Windaria was the first anime film I had ever seen, and I was quite surprised at how touching, sophisticated, heartbreaking, and dramatic it was. I was also surprised to see that it is extremely underrated, because I was almost in tears throughout the whole thing. This soundtrack played a great part in evoking such emotions.

The whole score is rich, evocative, even tear jerking. Almost every track will melt your heart as soon as you listen to it. The opening track, "Theme of Windaria", is an example of how lovely this album is. It starts out quietly, then plays a sad and happy melody with a celestial flair. As soon as it ends, you have the feeling you are being told a sad love story in the style of Romeo And Juliet (which is partially what the film is about). Another beautiful track is "Theme Of Druid", a sonata that, again, is sad yet happy. This song worked beautifully in the film, and it works well, too, for entertainment value as music alone. A real tearjerker is "Requiem For Love", an ethereal requiem with enough sadness and emotion to make you want to cry. In fact, there are so many beautiful songs in this score, it would be impossible to describe them all.

The music doesn't stay so beautiful forever, however. "Attack" is a brutally violent, furious piece of music that is supposed to go along with the war scenes in the film. In addition, "Shalem's Murderous Intent" is a dark, foreboding song that turns into mildly frantic chase music. It has a spooky ending, too, the way it quietly fades out with scary notes at the end.

Fortunately, there are some lighthearted songs, too. "Fascinated by a Hover" is a rollickingly awesome, uplifting dance song that is a nice little break from the heaviness in the music. This is a moody soundtrack, all right, due to the way it switches emotional gears.

Although the packaging says that the "Windaria Orchestra" performs the music, this music isn't as much orchestral as it is synth-symphonic, somewhat similar to that of Symphony Ys '95. The string ensemble doesn't sound that authentic, and the chorus sounds synthesized, too. This does not detract from the enjoyment of the music, however. It seems to suit the music just fine, and make it all the more magnificent.

Strangely, out of the 14 tracks on the album, I remember only 10 of them appearing in the film, so I figured that this album was somewhat incomplete, and that the songs not in the video were basically just bonus tracks. (The tracks I'm talking about are "Overflow of the Ipa River", which seemed a little calmer than needed, "Marlin In Sorrow", which didn't seem to be as sad as the rest of the score, and the two songs, "Promise" and "A Beautiful Planet", which fortunately are both beautiful and memorable.) But I only saw the English-dubbed video release of the film, which I've heard was altered completely from the original version, in which these extra songs might be present.

In short, Windaria is a lovely soundtrack from start to finish, and I highly recommend it. Be sure to see the film (be it either the dubbed version of the original version) after getting the album, as it is just as heartbreaking as the music is.