Bastard!! is an OVA show that was released to the Japanese market in the early '90s. It is a fairly standard "swords-and-sorcery" fantasy show, with the twist that the main character (our lovely boy on the album cover) has been merged with a long-dead killer who has been brought back to life to save the kingdom. Not a setting to lead you to expect superb storytelling perhaps, but one that isnt out of the place in the realm of anime. While the story might not be top notch, however, the music does its best to uphold its end of the bargain.

The music for Bastard!! is mostly orchestral in nature. As befits the dark nature of the show, the music has many dark overtones to it. No happy victory marches here; the world that the story is set in is one of pain and suffering, and the melancholy nature of the music integrates well with the setting while maintaining the proper amount of dramatic tension. In addition, there is lots of fighting, so there is more than the usual number of "fight themes" on this soundtrack. Outside of the show's context, the music still holds up very well due to the quality of the compositions. It's not necessarily the thing to play to spice up a party, but from time to time the music of Bastard!! might be exactly what youre looking for.

The CD itself starts out with the Second and the Fourth movements. Please do not ask what happened to the first and third movements, as I do not know. These pieces are quite good, if dark and somber, symphonic pieces filled with dramatic tension. Interestingly enough, I thought that they sounded close in style to the battle themes from Sakura Taisen, the music for which was composed by Kohei Tanaka. Sure enough, the same composer is at work here, though he is working with a noticeably different story, which influences the musical direction to a significant extent.

The music stays fairly somber until the middle of track 5, War Clouds, which is sort of like the eye of a hurricane, as you get through lots of fighting, find a moment of rest, and then things get hairy again. The composer does a good job of ramping up the tension here. Things stay more or less tension-filled until we get to track 12, Monochrome Trouble, which is the original theme song. It is a synth-driven pop song that seems really out of place here, being surrounded by a full orchestra with heavy use of strings. The song has a heavy drum track, and the lyrics are somewhat dirty if you read the translation in the liner notes. Overall it is pretty forgettable, though it does have a catchy beat.

The next two tracks slow things down a bit, before track 15 gets all serious again. Track 16, Destined Friends, marks a change of pace, however, as the piece strikes a hopeful (if still melancholy) feel that really stands out on an album like this. The change is short-lived, however, as the next track goes back into "battle theme" mode, just like most of the album. The music occasionally diverges from this format during the rest of the album, but basically it is battle theme upon battle theme with lots of tension, and only the occasional introspective track. Later in the album things start to diverge from an orchestral backing, and some tracks, like track 25, Terror, are done totally on a synthesizer.

The last two tracks on the album are vocal pieces. Track 29, Ancient Lullaby, is a beautiful, slow-paced song with some baroque musical overtones. Placed at the end of a strong album, it might just be the gem of the whole thing, though its style is somewhat out of place here. The last track is an English version of the original theme song, now called I'm in Trouble. It isn't a direct translation of the original, but it covers the same thematic ground. It's a curiosity, but nothing more.

To sum up, the album at its base essence is quite dark and somber. The musical direction is excellent, and the musicianship displayed by the orchestra is top notch, but the subject matter of the show the music was made for is rather dark and there is no escaping that. There are occasional divergences from this overall theme, but in the end your enjoyment of this album will be closely related to your enjoyment of melancholy sounds.