Napple Tale - Green Wings

Ah Yoko Kanno, it's been too long.

Part of what makes the Japanese game music industry so unique is its fairly large number of female composers. Along with fan favorite Yoko Kanno there's also Kinuyo Yamashita (composer for the original Castlevania), Miki Higashino (the Suikoden series, Gradius and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade) and the other Yoko, Yoko Shimomura.  (A legend in her own right, Yoko Shimomura has written the soundtracks to the Legend of Mana series, Kingdom Hearts, and the insanely popular soundtrack to Street Fighter II, not to mention my favorite video game of all time: Super Mario RPG). It's difficult to determine why so many female composers have succeeded in the Japanese video game industry while female composers are almost non-existent in Hollywood and American game music. Perhaps a restrictive labor market in Japan during the 80s and 90s opened a niche for female artists in the low-tech, startup industry hungry for talent. Any theory is just speculation of course, but suffice it to say that women got their foot in the door early, and are now a major creative force in Japanese game industry.

Twenty years or so later, Napple Tale was the culmination of that creative force. A Dreamcast game with a development team consisting entirely of women, Napple Tale was scored by Yoko Kanno in 2000, after having been absent from the game industry for six years.  Sadly, as is the case with most unique games, Napple Tale was only released in Japan.  I've only posted one song by Yoko Kanno before (criminal, I know).  It was her theme to the 1990 game Nobunaga's Ambition: Bushou Fuunroku as performed at the Game Music Concert the following year.  After six years of anime and film work, her soundtrack to Napple Tale is a much better introduction to her current style.  This song is "Green Wings", with vocals performed by Maaya Sakamoto.  Sakamoto is a voice actress/singer and frequent collaborator with Kanno.  "Green Wings" displays Kanno's playful style, as well as her frequent fusion of orchestra and synth.  More than anything however, it demonstrates Kanno's capacity for truly beautiful music, and not just exercises in different genres.  The entire soundtrack to Napple Tale is filled with songs as good as this one, and any Yoko Kanno fan (or potential one) owes it to themselves to get this album.  Enjoy!



Album info:  http://vgmdb.net/album/2435