Yuji Ohno_The Composer of My Life

(Commission Work from me is now Available: filmmakerj.deviantart.com/art/… )

The third in my series of portraits portraying my three favorite musicians, this last and largest piece depicts a man by the name of Yuji Ohno: the composer for almost the entirety of the Japanese animated franchise known as "Lupin the 3rd."

From 1977 to this past year, he has written and composed every variation of the theme song (which he wrote), all of the incidental music found in the movies and the tv series, specifically the score for "The Castle of Cagliostro" (directed by Hayao Miyazaki), and he has performed dozens, if not hundreds of big and small concerts with his band, The Lupintic Five, doing remixes and renditions of the very same tunes and themes. Basically the Lupin franchise is the bulk of his career. And the only reason I know about him and his work is through the tv episodes and films of Lupin that I have watched and enjoyed.

If you don't know what Lupin the 3rd is, look him up. He's basically what you would get if you took James Bond and Sly Cooper and fused them into one robin-hood-esque, selfish, thrill-seeking womanizer, who despite his dastardly nature has a heart of gold when his better morals are in play. And with 5 TV series and nearly 40 feature-length movies to his name, he's definitely a cash-cow if ever there was one.

The music of Yuji Ohno has changed dramatically over the years. In the 70's, you'd be foregiven if his music blurred with works by Henry Mancini, Bob James, and Lalo Schifrin. But despite the similar riffs, instruments, and stylings, I think Yuji Ohno's work is far more melodic. Far more short, sweet, and simple. Rather than writing long droning pieces with incidental sounds, his music was more well-defined, with each piece a complete song lasting no longer than 3 minutes, and each distinctive enough in it's sound, pace, and tone, that it could be placed in any number of scenes in a tv episode or film, depending on the mood required. The closest example I can compare it to is how the music for Disney's "Kim Possible" was handled.

I have never been more pleased with a Jazz Artist's work than I have with Yuji's. His is magical in its perfect use of all of my favorite instruments. The Xylophone, the flute, and the electric guitar. His works actually stayed far away from the now cliched "wakka, wakka, wakka." or the "wakka-chikka, wakka-chikka, wakka" sound we associate with the 70s. And considering pieces like "The Way to the Oasis," "Waving Flame," and "Darkness and Shadow," his music is incredibly dream-like, similar to some of the stuff you can hear in Ralph Bakshi's dark-fantasy, "Wizards."

His albums are not easy to come by, and can only be aquired direct from Japan through either websites like cdjapan.co.jp, or the more popular Ebay. But whether you get his work on Vinyl or CD, it is most definitely worth it. CDjapan actually allows you to look at many of the albums they sell, and hear samples of the tracks through a special player, which would be your best bet for finding the first CD you want to try. And if you want to check out the Lupin the 3rd franchise, then look to a US anime distributor called Discotek Media to help you out there. They've released some of his best adventures on DVD for the first time in the US the past few years.