It’s kind of funny actually. I had already been aware that the Eminence Symphony Orchestra was working on something called Project Promise because I had seen the name come up on Hiroaki Yura’s signature on Eminence’s forums. What I didn’t know was whether it would focus on anime or game music, so when I saw nyoronyolo link to Xcomp Randomness’s post on this latest Eminence project which celebrates 10 years of Makoto Shinkai’s collaboration with Tenmon through an orchestral arrangement of some of the most memorable pieces from Shinkai’s works, I was pretty excited.

The tracklist is already posted on the Xcomp Randomness site and the music covers Tenmon’s stuff from Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters Per Second, Beyond the Clouds: The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and even the short She and Her Cat. Of those works, I’m probably most familiar with 5 Centimeters Per Second, so over the next few days, I’ll be making some time to reacquaint myself with some of those other works, mostly to ponder how exactly the tracks from those works will be arranged. It should be delightful though since Tenmon does have the ability to write simple, but wonderful tracks like in 5 Centimeter’s “Sora to Umi no Shi.”

Sora to Umi no Shi
[See post to listen to audio]

Anyhow, people will inevitably have questions about Project Promise and I’ll do my best to see if anyone over at Eminence will divulge more information about this. Omo has come up with a few good ones already and if anyone else has any questions they’d like me to ask, just put them here and I’ll forward the questions on. No guarantees on the replies, but it’s worth a shot anyhow.

Other News:

You may have noticed that as of yesterday, Anime Instrumentality has a new contributor in Jen, who has started things off with an excellent review of Pandora Hearts Original Soundtrack 1. She’s been very enthusiastic about anime music in general and I’m glad to have someone with her passion on board, so join me in giving her a warm welcome to the review staff!

Name: John Kim

E-mail: supuhaznpbrein@gmail.com

AIM: seraphjei

Website: sunggyu.wordpress.com…

Favorite Anime: Clannad ~AS~, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Toradora!, Kanon, Aria the Origination

Favorite Manga: Yotsuba, Aria, Welcome to the NHK, Monster, Unbalance x Unbalance

Favorite Literature: Jude the Obscure, Crime and Punishment, The Stranger, The Merchant of Venice, Death of a Salesman

Favorite Musicians: Tommy Emmanuel, Kotaro Oshio, Depapepe, CYNE, Damien Rice

Hobbies: Playing guitar, visual novels, rhythm games, writing short stories, and of course watching anime and everything associated with it.

General Information: It was just a few months ago when I approached zzeroparticle and asked him for a position on his writing staff for his Anime Instrumentality blog. After a long hiatus I’ve finally started to contribute to the site, so it seems that it is a good time to introduce myself, and give the readers of Anime Instrumentality a little bit of background info.

My name is John Kim, otherwise known as sung gyu on the site, and I have been a dedicated fan of all things anime related for five years. I’ve been managing my own blog Hara Hetta for a little less than 6 months, and have been reviewing music and anime for about a year. Currently, I am enrolled as a freshman at my university, and plan to major in English. I have been working as a musician on the side, playing acoustic guitar at local cafes, and producing hip hop instrumentals in my free time. My music experience includes playing piano for 10 years and guitar for 8 years. Much of my music specialization is in classical guitar infused with new-age techniques.

As for anime, I have been deeply involved in anime culture for many years and have become quite obsessed with the anime industry as a whole (perhaps as a deterrent to my own health and well being.). I enjoy watching all kinds of anime, and have only one golden rule when it comes to anime: “A good anime will allow the audience to reflect upon their own lives, and leave a profound impact on the watcher for years to come.” I am very lenient, and always tend to give shows the benefit of the doubt, but the same can’t be said when it comes to music though. As for genres, I am a huge fan of slice-of-life and magical realism, but also tend to like philosophical and psychological anime as well and I rank Clannad ~After Story~, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Toradora!, Kanon, and Aria the Origination among my favorites.

It’s a pleasure to meet you all, and I’m looking forward to the comments and feedback. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to e-mail me or IM on AIM.