From the World of Advertising to the Heart of Anime
Kinema Citrus's fully original TV anime Goodbye, Lara, made to mark the studio's 15th anniversary, entrusts its music to composer and pianist yuma yamaguchi. A digital EP dropped ahead of schedule on July 6, and the complete original soundtrack collecting every cue arrives on September 30, 2026 as a 2-CD set (FABTONE Inc., catalog FBAC-268, 3,300 yen incl. tax). The show has been airing and streaming since July, so this is the moment the score finally reaches listeners as a package.
When people hear "anime composer," many picture a craftsman who has stacked up score after score for anime and film. Yamaguchi's path is a little different. Born in Fukui in 1984, he debuted in 2008 on Italy's renowned house label IRMA Records Japan, starting his career in club music. He then made his name in commercial music, writing scores for more than 300 commercials. Anime scoring is a form of expression he reached only after this long, winding detour.
Cannes, Clio, Yuzuru Hanyu—and Kanye West
Don't underestimate commercial music. The spots Yamaguchi scored have won Gold at all three of the world's major advertising festivals, including Cannes Lions and the Clio Awards. His range is extraordinary too: music for ISSEY MIYAKE's Paris Collection, a contribution to Yuzuru Hanyu's ICE STORY 2023 GIFT, string arrangements for the opening of NHK's morning drama Anpan (RADWIMPS's "Tamamono"), and a credit as band leader on Ye (Kanye West)'s album BULLY—leaping over genres and borders with ease.
His screen-scoring résumé is deep as well. The Netflix film Bullet Train Explosion, the hit Chinese anime Link Click series, the drama Saka no Tochu no Ie, the main theme for NHK BS's Frontiers—he has steadily built a body of work that hugs the image. Dance music, advertising, fashion shows, morning dramas, hip-hop: how could a writer with such an omnivorous toolkit fail to intrigue us when he scores a Kinema Citrus milestone?
A Goodbye Sung by a Brazilian Voice
The most emblematic moment of the Goodbye, Lara sessions is the title track "Goodbye, Lara," featuring Brazil-born singer Tatiana Parra. Inviting a voice steeped in jazz and Brazilian music is pure Yamaguchi—a writer who has crossed clubs, commercials, and world music. Rather than simply tug at heartstrings, he seems to sketch the negative space of parting with airy harmony and groove.
The 2-CD scale matters too. This is no loose collection of background cues; you can feel an editorial intent to present it as a single, deliberate work. Chasing the broadcast, then checking how a motif that lodged in your ear is sequenced and varied across the album—that soundtrack-specific pleasure is here in abundance.
An Era That Welcomes the Border-Crossers
Recent anime scoring has actively welcomed writers of different origins—band alumni, electronica auteurs, film-music specialists. Tapping yuma yamaguchi embodies exactly that current. What color will his advertising-honed knack for conjuring a world in seconds, plus a world-music sense of hue, bring to an anniversary story? You can save the answer for September 30, once the two discs are spinning.
