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Start Date
13-6-2025 10:30 AM
Description
In Japanese anime and video games, Disneyland-esque theme parks present a fascinating nexus between virtual and real worlds. Culturally, Tōkyō Disneyland represents a world of magic, dreams, and pure fantasy, providing an apt setting for anime and game scenes. Japan’s flourishing leisure industry during the 1980s bubble economy (バブル景気, baburu keiki) introduced theme parks across Japan to drive tourism to countryside towns. After the bubble economy burst in the 1990s (失われた10 年, ushinawareta jūnen), many theme parks went out of business and became
abandoned places (廃墟, haikyo). Thus, the abandoned – even haunted – theme park became an established trope in the Japanese cultural imagination.
Musically, the theme park topic typically resembles main street or parade music, with common musical characteristics including ‘oom-pah’ or waltz beat, two-beat bass, calliope organ, brass fanfare, glockenspiel/celesta/toy piano, simple major-mode harmonies, and lively melodies. Four categories of musical theme park representation – evoking, inflecting, distorting, and irony – theorize whether music references the theme park music topic and whether it affirms or subverts its typical mood of joy and wonder. Four case studies illustrate these approaches:
● Persona 5: ‘Destinyland’ evokes Disney Main Street Electrical Parade music; Digital Devil Saga: ‘Point 136’ distorts theme park music to underscore a post-apocalyptic, abandoned Destinyland.
● Aggretsuko: Season 1, Episode 9 features a musical duet evoking the conventions of Disney’s animated movie musicals (e.g. ‘A Whole New World,’ ‘I See the Light’).
● Kirby and the Forgotten Land: ‘Wondaria Remains’ and ‘The Wondaria Dream Parade’ evoke main street and parade music; ‘Welcome to Wondaria’ and ‘Circuit Speedway’ are inflected by the timbre, instrumentation, and harmony of theme park music.
● Cowboy Bebop: Episode 20 scores Space Land using distortion and irony, employing either sound design alone or a grotesque calliope waltz during the battle against Pierrot Le Fou.
Transcript
Recommended Citation
Yee, Thomas B., "Kingdom of Dreams and Magic: Musical Representations of Theme Parks in Japanese Media" (2025). Theme Park Music and Sound. 3.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/tpms/2025/friday/3
Kingdom of Dreams and Magic: Musical Representations of Theme Parks in Japanese Media
In Japanese anime and video games, Disneyland-esque theme parks present a fascinating nexus between virtual and real worlds. Culturally, Tōkyō Disneyland represents a world of magic, dreams, and pure fantasy, providing an apt setting for anime and game scenes. Japan’s flourishing leisure industry during the 1980s bubble economy (バブル景気, baburu keiki) introduced theme parks across Japan to drive tourism to countryside towns. After the bubble economy burst in the 1990s (失われた10 年, ushinawareta jūnen), many theme parks went out of business and became
abandoned places (廃墟, haikyo). Thus, the abandoned – even haunted – theme park became an established trope in the Japanese cultural imagination.
Musically, the theme park topic typically resembles main street or parade music, with common musical characteristics including ‘oom-pah’ or waltz beat, two-beat bass, calliope organ, brass fanfare, glockenspiel/celesta/toy piano, simple major-mode harmonies, and lively melodies. Four categories of musical theme park representation – evoking, inflecting, distorting, and irony – theorize whether music references the theme park music topic and whether it affirms or subverts its typical mood of joy and wonder. Four case studies illustrate these approaches:
● Persona 5: ‘Destinyland’ evokes Disney Main Street Electrical Parade music; Digital Devil Saga: ‘Point 136’ distorts theme park music to underscore a post-apocalyptic, abandoned Destinyland.
● Aggretsuko: Season 1, Episode 9 features a musical duet evoking the conventions of Disney’s animated movie musicals (e.g. ‘A Whole New World,’ ‘I See the Light’).
● Kirby and the Forgotten Land: ‘Wondaria Remains’ and ‘The Wondaria Dream Parade’ evoke main street and parade music; ‘Welcome to Wondaria’ and ‘Circuit Speedway’ are inflected by the timbre, instrumentation, and harmony of theme park music.
● Cowboy Bebop: Episode 20 scores Space Land using distortion and irony, employing either sound design alone or a grotesque calliope waltz during the battle against Pierrot Le Fou.