following a particular artist or album. as a result, i have a crapload of anime singles, too many to list here. :\

sorry the post was so long winded. ^^;

[Bella]

-All the Ghost in the Shell soundtracks are amazing. My favorite tracks shift from time to time, but Cyberbird, Psychedelic Soul, 3Tops, Tourkia, Christmas in the Silent Forest, Go Da Da, Rise and Making of a Cyborg are consistantly at the top of my list.
-The FLCL soundtrack is cool and very unique as far as anime OSTs go.
-Tank! (aka the Cowboy Bebop opening theme) is fabulous, but then again most people know this by now so that choice is a bit cliche.
-The
Hellsing OP is similarly fabulous, go give it a listen if you haven't already.
-Oh and also the
Serial Experiments Lain OP is really cool too.
-It's only loosely anime-related, but
Touhou Bakuon Jazz 2 is  m i n d b l o w i n g

[Nichi]

If we're going to include video game soundtracks, my all time favorite would have to be Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. A badass game with a soundtrack to match >:3

Some others I like would include, to name a few: Persona 3, Final Fantasy VI and VII, Diddy Kong Racing (But not the DS remake), most anything Mario or Zelda (Especially Link's Awakening and Super Mario Galaxy), and the Pokémon series (Crystal being the best, with Platinum following closely behind)

[Chocofreak13]

i love the original pokemon soundtrack.....

and i am in love with Tokimeki Tonight's ending theme right now. >w<

[Raffaele the Amigan]

Kiseki no Umi by Yoko Kanno from Lodloss it is pure magic. ^_^

[Chocofreak13]

oooo, yoko kanno? did she and the seatbelts do the soundtrack for that anime, too? :0

[stewartsage]

Cowboy Bebop, Azumanga Daioh's incidental music, a couple of the Pani Poni Dash openings/ends, couple of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei ones too.

[Chocofreak13]

i have one or two of the SZS ones, and they're all pretty good. though i've always meant to watch the series and never have. ^^;;;

[Raffaele the Amigan]

Kalafina Magia from Puella Magi Magica Madoka is truly a song with intense feelings and struggling atmosphere... a mahou magic world with steroids and rock music.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tnVH5kup0h8

[Raffaele the Amigan]

oooo, yoko kanno? did she and the seatbelts do the soundtrack for that anime, too? :0

Yoko Kanno was the author. The song was performed by Maya Sakamoto.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-PLUD7gEqTA


Interesting is the chorus of japanese girls singing a reframe in italian "spade su roccia" aka "swords upon a rock" while even in italian it should be "swords IN the rock"

[Chocofreak13]

i've always found it interesting when japanese music encorporates other languages. english is the most common, but i've heard spanish (?), vietnamese, and french. sometimes it's horrible. though the times i've heard french they've come out pretty good, maybe because they romanticize the culture so much. xD
was the italian any good, or did they butcher it? xD

[Raffaele the Amigan]

 No. they don't butchered anything, but it is almost unrelated as the swords usually stay IN the rock rather than upon it...

As of japan songs containing words from other languages, there is the opening of GTS Stand Alone Complex "Inner Universe" that contains words in russian.

It has been told me that it contains also words in latin but I heard it three times and I did not recognized anything that could resemble it

BTW speaking of messy english, did you noticed in Tokimeki Tonight open and ending the use of word "lave" instead of "love"?

[Chocofreak13]

since "lave" isn't a word, i think that might just be a mispronunciation, like "ravu (or ruv)" for love or "majiku" for magic.

on the other end, though, i was quite surprised by how well the background singers pronunced their "L"s in Super Love Lotion (Tokimeki's ending theme). i've come across a few japanese artists like that, but they're semi-uncommon, so it's always a nice surprise. :3

also, would Lilium count as Latin in a Japanese song? technically it's a latin song but if it was sung by a japanese singer, it might. :\