"The Anime" May 1980 - Ideon OP/ED Coverage

 

The third highlight (out of several) focusing on the music of Space Runaway Ideon that had been included in several spotlight pages for the show in several magazines. Whereas the previous highlights were from Animage, this one is from "The Anime" instead.

This one is very brief but it once again focuses on the OP/ED. As usual, English translation below (to be exact, this is for the text in the red & green bars in the middle of the page). Magazine scans were provided by Mitchell (@RoarkVegeta on Twitter), and the interview was translated by Windii.

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The theme songs for Space Runaway Ideon has just been recorded.

The two theme songs are "Ideon's Resurrection" (sung by Isao Taira) and "In the Cosmos with You" (sung by Keiko Toda, chorus by Time Five). Both songs are composed by Koichi Sugiyama and the lyrics are written by Yoshiyuki Tomino.

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At first I didn't think there was any significance to this highlight in particular, until I read through it again and noticed a small detail that had previously slipped by me: Time Five's involvement in this! They were a male chorus group active throughout the 70s & 80s—in regards to anime they provided the background choral vocals for the Kojika Monogatari OP and the Space Cobra TV ED, though it was uncredited. 
For the longest time I had always wondered if Time Five were involved in the Ideon TV ED as well—this magazine pretty much confirms it, as they also went uncredited in the OSTs themselves!

Animage May 1980 - Ideon OP/ED Interviews with Koichi Sugiyama + Keiko Toda + Isao Taira

 

This is the second highlight (out of several) focusing on the music of Space Runaway Ideon that had been included in several spotlight pages for the show in a few magazine issues. This one in particular came out in Animage's May 1980 issue, the same month the show started airing. (In hindsight, I probably should have posted this one first before the June 1980 issue, but oh well)

Below is an English translation of the above text. Magazine scans were provided by Mitchell (@RoarkVegeta on Twitter), and the interview was translated by Windii once again. Many thanks!

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Recording is complete!

On March 7, recording of the theme song "Ideon's Resurrection" and the sub-theme song "In the Cosmos with You" was held at King Records. Both songs were written by Yoshiyuki Tomino and composed by veteran composer, Koichi Sugiyama. The sub-theme song is especially beautiful, so stay tuned!

Recording of the theme songs

Koichi Sugiyama:
I was blessed with great singers for this series. They are both very good. I discussed with the staff the possibility of creating a song that could be appreciated by adults, and "In the Cosmos with You" is a very mature song. It's beautiful. I wouldn't be ashamed to submit it to a music festival.

Isao Taira:
"Ideon's Resurrection" is a difficult song with a complex melody. It has been a while since I sang a difficult song. Usually, I sing songs for children, such as "With My Mother." From April, I will also sing a cheering song for the Hanshin Tigers.

Keiko Toda:
"In the Cosmos with You" is a great song, isn't it? I was so glad that someone else didn't sing it for me. If you read the lyrics carefully, they are sad. But it is made in a cheerful way. I love the fact that the sad lyrics are not placed over a sad melody.

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Note to self: absolutely hilarious that Keiko Toda refers to the ED's melody as a cheerful one, it does NOT sound like that at all lmao

Animage June 1980 - Ideon BGM Interview with Koichi Sugiyama

 

The June 1980 issue of Animage features a spotlight on Sunrise's Space Runaway Ideon anime, which had only just begun airing on TV a couple months prior. Included in this spotlight is an interview done with the show's composer—Koichi Sugiyama—where he talks about the BGM he composed for the anime.

Below is an English translation of the interview. Magazine scans were provided by Mitchell (@RoarkVegeta on Twitter), and the interview was translated by Windii. Many thanks!

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What's the BGM?!
Music: Koichi Sugiyama

Anime BGM is a genre that fans pay particular attention to. What are the musical tendencies of Ideon's background music?

Sugiyama:
Animation music, especially background music for science fiction, is often thought of as using a lot of electronic technology. For Ideon, I tried to make use of live sound rather than synthesizers and other artificial sounds. In other words, we used the sound of an orchestra as it is.
This time, I created 10 movements of background music. Each of them is composed of several pieces. I wanted to create pieces of music with the scale of Ideon. I tried to depict the cosmic expanse and the people who live within it. This BGM will soon be released as a King Records LP, and I hope everyone will listen to it. I am very proud of it, after all!

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That about wraps it up. Short, I know...to be honest, his response here isn't any different than what he had written later in the liner notes for the Kojika Monogatari OST (he had also written on there that he wished to use live sounds rather than synthesizers).

This is the first (out of several) translated interviews I'll be posting, BTW. Keep an eye out for the other ones!

Kojika Monogatari (THE YEARLING) Music Collection - Liner Notes from Koichi Sugiyama

 

So, as far as I know, Pony Canyon's vinyl releases of anime soundtracks never typically contained liner notes of any sort. Usually just a tracklist, lyrics, and a text description of the anime's story...

This is where Kojika Monogatari breaks the mold, though! Shockingly enough, the first page of the album's gatefold contents contain some notes left behind by show composer Koichi Sugiyama. Below is an English translation of said notes—it's a bit of a long read but I promise you it's worth it :)

Translated by sotoo.

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The Music of Kojika Monogatari
by Koichi Sugiyama

Kojika Monogatari is not only a story that has touched many boys and girls, but also a story that stirs us adults to thought. It has a certain depth to it. It cannot be said that it is only a sweet story of the friendship between Jody, a boy, and Flag, a deer, since it also tackles the issue of the boy's psychological maturation, the conflict that emerges between rationalism and human emotions while trying to survive in the unforgiving great outdoors, and many other issues that will make today's parents think.

What I mean to say is, children who watch this animation will be able to enjoy it for what it is within their own understanding, while at the same time, young people and adults who see it will, through their own point of view, experience many different ways of appreciation and feeling.

My wish in my composition was to somehow follow the animation and its depths musically. Even though it was difficult, it was truly a job worth doing.

This album contains three songs, including the theme song, and a number of other music tracks used in Kojika Monogatari. In my composing of this music, rather than what might be called typical anime-esque music that precisely follows the action on-screen, I intended to emphasize the main character's thoughts and emotions and the depictions of nature and the environment.

Even though I like the electronic sound produced by the synthesizers so common in today's pop music, which has a unique appeal of its own, I intended to use the expressiveness of raw instruments as much as I could in my composition for this story. For example, to me the sound of a violin somehow evokes the sound of the wood itself. Violin melodies and harmonies include a human touch in the form of the player's breaths, as well.
The outstanding electronic technology of today can identically reproduce the sound of a violin through a synthesizer, but I can feel that that sound is not the sound of the wood, the one with the breath of a living human being in it.

In a way, I could say that representing Kojika Monogatari primarily via orchestral music played on raw instruments was an inevitable outcome for me.

As a composer, I feel fortunate that I was able to complete this challenging task, and I wish to, from the heart, thank everybody who will listen to this record.

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Some random thoughts:

-Koichi Sugiyama mentions that he specifically wanted to avoid synthesizers for this anime—I find this to be a particularly interesting comment, considering he never used synthesizers in, well...practically every other anime he's done at the time LOL. Perhaps he meant that he was just reluctant to use synthesizers as replacements for real instruments? 

-Sugiyama mentions that the show would definitely make parents think...I recall checking some JP reviews for the show that said it was a REALLY good anime. And yet it still has no proper JP home media release 💀
Lame!!