is a Japanese composer, arranger, conductor and singer-songwriter. He is affiliated with the music production company Imagine. He has created numerous musical scores for

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series, OVAs, films,

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s and ''

tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, ''tokusatsu'' mainly refers to science fiction film, science fiction, War fi ...

'' series including ''

Gunbuster ''Gunbuster'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese original video animation (OVA) series produced by Bandai Visual, Victor Entertainment, and Gainax and released from October 1988 to July 1989. It was the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno, b ...

'', ''

Sakura Wars is a Japanese steampunk media franchise created by Oji Hiroi and owned by Sega. It is focused around a series of cross-genre video games. The first game in the series was released in 1996, with five sequels and numerous spin-off titles bein ...

The King of Braves GaoGaiGar is a Japanese anime television series produced by Sunrise (company), Sunrise's internal "Studio 7" division alongside Tokyu Agency. It is the eighth installment in the ''Brave series'' franchise. Yoshitomo Yonetani is its director, with Yo ...

, Betterman,'' and ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he explores the Grand Line in search of the myt ...

''.

Biography

Tanaka was a student at

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

. While employed playing the piano in a hotel lounge, he was requested to arrange a song in '' Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX'', a 1982 TV anime, and it became his first work as a composer. Afterwards, he produced some songs and arrangements for the Super Sentai series and his first work as a lead composer was for the television anime ''Konpora Kids'' in 1985. Notably, the background music in ''

'' made his name and talent very famous among anime fans and is recognized as one of his most important works. He also handled the composition of ''

Diebuster ''DieBuster'', also known as and ''GunBuster 2'', is a Japanese original video animation (OVA) series directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, written by Yōji Enokido and animated by Gainax. It was created to commemorate the studio's 20th anni ...

'', a sequel series of ''Gunbuster'', and showed a peculiar arrangement to his own work 17 years ago. He hosted the Dai Anime Hakurankai radio show on Tokai Radio together with the voice actress Konami Yoshida from April 1993 to September 1994. His discussions with Toshio Okada and Hiroshi Yamamoto about anime, originally published in the ''hm3'' voice acting magazine, have been republished in book form. On February 14, 2008, he opened an official website and announced his intention to work also as a singer in the future. On July 4, he released his first solo album called ''Kokorone song 1st''.

Works

Anime

Films

Video games

References

External links

* http://ameblo.jp/kenokun/ * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanaka, Kohei 1954 births Anime composers Berklee College of Music alumni Japanese film score composers Japanese male conductors (music) Japanese male film score composers Living people Musicians from Osaka Tokyo University of the Arts alumni Japanese video game composers