The anime series “Cowboy Bebop” debuted in Japan in 1998, combining futuristic space travel with Spaghetti Western grit and the slickness of film noir.
Her eclectic compositions — with their percolating jazz and doleful sax solos and languorous blues harmonica riffs — were an essential part of the cult hit, helping its director, Shinichiro Watanabe, set the mood for every botched payday, steely-eyed showdown, lovelorn flashback and fast-paced space chase.
In the span of four months, she rerecorded key original tracks and crafted new pieces for the 10 hourlong episodes, which include Rat Pack-era jazz, Latin horns and even ’90s alt-rock.
In the 20 years since the original show’s maiden voyage, she has become one of Japan’s foremost composers, creating the soundtrack for Watanabe’s acclaimed series “Kids on the Slope,” as well as music for other anime, video games and films, and album tracks for J-Pop stars.
On a video call from Tokyo, with the assistance of her translator, Kanehira Mitani, Kanno talked about reuniting with her band, Seatbelts, to rerecord tracks from the original series, and about engaging all five senses in order to create an interstellar soundscape.
So what I did was just create all these pieces of music, and then the director and creative team would piece it together and put it into the anime.
During the time in between, I would kind of imagine what the music would be like and gestate those ideas.
That was the image I had in the beginning, but when I actually saw John Cho in the footage, I saw more subtle tones in his acting.
When those scenes did happen, I was very aware of trying to alleviate it, to make sure the killing doesn’t seem too graphic or to make it seem ironic or comedic.
I would run through it, not thinking too much, just kind of “in the zone.” Not too much good stuff comes out if you’re overthinking things.
I did try a couple of remote recording sessions, but inevitably, the time lag, even if it’s just a split second, would just be unbearable.
So I ended up doing recording sessions in Japan, where I could attend and actually see the whole thing.
If I wanted to express “the sea,” I would go to the sea, dive in and feel the waves and the overall atmosphere.
Over the course of four and a half months of music production, Zoom meetings and exchanging demo pieces, I stayed almost entirely in a basement studio.
The sense of them treating their vehicles roughly, like when I used to drive a really old, ramshackle truck.
In terms of how the world was built in the live-action version, it has a very steampunk usage of old materials, and you have a sense of grittiness.
I imagine a lot of fans are worried about how the creative team is going to handle this world that they’ve adored so much.