It Best Be Sung: Understanding Music in Studio Ghibli Films

Music’s important to the filmgoing experience. Whether it’s helping to flesh out a mood, conveying a non-verbal feeling, or even being memorable, film music is universal and has a half-life that outlives the film itself. The same can be said of in-film songs, or soundtracks. The differences between scores and soundtracks aren’t always well-known, but soundtracks tend to be less-appreciated than scores. Which is a shame, because they’re equally as important.

Take Studio Ghibli. Like most anime shows and films, the studio’s library contains plenty of great music. Casual fans can point to The Girl Who Fell From the Sky and Mononoke Hime as classics, and deservedly so. Yet it’s the songs that, while brilliant, go unrecognized. Or, rather, go not nearly as recognized. Of Studio Ghibli’s 22 canonical films, there are dozens of great pieces of music that deserve a place in cinema history. But because they’re rarely in a recognizable language, they receive passing mentions.

I want to change that. I’d like to focus on these songs, which I’ll divide into four categories, and explain why they deserve praise. I want to show that they deserve as much recognition as their non-lyrical counterparts. Not to mention, you’ll get a chance to re-contextualize these songs.

The first category is Original Film Tunes. These are songs made specifically for Studio Ghibli movies, like “Kaze no Tani no Naushika” or “Carrying You” from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky respectively. The former, which was cut from the movie proper, was heavily advertised in the Japanese trailers and marketing, and it’s really fun and upbeat. The latter, sung by Azumi Inoue, echoes the film’s themes while carving its own identity. Inoue would later return for Hayao Miyazaki’s next two films, My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service, and sing their themes, “Tonari no Totoro” and “Wrapped in Kindness”, for Japanese audiences.

It doesn’t end at Miyazaki, though. The late-Isao Takahata varied singers for each of his films at the studio, but most-striking is “Inochi No Kioku”, sung by Kazumi Nikaido. Quiet and somber, it feels like a melody of regret, which fits perfectly with The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. This is a complete 180 from Hiroyuki Morita’s sole Studio Ghibli venture, The Cat Returns, and its theme, “Become the Wind”, sung by Ayano Tsuji. Both songs match their movies’ tones, but the nuances are in the details.

This also extends to foreign composers adapting their styles for Studio Ghibli, which leads to category #2: Original Foreign Tunes. Like the first category, these are composed specifically for the movies. Unlike the first category, however, they’re not sung by Japanese speakers. I can only think of two examples, but both are from films directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi.

When Marnie Was There’s tune’s sung entirely in English. This makes sense: it was sung by Priscilla Ahn, an American who was a huge fan of Studio Ghibli’s work. Yet even ignoring that, “Fine on the Outside” encapsulates the isolation that comes with survivor’s guilt, which Anna displays. Perhaps most-striking is the line, “And so I'll just sit in my room after hours with the Moon, and think of who knows my name...” It’s not something you’d consider important initially, but it’s actually quite fitting. As is the opening line, “I never had that many friends growing up, so I learned to be okay with just me”. It feels like a rallying cry for people with depression, suggesting that they’re not alone.

The Secret World of Arrietty, scored by French composer Cécile Corbel, features several songs throughout. Most-notably is the film’s end-credits theme “Arrietty’s Song”, which blends Japanese with English in Corbel’s soothing voice. The song is a calming ballad about life as a pint-sized human, frequently traversing the dangers of the everyday that we take for granted. Corbel even translated the song into English for the film’s British dub, though that didn’t end up mattering when, like Ponyo, it made its way to North America.

The third category is Incorporated Songs, or songs from other sources that made their way into Studio Ghibli films. This actually has two sub-categories, Foreign Songs and Local Songs, and is where most of the studio’s tracks congregate. Whether Isao Takahata or Yoshifumi Kondō, songs of this nature show how steeped in entertainment discourse Studio Ghibli really is. For Whisper of the Heart, using “Country Roads” as its main motif, or even Only Yesterday, which remixes “The Rose”, it’s even built into the movie’s DNA. Especially the former, as the film’s themes of self-expression and longing fit with the John Denver classic.

Yet it’s the Locally Integrated Songs that intrigue me more. In The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, the Japanese nursery rhyme “Warabe Uta” is repeated three times. It’s sung when a young Kaguya plays with her friends, it’s sung when Kaguya laments to her mother in the palace and it’s sung in the film’s dénouement. Two of these three times, it’s interrupted with tearful ballads, suggesting Kaguya’s ethereal existence is one she’s unhappy with. The last time it’s sung straight, emphasizing that it doesn’t matter. Either way, it’s a tearjerker.

Conversely, Only Yesterday uses Japanese pop songs to set its 60’s segments apart from its 80’s ones. Songs like “Hyokkori Pumpkin Island”, which Taeko sings once she accepts that she’ll never be famous, match well with the silly visuals accompanying them, but they also serve as much more. Similarly to how your parent or grandparent might occasionally sing childhood melodies without warning, these songs are the same. They highlight the “simpler times”, and they’re really catchy.

Locally Integrated Songs are unique for a Westerner like myself, someone who’s never heard them, because they let me peer into Japanese pop culture. I’m familiar with “Country Roads” or “The Rose”, if only in-passing. Yet Kyu Sakamoto’s “Sakiyuki” is a song I didn’t know until I watched From Up On Poppy Hill. I feel bad about that, as Sakamoto has a reputation in Japan on-par with Elvis Presley. So aside from being pleasant to listen to, it’s also a piece of cross-cultural osmosis in a Studio Ghibli film. Musical Easter eggs like that are always nice.

The final category is Original Incorporated Songs. These feel like they should already exist in pop culture, but are inventions of these movies. Songs like “Teru No Uta”, sung in Japanese by Aoi Teshima, come to mind, being the best part of Tales From Earthsea. I know people rag on Teshima for dragging on, but it really captures Therru’s loneliness. It also brings out the best of dub actress Blaire Restaneo.

Original Incorporated Songs also permeate several of Studio Ghibli’s in-movie tracks. Whether it’s the variants of “Mister Raccoon” in Pom Poko, or both anthems of From Up On Poppy Hill, they’re catchy and thematically appropriate. They highlight that, like any original song in the West, Japan isn’t only weird and foreign. They understand the power of music and aren’t afraid to show it. That relatability also drives home their movies’ staying power.

Ultimately, there’s no denying that Studio Ghibli knows how to craft and incorporate good music in their films. They’re not easy to sing along with if you don’t speak Japanese, but it doesn’t matter. Music’s a universal language, and you don’t need to be educated to appreciate it. Besides, Studio Ghibli has so much music to choose from that I can’t highlight it all. If that’s not testament to their brilliance, I don’t know what is!