Studio Ghibli and Melodic Death Metal? Together? Oh Yes.

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Facemelting claims yet another victim.

Like many others, I have my fair share of fond memories and nostalgia when it comes to the many works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. So needless to say when I heard talk of an album consisting of reworks of the most popular Studio Ghibli tunes, I was a little bit more than excited. And then I found out that they were metal remixes. Guttural squealing, guitar shredding, double bass pounding, mosh-until-you’ve-lost-a-limb inducing death metal. Wait, what?

That’s right, Japan’s Media Factory has brought us 12 very famous tracks remixed by the likes of Blood Stain Child, Breach the Void, Destrage, Disarmonia Mundi, Living Corpse, and Neroargento. Skeptical yet? I too was like you once.

Nothing says metal quite like a flower princess

The collective project has been dubbed “Imaginary Flying Machines” after one of the many short films directed by Hayao Miyazaki and the album itself goes by the title “Princess Ghibli.” While some die-hard Ghibli purists may turn their noses up at this release, (Fie upon you! This album is awesome!) *ahem* the album has been receiving its fair share of warm reviews thus far.

The cover of (a cover of) Country Road was a bit strange if not unexpected, and at some points during the album things seem to get a bit… off, but for the most part the album is very solid. Then again, I am a fan of both melodic death metal and Studio Ghibli, so this album was more or less tailored directly to my interests. Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) is definitely my favorite track the album has to offer. Never have I smiled so much while listening to metal.

Here are the tracks available on the album.

  1. Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)
  2. Kimi Wo Nosete (Laputa: Castle in the Sky)
  3. Teru No Uta (Tales from Earthsea)
  4. Gake No Ue No Ponyo (Ponyo On The Cliff)
  5. Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
  6. Country Road (Whisper of the Heart)
  7. Itsumo Nandodemo (Spirited Away)
  8. Arrietty’s Song (Japanese version) (The Borrower Arrietty)
  9. Yasashisa Ni Tsutsumaretanara (Kiki’s Delivery Service)
  10. Toki niwa Mukashi no hanashio (Porco Rosso)
  11. Sanpo (My Neighbor Totoro)
  12. Nausicaä requiem (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)

However, if you have never seen a Studio Ghibli film, (shame on you!) then much of the hilarity and awesomeness will unfortunately be lost on you and it will definitely not be as enjoyable. If you absolutely cannot stand metal, screaming vocals, or pounding double bass, then chances are you will not enjoy this album. But regardless, if you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli, you owe it to yourself to at least check it out just to see what they’ve done with this release. And if you feel the need to watch all of your childhood favorites ten times over again to reaffirm to yourself that Totoro is indeed not a devil worshipping speed metal addict, then we understand.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfA9VA5u9kI']

You can actually purchase these in mp3 format, too. They’re available on Amazon as well as iTunes. Give them a little sample listen and tell us what you think!

P.S. Was your childhood just ruined? Tell us about it on Twitter.

P.P.S. Did your childhood just get better? Let us know on Facebook.

  • Travo

    Love your posts!

    What’s it like being a double major? lolololol, my plan is Journalism and Japanese.

  • Travo

    Love your posts!

    What’s it like being a double major? lolololol, my plan is Journalism and Japanese.

  • shane

    my childhood didn’t just get better, it just went “HELL YEA!”

  • Abi

    I’m somewhat scared of listening to it, but can’t reject it since I love both metal and Ghibli!

  • Jon E.

    John, never before have I been so interested in Ghibli. I listen to a melodic death metal band called “In Flames” almost daily, and saw them in concert a bit too. But I’ve only seen Ponyo (wait, was that even Gibli? Maybe?), so now I must give this a listen, and see if it inspires me to watch more Ghibli!

  • Jon E.

    In addition to that question (I’m curious too!), John, you went to Ohio State Uni, right? They use JSL: Japanese, the Spoken Language textbooks/workbooks over there, don’t they? How did you like that program? I tried using the first book of JSL but I couldn’t really get into it much, and somewhere around chapter 9 I gave up…

  • Joie Brannan

    The lack of “Kaze ni naru” from The Cat Returns makes me sad. :(

  • http://www.facebook.com/laughingzetsubou Warai Zetsubou

    i think you just made my day hahaha that Totoro cover made smile and laugh quite hard

  • http://twitter.com/LaniusDirge Dirge

    My childhood has been permanently glorified by this.

  • Julien Klein

    “In Flames” are awesome, as was their vocalists now defunct (?) side project, “Passenger.”  I, like you, believe I may have seen a single, solitary Ghibli film somewhere down the line.  I was just chided the other day for not knowing much about Ghibli films yet residing in Japan.  This albumn has peaked my interest; perhaps I shall give a few Ghibli films a try (I have one in my closet begging to be watched as we speak)…

  • Szilárd Csermely

    It’s an amazing album, love it :p (Disarmonia Mundi ftw)
    I’m sad there are only a few pure Japanese melodic-death metal bands (by pure I mean not some visual kei stuff), atm I can only name Blood Stain Child (now trance metal, and don’t really like them with the new female singer) and Lost Eden (they’ve disbanded) and maybe Maximum the Hormone.
    My favorite Japanese band is without doubt Sigh, I love their avant-garde experimental sound. 

    Can anyone recommend me something for my tastes? :p http://www.last.fm/user/Silgrond

    P.S. – Sorry for my horrible grammar, I’ve a headache and I didn’t sleep this night :(

  • TourBillion

    I just reached back through time and high-fived my childhood self!

  • John

    Being a double major wasn’t bad at all. Just took me a bit longer to graduate xD
    I actually started off in engineering then moved that into a minor. And I think that JSL is really good overall. It’s a very solid base and they really let you know why things work as they do so you get a really good handle on structures and grammar.
    However, they’re all in romaji – which is bad. The vocabulary is a bit lacking, and I think it focuses way too much on formal language. Also the order which they teach you things is a bit weird. Like you don’t learn how to say “if” until like the third volume.
    But compared to other textbooks it’s pretty solid. For a self-learner, it might not be that easy to use and get into, but if you have an instructor, then it’s just fine I think.

  • Jon E.

    Glad to see another In Flames fan here! Of all places, I wouldn’t think Tofugu would have In Flames fans haha. Crazy, small world. How many albums did the side-project Passenger put out? Because, I only have one, and I’d like more, but I can’t find any more. I am obsessed with Anders’ vocals…whether he’s screaming them, singing them, or just speaking lol.

    Yeah, unless I watch at least one or two more of the main ones (like Spirited Away. That one is a huge one of those “You haven’t seen that yet!?!?”), I have a feeling when I get to Japan for any extended amount of time (I’ve only been once, for a month), I’ll be chided as well :-P

  • Jon E.

    Thanks for the reply! I was using it basically as just a self-learner, so maybe that’s why I couldn’t get into it. At times, it really shows its age with the vocabulary it teaches…”cassette tapes”, “typewriters”, “telegram” etc lol. Oh, and the whole USSR or whatever.  Once it started getting into formal language, I agree, it was actually super difficult for me and I couldn’t understand the explanations at all. /in-group, /out-group, four ways to say somebody is not here, depending on if you want to use humble, polite, polite-humble, casual, blahhh… I mean, I know this is how Japanese is; words change based on the relationship between the speaker and listener, but I wonder if it could be presented in a better way than JSL volume one presented it. I got so confused and fed up with  its technical explanations that, as I said, I gave up, and now the book just sits behind me packed away in a box on the floor.

    Perhaps if I had a real instructor with it, I’d be onto volume II now. Thanks for the reply!

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

    m/>_<m/

  • Sara Pennepacker

    OH MY GOODNESS.

  • John

    Yeah it can be pretty confusing without an instructor or someone around to answer any questions you might have. Once you get a solid base understanding, JSL can be good on your own though. I can’t really help you out with what other textbooks might be good because I haven’t used any others xD

  • Jon E.

    That’s alright, that’s what the Tofugu Recommendation Page is for!! :-P

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Seth-Potter/1429577011 Seth Potter

    Not for me…maybe I’ll check a few more songs out, poor Totoro TT_TT

  • John

    My first Ghibli film was Princess Mononoke too! Such a good movie.

  • John

    My first Ghibli film was Princess Mononoke too! Such a good movie.

  • Carolinerobinson1456

    Spirited Away amd My Neighbor Totoro is where it’s at! I still have the VHS tapes! :]

  • http://twitter.com/andoryuu3 案努龍

    Dude, wicked! I felt like Ron Weasley saying that, but I digress.

    Been so long since I listened to melodic death metal… Probably the only band I still occasionally listen to now is In Flames.

    I’ve seen quite a few Ghibli films, but this makes me want to watch them all over again before I nab this album.. Want the tunes to be fresh in my memory. :)

  • Anonymous

    Plagued by insomnia here.

    Not for me for sure. But I think the idea is daring and creative, so thumbs up to the bands and the music. I started stifling giggles when I heard “tonari no totoro totoro…” xD

    The motion graphics is really nicely done. I’m impressed.

    Koichi: John’s posts seem to add an edgy spice to Tofugu. I like!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Correia/804870432 Michael Correia

    THIS IS AWESOME!

  • http://www.facebook.com/erika.borg Erika L. Borg

    I actually loved it!!! metal + ghibli fan here :)

  • Jon E.

    Yeah, I really enjoyed it too! :)

  • http://hatchjapan.wordpress.com/ ざっちー

    My playlist just got heavier.
    I definitely got much closer to finding the Japanese equivalent of my old American band tastes that I gave up when I decided to GUNG-HO learn Japanese. It’s been ridiculously difficult trying to find hard Japanese bands that don’t sing with that weird half-closed-off throat singing. (I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not something that tickles my fancy.) It seems like it’s either that, or they think singing in English is a good idea, which completely defeats the purpose in the first place. (i.e. One Ok Rock, FACT, Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles) Grrr….
    I unfortunately fell into the J-pop trap cuz it’s the easiest to find. I had only a handful of songs on my playlist that I’m not completely ashamed to play in front of my friends. Now I have 12 more! Woot!

    Anyway, John, it would appear thus far that we share similar thoughts on awesome (i.e. music, movies, TV). I think your darker interests are definitely gonna spruce up Tofugu a bit and keep me more interested, (not that Koi and Hash are not entertaining. Their silliness does make me giggle quite often). But, you know, keep up the good work! :D

    Favorite song on the album goes to ‘Itsumo Nandodemo’ as of now. We’ll see if that changes in the next 20 times I listen to the album. ha.

  • Kirachan

    I ran into this album while in japan on my honeymoon, we were burning some time in a department store looking at bunch of odd funny things and we heard some metal music in the background and then my new husband said “is that totoro?!”

  • John

    Hahaha, awesome – and thanks!
    I’m sure you’ve probably heard of some of these already, but if you haven’t you should check out D’espairs Ray (their older stuff is way better), The Pillows, Asian Kung Fu Generation, Boom Boom Satellites, Vola and the Oriental Machines, Forbidden Days Rhapsody, Capsule, and Perfume. Let me know if any of those are new to you!

  • http://hatchjapan.wordpress.com/ ざっちー

    I’ve heard of most of them. I agree, D’espairs Ray’s older stuff is better. But he sings in that weird throat way I mentioned, so it’s hard for me to get into them. 
    I hadn’t heard of Forbidden Days Rhapsody. They sound awesome. They don’t seem to have vocals much (unless I’m just looking in the wrong place). But I really enjoy it when there is singing. The instrumentals are pretty epic. I’ll have to do a little more research on this Mika guy’s project. Thanks!

  • Corbet Butler

    Is there any place to check out the Studio Ghibli films and shorts on the Internet? I saw “Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess” in January, and wanted to see more of their shorts. The music and illustrations were magical together.

  • Vale

    This is the best thing that happened to me in… A very long time.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001897225670 Jack Chakerian

    Did Joe Hisaishi also do the music for Arietty? ひさいしさんはすごいですね

  • Shannon

    Super awesome you mentioned this!  I saw Blood Stain Child in concert back in June, and they’re wonderful on their own.  *goes to post this on Sophia’s page*

  • Ariku

    unfortunately, he did not.

  • Ryan

    I’m so happy now I could cry :D  Having lived in the land of kawaii for over 2 years now, it’s nice to escape the happy-go-lucky, love centric J-Pop that oversaturates my senses and get back to some tasty metal!

    P.S. That Totoro artwork is what nightmares are made of. Me likes ;) 

  • Christoph Wagner

    This is sooooo great :)

  • Snyblind

    I’m an In Flames fan too:D So then at least we’re threeXD

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Helen-Stilwell/514840295 Helen Stilwell

    Dir En Grey – They’ve not been Visual Kei for a very long time now and are just amazing.  Uroboros or Dum Spiro Spero albums :) 

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