Legendary Star Wars and Jurassic Park composer John Williams has signed on to provide the soundtrack to the upcoming anime adaptation of Ao no Orchestra.
Yesterday, Shogakukan’s Manga One and Ura Sunday deputy editor Kobayashi Sho announced via Twitter that Makoto Akui’s popular youth music manga, Ao no Orchestra, serialized in his magazines since 2017, would be receiving an anime adaptation.
“What!!! ‘Ao no Orchestra’ has been chosen to receive an anime!!!” he exclaimed. “You can actually listen to the violin and orchestra performance scenes along with the youthful story…! I’m looking forward to the expression of sounds such as classical masterpieces.”
Collected thus far in a total of nine volumes and currently boasting over 3.5 million copies in circulation (including digital), Ao no Orchestra is a powerful music-centric manga about a violin prodigy Aono Hajime, who quit playing when his professional violinist father left his family for reasons unknown.
Feeling abandoned and seeing his mother broken by the father who taught him the love of playing violin, Hajime kept his love of the violin and music locked away in his father’s abandoned studio.
That was, until his homeroom teacher, Takeda-sensei, introduced him to the new transfer student Akine Ritsuko, an aspiring violinist who Takeda-sensei asks Hajime to teach.
Eventually, through Ritsuko’s sounds, Hajime rediscovers his own love for the violin as well as his sound.
Subsequently picking up his violin for the first time since his father’s leaving and playing for several hours, Hajime decides to follow Takeda-sensei’s advice and join Umimaku High School’s award winning Orchestra Club.
However, much to his surprise, the lack of Orchestra clubs in the area forces the Umimaku musicians to team up with other groups, leading Hajime to reunite with people from his past competition days and new rising stars who appeared during his two year hiatus.
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In addition, Sho excitedly announced that John Williams had signed on to score the Ao no Orchestra.
That’s right, the composer of such beloved cinematic classics such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Superman, will be in charge of composing the musical score of a niche anime adaptation.
“When I was in high school, I was playing John’s songs such as ‘ET’ in the orchestra club, and I want to teach myself that I will be connected to work in the future,” wrote Sho.
Anyone who grew up playing in a school band, orchestra, wind ensemble, or any such musical group, completely can comprehend how excited Sho is feeling.
With this unexpected move, one has to wonder if the future Sho is referring to involves seeing more high-profile Hollywood composers work on anime.
What do you think of the recent announcement? Have you had a chance to read the series? Sound off on social media or in the comments down below!