Toonami Millennium Mixtape
My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a playlist around some theme. This week, Kiley Fox assembles 12 songs from Adult Swim’s Toonami programming at the turn of the century. Read Kiley’s thoughts on each song and listen along to the Spotify and YouTube playlists below.
Adult Swim was a huge influence in shaping my adult interests in popular culture. Before then, I didn’t know that there were animated series geared towards teens and adults. For all its amazing and innovative shows, the Saturday night Toonami programming was the most important to me. My sister and I bonded over Japanese anime that we wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. Decades later, it is the music that stays with me the most.
1.“Tank! by Yoko Kanno (performed by The Seatbelts)
The music of Cowboy Bebop changed the landscape of scoring anime. Rising from strong roots of Japanese jazz, Kanno composed exciting, evocative, complex, and unparalleled soundtracks for Cowboy Bebop and other anime. “Tank!” Is a bombastic and magnificent way to start the playlist. It channels the spirit and super slick feel of when it became cool to love anime.
2. “Battlecry” by Nujabes
Samurai Champloo is one of my favorite anime of all time. Nujabes, a Japanese DJ and record producer, is often considered the father of lofi hip hop in Japan. There’s a line in this song, “Far East style with the spirit of the Wild West,” that describes exactly what we’re hearing in this anthem.
3. “Theme from Lupin the 3rd ‘78 (2002 version)” by Yuji Ohno; You & Explosion Band
Lupin is a series that has lived in some form consistently since its origins in 1971. Just like the anime, the music stays true to its funky roots and this particular rendition gives a James Bond car chase feel that’s timelessly stylish and forever cool.
4. “Fly Me to the Moon (Instrumental)” by Shiro Sagisu
As we lean into the jazz scores of anime, I have to give flowers to this bossa nova treasure cover of “Fly Me to the Moon” on the Neon Genesis Evangelion soundtrack. Whether you are listening to the anime on the weekend in your jammies, or sitting in a ritzy cocktail bar in New York, this song makes you feel like you’re on a boozy, smooth, trip to the moon.
5. “Gravity” by Yoko Kanno, vocalist Maaya Sakamoto
Even though the anime Wolf’s Rain didn’t last long on Toonami, the impression left on me by its closing song is permanent. Musically, it’s minimal, pretty, and feminine. The feels and lyrics are universal. We all know the exhaustion of loneliness and of living. “Still the road keeps on telling me to go on. Something is pulling me. I feel the gravity of it all.”
6. “Lapis Philosophorum (Chanting version)” by Akira Senju
Haunting, sorrowful, and desperate, this song from Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is a piece of operatic music that evokes deep emotion. I find it meditative and calming. While there is no beauty in suffering, there is something radiant about how the spirit can endure and still create something so beautiful out of pain.
7. “Last Impression” by Two Mix
The opening theme from the Mobile Suit Gundam Endless Waltz series pulls no punches on being epic, theatrical, and a perfect stereotype of typical Japanese anime scores. It has that orchestral element that sounds as if the listeners are ascending with the Gundams, and then it bombs you with frenetic house music. I can already see the DDR kids in my head one hundred percenting this.
8. “Dragon Soul” by Takayoshi Tanimoto
Here’s an example of the other typical anime theme sound from Dragon Ball Z. Equal parts video game music and life coach pumping you up, this theme is corny, sincere, and fun. It is completely self-aware. If you want to get to over level 9000, all you need is to listen to this and believe in yourself!
9. “Change the World” by V6
My sister and I were avid Inuyasha fans, but I am an even bigger lifelong V6 fan.
For me to find out that my favorite JPOP band was singing the opening theme to a show I loved was the equivalent to giving coffee to a toddler. This always pumped my little heart full of wholesome bubblegum dreams, and joy. It’s still common that anime theme songs are performed by whatever it band is all the rage.
10. “Ride on Shooting Star” by The Pillows
FLCL is my sister’s favorite anime. We both loved the garage rock, effortlessly cool, indie kid sound of this theme. It captures the intrepid spirit of youth. I will always feel like a teen riding around in cars with the windows down whenever I hear it. It’s summer in a song.
11. “Knives” by Tsumeo Imahori
Trigun was the anime my wild west sci-fi loving heart longed for, and the music was even cooler. This is a super wicked old school rock ‘n’ roll sound of the 1960s and 1970s. It’s a little bit Rolling Stones merged with Pink Floyd and Bob Marley. It makes me feel like I’m right alongside Emma Peel from The Avengers whenever I hear it.
12. “Space Lion” by Yoko Kanno
We began with Cowboy Bebop, and we shall end with it. “Space Lion” is my favorite song from the entire Cowboy Bebop catalog. It is subtle, bittersweet, inspiring, and spiritual. It takes any life moment and slows it down into something that can either be tackled or accepted. When I hear my soul sing, this is what it sounds like. It is the last track, because at the end of my life, I know this is the song my heart will be singing full of peace, love, and gratitude.
