KYOBANSAI 2023: Kyoto Soundtrack Festival digest
KYOBANSAI is a lovely festival of anime soundtracks organized by Yuki Hayashi and his team in Kyoto! Last year's digest is available here, but this year they performed with an audience for the first time, in Tokyo in April and in Kyoto in September!
I have translated what the composers & musicians were saying; please note that this is NOT a direct translation but more of a digest as there was simply too much for me to cover in full detail. Still, this might give you some insight into the world of soundtracks and the job of a composer! I also tried to add the playlist here with the official tracks that are available to make it easier to feel the flow of the concert (I haven't watched all the series, so if you see any mistakes in the translation of the track titles, please let me know). Hope you enjoy~
INTRODUCTIONS
01:09:45 Hayashi greets everyone with a "hello" and stumbles a little, saying that he planned to say "I can't hear you!" if the audience was a bit quiet, but everyone yelled loudly on the very first attempt, surprising him :D Last year, when they did "Kyobansai 0", there was a typhoon threat looming over the festival, and it did rain a little, so this time they were all wishing for some nice sunny weather — and they wished too hard, because it's very hot and sunny now! UV umbrellas everywhere. He reminds everyone to drink, get extra electrolytes and enjoy the live without straining themselves. Whoever's tired can go walk around, or lie down and listen to the music while looking at the sky, or look at the provided anime scenes. Hayashi didn't know if this whole project would even be possible, but he got supported by amazing composers, musicians, and staff, and he profusely thanks them. Also recommends the craft beer they made for this event! This year they have even more composers, powering up the event. Hayashi pauses a bit, saying that he's got so much to say and yet he's forgetting over 90% of it. He gives the first baton to Miyazaki Makoto, an "awesome composer and papa" [T/N: a reference to how they met, you can read about it in the last year's review]!
MIYAZAKI MAKOTO SEGMENT
1:14:33 OPM: Justice Enforcement ~Second Attack~
1:17:01 OPM: Genos fights
1:19:19 OPM: Metal Bat
1:21:15 OPM: Fubuki
1:23:18 Fairy Gone: Eastald
1:26:13 Miyazaki was also really looking forward to this outdoors anime music festival. He really loves this event, and even last year, when there was no audience, he wondered just why it was so much fun performing here. He says it must be thanks to the dependable, amazing musicians and staff, and, of course, Yuki Hayashi himself. They're both composers and fathers, and even though they only met a year ago, they spent some great times together, and Hayashi showed Miyazaki plenty of "views" he's never seen before. He also reminds everyone to not strain themselves in the heat, drink and go to shadowed areas if necessary. He reads the series he composes for with great attention, but "Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead" in particular (which he performs next) he read really quickly because of how interesting it is, and he was looking forward to seeing it animated. He's a big fan and thinks the series carries some deep messages, so he really wanted to perform the OST live. There's a lot of hype tracks at the festival, but this OST is hype and elated even among them.
1:30:13 Zom 100: Zom 100 ~Bucket List of the Dead~ BGM
1:31:35 Zom 100: Zom 100 ~Bucket List of the Dead~ BGM
1:39:45 Miyazaki laments that it's already the time for his last song, jokingly "whining" about it and thanking the audience for doing it with him x) He plans on having a beer break but hopes everyone keeps enjoying the music. At Kyobansai, he can't help wondering what music is to him and what he composes for. He remembers writing about it ~10 years ago, and it was something along the lines of "to make people smile". Miyazaki realizes that it hasn't changed much — he still wants to give people even just a little bit of happiness, even a small smile. This festival and performing in front of everyone gives him more motivation to do it. This last track he wanted to try and perform in an outdoors setting, while everyone can feel the summer atmosphere. He looks forward to meeting everyone again one day!
KYOTO MAYOR
1:46:07 The mayor of Kyoto, Kadokawa Daisaku, attended the event! Hayashi is very surprised by his visit and thanks him profusely. Hayashi remembers how the city hall staff listened to him passionately back in January when he talked about how Kyoto could potentially further hype up the popular aspects of the Japanese culture. The mayor mentions that things worked out very well with the Cultural Agency, too. Hayashi thanks the KYOMAF festival for making it a full-on collaboration with Kyobansai this year. He recalls how he came back to Kyoto during COVID, and how the taxi driver told him that he's never seen Kyoto this empty in his life, which saddened Hayashi, and he was thinking about how he could pay the town back. Around this time he was also getting invited and going to various conventions around the world, and he noticed how wildly enthusiastic the overseas fans were about such events and anime soundtrack lives, seemingly even more so that the Japanese fans. That's when he started thinking about creating a soundtrack festival in Japan, believing that the country should have one. Even yesterday they were talking with the mayor and the Cultural Agency president about "stomping the grass", going where no one has ever ventured before. With "Kyobansai 0", it was only streamed for about a week, but over 300,000 people from all over the world watched it, and Hayashi ended up getting many invitations to overseas conventions, so he wants to "lift this project up" from Kyoto and make it popular abroad as well. The mayor talks about how Kyoto actually managed to keep up many aspects of the city's normal life even with COVID while containing the infection, but he urges everyone to not get complacent and still be careful. He speaks about how Kyoto has many unique institutions and traditions related to music, and he hopes for Kyobansai to become one of them!
IWASAKI TAKU SEGMENT
1:55:35 Gurren Lagann: Drill to Heaven with Your XXX!!
1:59:15 Jormungand: The first step to escape from complex
2:05:12 Iwasaki asks the audience if they're enjoying the show, drinking enough water, using UV umbrellas and sunscreen :D He hypes the audience up a little, but they are on a time crunch, so he calls his special guest, Lotus Juice (nearly forgets to, and Lotus Juice goes "please don't forget about me" x), and they proceed to the next track.
2:10:25 Iwasaki feels that when he performs this song, he loses like half a kilo instantly xD They remind the audience to drink water and call the next guest, Fukuoka Yutaka.
2:11:44 Katanagatari: Bahasa Palus
2:16:19 Noragami: Noratan ("Stray's Ballad")
2:20:45 Iwasaki says that there's only 2 tracks left, and the audience whines sadly, so he says it again cause he likes it x)
TATSUYA KATO SEGMENT
3:03:15 Tatsuya greets and hypes up the crowd a little, and then calls his guests, vocalists Zinee & issei. After a hydration reminder, they proceed.
3:12:36 Miyazaki thanks Hayashi for inviting him to the festival. He emphasizes that Kyobansai is created by everyone who participates, including the audience, says he hopes to perform here again, and urges everyone to have fun together!
3:24:07 Tatsuya shows off his Kyobansai nails! He got his nail done at his wife's salon — his name's Tatsuya, her name's Yukari, that's why the place's called "ty nail&eyelash". The vocalists mention how lovey-dovey that is x) After nominatively asking for some advertising permission, Tatsuya-san offers a promotion code with a 10% discount for the Kyobansai audience! "Speaking of nails", they move on to Idolish7! Tatsuya does a lot of anime about idols, and while this one is also about their bright, sparkly lives, it also pictures its opposite, uglier side, and it's a quite touching, serious story.
3:33:50 The audience happily guesses that the last series for this segment is going to be Free!. Tatsuya says it represents Kyoto in a way as one of KyoAni's popular series. He's been working on it for a while now ("Oh, I spot a Nanase Haruka towel in the crowd!") and recently participated in the 10th Anniversary event, so it's a special series to him, and he's glad he gets to perform the OST in Kyoto.
3:45:45 They end up tacking on a surprise track and ask the audience to sing along!
OKEHAZAMA ALISA SEGMENT
Okehazama actually translated her own talks! I will still add a digest here, but you can read the whole thing on her Twitter. Please show her your appreciation under the original tweet, she seems very happy to be interacting with overseas fans~
4:04:34 Okehazama announces the start of her run by blowing into a big shell, and then she has to ask for some clips for the sheet music since the wind picked up. Technically she's got slots for 3.5 tracks, she already performed one. The next 2 songs are also quite hype, so she hopes the fans go wild! She mentions how cool Gojo-sensei looked on the big screen for the first track — cooler than she expected, actually. She's very glad to see many fans who watched JJK S1 and are now watching S2. She's not composing for S2, but one of the composers from S1 is continuing to work on the series, and she hopes everyone keeps watching. The next track she describes as a very intense one.
4:10:40 She's really glad to see the audience hyped up! She promotes a new anime she'll be working on with 2 other composers, "The Apothecary Diary", describing it to be mysterious, touching and romantic at times, and overall multifaceted. Okehazama encourages the fans to follow her on Twitter/Instagram where she posts about the series she works on. The next track is her very first job as a composer, "The God of High School". Unusually, it was done by film scoring. She was still inexperienced at the time and remembers really just doing her best, but she's glad it was her first series. She's grateful that the production team trusted her with it.
4:08:14 Okehazama was supposed to perform only 3 tracks, but there's one that she really loves, so she asked for a bit of time for just one extra scene. Since the track is gentle, she encourages people to sit down now. It's from JJK movie, and she tried to omit spoilers as much as possible, so for most people it wouldn't make too much sense, but it should be quite emotional for those who're up to speed with the anime.
TAKANASHI YASUHARU SEGMENT
4:41:10 Takanashi's glad everyone's still fired up despite the heat, but he asks people to be careful anyway. He says they don't have much time, so he'll just barge on ahead, and he asks the audience to follow him at their pace!
4:49:50 Takanashi warms the crowd up a bit more and moves on to "Bastard".
4:54:20 Takanashi introduces his "partner", Fujisawa Kenji, who composed the music for "Baki", and leaves for a water break. Fujisawa is a big fan of the series, and was glad to work on it. He wants to perform the first track he composed for the series. As it so happens, a member of "yaiba", who took part in the recording of the track and is, too, a fan of the "Baki" ("you look just like a Baki character wearing that"), is also at Kyobansai, so he's called on to the stage.
4:09:50 They move on to the Naruto section; Naruto celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! "yaiba" members insert some sound effects into Takanashi's talk, and he jokingly scolds them for being annoying, asking them to keep it to the actual tracks~ He calls for the third, shyest "yaiba" member with the shamisen, who only says "glad to be here" in the mic when prompted x)
5:08:58 Takanashi announces that there's 2 tracks left, the audience sounds displeased, and he goes, "ikr" x) He wants to hype everyone up to the max before Hayashi's segment! He does so by "dattebayo"-ing with everyone, although messes up the timing a little on the last one, and goes ahead!
HAYASHI YUKI SEGMENT
5:28:30 Hayashi thanks everyone for waiting, but then corrects himself, saying that it was actually him waiting, looking forward to performing on the stage. When he first planned Kyobansai, it seemed impossible to most people, but Hayashi always tells his son that "you can do it if you try hard" — and since he can't afford to lie to him, here he is now! He thanks everyone who made this possible and hopes to make this a bigger event in the future with everyone's help. He calls Luna Goami on the stage for the first track, apologizing for a sudden request x) While the staff help Luna get ready, Hayashi introduces the musicians. Luna still seems unsure it's real, asking if they're actually doing this, which Hayashi confirms.
5:37:13 Hayashi once again thanks Luna for agreeing to his sudden request. Then he introduces the next three tracks, briefly describing the series' premises. For "Insomniacs After School", he mentions that, while not being able to sleep for the main characters is bad, they manage to turn it into something wonderful, hence the "Invincible Together" track. For "Bakuten!!", he reminds everyone that he used to do rhythmic gymnastics, and says that if any athletes are there, they can feel free to do backflips and whatnot so long as they don't bother people around them. For "Dragon Ball Quest", he asks the cameraman to show the back of his hand in the intro part, cause his dragon crest might appear there x)
5:52:00 Something peeled off from the keyboard because of all the sweat x) Hayashi says there's 2 series generally considered to be his "main" (representative) works, and he's going to perform one now, "the volleyball kind". Violinist Ayasa is invited to the stage now. "I called her here for a reason, although she does also love Kyoto's ramen". She participated in the recording of "Above", one of "Haikyuu!!"'s quite popular tracks and the main theme of S2, way back when. Hayashi refers to his tweet where he censored the tracks' names, saying that most people guessed "Above" and "Godlike Quick", while the third one is "Seagulls", partly in relation to the upcoming movies. The arrangements between the violin/cello (the latter played by Nishikata Masateru) were made specifically for this event.
6:04:20 Hayashi's also glad to hear that the audience seems upset that they're moving on to the last, BNHA section. First, Hayashi says that everyone in the audience who came to see the show, all the musicians and staff who made it possible, are his heroes, and first he wants to play "You Say Run" to everyone. That track was composed with All Might telling Deku to run forwards (and there's the yuuseiran = egg pun as well) in Hayashi's mind, while "My Hero Academia" conveys the image of Class 1-A's, aspiring heroes' strength as a team. For the third track, he wanted to choose something with summer festival vibes, and it's going to be "Write 'Rival', Read 'Classmate'".
6:17:12 They're on a time crunch again, but of course we still get an encore with Ayapeta! "And, as always, I have nothing to do during this song, so I'll be giving out free badges!" — this is a tradition at this point!
6:22:20 Hayashi calls everyone on stage. He says that he heard everyone else say how quickly their segments passed by and couldn't really understand, but now he does! His own also flew by. He asks if everyone had fun and wants to come next year. Hayashi, for one, wants to keep it up! He often forgets and loses things, but he's blessed with great friends and is really glad to have them there. Miyazaki's grateful for the wonderful view he got to see, Iwasaki's glad no one collapsed cause of heat and hopes everyone makes it home safe, Tatsuya hopes he'll be invited again and that they can all recreate this atmosphere, Okehazama mentions it's actually her first concert in Japan, and she's really honored to perform with so many respected senpais. Takanashi thanks Hayashi for creating this rare opportunity for Japanese composers to work and perform together and proclaims that they want to take this event to further, more global heights! Like last year, he adds that it's very brave and hard to make the first step and asks everyone to applaude Hayashi who did it! "You're amazing!". Hayashi says he'll probably sleep well tonight. Hayashi's glad he can get the people who love anime music together like this. He remembers getting messages from people from Colombia, France, Germany, etc. about how they were looking forward to the event. He's been getting invited overseas a lot lately, so he's looking to explore the opportunities he has with his ~teammates~. Hayashi asks to help promote the event and thanks everyone once again, then suggests to take a picture together!
Thank you very much for reading, my apologies for any mistakes/inaccuracies, I was translating quickly :") If there's anything major, feel free to let me know! Also, don't forget to support your favorite composers~!
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