TAKAGI MASAKATSU Vinyl & CDs

Review: Mirai is a Japanese adventure fantasy comedy written and directed by Mamoru Hosodo for the beloved Studio Chizu, the house behind genre favourites such as Belle, Wolf Children and The Boy & The Beast. The latter two releases came with soundtracks by Takagi Masakatsu, a bonafide master of scores whose ability to interpret narratives sonically has been referred to many times before. Here, the composer and musician opts to combine a dreamy aural aesthetic with more simplistic tonalities, which to him apparently reference the everyday family dynamics playing out on screen, combined with the more extraordinary elements of the story itself. The result is at times woozy and dizzying, in other moments reflective and relaxing, and always immediately captivating, romantic, and smile-inducing.