# Akira Ifukube: Japan's Most Famous Sci-FI & Kaiju Film Composer



## ThaNotoriousNIC

Greetings everyone. I have been a life-long fan of the Godzilla franchise and one thing in which most fans of the fandom have is a love and appreciation for the film composer of the majority of its movies: Akira Ifukube. He composed film scores of dozens of Godzilla, science-fiction, and other giant monster films for almost fifty years. He also helped to develop the roars and sounds of monsters like Godzilla, which was developed by running a leather glove covered in resin across the strings of a double bass. He is among my most favorite of all film composers and given the niche following of the Godzilla franchise, I figured I create a thread in the forum for anyone to discover, discuss, and share their favorite scores and themes from the composer.

For anyone interested in learning about his life, here are links to an official website about him which has a pretty detailed biography on him and a recent interview Toho Kingdom, one of the largest fan-run site of Godzilla, did of one of his students.

https://www.akiraifukube.org/
https://www.tohokingdom.com/blog/interview-reiko-yamada-remembering-akira-ifukube/

In terms of his compositions, some of his best works are his many marches. He was actively composing during WWII and made marches for the Japanese military, so when it came time to create marches for militaries defending Japan from giant monsters, he was more than ready to compose some memorable pieces of music. Here is a sample of marches that he composed:











While he is best known for his marches, he could deliver some riveting music of a much different timbre. Below are two pieces I want to particularly highlight:the Prayer for Peace from the film Gojira and the Requiem from the film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. The first happens in the movie once Godzilla has left Tokyo a desolate nuclear wasteland and the Japanese are left to deal with the damage. The second is from (spoiler alert) Godzilla's death scene in the final film of the Heisei/Versus series. Both are very chilling works and a stark contrast to the marches from above.











And for anyone who wants to hear some highlights of his works from across his career, the composer did create symphonic suites of his film music, including the one linked below, which is my favorite of the three:






There is a lot of great music in the Godzilla franchise, by Ifukube and by several other composers who have added their own very takes on the way a giant Japanese monster flick should sound. I am by no means an expert on Ifukube's works, but I can surely give you all my favorites and my opinion. Happy listening.


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## david johnson

I believe i have seen all of the Godzilla films.


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## ThaNotoriousNIC

Glad to hear it! Do you have a favorite film from the series or do you have a movie in mind that you think has the best soundtrack? I am a big fan of the Ifukube soundtracks of the Heisei Era in particular. My favorite soundtrack from that era is likely the one from _Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah_. The soundtracks for _Godzilla vs. Mothra_ and _Godzilla vs. Destoryah_ are pretty close seconds for me though. If I had to give you a favorite title theme from that series, it would be this gem.


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## david johnson

The original Gojira is my favorite. I also enjoyed The Mysterians and Battle in Outer Space, each with Ifukube music.


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## Jacck

ThaNotoriousNIC said:


> Greetings everyone. I have been a life-long fan of the Godzilla franchise and one thing in which most fans of the fandom have is a love and appreciation for the film composer of the majority of its movies: Akira Ifukube. He composed film scores of dozens of Godzilla, science-fiction, and other giant monster films for almost fifty years. He also helped to develop the roars and sounds of monsters like Godzilla, which was developed by running a leather glove covered in resin across the strings of a double bass. He is among my most favorite of all film composers and given the niche following of the Godzilla franchise, I figured I create a thread in the forum for anyone to discover, discuss, and share their favorite scores and themes from the composer.
> 
> For anyone interested in learning about his life, here are links to an official website about him which has a pretty detailed biography on him and a recent interview Toho Kingdom, one of the largest fan-run site of Godzilla, did of one of his students.
> 
> https://www.akiraifukube.org/
> https://www.tohokingdom.com/blog/interview-reiko-yamada-remembering-akira-ifukube/
> 
> In terms of his compositions, some of his best works are his many marches. He was actively composing during WWII and made marches for the Japanese military, so when it came time to create marches for militaries defending Japan from giant monsters, he was more than ready to compose some memorable pieces of music. Here is a sample of marches that he composed:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> .


this (1965) seems to have been inspired by the 7th voyage of Sinbad (1958) by Herrman






at least I can hear the influence


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## ThaNotoriousNIC

It is a possibility for that march to have been influenced by Bernard Hermann's awesome score for _The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad_. The first use of the 1965 march was actually in the film _Battle in Outer Space _that David Johnson previously mentioned, which was released in 1959. The march is a bit different in that movie compared to the one in the 1965 film _Invasion of Astro Monster_. Notice the faster tempo and additional melodies added to the march. The 65 march took some of the melodies from that film and slowed down the tempo a bit. The original march probably sounds a bit more distinct from Hermann's score for Sinbad, but composers do acquire inspiration from a variety of sources, so you can't count it out entirely.


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