Japanese Composers

So the other day I came across an Iwasaki Taku album I'd never heard of, and it was so good I felt like sharing. I need to track down the series it belongs to at some point, although unfortunately it's not licensed in my country so I'll have to resort to ... other means.



Iwasaki Taku has also composed for Soul Eater, Kekkaishi, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Katanagatari, and a number of other series, and his work is very individual and distinctive. I kind of wonder, though, if anyone on FAKKU! has even heard of him?

Who listens to OSTs? Who remembers the names of composers? Any favourites? Discuss.

Misawa Yasuhiro for the great work on Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!, closely followed by Tenmon for, well, pretty much everything he's done, ever.

Tenmon has never really appealed to me much, although I give his stuff an occasional listen.

Yasuhiro I'm not familiar with, although the little bit I've just browsed reminds me vaguely of Yuuya Mori's work on Seitokai Yakuindomo (although I have a nagging feeling the comparison isn't really justified). Got a favourite track you can point me to?

Massugu Go! would probably be one of my favorites, but there are a few quite different, equally good tracks there (intermission, Manabi Straight!, Saishuppatsu, Koko Kara Hajimaru Monogatari, Outbreak).

How is Joe Hisaishi not on that list? He's definitely my favourite because he's done pretty much all of the music for most of the Studio Ghibli films.

Because I overlooked him accidentally. :P

I have two in mind- Nobuo, and Koji Kondo. I especially enjoyed Koji Kondo's music as a child, growing up with Nintendo games like Super Mario, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Starfox 64.

Also, I'd say he knew how to scare the shit out of kids on occasion:

How is ZUN from Touhou not on the list? That guy is a musical genius. Yuyoyuppe and Utsu-P are also unbelievably amazing composers as well. Utsu-P and Yuyoyuppe can easily work in genres that are completely opposite to their normal works and ZUN, well there are far too many examples for him. Not to mention Utsu-P's lyrics are immensely deep and have huge philosophical meanings.

That would be because I've never heard of any of them. Are they self-published?

Come to think of it, maybe ryo from supercell should be on the list. Too much of a bother to edit the poll now, though. :P