Takenobu Mitsuyoshi

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Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
光吉 猛修
Born (1967-12-25) December 25, 1967 (age 56)[1][2]
Alma materTohoku Gakuin University
Occupations
  • Composer
  • vocalist
  • keyboardist
Years active1990–present
EmployerSega
Musical career
Genres
Instrument(s)
  • keyboards
  • vocals

Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (光吉 猛修, Mitsuyoshi Takenobu) is a Japanese composer of video game music, singer, and video game voice actor. He has composed music for various games produced by Sega, including Virtua Fighter 2 and Shenmue.[3] He first gained major recognition after the release of Daytona USA, for which he had written all music and personally sang all vocals.[4]

With the arcade games, Derby Owners Club, World Club Champion Football and Star Horse, he also recorded live orchestras.

Aside from original compositions, he also arranges, provides vocals, and is a performer for a variety of projects, including S.S.T from 1988 to 1993, and [H.] from 2004 onwards. He is well-known voicing the character Kage-Maru of Virtua Fighter franchise.

He has a younger brother named Kenji Mitsuyoshi (光吉 賢司, Mitsuyoshi Kenji), who is a manga artist and member of the artist-writer duo Ark Performance along with Kōichi Ishikawa.[5]

Works[edit]

Video games[edit]

Year Title Role(s)
1990 G-LOC R360 "Earth Frame G"
GP Rider Music with Hiroshi Kawaguchi
1991 Rent a Hero
Strike Fighter Music
1992 Virtua Racing
OutRunners Music with Takayuki Nakamura
1994 Daytona USA Music,[4] vocals
Virtua Fighter 2 Music with Takayuki Nakamura and Akiko Hashimoto
Virtua Striker Music
1995 Sega Rally Championship
Manx TT Superbike
Virtua Fighter Remix Sound design
1996 Sonic the Fighters Music with Maki Morrow
Virtua Fighter Kids Music with Takayuki Nakamura and Maki Morrow
J.League Victory Goal '96 Musicians
Virtua Fighter 3 Music with Fumio Ito and Hidenori Shoji
1997 Virtua Striker 2 Sound director
Fighters Megamix Sound design
J.League Victory Goal '97 Musicians
Digital Dance Mix: Namie Amuro Sound director
1998 Daytona USA 2 Vocals
Burning Rangers
1999 Shenmue Music with various others
2000 F355 Challenge: Passione Rossa
2001 Crackin' DJ Part 2
Shenmue II
2002 World Club Champion Football Music
2003 Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz Sound design
2005 Sonic Gems Collection "Fairy of A.I.F."
2006 Let's Go Jungle!: Lost on the Island of Spice Music
Sega Rally 2006 Music with various others
2009 Yakuza 3 Sound production
Hummer Music
2010 Yakuza 4 Interpretation assistance
Let's Go Island: Lost on the Island of Tropics Music with Junpei Mishima and Keisuke Tsukahara
2011 Daytona 2011 Music
2011 Ridge Racer [6]"Ridge Racer USA Mix" - DLC
2012 Maimai Music with various others
Samurai Bloodshow Music
2015 Chunithm: Seelisch Tact "Angry Hammer"
Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Motion actor
2017 Daytona 3 Championship USA Music[7]
2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate "F-Zero Medley"[8]
2021 Initial D The Arcade "Super Sonic"[9]
2022 Sin Chronicle "A Reason of Unchosen"
2023 Sonic Superstars "Battle Mode Medley"
2024 Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth "Reminiscent Mood"

Voice acting[edit]

Year Title Role(s)
1993 Burning Rival Bill
1993 Virtua Fighter Akira Yuki, Kage-Maru
1996 Virtua Fighter 3 Kage-Maru
2001 Virtua Fighter 4 Kage-Maru
2003 Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz Sgt. Hatter
2005 3rd Super Robot Wars Alpha: To the End of the Galaxy Apharmd the Hatter[10]
2006 Virtua Fighter 5 Kage-Maru
2012 Phantasy Star Online 2 Himself (English and Japanese)
2012 Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Announcer (Japanese)
2015 Project X Zone 2 Kage-Maru[10]
2017 Sonic Mania Competition Announcer[10]
2022 Party Quiz Sega Q Himself

Concerts[edit]

Mitsuyoshi's music from Shenmue was performed live at the first Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany, in 2003. It was the first time that a concert featuring video game music was held outside Japan.[11]

Mitsuyoshi attended the world-premiere of Play! A Video Game Symphony at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, Illinois, in May 2006. His music from the Shenmue series was performed by a full symphony orchestra. This event drew nearly 4000 attendees.[citation needed]

In 2007, his music from the World Club Champion Football series was presented at the fifth Symphonic Game Music Concert. Takenobu Mitsuyoshi joined the choir during the performance.[11]

For Symphonic Shades – Hülsbeck in Concert in 2008, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi arranged music from Apidya, by German composer Chris Hülsbeck. The event was performed by the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne in Cologne, Germany, and marked the first live radio broadcast of a video game music concert.[12]

His first dinner show was scheduled for March 22, 2020, but was postponed to August 23 of that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and then rescheduled again to January 24, 2021, due to the spread of the second wave of infection. He did an online dinner show livestream on August 23, 2020, to make room for the reschedule.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's profile". Ameba.
  2. ^ "光吉猛修さんらが「セガ・サターン」の魅力を語る。11月2日に新宿で開催". 4Gamer.net.
  3. ^ Jeriaska. "GameSetInterview: Sega's Mitsuyoshi On Giving Voice To Arcade Classics". gamesetwatch.com. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  4. ^ a b Ramos, Jeff (July 7, 2010). "Takenobu Mitsuyoshi & Rony Barrak perform "Let's Go Away" from Daytona USA". Gameculturalist.com. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 30, 2010. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  5. ^ ザ・インタビュー 漫画読みますか?一番好きな漫画を教えて下さい。
  6. ^ Takenobu Mitsuyoshi - Ridge Racer (USA MIX), retrieved December 5, 2021
  7. ^ Barry the Nomad (November 2016). "SEGA Amusements reveals Daytona 3 Championship USA plus more details!". SEGAbits. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  8. ^ "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch system".
  9. ^ "頭文字D THE ARCADE" (in Japanese).
  10. ^ a b c "Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (visual voices guide)". behindthevoiceactors.com. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  11. ^ a b Symphonic Game Music Concerts, The Concert Programs Archived December 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Symphonic Shades, Symphonic Shades live im Radio

External links[edit]