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Kohei Tanaka (Japanese: 田中 公平, Hepburn: Tanaka Kōhei, born February 14, 1954) 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 television series, OVAs, films, video games and tokusatsu series including Gunbuster, Sakura Wars and One Piece.

Biography

Tanaka was a student at Berklee College of Music. 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 Gunbuster 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, 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

See also

• List of video game musicians

References

1. ^ "More Acen Guests". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
2. "Profile of Tanaka Kohei". TanakaKouhei.com. Archived from the original on December 5, 2006.
3. ^ アニメ / メディア芸術データベース – 田中公平 [Anime / Media Arts Database (search results) – Kohei Tanaka]. Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Japan: Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
4. "ドラゴンボール -東映アニメーション-" (in Japanese). Toei Animation. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
5. ^ "One Piece's Tanaka & Romancing SaGa's Itō Hold Joint Concert". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
6. Inc, Natasha. "「ONE PIECE」ワノ国編のBGM演奏は和楽器演奏集団・桜menが担当（コメントあり）". コミックナタリー (in Japanese). Retrieved August 12, 2019. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
7. ^ "Megumi Hayashibara Stars in Kaiketsu Zorori Trailer". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
8. "Full Metal Panic's Gatoh Writes Kyoto Animation's Hyoka". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
9. "Assassination Classroom Anime Cast Sings Opening Theme". Anime News Network. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
10. "New Sakura Wars Game Gets TV Anime in 2020". Anime News Network. September 13, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
11. "New Kaiketsu Zorori Anime Reveals Cast, Theme Songs, April 5 Premiere". Anime News Network. February 13, 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
12. "Bushiroad, Sumzap, Drecom Unveil D_Cide Traumerei Project With Game, TV Anime". Anime News Network. March 16, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
13. "Grendizer U TV Anime Revealed for Debut in 2024". Anime News Network. August 5, 2023. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
14. "「ONE PIECE ワンピース」DVD公式サイト". Log Collection (in Japanese). Retrieved July 28, 2019.
15. "EYCA-12666~7 | ONE PIECE STAMPEDE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - VGMdb". vgmdb.net. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
16. ^ "Kohei Tanaka profile". imagine-music.co.jp.
17. "Xardion for SNES (1992)". MobyGames. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
18. "Hardcore Gaming 101: Sakura Taisen". hardcoregaming101.net. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
19. "Blues Brothers 2000 - Retro Gamer". retrogamer.net. February 13, 2012. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
20. "RPGamer > Staff Retroview > Alundra". rpgamer.com. Archived from the original on October 1, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
21. "Dragon Force II: When the Gods Abandoned the Earth : Review by Chris". Square Enix Music Online. Archived from the original on December 1, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
22. Alundra 2 - PS1 - ending, November 20, 2016, archived from the original on December 21, 2021, retrieved March 14, 2021
23. "桜庭統さんと田中公平さんが『エンド オブ エタニティ』の音楽について語る [Dengeki: Interview with Motoi Sakuraba and Kouhei Tanaka]". Dengeki Online. March 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
24. Hamilton, Kirk (June 14, 2012). "The Dizzy, Delightfully Grand Music of Gravity Rush". kotaku.com. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
25. Hamilton, Kirk (December 14, 2012). "The Best Video Game Music of 2012". kotaku.com. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
26. "Check Out Gravity Rush 2's Latest Footage And Mini-Concert By Composer Kohei Tanaka". siliconera.com. July 29, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
27. "11 minutes of Gravity Rush 2 gameplay, details". gematsu.com. December 9, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
28. "Notice on Release of Anime RPG "PRINCESS CONNECT! Re:Dive"". cyberagent.co.jp. February 15, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
29. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "ONE PIECE: World Seeker - Announcement Trailer | PS4, X1, PC". YouTube. December 18, 2017.
30. "Project Sakura Wars announced for PS4". March 30, 2019.

External links

• http://ameblo.jp/kenokun/ (in Japanese)
• Kohei Tanaka on Twitter

• 1954 births
• Anime composers
• Berklee College of Music alumni
• Japanese film score composers
• Japanese male 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