Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

22nd May 2006

Number 91 - A Directorial Plug

My meeting with Aoi Teshima, who signs the two songs[1] in the film, was something that even influenced the direction of the film itself. As I wrote somewhere else before, it was a really fortunate meeting.

To repay that debt, what Producer Suzuki thought up, was that we would cooperate with her debut album. In practical terms the idea was creating songs with "Tales from Earthsea" as a motif, and getting Ms. Aoi to sing them.

"So that's why we need you to write the lyrics, Goro my boy[2]. We'll ask Hiroko Taniyama to write the songs." In which familiar fashion I received my orders, and ended up writing the lyrics for all the songs. This was right at the end of last year, and so it ended up being my homework for the new years vacation.[3] In the end, I didn't finish the last of my homework until February.

These were lyrics for songs that were not going to be used in the actual movie. So I wrote them directly from my image of the original books, indirectly expnding that image in various ways.
However, for all of them, Ms Taniyama said they were all "rough, straightforward" stuff, so I worried whether she could do something with this amateurish stuff.

However, the music that Ms Taniyama put these words to not only matched my image exactly, but added a new attractiveness.
Then, from the start of April, Miss Aoi[4] started recording. Whenever they finished recording a song, they always sent a provisional mix to us the next day. I am unable to articulate how well done these were.

If I tell you that the usually cool Mr. Inaki[5], the head of the post-production corps (called 'post-pro' for short), who holds all the sound related stuff for the film in one hand, and the head of the production division, who was originally from the music industry, Mr. Watanabe, were rather excited, you should understand. In any case, the songs were good. So much so that sometimes we had to try to fight back the tears that came out unawares.

It's probably strange for me to say this, but starting with Miss Aoi and Ms. Taniyama, I want to express my gratitude to every person involved in the recording.

The title of this Aoi Teshima album is "Tales from Earthsea Song Collection"[6]. It is scheduled to go on sale on the 12th of July. I can't wait for it to be completed either.

Translator's Notes

[1]: He uses two words: "shudaika" (主 題 歌) which means 'theme song' and "sounyuka" (挿 入 歌) which means something like 'an inserted song' or a song that appears in the movie.

[2]: Japanese 'kun' is a familiar form of the honorific 'san' that most people are familiar with. Here the director is addressed as 'Goro-kun' by Mr Suzuki, his elder in years and experience (and also his boss at the Studio and friend of his father to boot!). Most people working for him would address him as 'Kantoku' (Director), but outside the context of the studio, most acquaintances would probably call him 'Miyazaki-san'.

[3]: I don't know how long the Japanese winter school holiday is without looking at a calendar. I imagine it is fairly short but no doubt they give homework over it.

[4]: Yes he calls her by her first name + san. San is usually appended to surnames, but when appended to first names is like saying "Miss Jane" or "Mr. Paul".

[5]: Kazumi Inaki has various sound and/or music production, and post-production credits for Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, The Cat Returns and Howl's Moving Castle.

[6]: "Gedo Senki Kashuu" (ゲ ド 戦 記 歌 集)