History Music / YukiKajiura

Her music ranges from [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous]] ConstructedLanguage [[OminousLatinChanting Chanting]] (''Anime/{{Madlax}}'') to PsychoStrings (''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai'') to sweet pop music (many a Franchise/{{Mai Hi ME}} ImageSong) to lushly instrumented suites (''Anime/{{Noir}}'') to [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever her band Kalafina is supposed to be]]. ''Anime/ElCazadorDeLaBruja'' is notable for having [[ShownTheirWork shown Kajiura's work]] in ethnomusicology and the musical traditions of Latin America and the American West, evoking musicians from Daniel Alomia Robles to Music/JohnnyCash and Frankie 'Old Leather Lungs' Laine. She was for a time an impresario for the innovative pop group ALI PROJECT, and brought them into the ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' production. All of this is held together by her adherence to a distinctive blend of classical and folk-based music theory regardless of instruments and tempo and her Romantic-influenced emphasis on melody and circumspectly psychological and spiritual lyrics.

** Each Kalafina album in general is a spiritual successor to the last, although with major changes such as ''Red Moon'' being [[UpToEleven darker]] and less tied to a specific set of soundtracks than ''Seventh Heaven'' (''KaraNoKyoukai'' in ''Seventh Heaven'''s case) and ''After Eden'' including some of the most normally (or least abnormally) psychological work Kajiura has done so far in between songs like 'Magia' and 'Destination Unknown' that could have fit in on ''Red Moon''. ''Consolation'' is more ethereal than ''After Eden'' but somewhat less dark than ''Seventh Heaven'' and ''Red Moon''. Kalafina itself is one to Fiction Junction, although the latter still exists conceptually.

* WorldBuilding: Of sorts. A Kajiura piece for a soundtrack is almost always an exercise in the intersection of Kajiura's 'otherworldly spaces' and worldview with the independent assumptions of the text that it's composed for. Often (''Anime/{{Noir}}'', ''Anime/{{Madlax}}'', ''Anime/ElCazadorDeLaBruja'', ''Anime/KaraNoKyoukai'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''), this works very well. Sometimes (parts of ''Anime/{{Mai-Otome}}'', ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'') it's a little jarring, and often either the series or the soundtrack ends up a lot more valued and appreciated than the other. Among other things, she likes to musically or lyrically evoke perceptions of the lead characters' gender, age, social status, and so on, which leads to some of the interesting gender ambiguity in her body of work; [[TsubasaReservoirChronicle some series]] make this a lot easier than [[KaraNoKyoukai others]].

* ''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai''

* ''EveNoJikan'' (In part.)

* EternalRecurrence: A major theme that permeates her works. Well okay, the focus is not on the recurrence itself, but [[TheAntiNihilist the Nietzschean or Kierkegaardian strength]] to keep fighting even when the fight seems to be without end, simply because you have a moral reason to fight or a love to live. The theme is reflected best in Consolation, which is also a sort-of image album for ''FateZero'' and ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', in which the respective main characters fight to break a ViciousCycle.

* ''Literature/FateZero''

** ''[[Anime/DotHackSign .hack//SIGN]]

Her music ranges from [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous]] ConstructedLanguage [[OminousLatinChanting Chanting]] (''{{Madlax}}'') to PsychoStrings (''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai'') to sweet pop music (many a Franchise/{{Mai Hi ME}} ImageSong) to lushly instrumented suites (''Anime/{{Noir}}'') to [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever her band Kalafina is supposed to be]]. ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja'' is notable for having [[ShownTheirWork shown Kajiura's work]] in ethnomusicology and the musical traditions of Latin America and the American West, evoking musicians from Daniel Alomia Robles to Music/JohnnyCash and Frankie 'Old Leather Lungs' Laine. She was for a time an impresario for the innovative pop group ALI PROJECT, and brought them into the ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' production. All of this is held together by her adherence to a distinctive blend of classical and folk-based music theory regardless of instruments and tempo and her Romantic-influenced emphasis on melody and circumspectly psychological and spiritual lyrics.

* WorldBuilding: Of sorts. A Kajiura piece for a soundtrack is almost always an exercise in the intersection of Kajiura's 'otherworldly spaces' and worldview with the independent assumptions of the text that it's composed for. Often (''Anime/{{Noir}}'', ''{{Madlax}}'', ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja'', ''KaraNoKyoukai'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''), this works very well. Sometimes (parts of ''Anime/{{Mai-Otome}}'', ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'') it's a little jarring, and often either the series or the soundtrack ends up a lot more valued and appreciated than the other. Among other things, she likes to musically or lyrically evoke perceptions of the lead characters' gender, age, social status, and so on, which leads to some of the interesting gender ambiguity in her body of work; [[TsubasaReservoirChronicle some series]] make this a lot easier than [[KaraNoKyoukai others]].

* ''{{Madlax}}''

* ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja''

* ''{{Eat-Man}}''

->''[[GratuitousItalian Canta Per Me]]''

GenreBusting Japanese composer, music producer, impresario, and ethnomusicologist, born in Tokyo in 1965 but [[FishOutOfWater raised in]] ASmallTownInGermany. After returning to Japan as a teenager, she worked as an OfficeLady before [[RageQuit quitting]] in 1992. She first came to musical prominence as one half of the group See-Saw with Chiaki Ishikawa in the 1990s, and established herself as a solo composer around the turn of the millennium with the seminal soundtracks to ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' and ''Franchise/DotHack'' and a few musicals(as well as at least some of the [[LongRunners Japanese institution]] that is ''SakuraTaisen''), subsequently spending many years as the 'house composer' for BeeTrain.

->''"I have a love of songs that get me out of the quotidian. I like operas. Operas are completely in their own world, aren’t they? Within the sanctuary of the opera house, they weave otherworldly spaces for four hours. I love such songs with vistas into other worlds―-songs that seem to distort the size of my rooms when I listen to them. When I make melodies in my own little way, the lyrics end up that way. Lyrics like “I bought three radishes and found them cheap～♪” aren't relevant to my interests! It goes like “A traveler searching for eternity～♪” instead."''\\
--'''Yuki Kajiura'''

* ''BoogiepopPhantom'' (TheMovie)

* ''GundamSEED'' and ''[[MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny SEED Destiny]]''(Shared with ToshihikoSahashi.)

*** This troper would like to call attention to the lyrics for "Love Come Down", which go so far as to say "if we love each other this way, our bodies will melt into one"...

Widely considered second only (or equal) to YokoKanno as an {{Anime}} soundtrack composer, her NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly sensibilities, ReclusiveArtist tendencies and generally unusual way of life, and [[SoCoolItsAwesome undeniable talent]] have invited comparisons to such figures as EnnioMorricone and LudwigVanBeethoven--amazing compliments, considering her dilletante background and relatively late start in music for a modern artist, not devoting herself to it full-time until about the age of thirty and not reaching major success until thirty-five.

GenreBusting Japanese composer, music producer, impresario, and ethnomusicologist, born in Tokyo in 1965 but [[FishOutOfWater raised in]] ASmallTownInGermany. After returning to Japan as a teenager, she worked as an OfficeLady before [[RageQuit quitting]] in 1992. She first came to musical prominence as one half of the group See-Saw with Chiaki Ishikawa in the 1990s, and established herself as a solo composer around the turn of the millennium with the seminal soundtracks to ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' and ''DotHack'' and a few musicals(as well as at least some of the [[LongRunners Japanese institution]] that is ''SakuraTaisen''), subsequently spending many years as the 'house composer' for BeeTrain.

* ''DotHack''
** ''[[DotHackSign .hack//SIGN]]
** ''[[DotHackLiminality .hack//Liminality]]''
** ''[[DotHackGUGames .hack//Roots]]'' (theme song only)
** ''[[DotHackLink .hack//Link]]'' (songs licensed)

Her music ranges from [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous]] ConstructedLanguage [[OminousLatinChanting Chanting]] (''{{Madlax}}'') to PsychoStrings (''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai'') to sweet pop music (many a Franchise/{{Mai Hi ME}} ImageSong) to lushly instrumented suites (''Anime/{{Noir}}'') to [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever her band Kalafina is supposed to be]]. ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja'' is notable for having [[ShownTheirWork shown Kajiura's work]] in ethnomusicology and the musical traditions of Latin America and the American West, evoking musicians from Daniel Alomia Robles to Music/JohnnyCash and Frankie 'Old Leather Lungs' Laine. She was for a time an impresario for the innovative pop group ALI Project, and brought them into the ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' production. All of this is held together by her adherence to a distinctive blend of classical and folk-based music theory regardless of instruments and tempo and her Romantic-influenced emphasis on melody and circumspectly psychological and spiritual lyrics.

Yuki Kajiura is the producer of {{Girl Group}}s Music/FictionJunction and Music/{{Kalafina}}.

Yuki Kajiura is the producer of {{GirlGroup}}s FictionJunction and Music/{{Kalafina}}.

* EternalRecurrence: A major theme that permeates her works. Well okay, not the recurrence itself, but the Nietzschean or Kierkegaardian strength to keep fighting even when the fight seems to be without end, simply because you have a moral reason to fight or a love to live. The theme is reflected best in Consolation, which is also a sort-of image album for ''FateZero'' and ''PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', in which the respective main characters fight to break a ViciousCycle.

* ''GundamSeed'' (In part.)

Her music ranges from [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous]] ConstructedLanguage [[OminousLatinChanting Chanting]] (''{{Madlax}}'') to PsychoStrings (''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai'') to sweet pop music (many a MaiFranchise ImageSong) to lushly instrumented suites (''Anime/{{Noir}}'') to [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever her band Kalafina is supposed to be]]. ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja'' is notable for having [[ShownTheirWork shown Kajiura's work]] in ethnomusicology and the musical traditions of Latin America and the American West, evoking musicians from Daniel Alomia Robles to JohnnyCash and Frankie 'Old Leather Lungs' Laine. She was for a time an impresario for the innovative pop group ALI Project, and brought them into the ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' production. All of this is held together by her adherence to a distinctive blend of classical and folk-based music theory regardless of instruments and tempo and her Romantic-influenced emphasis on melody and circumspectly psychological and spiritual lyrics.

* WorldBuilding: Of sorts. A Kajiura piece for a soundtrack is almost always an exercise in the intersection of Kajiura's 'otherworldly spaces' and worldview with the independent assumptions of the text that it's composed for. Often (''Anime/{{Noir}}'', ''{{Madlax}}'', ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja'', ''KaraNoKyoukai'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''), this works very well. Sometimes (parts of ''MaiOtome'', ''FistOfTheNorthStar'') it's a little jarring, and often either the series or the soundtrack ends up a lot more valued and appreciated than the other. Among other things, she likes to musically or lyrically evoke perceptions of the lead characters' gender, age, social status, and so on, which leads to some of the interesting gender ambiguity in her body of work; [[TsubasaReservoirChronicle some series]] make this a lot easier than [[KaraNoKyoukai others]].

* ''MaiOtome''

** Each Kalafina album in general is a spiritual successor to the last, although with major changes such as ''Red Moon'' being [[UpToEleven darker]] and less tied to a specific set of soundtracks than ''Seventh Heaven'' (''KaraNoKyoukai'' in ''Seventh Heaven'''s case) and ''After Eden'' including some of the most normally (or least abnormally) psychological work Kajiura has done so far in between songs like 'Magia' and 'Destination Unknown' that could have fit in on ''Red Moon''. What exists of ''Moonfesta'' so far seems to be more ethereal than ''After Eden'' but less dark than ''Seventh Heaven'' and ''Red Moon''. Kalafina itself is one to Fiction Junction, although the latter still exists conceptually.

** "In Your Eyes" is an especially good example. The 'pure-hearted' narrator of the song, by nature of being pure-hearted, is unable to understand physical intimacy as anything other than 'a kiss that [[ThisAndThat does not just end at a kiss]]', and this is presented as a good thing, as though making qualitative distinctions about such things implies suspect priorities.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}''

GenreBusting Japanese composer, music producer, impresario, and ethnomusicologist, born in Tokyo in 1965 but [[FishOutOfWater raised in]] ASmallTownInGermany. After returning to Japan as a teenager, she worked as an OfficeLady before [[RageQuit quitting]] in 1992. She first came to musical prominence as one half of the group See-Saw with Chiaki Ishikawa in the 1990s, and established herself as a solo composer around the turn of the millennium with the seminal soundtracks to ''{{Noir}}'' and ''DotHack'' and a few musicals(as well as at least some of the [[LongRunners Japanese institution]] that is ''SakuraTaisen''), subsequently spending many years as the 'house composer' for BeeTrain.

Her music ranges from [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous]] ConstructedLanguage [[OminousLatinChanting Chanting]] (''{{Madlax}}'') to PsychoStrings (''Literature/KaraNoKyoukai'') to sweet pop music (many a MaiFranchise ImageSong) to lushly instrumented suites (''{{Noir}}'') to [[NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly whatever her band Kalafina is supposed to be]]. ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja'' is notable for having [[ShownTheirWork shown Kajiura's work]] in ethnomusicology and the musical traditions of Latin America and the American West, evoking musicians from Daniel Alomia Robles to JohnnyCash and Frankie 'Old Leather Lungs' Laine. She was for a time an impresario for the innovative pop group ALI Project, and brought them into the ''{{Noir}}'' production. All of this is held together by her adherence to a distinctive blend of classical and folk-based music theory regardless of instruments and tempo and her Romantic-influenced emphasis on melody and circumspectly psychological and spiritual lyrics.

* WorldBuilding: Of sorts. A Kajiura piece for a soundtrack is almost always an exercise in the intersection of Kajiura's 'otherworldly spaces' and worldview with the independent assumptions of the text that it's composed for. Often (''{{Noir}}'', ''{{Madlax}}'', ''ElCazadorDeLaBruja'', ''KaraNoKyoukai'', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''), this works very well. Sometimes (parts of ''MaiOtome'', ''FistOfTheNorthStar'') it's a little jarring, and often either the series or the soundtrack ends up a lot more valued and appreciated than the other. Among other things, she likes to musically or lyrically evoke perceptions of the lead characters' gender, age, social status, and so on, which leads to some of the interesting gender ambiguity in her body of work; [[TsubasaReservoirChronicle some series]] make this a lot easier than [[KaraNoKyoukai others]].

** To elaborate, her singers have said that it isn't meant to be meaningful intellectually but it's set up to guide their vocalisations emotionally and is written out and broken up into 'words' in a way that makes it resemble a Romantic or Japonic language.

Her closest western equivalent is HansZimmer, who also bears a penchant of crossing high-tech modernity with epic opera.