Top 10 Favorite Soundtrack Songs: No. 3 “Just Be Conscious”

3. Just Be Conscious – from Slayers Return

A unique choice for a change, given our current track record. This song comes to use from the popular Slayers anime franchise that flourished in the late 90s and early 2000s. Originally there were three television series: Slayers, Slayers Next, and Slayers Try. A few years later, a movie series was born, consisting of 4 and a half films, based on only the exploits of the main character from the series’, Lina Inverse. The films take place a few years before the events of the series, although anyone with a brain would look at the movies and assume Lina is actually older, given her appearance and breadth of knowledge.

Anyway, “Just Be Conscious” is the ending credits theme to the 2^nd Slayers film called Slayers Return; which tends to be my favorite of the 4. Impressively this song is the 7^th in a long line of songs written and performed by Megumi Hayashibara for the Slayers franchise, who also happens to be the voice of the titular character, Lina.

A great many of Megumi’s songs are awesome and deserve more western attention, but out of the songs that appear in the films, this is my favorite for a couple of reasons. 1. The energy is very high and the beat is very steady. 2. The wall of sound is massive, and consists of things like backup singers, a wailing reverbed guitar (which later gets a solo), and the synth bass that gives this song a slight undertone of bizarre darkness.

Beyond that, I enjoy these aspects for the way they create an unconventional pop/rock song that compliments the strange world that the film itself presents. The movie is quirky and humorous, you can sense that here. The film has interesting and varied characters that you will come to like (despite how short the film is), you can sense that here. There is magic and spells and creatures abundant, you can also “sense that here.” And the great reverb and harmonizing backup singers help to give this song a broad and expansive feeling, almost like its describing a vast open world of wonders to explore, or a dark cave with a mysterious treasure inside.

I’ll admit, some of these songs are hard to describe in words, but I’ve tried to do my best with what vocabulary I know. And so I hope some of my concepts are getting through. Lol

[As with many Japanese songs and soundtracks, this is also not available for download; and the films are increasingly becoming hard to buy copies of for anyone who doesn’t own one. So the best way to get a’hold of this song, and indeed most of Megumi Hayashibara’s Slayers tracks, is to pick up her Slayers Megumix album which includes 3 CDs complete with most of the opening and ending themes to the Slayers series.]

Slayers Megumix: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KICA-916

>Go to Next Song – (#2)

Comments

comments