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[Ruby Moon]

In your opinion, which are the best anime soundtracks to buy?
I'd like to get some of them, but I can't decide

[merylsilverburg]

Some of the soundtracks I'm going to recommend are from some animes that haven't reached US shores yet, but you if you can download music, you should be able to find some of these songs online. Or if you can purchase things online, you can go to online import stores and get these. I would recommend:

Cowboy Bebop: The music is just so perfect. I love how it's blended with all sorts of different instruments and languages and creates such unique songs. The jazz is just terrific. There is a total of 7 albums: Cowboy Bebop Original Soundtrack, Cowboy Bebop Second Soundtrack: No Disc, Cowboy Bebop Third Soundtrack "Blue", Cowboy Bebop "Vitaminless", Cowboy Bebop: Music for the Freelance (all remixes), Cowboy Bebop Knockin' on Heaven's Door Soundtrack, and Cowboy Bebop: Heaven's Door Single. Some of the tracks include: the theme song, "Waltz for Zizi", "Go, Go Cactus Man", "Wo Qui Non Coin", "Blue", and others. They even came out with the Cowboy Bebop Perfect Collection which is limited edtion and includes tracks that were not on the other albums.

The Big O: Okay, okay, so no one watches this anime at all, but the music is just terrific. The piano is just too lovely to describe and it's so calm and serene and moody. That's just my opinion and what I would recommend. There is only one soundtrack, "The Big O Original Sound Score".

Fruits Basket: The anime is great and the music is also great! There is one album which has the background music used in the series, but there is also one album which has the vocal tracks. The songs are nice and soothing and yet very sad too, especially the theme song "For Fruits Basket". There is a total of 4 albums: Fruits Basket Orignal Soundtrack, Fruits Basket Single, Fruits Basket: Songs for Ritsuko Okazaki, and Fruits Basket: Songs for Yui Horie. Okazaki, Ritsuko is the one who sang the songs in the entire series and Horie, Yui is the seiryuu (voice actress) who did the voice for the main character.

Hellsing: Almost like Cowboy Bebop, since Kanno, Yoko helped with this album, so some of the songs are very Yoko-style. You can imagine how the songs are like, if you listened to Bebop before. The songs in Hellsing are dark and not too much jazz...more guitar and drums. Fits the series perfectly. There are two soundtracks, Hellsing Original Soundtrack "RAID" and Hellsing Original Soundtrack 2 "RUINS".

Rurouni Kenshin: What can I say? It's my favorite anime and the music is just wonderful. The music is mostly the background music, but it has that wonderful Japanese touch to it and makes it very unique, so when you hear it, you know it's Kenshin. Since Kenshin is very action-packed, you would get a lot of the battle music, which has hard guitar, but there is some of the nice and calming ones instrumental music, including (to name a few) flute, the koto instrument, and piano. There's also an album for all the vocal songs used in the series. There's a total of 14 albums: Rurouni Kenshin Original Soundtrack, Orignal Soundtrack 2, 3, 4, Rurouni Kenshin Songs, Rurouni Kenshin Songs 2, Rurouni Kenshin Premium Collection, Rurouni Kenshin Best Themes Collection, Rurouni Kenshin OVA Soundtrack, Rurouni Kenshin Director's Cut, Rurouni Kenshin Game Music, Rurouni Kenshin Movie Soundtrack, Rurouni Kenshin OVA 2 Soundtrack, and the Rurouni Kenshin Special Collection. Unfortunately, most of these are out of print and the best place to find them would probably be on Ebay.

I have a few more, but I still have to go through and think about which ones are the best. I hope these are able to help you so far.

[Hylas]

Off topic, but does anybody know some other soundtracks by Yoko Kanno (apart for Hellsing which meryl mentioned and that is not completely made by her)?

[Cannibal Clown]

Yoko kanno. Hmmm, well the only others i can think of besides Hellsing and Cowboy Bebop are Macross Plus and Tenkuu No Escaflowne.

Those were the two which i were going to mention for soundtracks. I love the music, and of coarse, any music from yoko kanno is great.

Another soundtracki that i like is the stuff from slayers, sung by Megumi Hayashibara. Who also is the musical artist who does the stuff for Evangelion, Cultural Cat Nuku Nuku, and Saber Marionette J. She has a very up beat sound to her songs, and i love the originality in her work.

[Hylas]

I don't know who is the author of the soundtrack, but the one of Lain is really good, especially the instrumental tracks.