Manga Max Review of OST 1

His Secret, Her Secret

Moments on the Evangelion soundtracks veered away from the brass and bombast into mellow lounge jazz. These pieces rarely made it into the show itself-the only times I can recall them is as tinny scratchings overheard from Shinji's headphones, and occasional background music to a bit of breakfast high jinks. But now they come to the forefront, as composer Sagisu jettisons the apocalyptic orchestrations of Eva for this gentle romance. The first His Secret Her Secret soundtrack album contains many tracks of the happy, sappy comedy-schtick music that your grandparents put on when they've had a few-but this is a romantic comedy, after all. Even so, a number of tracks recall the lonely desolation of Eva's quieter moments. If anything, Sagisu has accentuated on of the elements that made the Eva music so coherent, assigning themes to particular characters and then offering several different variations. Each of the leads get a set of musical interludes to themselves, changing over time in the manner of Sagisu's 'Rei/Thanatos' sequence from Eva. 'Yukino Miyazawa' is presented in five versions as an exuberant concerto, a sub-Sousa March, bilious Jazz Rock, beautiful Kanon (possibly the best track on the album) and soothing Nocturne. Her male foil Arima gets two versions of his own theme, recalling a dozen Seventies ballads, not the least The Carpenters' "Close to You". Sagisu's ongoing love of Beethoven manifests itself in several arrangements, most noticeably from the Fifth, while the pop song theme "Into Dreams", present here in its full-length hand-jive version, is also reprised on piano (#13) and strings (#21). For those who enjoyed the music of Eva, there are enough tracks on this album that sound like a continuation of its themes and styles. But there are also lumps of cloyingly perky muzak that could well be "ironic" in the series itself, but may detract from your listening pleasure. One to buy, but also one to carefully excerpt. With 70 minutes for your money, that's still a good deal.