Andrea Cossu's Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection, courtesy of Andrea Cossu
Collecting Japan, pt.1 – Anime & film soundracks records
On a hunt for lesser known yet vibrant collecting niches, MAG_BTMMusic Archive Gallery: Beyond The Music asked Far-Eastern music lover Freddie Berman to investigate. First in a series of interviews to Japanese music collectors, here Berman speaks to the Japanese anime & film soundtracks collector Andrea Cossu.
Being an anime fan in the early 2010s you were likely to be viewed as a nerdy recluse. Who would have thought when COVID hit that anime would finally have its day, as streaming services exploded it into the mainstream, making it a record high ¥2.7tn ($20bn) business in 2021, expected to grow to $47.14bn by 2028.
You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s all about the figures, posters, comics etc, but music is an integral part of its appeal. In 2018 Spotify noted that the opening theme song for Attack on Titan Season 1 ‘Guren No Yumiya’ by Linked Horizon had recorded 13 millions streams globally and in 2020 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, became the highest grossing film of 2020 with the accompanying single ‘Homura’ by LiSA reaching 8 on the Billboard Global 200 charts with 19.4 million streams and 97,000 downloads.
“My search began looking for collectors of Japanese records from the 70s and 80s (City pop) and the trail led me to the most unlikely of sources. For on a small island in the Mediterranean lay a chef by trade with an astonishing collection of Japanese anime and film soundtracks and an admiration for the composers matching the high regard for those we revere in the west.
It was a trip back to the reasons why I fell in love with this genre and for you readers I hope, an educational and inspiring interview with Andrea Cossu or as followers most commonly know him as onioncuore.” – Freddie Berman
Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection, courtesy of Andrea Cossu
What first attracted you to this music and how did it escalate to a desire to start collecting?:
I started listening to Hip Hop music as a teenager, and soon I realized that those sampled-sounds came from other music and my journey in search of the original records began. I was buying a lot of Black American music at the time and, being a cinephile, my love for soundtracks took over in parallel. So I started looking for all the American Blaxploitation records, the real funk gems.
Then I broadened my horizons and moved all over the world. I watched a lot of Japanese anime in my childhood and I remembered how much I liked it, especially the instrumental music in the background, so my research definitely moved to the Japanese music market of the 70s and 80s, discovering that the greatest Japanese master composers had worked on both anime and film soundtracks.
Not knowing Japanese made it difficult, but thanks to the internet and many trips over to Japan I soon gained experience. With patience, intuition and luck, I discovered many things and collected a lot of fragmented information which I translated as best I could. The credits on the records are very important and fortunately the meticulous Japanese labels add them as a paper insert inside the covers, including very interesting information and anecdotes.
Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection, courtesy of Andrea Cossu
Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection, courtesy of Andrea Cossu
Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection, courtesy of Andrea Cossu
What is the most prized record/piece of memorabilia you have in your collection?
The most expensive records I have in my collection belong to the world of European music. Inevitably, they are closely linked to the world of cinematography (Film Soundtracks). With regards to my catalogue of Japanese music, having started collecting records early, I’m lucky to have rare ones that I didn’t have to pay that much, especially if I look at the current valuations. The Japanese record I paid the most for was the soundtrack for a silly anime called Hai Step Jun (1985) composed by the legendary Nozomi Aoki; it was a nearly unobtainable record, but I absolutely wanted to hear it because Aoki is my favourite musician and gladly paid €300 (£262.69) to have it!
What is it about Japanese film and anime soundtracks that make them unique from the rest?
I am mainly interested in instrumental music and so my search for soundtracks was inevitable. All the musical parts that flow in the background and colour of the scenes are all that I love to hear. They give me that exact kind of image and feeling just by listening and, as I mentioned before, I collect many records of European music from the 70s and 80s. The world of Japanese anime is full of epic background music that we could call a Japanese library of music.
It’s also important to note that European music was also used in some Japanese anime as well. For example, in the 1980 anime Densetsu Kyojin Ideon (1980) the music is credited to Kōichi Sugiyama but different tracks from the French label ‘Montparnasse 2000’ are used uncredited in the anime as well. So you also listen to music by Camille Sauvage, Piero Umiliani and Michel Gonet. I find these synergies exciting and while Japanese anime LPs are still very underrated it should be remembered that musically they are the result of incredible Japanese composers. Some of the greatest include composers like Yuji Ohno, Kentaro Haneda, Seiji Yokoyama, Nozomi Aoki, Takeo Watanabe, Shunsuke Kikuchi and Chumei Watanabe.
A very important side of collecting Japanese records is their incredible sound quality, in addition to the fact that the Japanese themselves are obsessive and it is possible to find records in perfect condition after 50 years. I’m obsessed with looking for obscure and unknown records, Japan is amazing.
Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection, courtesy of Andrea Cossu
In the collectors community for these soundtracks what are real rarities e.g. merchandise and records that are sought after the most and have the most value?
Record collectors in the anime world fall into two categories. Lovers of the anime itself and those who only want groovy music and ignore the animation completely. Each record has a target collector due to its own musical genre. Anime soundtracks don’t indicate a style of music of course and there are those who collect synth oriented, jazz/funk or horror and tension with an orchestra.
Some even only want the sung theme song, which I personally hate and I also avoid the 45rpm with opening and closing theme songs, as well as the drama versions LPs with the original dialogue. Some have a high value because they were often distributed with only a few copies, especially at the end of the 80s when the world of vinyl records was disappearing. Moreover, a record has much more value if complete with an Obi Strip (Strip of paper attached to album with details about it in Japanese) and a paper insert, which is a unique aspect of collectibles from Japan that complicates things and generates discrepancy in evaluation. I have sold some records for more than €700 (£614.24) because they had an Obi Strip, otherwise their value was €200-300 (£175.50-263.24)
Some incredible Anime Soundtracks to have are:
Seiji Yokoyama – Tomb of Dracula (Columbia CQ-7057) 1980
Shunsuke Kikuchi – Ufo Robot Grendizer (Columbia CX-7099) 1983
Yuji Ohno – Captain Future (Columbia CQ-7028) 1979
Kentaro Haneda – Frankenstein (Columbia CX-7031) 1981
Go Misawa – Devil Man (CX-7088) 1983
Joe Hisaishi & Takeo Watanabe – Mr. Giants 3 (King K25G-7027) 1981
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As for my personal favourite it has to be the soundtrack of Hokuto no Ke n by Nozomi Oki produced by Canyon in several BGM volumes, absolutely sublime. As far as movies are concerned, however, it is still a very unexplored territory. I myself collect soundtracks of movies that are not even known in Japan these days and I really enjoy reading comments from Japanese people who are amazed to learn about some of the films from their country.
Some incredible Film soundtracks that you must have are:
Shinichi Tanabe – The House of Hanging on Hospital Slope (Toho AX-5032) 1979
Chikara Ueda – Mr (Columbia AF-7055) 1981
Katsuhisa Hattori – Edo no Uzu (Toho AX-5024) 1978
Yuji Ohno – The Golden Dog (Orange House ORF-5003) 1979
Yuji Ohno – The Inugami Family (Victor – SJV-1282) 1976
Chumei Watanabe – Eccentric Sound of Spiderman (Columbia CQ-7010) 1978
As for my favourite Japanese movie, it would have to be Hozan Yamamoto – Akuma ga Kitarite Fue wo Fuku (Columbia – YX-5006-AX) 1978.
Andrea Cossu’s Japanese anime & film soundtracks collection, courtesy of Andrea Cossu
Who are your favourite composers for these films in the past and the present?
My favourite musicians are Nozomi Aoki and Yuji Ohno. I have collected almost all of their huge discography by now. It is very important for me to be able to recognize a style, and when I listen to their arrangement I recognize it immediately. I would recommend anyone to dive into that sea of Japanese Fusion by Ohno above all.
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