Geneon/Pioneer CD Animé Soundtrack series
Sound:
B Music: B-
With
Animé a huge hit with a narrow following, only a couple of companies are
supplying all of the content.
Geneon/Pioneer is one of the giants and if VHS, 12” LaserDiscs and now
DVD was not enough software for the market, they have been particularly
ambitious in offering a wide series of CD soundtracks for the many series they
make available in the U.S. market. The samplings of titles for this review are
as follows:
Eve Of Absolution – Evolution
Revolution
Folly Cooly – Addict
.hack//Game Music – Best
Collection
His & Her Circumstances – Act
1.0
Last Exile Original Sound Track 2
– Dolce Triade
LoveHina – Best Collection
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1 & 2
In
addition, there is also a trio of albums of music in the spirit of the genre by
Norihiro Tsuri and Yuriko Nakamura entitled Beginnings,
Gemini and Progress. They were
interesting, while the best of the actual Animé titles is easily the two Neon Genesis Evangelion CDs. As is the problem with CD soundtracks
throughout the entertainment software industry with the DVD boom, why own the
CD when the music is on the DVD? The
traditional reason is because it is separate form the actual programs and more
portable, which DVD is still not as capable of being. Also, there is the additional sound quality
issue. The DVDs, some of which have
already been reviewed on this site, only offer Dolby Digital and also have
issues about the English dubbed versions being not quite as good as the
Japanese originals. Except for the
exceptional DTS edition of Akira
(1987, definitely reviewed on this site as well), Geneon and Pioneer are not
using DTS enough on these DVD titles, especially at the price they charge.
Outside
of that exceptional title, fans can get closer to the music, especially if they
cannot deal with English subtitles and Japanese language tracks, by getting the
CDs. Also, the PCM CD sound on the CDs
will always have qualities the Dolby Digital (usually the 2.0 Stereo with Pro
Logic surrounds type and sometimes the 5.1 type in limited cases) lacks in
fullness. Even with the .1/LFE (low
frequency effects) subwoofer channel a 5.1 mix can offer in Dolby, they are not
always impressive and we are still talking about TV audio here. Even the best Dolby cheats by loading too much bass in the subwoofer, where DTS
has it through all the channels in a more balanced way. The music is not always impressive, but the
sound is consistent, explaining the wide range of CD titles. Some have nice booklets, others just slips of
paper with
brief
explanations, but all have eye-catching covers.
With that
said, these CDs can offer a richness Dolby’s lossy compression can miss out
on. For serious fans of a given title,
this could bring home the fun in a way most of the DVDs cannot. Oddly, this does not translate at all to the
TV DVD boom the format has been experiencing with American TV titles, but that
is a separate essay.
As a
result, the series has its uses and would not be in such extensive production
if they were not selling, so Geneon/Pioneer is in a great position with little
challenge and competing companies offering Animé on DVD (AD Vision, Urban
Vision, AnimEigo) are not even close to issuing this quantity of CDs, so it
makes for a very interesting chapter in TV soundtrack production. We can only hope its success breeds imitators
in American and British TV soundtracks.
- Nicholas Sheffo
