First of all, thanks to everyone for the comments, both negative and positive. It took me a while to decide to write a review like this because, as pointed out by some comments, it’s very dangerous to write about the soundtrack of an animated series on DeBaser (especially if that animated series is "Sailor Moon"); indeed, knowing the vibe of the site, I was expecting infinitely harsh comments, but instead, you’ve all been very polite, and I truly appreciate that. The fact is that, as I hope was clear from the review, I find this album to be really beautiful: even if I had never seen the cartoon and had randomly listened to this CD without knowing the context, I would have loved it just the same, or perhaps I would have loved it even more because now I connect all these tunes to specific scenes from the anime. Any contempt towards this OST is, however, legitimate because if someone cannot stand the product from which it originates, it’s hard to be objective about one aspect of it (like, say, the quality of the drawings or the photography, or in this case, the music); the main message I wanted to convey in the review is that this soundtrack is wonderful regardless of the product it comes from (which, in my opinion, is also wonderful, but preferences are preferences). A good samaritan has uploaded the entire massive soundtrack of Sailor Moon onto YouTube, and I have created a playlist that gathers the tracks from this fourth OST: I invite anyone to click on the recommended link "Playlist with the complete soundtrack," listen to track
#04 or
#06 or
#10 or
#11 with their eyes closed to avoid seeing the images, and then tell me if it is or isn’t good music. Let me clarify: I don't want to know if it’s music you like or not, but if it is music that deserves respect or if it’s just banal background music for a trivial cartoon. I (I repeat, I and I am not the Truth) believe that Arisawa’s work is truly deserving.
@voodoomiles: I completely agree with you. The fact is that the moment you step outside the circle of musicians or music lovers, the ability to find differences between music composed even centuries apart magically disappears. My mother, for example, who is not stupid, doesn't find huge differences between Bach and Chopin, and to her, it’s all classical music, while she would be able to precisely identify which exact period a certain song by Gianni Morandi comes from, finding a huge difference between one album and another. I find this absurd, and even more absurd is considering cultured music boring by default (real conversation: friend C. “Hey Mario, where are you going?” me “To a concert of romantic music, do you want to come?” friend C. “No no, otherwise I’ll really fall asleep! HA HA HA”), a belief that is EXTREMELY COMMON... and I don’t think previous generations enjoyed being bored, right? They also wanted to have fun with entertaining music, didn't they? When I refer to "The Magic Flute," I mean an opera specifically created to be appreciated by any audience: it’s brilliant, fast, and fun, but how many non-music lovers know that? The assumption that classical music is all boring by nature (as my friend C. claims) is extraordinarily widespread... maybe it’s because I live in Ascoli Piceno, I don’t know. This also brings in the issue of ignorance, but let’s not get into that because the topic is subject to infinite variations (remember the Uto Ughi vs. Giovanni Allevi case?).
@nes: don’t worry, you don’t have to justify yourself! I may seem ridiculous, and maybe I am, but honestly preferring one series over another is like saying you prefer one chapter of "Star Wars" over another, which doesn't seem illegitimate to me.