The opening theme THE HERO !! by JAM Project slaps incredibly hard 🤘 and sets the grandiose tone that you expect for superhero shows.
A very serious not serious show honestly, with heavy tracks utilizing heavy guitar riffs. This is a perfect choice in my opinion, which gives the show a somewhat gritty and rough character, befitting the superhero genre. Even the Sorrow theme goes hard and upbeat towards the end when the electric guitar starts jamming, which gives it a hopeful ending.
The choice to use heavy guitar riffs for transitioning between scenes is just brilliant:
- Guitar Bridge No.1
- Guitar Bridge No.2
- Guitar Bridge No.3
- Guitar Bridge No.4
- Guitar Bridge No.5
- Guitar Bridge No.6
- Guitar Bridge No.7
However there are of course also more laid-back tracks, often using an acoustic guitar to fit the mood:
The main motif used in the Seigi Shikkou track can also be found in the more relaxed everyday One Day track, but this time being played on an ukulele, which is a cool touch. Sadness also has the same motif, albeit it's a little harder to notice (I might be wrong on this one 🤔).
The character theme Sonic, uses fast sweep picking with distortion and delay to express that he is a ninja capable of creating afterimages by using speed alone. The fading chords played by the rythm-guitar also suggests a sense of elusiveness. And no, I'm not talking about the blue hedgehog.
Hero Society brings me assoications towards the track The Liberation of Gracemeria from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, but they are mostly just trying to convey honor and glory in the calm before a great battle. Something that could play before the pilots are ready to take of in Top Gun honestly (moreso the latter one here).
The distorted, metal scraping mixed with some sort of electronic sound gives Genos a fitting futuristic vibe (he's a cyborg after all). They even game him two themes where the latter one is sort of a slower remix of the first one:
I also love how hard the Justice Rider (Mumen Rider) theme goes considering how weak he is compared to the other heroes. His theme rivals the other S class hero themes To quote @glacier4286 on youtube:
C class ability, S class heart.
Favorites
There are honestly too many good soundtracks in this series, I think I'll have to come that it on a later time.
Links
Jonathan Young has a full english cover on of the opening theme: The Hero, youtube for those interested.
Composers
- Tomohiro Suzuki
- Chikashi Kubota
- Makoto Miyazaki
- Published:
- 2 November 2024
- Last Updated:
- 18 February 2025