Music of 428: Shibuya Scramble and Canaan
428: Shibuya Scramble is a visual novel video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Sega. The game was released in 2008, and spawned the sequel anime series Canaan, created by Type-Moon and animated by P.A. Works and aired in 2009. The music of 428: Shibuya Scramble and Canaan spans two soundtrack albums, four singles, and one character song album.
The soundtrack of 428 was primarily composed by Hideki Sakamoto and Naoki Sato, with 9 tracks done by guest composer Shingo Yasumoto. The soundtrack is varied in genre and style, which Sakamato said provided the composition process with several obstacles. The music was released on a soundtrack album by the label Lantis on February 4, 2009, with three discs and 73 tracks. J-pop artist Aya Kamiki performed the theme song to 428, "Sekai wa Sore demo Kawari wa Shinai", a rock song that describes positivity despite an unchanging world.
The music of Canaan, consisting of 101 tracks, was headed primarily by Hikaru Nanase. A three-disc soundtrack album, titled Ai, was released by Lantis on November 25, 2009. The opening and ending themes to Canaan were both of their artists' major debut singles, released by Lantis. The opening "Mind as Judgement" is a rock song by Faylan, whilst the ending theme is the contrasting, calm ballad piece "My Heaven" by Annabel. Annabel and Faylan also collaborated on an album of Canaan character songs, titled Canaan Inspired Album. Voice actress Ayahi Takagaki, as the character Nene, provided Canaan with three insert songs, which were released on a single for the lead track "China Kibun de High Tension!".
The discographies of 428 and Canaan have received positive response. The soundtrack of 428 was praised by video game and video game music critics, whereas the OST of Canaan was enjoyed by anime reviewers, who also positively noted "Mind as Judgement". Commercially, 428's soundtrack peaked at No. 131 on the Oricon Albums Chart; Canaan's did not chart. "Sekai wa Sore demo Kawari wa Shinai" peaked at No. 42 on the Singles Chart; "My Heaven" and "China Kibun de High Tension!" appeared on the 60s of the chart, whilst "Mind as Judgement" broke into the top 20.