Like all the best success stories, this one is about a juggernaut that no one saw coming. Even with 20/20 hindsight it is still impossible to overstate the impact of Yamato music on the world of anime, the result of extraordinary talent, perserverance, and foresight. It’s a story that begins with Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki.
Composer Hiroshi Miyagawa did more than change the world of anime music with his brilliant Symphonic Suite Yamato in 1977. He also planted the seeds for a whole new crop of Yamato music: the concept album. Fans’ cups ran over as one album after another explored the outer limits of the Miyagawa universe.
With his extensive background as a producer of concerts and musical theatre, it was a natural step for Nishizaki to see live performances as a secondary aspect of the Yamato phenomenon, and a whole new form of anime promotion was born. Here is a rundown of the many Yamato concerts that lead the way. [2 pages]
The Space Battleship Yamato theme is now universally recognized as a classic, approaching the level of a national anthem in Japan. Here we examine the circumstances of its recording and present a broad overview of the many, many times it has been released to the public.
For the sake of collectors everywhere, here is a concise index of all Yamato music releases, up to and including the Sound Almanac series in 2014. Each entry contains a link to further information about each one.
