{"id":77935,"date":"2025-02-09T13:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T13:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/anime\/yoko-kanno-crafting-the-songs-of-90s-anime\/"},"modified":"2025-02-09T13:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T13:33:10","slug":"yoko-kanno-crafting-the-songs-of-90s-anime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=77935","title":{"rendered":"Yoko Kanno: Crafting the Songs of 90s Anime"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sometimes, you realize the world is a whole lot smaller than you originally thought. Sometimes, you learn an amazing fact about someone\u2019s career that ties things together you had no idea were connected. This is one of those moments for me.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with a little off-topic background<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n
I grew up in the golden age of video games. Most of the time I was playing with my best friend, so co-cop games were highly sought after. We played things like Contra, Ikari Warriors, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage\u2026etc.<\/p>\n
But there was a time when we were introduced to what we called a \u201cboard game style\u201d video game. It was advertised as a historical military strategy game, and it was released in 1989 (US) by a company I had never heard of before: KOEI. The game was called NOBUNAGA\u2019S AMBITION and it changed my life as a gamer.<\/p>\nCheck out that emotional intro!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
My friend and I played this one game for an entire summer. Every night. Hours and hours and hours spent. We sat there and talked about school, cartoons, movies, and our other hobbies between turns. We ate rice crispy snacks by the tray load and drank copious amounts of soda (not Mountain Dew!) (OK, maybe some Mountain Dew!).<\/p>\n
Those were the good old days for me. So, when I recently found out that the person who composed the music for my favorite KOEI games, music that is hauntingly part of my past\u2026music that instantly reminds me of some of the best years of my youth, also composed music from several of my favorite anime and the theme song of Cowboy Bebop. Yeah. You can imagine. Boom! Mind blown.<\/p>\n
As I write this I still wonder, how can one person be responsible for creating music for multiple intellectual properties that I hold dear? Is that even possible? It turns out it can be, and that is truly amazing.<\/p>\n
But enough about me. Let\u2019s talk about award-winning composer and basically musical genius, Yoko Kanno.<\/p>\n
Kanno\u2019s Early Days<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Yoko Kanno was born in Sendai, Japan in 1963. Her strict parents limited her access to movies and television and only allowed her to listen to classical music. Yoko studied the keyboard from a young age, but when attending college, her major focus shifted to literature.<\/p>\n
While in college, she began helping her friends with their musical projects and eventually joined a band. It was during this time that she was introduced to all sorts of new genres of music: folk, pop, jazz, rock, metal, contemporary and more.<\/p>\n
During her time in college, a video game publishing company named KOEI offered her a job composing the soundtrack for a new game in a brand-new line of games they were starting. That game was ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS, a historically based military strategy game. This was her big shot and guess what? The game became a huge hit and Yoko\u2019s career was officially launched.<\/p>\nCheck out that epic intro!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
During her career, Yoko Kanno has composed music for sixteen video games, largely staying within KOEIs original historically based strategy games such as the acclaimed NOBUNAGA\u2019S AMBITION, GENGHIS KHAN, and UNCHARTED WATERS.<\/p>\n
But this is just one small fraction of her musical empire. She has composed for movies, anime, TV, commercials, and more. Let\u2019s look at some of the 90s anime she has done.<\/p>\n
The 90s Anime<\/strong> Music of Yoko Kanno<\/h2>\n
Yoko Kanno has worked on nearly 40 anime projects spanning thirty years from 1992 to the present day. She has been nominated for the Annie Award<\/strong> and International Film Music Critics Award<\/strong>, Blue Dragon Award, <\/strong>and won the Asian Film Critics Association Award<\/strong> and Tokyo Anime Award<\/strong> five times.<\/p>\n
Listed below are just a few highlights from her incredible long run.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/90sanime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/romance-of-the-three-kingdoms-title-screen-1024x575.jpg)
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/90sanime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/seatbelts.jpg)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/90sanime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/yoko-kanno-stairs-pic-1024x576.jpg)
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