Composer of the Month – Jun Maeda

Jun Maeda

Overview: When you think of Jun Maeda, sob stories that stir one’s heart (critics will label them melodramatic tripe) set in a world where at least some of the cast are dead are what often come to mind. Fair or not, Maeda’s reputation is built on these scenarios which he’s written as part of the visual novel company Key – his author credits include titles such as Kanon, Air, Clannad, and Little Busters! But though his written works are what often stirs the most discussion, Jun Maeda is quite an adept composer who excels at simple, but effective melodies that mesh perfectly with the visual novel’s scenarios, turning up the waterworks and ultimately rendering those moments absolutely unforgettable.

While the aspects of Maeda’s musical repertoire that remain most notable are the themes that he’s composed for Key’s visual novels, one shouldn’t underestimate his ability to write both the music and the lyrics for J-pop either. In the vocal music arena, Maeda’s collaborated with quite a few well-known names, ranging from Lia, to yanaginagi (formerly of supercell) where’s he’s delivered songs that are arguably as memorable as his BGM themes (though this entry will only cover his anime work or visual novels that have been adapted to anime).

So we embark once more (perhaps temporarily) in our composer series. In case you’re here to only listen to the soundclips and not read any of the text, below is the master list of all the pieces featured in this profile entry in order. It’ll save time if you don’t want to have to click through each and every track.

Master List

[audio:Kanon – Last regrets.mp3,Kanon – Winter Fireworks.mp3,Air – Blue Skies.mp3,CLANNAD – Nagisa.mp3,CLANNAD – To the Same Heights.mp3,CLANNAD – Country Train.mp3,Little Busters! – Little Busters!.mp3,Little Busters! – Lamplight.mp3,Little Busters! – Song for friends.mp3,Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- – doll.mp3,Angel Beats – My Soul Your Beats.mp3,Angel Beats – kanade.mp3,Angel Beats – Ichiban no Takaramono.mp3,CLANNAD ~After Story~ – A Song That Inscribes Time.mp3,Air – Natsukage.mp3]

Biography:
Jun Maeda’s entry into scenario writing began around the time he was in elementary school, continued as he worked for the school newspaper in middle school, and maintained in high school. High school would also be when Maeda would start composing music, with the goal of becoming a video game composer for Japan’s larger publishing studios.

However, life didn’t go quite the way he envisioned. Maeda would go to college at Chukyo University where he graduated with a degree in psychology, perhaps using that knowledge of how humans work by applying it to his future career as he applied to game studios as a composer. None took him up on the offer though and he had better success when he switched over to becoming a scenario writer, landing him a job at Scoop, a startup game company. He wouldn’t stay for very long, leaving Scoop shortly after to work at Tactics where he did more scenario writing and contributed music on Moon and One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e. Both games proved to be successful and with a good work history under his belt, Maeda, along with important employees at Tactics, left due to creative differences to form Key, where they released Kanon in 1999.

Kanon would prove to be a success, selling 300,000 units across all of its incarnations and garnering two anime adaptations: one by Toei in 2002 and the arguably better-known Kyoto Animation version in 2006. Much of Kanon’s music was composed by Key stalwart Shinji Orito, but Jun Maeda was responsible for the game’s main theme, the unforgettable “Last Regrets,” sung by Ayana. The song instilled a melancholy nostalgia over the setting of the game, an aura further enhanced in the BGM version titled “Remnants of a Dream.” Other Maeda pieces contributed to the overall mood; “Winter Fireworks,” featuring a sound library made up of a piano and flute to carry the melody, augments that existing nostalgia while “Afterglow” uplifts with its sense of relief. None of Maeda’s pieces here are complex, but if there’s anything his contributions to Kanon’s music show, it’s that Maeda knows how to set the overarching atmosphere for the game as a means to connect the visual novel reader to the events on screen.

Kanon – Last regrets

[audio:Kanon – Last regrets.mp3]

Kanon – Winter Fireworks

[audio:Kanon – Winter Fireworks.mp3]
This skill would become useful when setting the stage for Air where Maeda contributed a mere two themes which would end up overshadowing pretty much every other aspect of Air’s music. The first theme is “Aozora” (“Blue Sky”) where Maeda would collaborate with the artist Lia in a soul-stirring song that’s uplifting as it’s imbued by pleasant memories. As beautiful as “Aozora” is however, the heavyweight track on the album would be none other than “Natsukage” (“Summer Lights”). Here, Maeda cultivates the sense of magic that becomes Air’s centerpiece, starting with an ethereal-sounding introduction, then giving way to a poignant piano melody that’s nigh unforgettable. “Natsukage’s” slow pace and breezy feel work together to conjure images of a rural countryside summer and the bells which come in halfway through bring with it an aura fitting of a regal march from days long past. The piano work on display builds upon Maeda’s previous work on Kanon, especially in terms of setting the scene, making it far more evocative than his prior pieces.

Air – Aozora

[audio:Air – Blue Skies.mp3]
This ability to bring out emotion will be crucial in Key’s next game: the almighty Clannad. Maeda continued his form by contributing the critical pieces that helped Clannad turn up the waterworks. Of those, the most important one by far is the iconic “Nagisa,” Maeda’s first character theme. The piece starts out slow, tentative, maybe even a bit fragile, but as it develops, it slowly blossoms once it hits the main theme and an aura of happiness and hope seeps in. More importantly, “Nagisa” would provide the foundation for many other tracks, from Clannad’s anime ED “Dango Daikazoku” and the chorus in “Chiisana Tenohira” (“Tiny Palm”). Another worthy track, “To the Same Heights” quietly lingers in its aura of contentment as Maeda weaves what may be his most complex melody to date. What makes it more memorable is its use as Clannad ~After Story’s~ OP theme “Toki wo Kizamu Uta.” Finally, Maeda proved he can do more than just soporific stuff as he channels the spirit of travel in “Country Train” which features a rushing train in the background while the lively piano and string sound libraries fill in the melody to bring about a sense of excitement for the road ahead.

CLANNAD – Nagisa

[audio:CLANNAD – Nagisa.mp3]

CLANNAD – To the Same Heights

[audio:CLANNAD – To the Same Heights.mp3]

CLANNAD – Country Train

[audio:CLANNAD – Country Train.mp3]
For Maeda, the road ahead meant working on Key’s next project, the highly-regarded Little Busters! In continuing his musical contributions, Maeda’s compositions make up a larger portion of Little Busters’ soundtrack, proffering tracks ranging from the easygoing “RING RING RING!” with its upbeat synth, the heartfelt and uplifting “Boys Don’t Cry,” and the poignant “Lamplight.” Taken in sum, Jun Maeda demonstrates an ability to touch on a wide variety of moods within a single score beyond the melodramatic, even if the results are a bit mixed. Even so, it’s Maeda’s main themes which pull through, including the formidable, eponymous “Little Busters!,” “Haruka Kanata” (“Faraway”), and “Song for Friends” which drips with pain and regret.

Little Busters! – Little Busters!

[audio:Little Busters! – Little Busters!.mp3]

Little Busters! – Lamplight

[audio:Little Busters! – Lamplight.mp3]

Little Busters! – Song for friends

[audio:Little Busters! – Song for friends.mp3]
After completing work on Little Busters!, Maeda tread further into the world of anison with “doll” and “human,” both of which served as ending themes to Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-. Here, Maeda would continue his work with vocalist Lia as well as Aoi Tada whose voices are soft during the verses and sonorously beautiful during the chorus, establishing him as someone who can compose J-pop rather well.

Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- – doll (Lia)

[audio:Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- – doll.mp3]
Also, given just how successful Key’s visual novel adaptations were turning out, Maeda got the chance to work on an original anime, releasing Angel Beats! with P.A. Works in 2010. Once again, Maeda took over the reins as scenario writer and composer, but this time, the results of both aspects were mixed; the writing was clumsy and much of the vocal music was a wash as it see-sawed between being wonderfully sentimental to flat and lame. The former examples include Lia’s smooth, emphatic performance of “My Soul, Your Beats,” Aoi Tada’s plaintive “Brave Song,” and karuta’s heartfelt delivery on “Ichiban no Takaramono” (“My Most Precious Treasure”), but those are undone by the awful vocals and uninspired instrumentals coming from marina and Lisa in “Crow Song,” “Alchemy,” and “Thousand Enemies.” If there’s anything these songs demonstrate, it’s that Maeda ought to stick to the more heartfelt, sentimental piano music and either drop any pretense of writing rock-ish melodies or pick better artists (yanaginagi, for example). That said, the arrangements of those vocal themes, once again, are superb and other tracks, like the eponymous character theme “Kanade” emanate warmth through a soothing and occasionally glimmering melody.

Angel Beats! – My Soul Your Beats

[audio:Angel Beats – My Soul Your Beats.mp3]

Angel Beats! – kanade

[audio:Angel Beats – kanade.mp3]

Angel Beats! – Ichiban no Takaramono

[audio:Angel Beats – Ichiban no Takaramono.mp3]
Beyond anime music and visual novel soundtracks, Jun Maeda has taken the time to collaborate with yanaginagi through his recent record label Flaming June, where the two have worked on a single, “Killer Song,” and a full-length album titled Owari no Hoshi no Love Song. He continues to work as a key member of Key, especially in writing the music to Rewrite.

Zzeroparticle’s Thoughts:
Of Key’s musical triumvirate, Jun Maeda’s music tends to stick out most. His strength lies in writing main themes that either capture the entirety of a visual novel’s atmosphere (as in Kanon, Air, or Clannad), or inject a high dose of energy (as in Little Busters!) to capture your attention from the get-go, rendering them absolutely memorable. With tracks like “Last Regrets,” “Nagisa,” and “Ichiban no Takaramono,” Maeda’s ability to turn up the waterworks by meshing the scenes with the music is absolutely solid. That said, outside some of these main themes, Maeda’s synthy stuff doesn’t click too well; “To the Place Where Wishes Come True” from Clannad and “Let’s Return” from Little Busters! are rather lacking, and the repetitive nature of game music does them no favors.

So though Maeda’s music doesn’t get as much playtime from me compared to other composers, he’s worth looking up for all the occasions in which he’s paired up with a singer on the caliber of Lia (I still love “Toki wo Kizamu Uta” and “Chiisana Tenohira”). All that, and “Natsukage,” are sufficiently impactful for Maeda to carve out his beats that endear my soul.

CLANNAD ~After Story~ – Toki wo Kizamu Uta

[audio:CLANNAD ~After Story~ – A Song That Inscribes Time.mp3]

Air – Natsukage

[audio:Air – Natsukage.mp3]

zzeroparticle

Anime Instrumentality's Founder and Editor-in-Chief. As you can probably guess, I'm a big anime music junkie with a special love for composers who've put out some beautiful melodies to accompany some of my favorite anime series. I tend to gravitate towards music in the classical style with Joe Hisaishi and Yoko Kanno being a few of my favorite composers, but I've come to appreciate jazz and rock as anime music has widened my tastes.

22 thoughts on “Composer of the Month – Jun Maeda

  • May 17, 2013 at 6:03 am
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    For Angel Beats, he mentioned in an interview that the Girls Dead Monster songs are all written in a deliberately amateurish manner to reflect the ages of the girls

    Reply
    • May 17, 2013 at 9:15 am
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      @Anonomyous
      I recall hearing about that as well, which makes me feel just a bit vindicated from when I wrote those reviews way back then and had people disagree. Do you have a link to the interview anywhere since that seems like it’s information I should be incorporating here?

      Reply
      • May 18, 2013 at 12:09 am
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        So that explains why GirlDeMo was pretty bad overall. but then again, it launched LiSA’s career, so I can’t exactly complain. I wonder what happened to marina though, it seems she’s disappeared: her website’s dead, and she hasn’t blogged in a long time.

      • May 18, 2013 at 1:00 pm
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        @Anonomyous
        Thanks! That’s where I learned that Lisa was told to sing badly, but wasn’t aware that Maeda also tried to make the music also sound amateurish. Makes sense, though I do wonder how that should be taken account in future reviews. Heh.

      • May 18, 2013 at 11:39 am
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        @mk03: marina is still active. In fact, her first single comes out in at the end of the month. OP/ED for the latest visual novel from Lass, the creators of 11eyes.

        Her new website is here: http://nakamuramarina.net/

  • May 17, 2013 at 9:27 am
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    YES!!! Best. Anime. Composer. Evar.
    Vocal Natsukage ties Innocent Days for my favorite anime musical piece. This guy, I think, really makes Key’s works shine on par with, say, Makoto Shinkai’s. I honestly don’t know if I could have finished Air minus its soundtrack.

    Reply
    • May 18, 2013 at 12:46 pm
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      @Meno
      Innocent Days from Code Geass? That sure is a beautiful song if that’s the case. I really do enjoy how Hitomi’s voice seems to float about in a fantastically ethereal manner. Definitely nice for a change.

      And yeah, count me in as someone who didn’t enjoy Air a whole lot. Fantastic music that gripped me from the get-go though!

      Reply
  • May 17, 2013 at 11:43 am
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    He got pretty detached from Key after Little Busters!. Rewrite was the first game where he was not involved as a story writer. His role was quality control and he contributed only a single composition (used 3 times on the soundtrack). I think his plan was to lay low at Key after Little Busters! but with news of an Angel Beats! game on the horizon it looks like he just can’t get away.

    Anyways, the guy is a really great J-pop writer. His opening theme’s are particularly memorable. I was really glad when I heard he formed a music label because I’ve never really cared for Key’s sob stories. I hope he doesn’t spend too much time on this new Angel Beats! project. It’s already been a year since his first and last Flaming June release.

    P.S. I’m glad to see a new post finally. I do enjoy reading these. Though I personally would have skipped Maeda since a composer with only a few tracks in four anime isn’t much to work with.

    Reply
    • May 18, 2013 at 12:56 pm
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      @random
      The “travel” track? There were a few vocal pieces too, right? At least, if vgmdb is correct on that front. Looking back, it has been 2 years since Angel Beats!, so I’d have thought one year would be a long-enough sabbatical from Key, unless his work on Flaming June has been keeping him busy.

      Oh well, Key’s stories are a give and take. Great at being genuinely sentimental, but can get pretty clumsy at times. He really just needs an editor to go through and make sure his stuff is coherent, at least, if you judge it on Angel Beats!

      And yeah, if I go through with the next one… Shiro Sagisu. Man that’ll be a lot to go through!

      Reply
  • May 19, 2013 at 7:51 am
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    Yes, “Travel” was his composition for Rewrite. Used as a BGM track and two vocal arrangements used as ending themes.

    Angel Beats! was more of an original project by Maeda. If I recall correctly, Key wasn’t credited anywhere. So with that in mind, his last time seriously work with Key was for Little Busters!. Also, for Angel Beats! there is a good explanation for why it was the way it was. He was asked by a producer to write a script for an original anime but the producer didn’t tell him the anime would only be 1 cour. So he ended up writing this really long script which was then condensed into 13 episodes. And that’s why he’s doing this Angel Beats! game, so he can use everything he wrote (and more) in its entirety. Though it would still be beneficial for him to get an editor.

    Sagisu discography probably looks daunting but most of his work is for only a few titles. Kimagure Orange Road, Nadia, and Evangelion make up most of it. It’s still a lot though.

    Reply
    • May 20, 2013 at 8:00 am
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      ^^^ Just realized I meant for that to be a reply to the above post.

      Reply
  • May 19, 2013 at 2:53 pm
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    Wow, do I ever disagree with you on “Crow Song,” “Alchemy,” and “Thousand Enemies.” I love all those songs and find them quite beautiful.

    Of course everyone has different tastes!

    Reply
    • May 19, 2013 at 3:02 pm
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      Funny, had not read the comments on the songs being purposefully amateurish prior to my above comment, but I guess I just love amateurish then. To my ears nothing about them sounds amateurish though, so beats me.

      Reply
      • May 22, 2013 at 1:31 am
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        @Chris
        Well, there’s the lack of vibrato, the off-key singing (gliding into the notes), and the straightforwardness of the structure that’s a bit of a tip-off. The rest of it’s taste though!

    • February 18, 2015 at 3:52 pm
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      i like “Crow Song,” “Alchemy,” and “Thousand Enemies.” too, all that songs are amazing!

      Reply
  • May 19, 2013 at 4:15 pm
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    haha you found “the place where wishes come true” rather lacking?

    It is the only song i deemed too emotionally painful to add to my song collection. an extreme difference in taste indeed ;D

    i also seem to recall that you guys had written about Maeda before, but it’s probably a case of false memory lol

    Reply
    • May 22, 2013 at 1:29 am
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      @-
      Yeah, just a bit! Maybe I should add that I was referring specifically to that track and not “the place where wishes come true II” which is far more poignant with the blend of instruments they used to give it just a bit more texture than the solo synthy orgel they used.

      Yeah, we’ve only touched on 5 composers thus far. Still got a long ways to go >.>

      Reply
  • August 9, 2014 at 9:41 am
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    Mr. Maeda. Thank you so much for “Angel Beats”. It was one of the best stories I have ever seen. I hope to see more of your works in the future.

    Reply
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