Toshihiko Sahashi
SAINT SEIYA: Saintia Shō
Sound Inn Studio Orchestra / Soprano: Nataliya Gudziy / Trumpet: Eric Miyashiro



How much have I missed this music... ah... Anime was not the same without it! (https://picosong.com/wmuZx/)

Download (https://mega.nz/#!KLQHnCDB!bzAJWgFJzu19hGwu0B0LntH__KKDRAq593heGs258eo)
FLAC / 44 Tracks / 87min

Ripped from my cd. The tracks were rather thrown on the cds without much reason so I put them together for a much better flow and listening experience.

This is a cross between Gundam SEED and Ultraman Mebius + a little Soul of Gold. A couple of cues had no live-recording, which is not earth-shaking and actually takes me back to his Ultraman and early anime works and the best stuff and most of it is live but it could have been better if all was recorded live. On the other hand, yey, its Gundam Seed (especially track 1, 36 and 40) so just enjoy the ride (There is also a reprise of a classic theme ;)).

What a comeback, Toshihiko-san!




This is how you rock the house. (https://picosong.com/wmJS5/)


An interview with Mr. Toshihiko Sahashi
From December 24, 2018, on the Amazon Prime Video channel (SKY perfume! Anime set for Prime Video) Saintia starts!
On December 26 (Monday), the theme song CD of this work and the original soundtrack are released! We held an interview with famous anime composer Toshihiko Sahashi who was in charge of the composition.



I want to draw a professional female statue

Q: Following "Saint Seiya Ω" (2012), "Saint Seiya Golden Soul - soul of gold -" (2015) is followed by the animation "Saintia Sho", but what was the impression of the story of a girl fighter Seiya Seintia?

Sahashi: �What is next for the Saint Seiya series?� I was thinking. Then, listening to the story of women, this is a bit new. I became interested in how the women are made active in the world of Saint Seiya. As I read the original work, I understand that there are maids of Athena, girls who protects this person, so I wonder were that would go.

Q: What is the image of Sainia Sho, captured by Mr. Sahashi?

Sahashi: "Saintia sho" does not put the word "female" in the foreground. When thinking about women who fight so far, I think that there were many things with idle nature that are fighting but cute. I follow the Precure series with great interest in that regard. But, the Holy Warrior (Saintia) is basically a warrior and does not appear to be idle cute. I thought that it was impossible to compose music unless I made that difference clear to myself.

Q: Originally in the world of "Saint Seiya" there was a setting that a woman's saint's warrior appeared and wearing a mask to throw out "women", but the Holy Tightly Woman (Saintia) is a special force since they show their faces.

Sahashi: That is not the same as before. It is not true that they are abandoning their womanhood. Like Precure, I think that "Sainia sho" is a proposal of a contemporary women's image. Many women are working now, and many women are active in the front lines, even in my profession. They should not be expressed with idle feelings, they will be working as professionals with the same vigor and force as men. I wanted to draw a female statue of that strong professional with my music. It should match the present age.

The sound that expresses the Holy Girl Warrior (Saintia)

Q: What is "Saint Seiya" for Mr. Sahashi?

Sahashi: In the first place, the first time I participated in "Saint Seiya" was the musical version in 1991. At that time, I did not watch anime (oh, if only I knew�), so I thought "Oh," Saint Seiya "was such a work" at that time. It is obviously different from other robot animations. There is a view of the world closer to Wagner something which is large in scale, and whatever you do, it is in constrains with the fate of gods.

Q: What kind of story did you discuss in the music meeting?

Sahashi: I got a screenplay and the director looked forward to meeting me after I read it all. However, since the animation of "Saint Seiya" is the third work in a series, I can share the musical background with the previous series. As director Tamagawa Masato said, you can do it similar like for "Saint Seiya Golden Soul - soul of gold -". I thought that the scales and organization of the music should follow the previous work. But as a request from Aco Director Takeshi Takasa, he wanted longer, more developed cues "Because I want to use music for long scenes, there was a certain length and he asked for songs with a dramatic structure, music telling a story".

- Have you thought about differentiation from past "Saint Seiya" series?

Sahashi: It is just how I express the female statue that is active in the front lines we said earlier. Musically speaking, in the past the main theme for �Saint Seiya� is represented by brass instruments. I decided to stop it and express it with a string instrument this time. When saying the warriors of "Saint Seiya", there is an image of a brass pipe by all means, even among "Sainia Sho", Gold Saints just have to be Brass (lol). But, the Holy Girls (Saintia) are trying to do their duty with different sounds. Even stringed instruments are not weak instruments at all and I thought about trying out more strength in the strings. That is a different attempt at composing from now.

Music suitable for contemporary anime

Q: Through the series of "Saint Seiya", is there anything you take over musically?

Sahashi: I think that it is "I am not doing new things" without fear of misunderstanding. Even in the first "Saint Seiya" (1986), Dr. Yokoyama who was in charge of the music kept a classical worldview, even when using contemporary Disco elements. So, I thought that I should not leave the classical routes. Technically, it is a magnificent essential to the elements of classical Western music centered on baroque music in"Saint Seiya". I take care of these two as a big theme. For me, "Saintia� is a work that inspires such classical parts and makes me more motivated with the various scoring experiences I have.

Q: It seems like to return to the origin of music.

Sahashi: However, Dr. Yokoyama's music also contains elements of rock and contemporary music, and there are parts that are not completely classical. Conversely, the current "Saint Seiya" has a more gothic feeling than Mr. Yokoyama.

We are doing "magic" in musical ways according to the story and theme of the work. I hope that people watching it will find it. Although it may not be obvious unless you listen to all themes properly, I think that there is much on the soundtrack for those who understand music. It is important to match the soundtrack to a picture, but I think that the real purpose is to express a theme behind it.

You can not draw complicated themes with concise music. Wagner is very good at such things and goes out of tonality while drawing masochistic things. Although it becomes slightly difficult from the musical point of view, I think that it is necessary for the soundtrack. This work is a suitable work for the female warrior of the modern age and I thought about trying this time

In "Saint Seiya Ω", I felt that the picture of the temple conveyed the space and the feeling of air more realistically in three dimensions. Anime is getting more and more fresh by incorporating CG and there are so many stellar works made right now that I�m very excited for the future. Along with the evolution of such animation, I think that music must follow with a three-dimensional approach, like a synthesizer's spatial PAD sound in a raw orchestra.

While preserving the classical world, we will incorporate contemporary technology and update it, creating a new style of music that will succeed it, �Anime-style�. That's something I've been thinking about a lot in recent years, and as long as I'm making music of the "Saint Seiya" series I will continue to do so. Saintia in particular is a work that is such great fun.

I would like to make music suitable for more modern animation so I will be more active from now on. Actually I want to record in London again, with a pipe organ this time.
Please look forward to the soundtrack release for Saint Seiya Saintia Sho and I hope you will have as much fun listening as I had making it.



- Toshihiko Sahashi (11.12.2018)

You can still buy a copy here: CdJapan (http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/COCX-40605) / amazon (https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07JJHN17D?pd_rd_w=0BiUVd_wg=HFzAS)

This look very interesting! Thank you for sharing!!!

Thanks a lot fella! You just made my day

Thanks a lot! You just made my day too ;)

thank you

thank you.

My friend, would you mind to share the original release without your edit? :)

Thanks a lot!

@GreatKenji: Since it has not appeared anywhere else online, I don't want that right now. This is for people to experience the score in its full scope, a "story mode" with ebb and flow and a little dramatic structure to show off his leitmotif approach to the score he stated in his interview. If you want the score as on album, on 2cds (only way to get it), I encourage to purchase a copy to support the artist, which is why I posted the links. Sahashi's work is precious to me, so showing support is what I wanted.

@GreatKenji: Since it has not appeared anywhere else online, I don't want that right now. This is for people to experience the score in its full scope, a "story mode" with ebb and flow and a little dramatic structure to show off his leitmotif approach to the score he stated in his interview. If you want the score as on album, on 2cds (only way to get it), I encourage to purchase a copy to support the artist, which is why I posted the links. Sahashi's work is precious to me, so showing support is what I wanted.

I see. Thanks a lot anyway. Don't you think some cues are cute similar to those of Rayearth? It's incredible how Sahashi became the successor of Yokoyama, considering that CLAMP got inspired by Masami Kurumada's Saint Seiya to create Rayearth and the OVAs of the latter got Sahashi in composing duties.

Just for info, Vinphonic, correct me if i'am wrong

on disc 1, tracks 6,12,13,14,17,18 & 28 are missing
on disc 2, tracks 8,9,12 & 16 are missing

Yes, those are synth ambiance tracks and do not have melodies and thematic material. For me, they hurt the flow of the music a lot and again, I did this to showcase Sahashi's ambition with this project.

GreatKenji: Its very vintage Sahashi, with the exception of some electronic tools he uses now (that's when you know its from this decade), this could be from the 90s or early 2000s. I definitely hear Rayearth in there, but so do I hear Gundam SEED, Mebius and his Ultra Monster Battle.

It's on a whole other level to the previous Seiya soundtracks, though Omega New Cloth-hen has some great cues and part of Soul of Gold is good, especially that smashing guitar track.

To me its sort of like a best-of album of his career.

ok thanks, by chance do you have Omega New Cloth-hen in lossless ?

seiya vs pope is good remake of pegasus fantasy :)

You are my hero, Vinphonic.

As much as I enjoyed this year's scores for Invisible Victory and Zi-O, THIS, right here, is Sahashi's true comeback.

I hear Gundam Seed, Zipang, a little bit of The Big O, and blueprints from Blue Stinger.

Thank you very much for this great OST! I'm glad to hear Mr. Sahashi is back.

Just curious. Are some tracks a combination of live and synth instruments? Not just a synth percussion, but there are some tracks that sound like synth samples of horns and woodwinds. I listened to some of them with my headphones more than 30 times and I still can't make out if they're real or synth. Here are the tracks I have trouble distinguishing:

-Sisters' Memories
-A Tense Confrontation
-Evil Plot
-History of the Gods (There's something about the brass that sounds like samples than live)
-In Conflict
-Purpose of the Evil Spirit

There's massive amounts of penny pinching going on throughout the score. The majority of the score I find to be poorly orchestrated (and recorded) so it's a little difficult to tell sometimes, but I agree substantially with your assessments.

Sweetening is, of course, a classic technique used to try to try to make the most of recordings with inadequate budgets. It doesn't seem like there is more than about 15 minutes of music recorded with the full orchestra, here.

It's great to hear him doing something after such a prolonged dry spot, and I unreservedly agree with Vin in at least one area - Sahashi's sense of melody is up there with the best and almost every bar of this score is singable in a way which so much modern media scoring isn't. I also agree that this is a GREAT Saint Seiya score that takes Seiji Yokoyama's sound and runs with it - and Sahashi even pushes in the soprano vocalise which is a trademark of his and of Yokoyama's) - that said, overall, it's a big, big disappointment to me, I'm afraid... this is not Sahashi's big comeback, not by a long shot.

I hope from his recent words (assuming they're accurate translations...) that he does indeed intend to throw himself back into scoring again - and I even think there's a possibility of perhaps another Element Hunters, or even a Gundam Seed... but I can't put my hand on my heart and say this is the score that convinces me that Toshihiko Sahashi is back in the game as an A-List anime composer and that we can look forward to new works that match or even exceed his past scores.

Cues like "A Heart Without Shaking" just remind me of better cues in better scores - like "Atarashiki Sekai he - Jiyuu" from Gundam Seed Destiny, which it was ripped off from almost note for note - except that in Seed Destiny, the orchestra was twice the size and not propped up by 25 year-old synth patches.

"Those Who Gained The POwer Of The Evil Spirit" is pretty good - and crucially it's actually trying to be something of its own and not a redux of a better score from ten or twenty years ago...

If I may, I'd like to take you on a whistlestop tour of "old" Sahashi; this is the bar he set for himself... I would really consider cutting off a body part if it would make him write like this again (seventeen minutes of Sahashi at his big orchestra, melodic, singable, best - the sort of music that put him on the map. The newest score represented in this short suite is from 2011. It seems such a long time ago now...):

https://picosong.com/wmKuw/

Thanks

@Tango: You're right of course that this is no Gundam SEED but it was never about that for me. It has Gundam SEED level music in it, and that's really promising ;)


Actually I prefer "Burn! Our Microcosm" over the original and its one rock track you really can't separate from the main body, because overall, this is one of his best leitmotific-driven scores. And ripped off is a harsh word for essentially using the best possible musical palette he knows for "the cosmos". Of course its spacecy (like in Mega Monster Battle). The score overall is, like Sahashi described, still badass but more feminine with more emphasis on strings. "A Heart Without Shaking" is very delicate compared to the larger than life SEED version but I think Sahashi choose this deliberately for "Warriors that work in the Shadows, unseen, but beautiful". I feel Sahashi put a lot of thought into this score compared to anything he has done since King of Thorn. Even Princess Toyotomi is aside from that one standout piece far from his best work either, and so is Sacred Seven and Black Blood Brothers.

This score is delicate, regal and majestic, with heroes and villains in a battle of motifs and themes, live-instruments on-or off and shows a thematic consistency that really elevates it. It's really hard to explain beyond the technical but it just does it for me like very few of his scores do. Its a win for me.

Another thing, I feel some of the synth pad cues are very deliberate given what Sahashi's musical personality is and the previous Seiya series having very low budget for music. From the booklet, when the full orchestra is there, its not really that much smaller compared to SEED Destiny, only really missing two horns. This is Japan, not Hollywood, so who cares if something is "out of date". I find it endearing that his synth orchestra really hasn't changed at all since Blue Stinger. Sahashi loves to use his keyboards and synthpads and he loves to play on drums for his work. It is very hard to explain but I feel Sahashi put this together as a band musician more than anything else he has done since a long time and it still ended up more operatic than most of his other work.



Assuming the translations are accurate

A short summary (https://picosong.com/wmxFr/) ;)


Of course I want the larger than life Sahashi back but we will have to wait a little to find out. His musical voice is back in the pool, together with now kickass Kaoru Wada, beautiful impressionistic Oshima and furious orchestral power Amano(Sagisu).

Also, every composer has seasons. Maybe Sahashi's best years are already behind him, maybe his best are yet to come. Who can truely say until its all said and done. I'm looking forward to hearing him again regardless.

Thank you.

Some fun themes and action in this one.

have you got the other cd from saintia sho in flac, the one is only has 6 songs and full version of beautiful brave? thanks

thank you!!

Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho Theme Song version WAV+cue+bk please
please upload to Mega.nz

Thank you very much!