Ghost in the Shell: Arise began as the third video series based on the original manga by Shirow Masamune. Cornelius (also known as Keigo Oyamada) produced the music that complemented this bold series in its re-imagining of the intriguing elements of the original Ghost in the Shell, including updated character designs for the members of Public Security Section 9. Oyamada wrote and produced the music used in the series roughly over a span of three years, not limited to the main and ending themes.
How did he arrive at the sound that so effectively entices listeners’ imaginations? In this interview, we discussed Oyamada’s stances and standards as well as his personal memories of anime soundtracks.

——I know Cornelius always had a lot of fans outside Japan as well as within it, but do you feel like working on Ghost in the Shell: Arise expanded your fan demographics?

 

Keigo Oyamada(“Oyamada” below): I think it did. I had toured North America and Europe on the Mellow Waves tour as Cornelius, and one time this really young girl came to report on us. I forget what country’s media she was part of. It was novel for me that she mentioned learning about Cornelius through Ghost in the Shell. I got a real sense of how influential anime is. I had known that Ghost in the Shell was popular among the younger generation outside Japan, though. I had obsessed fans around me who collected it all on VHS, like Sean Lennon. (Laughter)

 

——You’ve said it was your first time working on a full anime soundtrack. Did you take anything from the experience back to your music as Cornelius?

 

Oyamada: I was also putting a lot of effort into my work with salyu×salyu and METAFIVE when I was making the soundtrack for Ghost in the Shell, and I hadn’t released an album as Cornelius in over 10 years. I wrote lots of music over that gap, but whenever a new project got going, I would always allocate the music I’d made over to it. I shifted music I’d made for myself over to Ghost in the Shell several times, too. So to put it bluntly, I made my next album from leftovers. (Laughter) The hard and dark tracks would naturally flow over to Ghost in the Shell, and the funky and upbeat ones would go to METAFIVE, so the softer, more mature ones were left over. That also suited my mindset, and I put together the album Mellow Waves. In that sense, Ghost in the Shell definitely had a major impact on Cornelius.

 

——Was it hard to fit in the emotional layer for each scene while keeping to the “hard and dark” tracks that fit with the Ghost in the Shell universe?

 

Oyamada: The tone was basically set, so it was challenging expressing the distinctions and nuances and adding emphasis within that. But it was fun getting to throw a curve ball with Logicoma Beat, which I wrote for the Logicoma scenes. I wrote it envisioning it as a melody a human couldn’t sing, and it ended up a sort of giggle-inducing pop track. The Logicomas are the only comforting characters in the entire thing, so that gave me a change of pace while writing the music. (Laughter)
 

——You also did the soundtrack for the Design Ah! TV show. Do you approach making music for anime differently from making music for other types of video productions?

 

Oyamada: Design Ah! was a kids’ show, so it has a softer setting, but I was trying to make music that would support it in focusing viewer attention or surprising viewers, to suit the video. The story and video for Ghost in the Shell are both quite developed, and a lot of elements of it lead the audience’s emotions, like the dialogue. So I wrote the music for it to express the mood of the scene. I feel like the music had very different roles, between the two.

 

——As a series, Ghost in the Shell: Arise got theatrical releases. Did you account for theatrical audio setups?

 

Oyamada: That’s right. Well, I did originally mix the ending theme in Dolby Atmos for theaters, since it’s what viewers are most likely to really listen to. But the audio varies a lot based on the theater structure and where the audience is seated, so it never fits perfectly with how I expect it to.

 

——Subscription services are on the rise lately, and a lot more people watch anime on their phones now. I would assume the same goes for listening to music, too. Has the way you make music changed in line with the changes in viewing and listening styles?

 

Oyamada: A bit. In the old days, I partially wrote music for the CD media format, so all of the tracks on the album FANTASMA connect together, for example. In essence, we made music on the assumption you would listen to it from the start to the end. But recently, songs just cut off when people listen to them on audio subscription services, and I don’t want that, so I try to make songs unconnected wherever possible. I try to make sure that the setting will be on point whatever order you listen to songs in, or whatever medium you use to listen to them.

 

——So there’s no need to go as far as changing the melody of a piece, even if you’re careful about the overall structure?

 

Oyamada: Right. But I feel like there’s been a sudden spike in songs that come at you like a blow to the head, meaning that they begin with the hook out of nowhere. My impression is that a lot of songs had long intros back in the day, and maybe they end up being faster no matter what if you’re tailoring them to modern listener tastes and lifestyles? I don’t really worry about it, though.

 

——Fans have loved Ghost in the Shell over the years now, even as new series come out. What do you personally think is the key to its appeal?

 

Oyamada: I think there’s a lot of appealing factors, but in this era, the stories in the series are starting to become more realistic. AI felt like something for the distant future in the ’80s and ’90s, and now it’s a lot more present in our lives. That’s partially because the original manga had a clear vision of the future, and that means that I really do feel like we’ll see a future where human brains are connected to the net. I suspect that so many people still love it because of that incredible expressive and persuasive power it has.

 

——For the record, given you worked on it, are there any series you’re a fan of other than Arise?

 

Oyamada: I guess Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell film. The quality of the art is incredible, and the music is outstanding with its blend of melodies reminiscent of ancient Japan and folk songs, mixed with the Bulgarian vocals.

 

——Do you want to work on music for more anime in the future?

 

Oyamada: Yes, if I get the chance. It would be fun to be part of a project a bit bigger than anything I’ve done so far from a musician’s perspective, in terms of music and themes and so forth. If I were to work on Ghost in the Shell again, I’d like to take on the challenges involved in using future technology fully. Like making everything with AI or something. Although I guess they wouldn’t need me if they did that. (Laughter)

 

(END)

 

 

KEIGO OYAMADA

Born January 27, 1969. A native of Tokyo. After Flipper’s Guitar disbanded in 1991, he began making music under the name Cornelius starting in 1993. He scored major hits with his albums THE FIRST QUESTION AWARD and 69/96, becoming a major mover within the Shibuya-kei movement at the time. In 2006, his video collection Sensurround + B-Sides was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. He is broadly active in the musical field today, working on collaborations and remixes with Japanese and international artists as well as in music production.