Postby TMBounty_Hunter » Tue Jul 09, 2013 1:50 am
This seems like the most appropriate of the music threads to post this in. This was supposed to be written much earlier in the day but then Toronto got flooded and lost power. Now it's very late and I don't have the time to properly type/edit this and it may end up a bit ranty but here it goes anyway.
This started on irc...
[12:50:18] <Dessimat0r> who thinks that Eva 4.0 will have Cruel Angel's Thesis in it? :3
[12:50:31] <Dessimat0r> I'll be disappointed if it doesn't
[12:50:44] <Dessimat0r> maybe some crappy remix
...and caused me to think for quite a while about exactly what music I want used in Final.
What I want isn't really that particular it turns out. I'll take pretty much anything as long as it works well. I should probably explain myself a little bit.
I'm what some might consider a shallow person. Very often I value the presentation much more than the content. I've grown to need the best possible first impression of a movie. This is the reason camrips will absolutely not do. I need the best or nothing. There's already more content in the world than I can consume in a lifetime so there's no need to compromise quality. I've started to ignore most movie trailers after the first one because how they're done these days either give away too much or sell a completely different experience. I used to be mildly ashamed for knowing I value presentation over content, but that changed in 2008 I think it was. Shinichiro Watanabe (Director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo) came over to Toronto to present Genius Party and Genius Party Beyond and in his introduciton he said some of the shorts are a bit unusual and offered Bruce Lee's advice: "Don't think. Feel." That immedeately justified my ways to me. I can think and pick apart the movie all I want later on when rewatching, but that first time I need to wholly feel the experience without distractions. I need that first experience to be as virginal as possible.
On top of avoiding the trailers I've also stopped touching the soundtrack before I watch the movie. Doing that has in the past caused me to create my own imagery to the music. That created expectations and expectations only lead ot disappointment. I need the music in the proper context of the movie as was intended by the creators. Music in a movie is extremely important to me because it is a HUGE part of the presentation. But even if it's good on its own it must work well with the movie. Otherwise it's distracting and works against the movie.
Because of the reasons listed in the needlessly long paragraphs above I've decided that I absolutely do not want to hear Cruel Angel's Thesis in Eva final.
No Cruel Angel's Thesis.
No Komm, Susser Todd.
They carry too much baggage. They are very specifically the Old Eva. I do not want New Eva to be weighed down by the old. Even if NME is still very similar at the core to NGE (build Shinji up before tearing him down in preparation for Instrumentality) it has diverged way too far in the overall experience. I want this new experience to continue. Those two old tracks would be incredibly distracting and disappointing to hear in Final to me personally.
I don't care what Anno and Sagisu decide to do. I don't care whether they lift stuff from Naida, Kare Kano, The Man Who Stole The Sun or whatever else. Just don't bring back Cruel Angel's Thesis and Komm, Susser Todd for a wink wink and nudge nudge. They started out a bit conservative and disappointing on 1.0. I was actually annoyed back in the day that they didn't keep Shinji's awesome trumpet theme. But all is forgotten and forgiven with the soundtracks for 2.0 and Q. I was lucky enough with 2.0 to have a "local" screening relatively soon (November 2009) after the Japanese theatrical date (June 2009). "Local" was still a 100km drive away but it was so damn worth it for that virginal 2.0 theatrical experience. I stayed fairly free of spoilers and was utterly blown away by pretty much everything. At The Very Beginning with Mari was an amazing start. The ridiculous Sahaquel catch sequence with Destiny building up the tension and that insane payoff with Fate at the end of it all. I still have not found an emoticon or image macro to represent how I felt when Sahaquel reached out to meet Shogouki. The Yamashita montage of the fortress city waking up. That is still easily my favorite quite scene of all time. Then you pile on everything afterwards which is getting pointless to list because it should be obvious I spent that entire film festival screening on the edge of my seat and the 100km drive back home giddy like a schoolgirl. That first 2.0 viewing was utterly delicious. Even if Kyou no Hi wa Sayounara and Tsubasa wo Kudasai were different from the rest of the score they still WORKED for the movie. That night went flawlessly and that's what counts to me.
I still enjoy the hell out of 2.0. Which is why I stayed away from Q until the best possible time, which turned out to be the BD. I discarded all of my expectations and strapped myself in for the ride. Anno, Sagisu and Utada Hikaru delivered.
But now I have a problem. 2.0 and Q set the bar for the experience pretty high. I have faith in khara that they can deliver yet again. But not wanting Cruel Angel's Thesis and Komm, Susser Todd is the one expectation that I simply can not discard this time. This will be the final film. Instrumentality will surely be the climax. The climaxiest of climaxes of this entire film series. Please for the love of all things holy and pen pen don't recycle something old. I'll lean away slightly from Eva briefly. I found the ending of Macross Frontier disappointing for one single reason: they did not pull out a new song for it. They recycled all the old ones we've already heard in a medley. It was especially disappointing in Macross because DYRL always lingers. It is a great movie and it all builds to the titular song performance at the end and what a performance it turns out to be. Frontier movies fix the series' drawback with beautiful new songs. Macross 7 in SRW alpha 3 is another glorious example of knowing how to end with a proper soundtrack. You're on the last stage. The boss is ridiculously insane. You're exhausted before you realize it. But then Basara declares that he's finished writing his new song. As soon as the intro to GONG starts playing you immedeately feel in every fiber of your body that you've already won. Macross may make it part of the plot that songs have such ridiculous power but to me this has become reality. At least for my silly movie experience demands. Final is final as far as we know. I need that fantastical new ending whatever the hell Anno decides it needs to be and I need it to evoke something in me that can not be just a callback. Shinji will probabaly end up tumbling down again but please Anno kick him off a cliff to a different tune. And when those credits start to roll they will be the last. They will seal the entire quadrilogy. To me Cruel Angel's Thesis just will not fit here. Nothing old will. Not Beautiful World and (as much as I love it) not even Sakura Nagashi. You are way too far down the New Eva road turn back.
I'm as slightly encouraged by the fact that for the climaxes of the first 3 films Anno chose magnificent new tracks. Angel of Doom was perfect for showcasing that as much as you had to recycle you still want to abuse your newfound creative freedom. That whole block from In My Spirit to Tsubasa wo Kudasai showed how far you wanted to push things and how quickly. And finally that whole last half hour of Q. From Shinji's shattered heart, descending down the shaft and breaking the seal. The battle, the spears, the angel, the awakening, the impact and yet another battle. Topping it all off with Tout est Perplexe/Kindred Spirits which is easily the best work you've ever squeezed out of Sagisu. For Final please don't look back at what's already been done and instead do something even more amazing and awesome.
Ok it's really late and I'm getting borederline delusional trying to talk directly to Anno in that last paragraph....
"Hooray for other things!" -NAveryW
riffraff11235 wrote:I don't think I'd mind if Cruel Angel's Thesis or Komm, Susser Todd made a small cameo or something in FINAL. For instance: Shinji finds a piano in the "place that gives him hope" - as unlikely as that is - and starts to absentmindedly tap out the first few notes of either song before being pulled away by Asuka.
