i'm not sure what to do with this knowledge (other than writing this lil blog post), but in looking up inon zur's career (wikipedia hole from looking up the starfield soundtrack now that it's out) i discovered that he apparently was involved in the fox kids' infamous (in my opinion) butchering of the western escaflowne release
(tiny caveat: i know a lot of ppl credit this version for helping them discover the series, and i'm glad for that!! i hope you moved on and found the real show.)
for those unaware, escaflowne (the anime series & the movie retelling) is one of my favorite pieces of media. i discovered it thanks to some friends in high school & consumed the fan sub passed around on VCD well before it was picked up by fox kids. i remember seeing that they were going to be broadcasting it, and generally knew that Fox would not leave it alone, so i sort of stored that memory in a box and moved on.
anyway years later, it's near impossible to find a record of those fox kids edits, but there's two episodes intact up on the internet archive. it is..... shocking lmao
as an example, here's what they aired as episode 4, vs its source material, actual episode 5 of the anime (sorry for the funimation link, i'm not gonna link to a place to stream it free, but you can probably find it):
the changes are incredible
- the score is no longer emphasizing the emotional impact of what's happening, but providing a very bog-standard western score, almost reminiscent of star wa--
- the alseides melefs make TIE FIGHTER SOUNDS??
- everything is cut for action, we cannot stand still, we must make every shot shorter & more snappy
- no blood, obviously!! instead, Escaflowne is activated by like.... glitch tech magic? i'm not sure
- i love 2000's TV where they just shift the aspect ratio to squeeze in a bunch of quotes from kids saying I LOVE ESCAFLOWNE, KEEP THAT ANIME COMING
- i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that if the execs thought they could change escaflowne enough to fit "fox kids" they really bit off more than they could chew.
- other changes apparently are completely steamrolling hitomi's role in the show to make vaan the focus character....which, yeah if you're trying to offer it as a gundam-adjacent action show, why not!
- it really is the music changes that are the most offensive things here. the complete tonal overhaul just absolutely transforms its intent
i then found an interview in 2019 (!!!) asking zur about the score, and his answer would raise my eyebrows in 2000, but this is wild:
Q: Among your earliest fantasy scores was the American release of the Japanese TV series ESCAFLOWNE on the Fox Kids Network. What changes were needed in music from the original Japanese-scored series and how would you describe the music you provided for the show?
Inon Zur: Great question! I remember when we first saw the original series from Japan. The Japanese culture is so different from Western culture. Music that they perceive as enhancing the picture often does not work for us aesthetically. The original score didn’t usually support a musical theme and more often than not the music did not respond to what was happening on screen. It’s just a different way of thinking, a different way of scoring. So when we watched the series we realized that we needed to replace all the music in order to appeal to a western audience. The music that I wrote was a soundscape combination of east and west with a lot of Japanese influences but the way I treated it was more westernized. The music responded right away to changes in the plot, changes in the script. It was very much locked to the picture unlike the original version.
imagine saying this about the score to escaflowne. an absolute masterpiece of a score by yoko kanno & hajime mizoguchi that was one of the things that inspired me as a kid to write music. i imported all the soundtrack CDs and listened to them on repeat.
the western mentality that lead to this score rewrite is really the core aspect of why so much 'western style' scoring will never appeal to me. why does it need to be locked to picture? is it actually giving us the emotional impact we need to understand the story? or is it simply telling us exactly how to feel in the moment? is it being too controlling, too overbearing on our passive engagement? because as much as we praise the locked-to-picture aesthetic with the caveat that we must not mickey mouse, we must not tell the viewer exactly how to feel...... we too often do exactly that. music at its best is evocative, and i'm constantly rediscovering ways to let go. to loosen my grip. because if we're too controlling, all we're left is a set of instructions. all we're left is trailer scores.
