Customer Reviews

Tonari No Totoro

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Fox dub of Tonari no Totoro was the first anime I ever saw as a child, and today is one of my favorite films of all time, animated or otherwise. Joe Hisaishi, defeating even Yoko Kanno as my favorite anime composer, did wonderfully with the music, which I also consider a classic -- no doubt owing to the fact that I grew up on the movie.

Among my favorite tracks are:
Track 9 - "Chiisana Obake" - in which young Mei meets the smallest Totoro and chases it around. It's a good sample of the complete "flavor" of the film, and is one of my more favorite scenes.
Track 12 - "Maigo" - the touching vocal variant of Track 16, "Mei ga Inai" which I also like. The words used to (and still at times) makes me cry, especially when remembering the emotional height felt at that point of the movie, and when I consider my own love toward my younger sister. "Watashi no daijina imouto: doko kashira"
Track 15 - "Tsukiyo no Hikou" - in which Totoro helps the seeds grow and takes the children for a ride on his top, over forest and field. This track includes the "Tonari no Totoro" theme and the "Kaze no Toorimichi" theme, which is present on the various other tracks, which are both among my favorite melodies.
Track 17 - "Nekobasu" - the jazzy catbus theme song. Who can disklike this playful and upbeat music?
Track 8 - "Okaasan" - Knowing the words for the vocal version helps -- it is an ode to the Mother of the two children, supposedly (from my point of view) from the elder child, Satsuki. It's another song I can personally relate to emotionally. "Itsumo kirei.... Daisuki sutekina Okaasan"

However, this CD isn't flawless, or I'd have given it five stars instead of four -- it has two important problems. First off, the total CD length is relatively short, and a sizeable portion of the music isn't from the movie proper, even if it includes similar melodies or musical styles -- this is thus a "short" CD, especially for the relatively high import price of the CD on amazon.com. The second isn't so much a problem as it is a matter of personal taste. As much as I like older anime, there's only so much I can take of synthy eighties anime music; not that this CD doesn't have plenty of orchestral stuff, or that all the synthy stuff is bad -- just that some tracks seem more like they could be from Nausicaa or the Japanese version of Castle in the Sky, especially towards the end of track 14, "Zubunure Obake", and the whole of track 10, "Totoro". (Not that I dislike Nausicaa's or Castle in the Sky's sountracks, either -- I'm just unable to listen to their synthy portions too often, especially the Robot and Flaptor themes in Castle in the Sky.)

In short: a wonderful addition to any anime music collection, but, as my above comments show, it slightly dependant on familiarity with the original film. (Preferrably the Japanese version, as some of the background music is slightly to heavily muted in the Fox English dub -- though, sad to say, at the time of this review no Western release of the original Japanese dub exists. But that's what multi-region DVD players are for...!)

My little nephew is 2 and he loves it. I am 26 and I love it. I'm sure you're gonna love it too...if you have a soul!