The first movie I ever went to see by myself was when I was thirteen, and it was Mars Attacks! I loved that bloody movie, if just because I felt like seeing it was some kind of odd "Coming of Age" experience.
I'm going to switch gears from movies for a moment to talk about a soundtrack I don't think gets enough respect, that being the soundtrack for the original Hellsing anime. Now, while the anime itself gets more than enough respect (and, in all fairness, I feel too much respect especially when compared to the superior manga and OVA, which get nowhere near as much respect from the American audience), the soundtrack is, sadly, one of the features most passed over. This really kinda irks me, as I think the soundtrack is one of the best features of the series, and the only thing about the original that's superior to the OVA series.
The form of music itself is sort of hard to describe. There's a general style there, but each piece has it's own distinct form. The fact that I myself have a very limited knowledge of music and musical terminology doesn't help either. If I had to describe it, I would describe it as (primarily) being rock and roll with slight traces of ska, soul, and the occasional discordant piano thrown in, as well as slight traces of spiritual. Again, I'm sure there's someone on this forum who, if they heard it, could describe the form much better than I could.
Each track is utterly incredible for the most part, some of my favorites being Logos Naki World (COOL-World without Logos, the opening theme song), Musical Play Smiling Rebellious Flower, Certain Victory Lotus Sutra Tune, Mask of the Priest and the Bell of the Cathedral and When you Start the War, Fight with Arrows, Spears, and Swords. And these are only my favorite songs on the first OST of the series, Raid. There are even more favorites on the second one, Ruins, though I'll not put them here for sake of length.
The best thing about the soundtrack is, I think, this: while it perfectly sets the mood for the series and the scenes in which the tracks play, you can easily enjoy them without ever having seen the series. For the most part, I would say that anime soundtracks, a lot of the time, tend to be....dull on their own. Usually, for most of the anime I've seen, the soundtracks really just build up the atmosphere for the scene in the episode and have little value if just listened to on their own. Not the case here. You can easily enjoy it without watching the anime. Definantily something I would suggest getting on its own merits, fan of the anime (or anime in general) or no.
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