Now Viewing: sugiyama_koichiTag type: Character すぎやま こういち A short_haired man who wears glasses. He was a composer who was born on April 11, 1931 in Tokyo, Japan. He was interested in and surrounded by music since his youth and began making his own compositions when he was a teenager. In spite of his passion for music, he started his professional career in the reporting in Nippon Cultural Broadcasting and a director at Fuji TV. In 1968, he decided to become a composer full time, which he did for the rest of his life. He composed and conducted many of his own compositions and from 1968 to the early 1980s, he was most well known for his anime scores such as Cyborg_009 and Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman: the Movie. During the 1980s, Sugiyama became interested in a medium that was steadily growing in popularity, video games. He particularly enjoyed a shogi game that was developed by the company Enix, so much so, that he sent them a fan letter expressing his appreciation. The company was surprised to see a big name composer like Sugiyama was a video game fan, and they decided to recruit Sugiyama to write music for their games. His first work under Enix was 1986's Wingman 2, but his next project was the work that he would become most well known for, the original Dragon_Quest. Sugiyama wrote the score for every Dragon Quest game made during his lifetime and became both the oldest video game composer and one of the most influential in said field. For his game scores, he worked within the technological limitations of consoles, but also released CDs containing arrangements of his scores played by a full live orchestra, which would become a recurring trend for many video game soundtracks. Sugiyama was also the first to introduce video game concerts, which first happened in 1991 when he, along with a crew of fellow big name game composers, held a series of concerts with the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras. Thanks to his extensive music work, he was given the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th Class by the Japanese government in 2018 and was deemed a Person of Cultural Merit in 2020. Outside of his musical work, he was also known for being a right-wing political commentator within Japan, an aspect of his life that was much more controversial due to his opinions on various hot-button issues of the 20th-21st century. He was played by Yasuda Ken in a 2022 biographical TV drama that aired on 24-jikan Terebi 45. Said drama focuses on Sugiyama's contribution to Dragon Quest. Sugiyama passed away from septic shock on September 30, 2021. His work: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koichi_Sugiyama Other Wiki Information Last updated: 03/08/24 6:52 AM by jojosstand This entry is not locked and you can edit it as you see fit. |