Today, Takeshi Furukawa (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) joins the show! Takeshi’s latest projects have been scoring the both seasons of Netflix’s live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender as well as Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf, the sequel to the hit indie platformer Planet of Lana. It’s no surprise, then, that we planned on talking about both Avatar and Planet of Lana II quite a bit, and we do get into them some. For Avatar, we primarily focused on the constraints of the live action version, including the change in medium, the change in tone, and the production only receiving permission to use certain existing themes from the animated original. On Lana, we really focus on the expansion of the score, whereby as the game increases in scope, so too does the music. This included added to the breadth of music and palette, and in particular Takeshi finally getting his hands dirty with synths.
The most notable thing, in my opinion, however, doesn’t fall to any specific score. Rather, it relates to Takeshi’s career as a whole. Our interview ended up being maybe the most open and personal a composer has gotten on the show, with Takeshi discussing his anxieties and fears as a composer, culminating in the worry that one day he’ll “disappear”, that “I’m afraid that people are going to get tired of me.” It feels ridiculous to hear him say this given the skill and diversity of his scores, and the high profile of the projects he works on, but I’m sure it’s a very real concern for many composers, well-founded or not, and I hope it provides comfort to other composers listening in.
Takeshi’s scores for the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Planet of Lana I and II, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix and the games are available digitally. You can find out more about Takeshi on his website.
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