Yasushi Ishii

Yasushi Ishii (石井 妥師, Ishii Yasushi) is a Japanese musician known for his works on Hellsing, Darker than Black and later on, Drifters. He was born on 10th of March 1970, and is currently 52 years old.

Style
Yasushi's style seems to depends on what the anime is based on, one notable instance is that in an interview; Yasushi said that he was going for a more "Japanese" or "Buddhism" soundtrack, since it apparently shows the story of Japan. In Hellsing's Soundtrack, Yasushi goes for a more "Experimental Jazz", "Jazz Fussion", "Hard Rock" because of the shows setting; which was based in Christian and Europe world of view, hence why the soundtrack sounded Jazzy despite the anime being horror. Yasushi noted that he always try to put my essence and philosophy into my products as much as he can and that it’s not interesting for him to obey the orders of the directors and to create what he was asked the way it was asked. When he was asked about the influence of a different culture while performing the musics, or was it more of a universal feeling of music; Yasushi said that it was more of a universal feeling.

Yasushi said that he has mastered many different music instruments; that is the result of his job, during which - he was required to make different types of musics, varying from anything Jazz to rock music. He also said that he likes to listen to acid Jazz the most. Because of his job as an anime composer for most of the time, he had to listen and master all sorts of music styles. Yasushi goes on later saying that Buddhism and "Zen" hooks him.

Works

 * Hellsing OST
 * Hellsing Original Soundtrack: 糾襲 Raid
 * Hellsing Original Soundtrack: 吠虚 Ruins
 * REVOLUTION (2008)
 * MINI-ALBUM (2009)
 * Darker than Black: Origins
 * Drifters (with Hayato Matsuo)

Kouta Hirano's Works
Yasushi described his relationship with Hirano as having a "close connection" with him, particularly, as if they both are drawed to each other by some sort of "attractive force". The Hellsing anime was mostly praised for its two soundtracks created by Yasushi Ishii, and furthermore, Yasushi stated that his current favorite animes/mangas are Hellsing and Darker than Black, and described about how Kouta Hirano's style attracted him very much. He and Hellsing: Ultimate's musician, Hayato Matsuo, later on works together to create the soundtrack for Kouta Hirano's new manga's anime adaptation, Drifters; which sounded like some kind of "celebration" or something. In addition, Yasushi performed Logos Naki World's rework, Cosmic Vibration, on stage multiple times; along with couple of other songs that he reworked, like Requiem of the Living.

Hellsing's OST Reception
The reception of the Hellsing OSTs are mostly acclaimed, with some even calling it better than Hayato Matsuo's work on Hellsing Ultimate. The Hellsing TV series was also largely praised for its soundtrack, and mostly, the OST for Hellsing is what made Yasushi quite popular among Hellsing fans - with some considering one of his works, Logos Naki World, the theme song for Hellsing. The Hellsing opening overall was largely acclaimed for its unique and obscure song that matches the show far too well. One of Yasushi's song that was included in RAID, one of Hellsing's soundtracks, When You Start the War, Fight With Arrows, Spears and Swords! was used as the ending theme for Hellsing Ultimate's 8th ending - which received many praises among fans, and just like Hellsing's opening, for it's music. Mike Crandol from Anime News Network called the soundtrack "Hellsing's constant and greatest strength, and the hard-rock battles themes are worthy of mainstream radio", Mike Crandol also said that the soundtrack is full of memorable songs, and suggests the viewers to go buy the disc.