Much like the subject of this review, actually. Ben-To was a 2011 anime about people engaging in wars over half-priced bento boxes in supermarkets, engaging in turf wars over grocery stores and fisticuffs when in the stores to save a few yen on some food. It was a silly, irreverent, mean-spirited show, and its soundtrack was just as irreverent. However, does this insistence on using its own rules make the soundtrack memorable, or does it just grate? Look after the jump to find out.
Because this is a new review format, let me explain how soundtrack reviews work: I will go through a soundtrack to first see how well it stands on its own as a body of music, and then I will see how the soundtrack is utilized in the show. It will not be the most complicated musical analysis, seeing how not everybody is well-versed in that terminology. I will not be highlighting each individual track in the article, just the typical trends and the standout tracks in terms of the soundtrack's strengths and weaknesses.
With that out of the way, let's get started!
Ben-To Soundtrack
Composer: Taku Iwasaki
Release date: 21 December 2011
Label/distributor: Pony Canyon
Available for purchase?: CDJapan, ¥3000 (US $30.17)
Stand-Alone:
The soundtrack of Ben-To is quite diverse in terms of genres it tackles, but definitely almost never in terms of compositional complexity. This has become the general approach of composer Taku Iwasaki (Gurren Lagann, Now and Then, Here and There, Jormungand), and here he displays this with some of the most interesting results to date. It is not a complex album, but quite frankly, it feels like it does not need to be.
The most commonly-heard influence that Iwasaki draws on in this soundtrack is jazz, due to the majority of pieces including chord structures and instrumental choices that are typically found in jazz combos. This is most prevalent during the Nichijou tracks, engaging in simple chord progressions but embracing the naturally-heard dissonance of jazz progression. The track that highlights this the best is Nichijou 1 Nanigenai Ichi Nichi no Hajimari, encapsulating the jazz combo feeling in its most standard sense. The usage of the jazz instrumentation does extend beyond standard combo fare, as Nichijou 6 Renai ni Nita Funiki takes the family of saxes and throws them into a classical chamber group scenario while still keeping the jazz chord structure at points.
Of course, to say that it is a purely jazz soundtrack would be contradictory of everything mentioned thusfar. The soundtrack does feature much of the instrumentation of a jazz combo (piano, trumpet, the entire standard family of saxophone, drumkit), but many of the tracks tend to use them in the context of another genre. Every single Sentou track, for instance, will either use the sax within the context of a more hardcore punk/thrash-based sound or it will utilize the trumpet in a more sultry sense with a thumping, powerful drum beat reminiscent of dance music. The mixture of genres tends to be utilized best in these tracks, being the most interesting to listen to as stand-alone tracks if you, as a listener, do not mind hardcore punk or are genuinely intrigued by strange instrumental combinations. Tracks like Sentou 1 Sentou 5 best encapsulate the hardcore punk feel, while Sentou 2 Hyouketsu no Majo is the only sultry trumpet track in the entire score. It would be amiss to not mention Gelida Fenice here, as well, just due to their insane levels of energy juxtaposed with an intro that feels right out of Italian opera.
Some of the stranger tracks are not even jazz-inspired in the slightest, and they are all found in the Comical tracks. Of the three Comical tracks presented, one is inspired by African tribal music, featuring heavy amounts of djembe and chanting. One is a reggaeton track that is impossible to understand outside of the hook. The final Comical track, and the one I personally find the most interesting, is Comical 3 Takurami; a dissonant march that utilizes snare drum, trumpet, recorder, alto saxophone, clapping, and a record scratch. The one non-Comical track that utilizes this non-jazz genre oddity is I Gotta Turn It On, which starts off as this building synth-orchestral piece but eventually becomes an energetic, autotuned number. None of these tracks are at all complex musically, but definitely stand up on their own as interesting tracks.
With all of that being said, there are still plenty of tracks that manage to slip through the cracks. None of the tracks on the album are outright terrible, but are rather not quite memorable or are simply out of place. Kinchoukan, for instance, is nice and atmospheric, but it feels out of place for the most part due to not sharing as much with the other elements of the score. The typical Japanese sound of Serious 1 Sawagi Shimai also sticks out as something that does not quite belong. Similarly, most of the other tracks seem to fade into the background, but the quieter saxophone solo/choir tracks tend to do their job and set the mood for the louder tracks on the album.
As a stand-alone score, the juxtaposition of quieter jazz-inspired pieces and weird genre-melding experiments make up for the lack of compositional complexity (and thus the lack of compositional depth), creating an insanely unique sound with its weaker tracks simply being the ones that feel out of place in the overall context of the score.
Show Usage:
Personally, the usage of the soundtrack made the show for me. While I thought that the show was insanely mean-spirited, the soundtrack was used perfectly. As you may have noticed in the above segment, a lot of the tracks are named after their usage in the show, with Nichijou dealing with the more slice-of-life elements, Comical being the comedy bits, Sentou being the fight scenes, and stuff like Serious and Kanashimi being used in more dramatic scenes. What makes this soundtrack so special, however, is the fact that the show uses such strange tracks to perfectly add to the feeling of a particular scene. The vast majority of the Sentou tracks have this energetic, raw feeling to them, adding to the energy and intensity of these fight scenes. The everyday life scenes benefit from the jazz soundtrack, as it makes even the simple, stupid club room antics feel a little classier. The dramatic tracks do their purpose, but lack from standing out, only enhancing the scenes that they are in.
Perhaps what I can commend this show for the most, despite not appreciating its sense of humor in any sense, is the usage of the Comical tracks. The comedic scenes usually involve a ton of physical abuse against the main character, which gets progressively more and more damaging as the series goes on. However, what got me to laugh at these scenes was the consistent juxtaposition of the soundtrack to the terrible slapstick. There is just something that works when you take generic anime slapstick that would normally get terrible synth horns in the background and instead place in something like African tribal music, or a dissonant march on recorders, or reggaeton.
Overall, the soundtrack is what makes the show stand out in my mind, and its usage is spot on.
Overall:
At the end of the day, Ben-To is a show with an energetic soundtrack that embraces style over substance. Despite the abundance of simple composition, the pieces themselves feel polished yet raw, strange yet accessible, and overall fantastic. The show wears its Iwasaki well, and this will definitely remain one of the composer's standout outings in my mind.
Stand-alone: A-
Show Usage: A
Overall: A-
Pros: Stylish blend of genres, intriguing use of jazz combo instrumentation, spot-on application to the show itself, exudes energy and irreverence
Cons: Simplistic in its composition, a few out-of-place tracks
Standout tracks: I Gotta Turn It On, Comical 3 Takurami, Sentou 1 Sentou 5, Sentou 2 Hyouketsu no Majo, Sentou 6 Up Tempo, Gelida Fenice
Weak tracks: Kinchoukan, Serious 1 Sawagi Shimai
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