The Promised Neverland: Takahiro Obata's comments for the OSTs (vol. 1)

The original note (in Japanese) can be found here.

Translated by TrianaNero and Hiro. Please note that we are not professional translators, but we found the comments really interesting and really wanted to share it with you the best we can!

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I believe the majority of people reading this are fans of The Promised Neverland who have already watched the show, so with this commentary I hope to help you see the music from the composer's point of view, and provide some relief after the end of the season. (If you haven't watched the show yet, please be aware that there will be spoilers.)

Since the soundtracks are to be released with the DVD volumes, and the last, third volume will only be available on 24th of July, I'm going to talk only about the music from the first volume here (12 tracks). The timestamps match those in the episodes featured on Amazon Prime.

● 1. Introduction
This soundtrack plays in the very beginning of the first episode, and I wanted to create an impression that would be fitting for the adventures of The Promised Neverland. The children haven't discovered the true nature of the House yet, their life is centered around it, but there are some small twists to the music — hints that there is something else to the House, so to say.
It's a small detail, but I've inserted some quiet distorted PAD sounds in the track. I hope you can catch it in the music.

● 2. As a Soft Morning Sunrise
This is the only cheerful piece in the entire soundtrack of The Promised Neverland (laughs). It is played in a daily life scene in the first episode (around 2:56). The children are still not aware of the true nature of the House, so I wanted it to be a casual track — not that dark and not overly cheerful, something in the middle. I changed the name of a standard jazz song, "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise", to "As a Soft Morning Sunrise" (laughs).

● 3. Tag
This track is about chasing others or being chased in the game of tag, which is expressed by cello and piano. (It plays in the first episode around 7:46.) I wanted the impression from the music to be different from the one inside the House, so I mixed in some tabla [Indian hand drums] and used handspan to make the music as fresh and new as possible. But since they're playing tag in the forest, you need to feel the surrounding nature as well, which is why the core of the composition is still purely instrumental. I actually asked my friend Zufar-kun, who's a percussionist, for some help, and he recorded the handpan parts and sent them to me all the way from Malaysia.

Here's a video of his arrangement.

● 4. Studying for Exams
This is the track that plays when the children are being tested (in the first episode around 5:13). They're using mechanical pens and headphones, so I went with something that has a machinery-like feeling to it — hence the blip-blop electronic sounds. Style-wise I wanted it to sound more like blues.

● 5. Calm Isabella
This soundtrack encompasses the tension of the psychological war between the children and Isabella. (It plays in the second episode around 11:20.) The dissonance creates that tension, but there're also some notes of Isabella's character and dignity as the Mother, which are expressed by strings and harp as the main instruments.

● 6. Training for Escape
This track is about the practicing while playing tag (third episode, around 14:09). I felt like it needed to be lively and energetic, so I composed it like dance music. However, once again, the scenes take place in the forest, so the music is mainly acoustic. There are many children involved, so in order to show that I spoke to the vocalist, Itou Daisuke-san, and he alone sang the parts for 20 people, and those recordings were later merged together. I did some panning [making it seem as if sounds are coming from different directions] in order to emphasize those little moments when the kids are reading the movements of the wind, or making footstep traps.

● 7. Tight Tension
This soundtrack played after Connie was killed, Gupna (demon) was done with its work, and when the demons were discussing shipping with Isabella (1st episode, around 17:50). I tried to make it sound quite eerie, so I played around with the synthesizer a lot.

● 8. Isabella's Lullaby
This soundtrack plays for the first time in the first episode (19:52), and then reappears in episodes 10 and 12 in some really good scenes — it's the key music of the first season. The director said that he wanted this track to be a notable song from the very first episode. Since voice actors needed to sing it too, it had to be simple, something that they could hum, but I also wanted to add it to the main theme (which was already composed by then), where it would have to be well-balanced. Another thing is that, whatever the situation was, I wanted it to be a melody that would be brought to life by the voice of Sarah Alainn-san, so the singing range of the song ended up being quite wide. I'm really sorry that it turned out to be quite a difficult task for the voice actors. However, I received many messages from the foreign fans, and I was really glad to see that The Promised Neverland is well-recognized abroad as well. When I googled Isabella's Lullaby, I was really surprised to see just how much interest foreign fans have in this soundtrack!!

● 9. Demon's Manifestation
A short track to show the surprise of seeing the demons for the first time! It played in the first episode around 17:40.

● 10. Emma's Sorrow
It's a ballade version of the main theme that tells us about those sad events that take place in the Grace Field House.

● 11. Dancing Krone
This piece wasn't even ordered at first, but I personally thought that Krone's comical movements really needed something like a composition with electro swing, so I made it anyway. I think I'm quite good in writing jazz (that's just what I think though, haha), and I'm happy that it was played in the 3rd episode (around 16:41), and also delighted that it was used as the opening for the Neverland's radio.

● 12. 63194 (Emma's Theme)
This is Emma's theme — it shows her rising up from all the sorrow and despair to keep fighting. There are some requiem-like passages played on the strings in the second half, where it becomes a pretty intense band sound. It played in some important scenes in the 2nd and 8th episodes.

● Conclusion

Since there aren’t that many tracks for the season to begin with, I was trying to compose the soundtracks that would fit the culmination scenes perfectly, like in the movies, without having to chop up the music that much. When it comes to anime and drama, music needs to be done before you get to actually see the show, so there are times when the sound does not match the image perfectly, or sometimes the atmosphere of the music may slightly differ from the scene. As for The Promised Neverland, I love the manga dearly, and even before director Kanbe was put in charge of the show, he already knew my musical style, so he trusted me and let me compose the music the way I wanted to. After that my soundtracks were matched to the images, there was a lot of dubbing work (that means making final decisions about applying the tracks, voice recordings, sound effects, etc) — I was lucky to take part in most of that process, so I was involved quite closely in the production. I will comment on the rest of the soundtracks as they are released. As you know, the anime will continue with its second season in 2020, so please keep supporting us.

Composer Takahiro Obata

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Thank you very much for reading! You can let us know what you think about the translation here, and if you want to express your gratitude to the composer (which we highly recommend), you can do it here and tweet to Obata-san, he really appreciates your comments and support!

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