Overview

Well this is going to be a fun journey. Poison Pink, or Eternal Poison as it is known for the Western release, is the spiritual sequel to the Flight-Plan release Dragon Shadow Spell. Takashi Okamoto returns for the soundtrack, along with several other assistants from the classical world. This album in particular really shocked me. First of all, its release came out of nowhere. I did not know about the game or the album release until it showed up online, already released. Secondly, the quality of the tracks is astounding! Takashi Okamoto has officially impressed me to the point where I'm actively watching for more work by him. Enough with all the rambling though, the music is what you really came here for!

Body

The album begins with several pretty creepy sounding piano pieces. The first one I'll mention is "Theme of Renarshe". This track begins with a piano solo, and is later joined by operatic vocals. A huge change from when I was expecting. The next track, "Theme of Poison Pink", totally blew me away. It begins as what sounds like will be another piano piece, but a very short time later a violin comes in to take the melody. It is a somber piece filled with mixed emotions. There are actually a lot of pieces on this album that have this formula. "Pathetic" is a prime example of this. It comes in three different incarnations. The first is a piano and violin duet, just like the previous track mentioned. That beautiful melody also shows up in a string chamber arrangement and also as a piano with soprano vocals taking the melody. Yuki Nakagawa has really impressed me with these arrangements, and her work here only gets better. We'll talk more about that later though.

Obviously Takashi Okamoto takes the majority of the action tracks here. While I was expecting more of his electronic works here, that is not what I got. That isn't an issue however, as his orchestral talent has seen some vast improvement here. "Evening" came to my mind first. While it begins with a solo percussive beat, the piano and string harmonies quickly take over and really set the mood for such a dark scene. As for his event themes, "Gergus" is a moving progressive orchestra piece. It demonstrates he really stepped it up a notch with his use of orchestra. Okamoto might not be the most complex composer, but he knows how to do a lot with so little. "Lumen" is another example of this. It's also one of the few times you get to hear Okamoto use choir.

Okamoto does bring some rock back into the mix here as well, even though it isn't used too often. "Shapeshifter" is the first track I'll talk about there. I was used to his rock works being hard and grungy, but this is a very clean cut electric guitar solo that would serve great as a normal battle theme. "Perfect Perfume" is another great example of his skills with the rock genre. While it starts out with the same formula as the last piece, the bridge changes things up. The track totally stops, and then instruments get added one by one back in. First comes the electric piano, then a grand piano follows that almost mocking the first section, and finally the electric guitar comes back to lead us to the conclusion of the piece.

I wanted to take the focus here off of Okamoto, because the remaining composers are what really added the flair to this album. We have already gone over Yuki Nakagawa's skills with simplistic pieces, so let's go over his battle themes. "Sister of Troy" is my personal favorite track on the album. For those of you who like S.F.A. from Granado Espada, you will instantly fall for this track. An electronic beat plays in the background while a violin covers the melody. The middle section of the track is what screams S.F.A., however. The beat speeds up and the violin goes crazy. A jazzy piano covers the bridge into the ending of the piece. The best part about this track is it never repeats. After every bridge the main melody comes back but with more layers than last time. It really is the pinnacle of this album, albeit somewhat out of place.

"Izat" is a track that Yuki Nakagawa and Takashi Okamoto worked on together. It begins with Okamoto's signature orchestral style, with Nakagawa taking over with an amazing piano and percussion solo later on. After that, the operatic vocals seen in other tracks come back, which are joined by the orchestral section from the intro a little bit later. The melody again isn't horribly complex, but the creative structure of this piece is amazing. The last track I'll discuss from the newcomers is Yuichiro Sato's "A Tearful Song". It really does live up to its name. The track is a total piano solo filled with some pretty tear jerking sections. It is one track you absolutely cannot skip.

The album did come with a vocal theme. "Re-Structure" is a nice pop rock ballad filled with mostly piano. Junko Kuzumaki lends her voice to this piece, and she does an incredible job pumping the vocals out. The real reason I mentioned this track was to bring up the incredible remix version of the piece. Takashi Okamoto arranges his pop rock track into a very pleasing electronic piece, bringing back some of my favorite memories of his Dragon Shadow Spell album. This track won't sell the album, but it is something everyone should give a try.

Summary

This was an amazing experience for me. Takashi Okamoto's first album was something special in my eyes, but this album really changed the way I look at him as a successful composer. The help he obtained for this work also impressed me greatly. I am a sucker for violin and Yuki Nakagawa delivered it in ways I haven't heard for a long time. I left out a few gems so that you all can have a similar experience as I did when I first listened. While the album is not a masterpiece, and still shows quite a bit of filler, it does its job perfectly and really sets a high bar for later Flight-Plan releases. I suggest all of you who are fans of the series pick this up. It will make for one amazing experience that nobody should pass up!