The final part (out of three) of Animage's December 1978 coverage of composer Yuji Ohno. Probably the longest one compared to Parts 1 & 2, but this should wrap everything up.
Part 1 can be read here:
https://translationmartyzone.blogspot.com/2025/05/yuji-ohno-world-of-sound-animage.html
Part 2:
https://translationmartyzone.blogspot.com/2025/05/yuji-ohno-world-of-sound-animage_27.html
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<Jazz is my hometown>
In your music, there's a jazz vibe that has never been a thing in animation music. Has that freshness been something that audiences have welcomed?
Ohno
I don't like splitting music into genres but... if I were forced to, I'd say jazz is like my hometown. I began as a jazz artist, after all. As a result, I wasn't able to understand music except through the concepts of jazz. But one day, I started to feel like I wanted to fly out from the jazz directing world. That's how I ended up now with jazz being one field of music among the many that I'm in.
Essentially, jazz is just one filter that I possess, I feel like.
However, along with the 4-beat of pop and other music genres, there might also be some 8-beat with the music I make. This is because I treat rhythm very seriously.
Your stance on not fixating on the genre is something that can really be said about your composing as well, but...
Ohno
CM (commercial break) songs, TV drama music... I've made various things, but the way I go about composing never changes. This is a job where everyone tries to give form to what they imagine through music, after all.
However, when it comes to anime, it takes a little longer for me to complete a piece. With "Captain Future", that was the case as well. When I'm requested to make music, there are times when the character is all that is done with the characters, and that is when they do not move at all. Unlike a movie, where everything is already filmed & I can watch it while making the music, I cannot do that here. So I have to go off of feel based on the still art before me. It's a battle of image, you could say.
■Testimony 2
I've known Ohno for about 10 years now, back from when he was a jazz pianist who performed with a delicate touch. The fact that someone with solid jazz fundamentals like him is getting work making anime & movie themes means that the once-immature jazz scene is becoming more mainstream and established, even among TV movies—and I think that's a wonderful thing.
(Composer: Hiroshi Miyagawa)
■Testimony 3
At first, we heard Ohno's jazz records and decided we wanted to work together with him. At this point, we consider him one of our own and have been working with him for a long time. Among the 3 movie theme songs he did, we like the one for "Proof of the Man" the most. We expect to see more of his breadth in music activity going forward.
(Haruki Kadokawa Corporation)
I'd imagine that deciding what prose to use for your lyrics and who to get for the vocals can be big problems.
Ohno
There's a lyricist, Keisuke Yamakawa, who I've worked with on "Never Give Up" and some commercials. With him, out of all the lyrics he's written, I pick the ones that I like and use that as a base to compose. With the compositions I've made, I leave those lyrics in and get him to write the rest of it. That's how we work. This might be time-consuming, but we get something satisfactory out of it.
Right now, someone I really want to try working with is Yuu Aku. He is probably the only person that is the most methodical in all of Japan in the way he composes lyrics. If he has a target, he never misses. I would love to get the chance to work with him.
As for singers, Godiego's Yukihide Takekawa. This might get fulfilled with the theme of "Captain Future", but... he has talent and his voice is very fresh.
In the movie "Proof of the Man", it seemed like you managed to create a hit together with Joe Yamanaka, but...
Ohno
Joe is someone I treasure deeply as a musician. However, when it comes to the electric sound I'm trying for now and how rhythmical it is, it doesn't work as well with him. I'd rather let his unique hard and heavy style shine, if possible...
■Testimony 4
Ohno is someone who enjoys music from the bottom of his heart. In spite of our age game, even around someone like me, we can joke around while working. His sound is modern and clean, but there's a charm to it. Anyway, I hope to continue enjoying music with his going forward.
(Yukihide Takekawa)
Who's a composer you deeply respect?
Ohno
Within Japan, it's Isao Tomita. I think his cool and feverish feel is very impressive. He sits at home in front of his synth alone, gloves on and does everything on his own. That's not something anyone can do without being that feverish.
For me, that change massive change in movement he goes through from a prick of a sensation, be it a plus or minus, is something I really like...
Lastly, for people in such a creative job as composing, what kind of lifestyle and during what times do compositions get born is a question we have...
Ohno
The ideas come to my mind when I first get up and stand in the garden, bathing in the sun in my pajamas.
You ask about lifestyle, but I don't think I do anything that special. But...
When I'm free, I watch TV all day long. I'm all about visuals, so I don't really read. I don't really watch home dramas nor music variety shows, but foreign TV movies and late night movies. I really watch a lot of documentaries, too.
But when something makes me go "Ah!", I start to get more into work mode—like, "Ah, they do things like this" and I start taking notes. There's a lot of that. Sometimes, those things might help with analyzing the target audience when I compose.
Also, I listen to a huge number of records. Every time I go to the record store, I end up spending about 50,000 yen easily. My room is a flood of records and there's barely space left to sit.
I'm a pretty normal person, so the most I do that I can say is very composer-like might just be that...
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—Thank you so much for your time—
Ohno's music is a peculiar balance of wild liberty and accuracy. He has the precision to pick up on what his target audience likes with his cold and composed antenna like the pro composer that he is. At the same time, he has devout originality to make such expressions about wanting to follow his own direction.
These two sides being constantly balanced at odds with each other is what likely gives birth to this music. Perhaps this unique constant opposition he goes through internally is what is needed to make music that captures the hearts of so many.
However, what I want to bring attention to that he is clear in his answer on "his own direction". This answer is what is bringing a new wind of change to the animation music industry, which has lost its light as it has gotten more standardized over the years...
Yuji Ohno is bringing fresh vibrations to the animation music scene. We'll continue to pay close attention to his activities going forward.
