The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Inuyasha: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass contains thirty-seven tracks of the background music that appeared in the film. In Japan, the soundtrack was issued individually. However, in the United States, the soundtrack can only be acquired if you buy the complete box set of the Inuyasha movies, which includes both the DVDs of the four films and the CDs of their accompanying soundtrack albums.

The pieces on this disc were composed and conducted by Kaoru Wada, and they are in the same league as the pieces he composed for Inuyasha: Affections Touching Across Time. Wada’s compositions can be seen as being in the same league as film scores done by such composers as John Williams. According to the booklet that came with the Inuyasha movie box set, the following instruments are used to help bring the second Inuyasha film to life: flute, oboe, clarinet, fagotto, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings, pianoforte, a female chorus, shinobue, nokan, shakuhachi, biwa, twenty-stringed sou, Japanese drum, tsugaru shamisen, and a synthesizer. This combination of instruments really helps to bring a unique sound to the background music of the Inuyasha anime series and films.

When I listened to this CD, I had it running as background music as I worked on other things. It’s effective as background music, because I found that the music would disappear into the background as I focused on other things. That’s not a bad thing, though, since the music was composed with the intent of being used for the background, rather than being music that’s supposed to grab the listener’s attention and take their focus away from the film. I usually found myself being grabbed by a piece if I recognized various musical themes showing up repeatedly throughout the disc.

If you’re a fan of the music in Inuyasha: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass, then this soundtrack is worth tracking down. If you enjoy the films but don’t already own them on DVD, then I would recommend purchasing the complete box set of the Inuyasha movies. At retail, this set seems to sell for anywhere between $30 and $80. If you’re interested in purchasing the set, then it would be worth your time to shop around and find the best deal. However, if you want the soundtrack but already own the DVD of the film, then your best bet would be to track down a Japanese import CD of the soundtrack.

I wrote this review after listening to a copy of this CD that my husband and I purchased.