Yami no Teiou Kyuuketsuki Dracula OST - Insert Booklet Liner Notes (from Seiji Yokoyama)


The insert booklet included in the vinyl soundtrack for Toei's 80s Dracula TV anime special includes some liner notes written by Seiji Yokoyama—these were previously translated and posted last year on Twitter but I am re-posting here for easier accessibility.
English translation is below the line at the bottom. Thanks to Windii for translating.

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The story of Dracula has been featured in a number of movies and TV shows in the past. Most of them had a strong emphasis on fear and the bizarre. Thriller,s in a way. Some of them had a comic touch.
The story of Dracula in this TV anime special, however, focuses on his love and sorrow with his wife Domini, his fateful confrontation with his child Janus, the pursuit of the Vampire Hunters led by Quincy Harker, and his duel with Satan the Great in Hell, as well as his death.

I found each of these scenes very romantic. Dracula is very human. I wrote a broque style music to accompany Dracula.
The themes of Dracula, his wife Domini, and his Janus were composed mainly with a string orchestra and harpsichord, with a fugue for Dracula, an aria played with English horns and scat for Domini, and four horns for Janus to express Youth.
On the other hand, the music of the Vampire Hunters who resent Dracula was plaued by four trombones and a bass flute with 16 beats.
I also used synthesizers for the theme of the dark world, the chief of Hell Satan the Great, and for the music of the army of the living dead.

The narration of the last page of the script for the broadcast ended with the following words:
"...People call him the devil. They call him the man who summons death, the murderer who has no tears. But no matter what they call him, there is only one name that should be given to him. So, in short, Dracula was a real man..."

I am now seriosuly thinking of visiting Count Dracula's old castle in Transylvania and the tomb of the Dracula family with the bat-shaped crest.


 

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