Takenobu Mitsuyoshi

Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (光吉猛修, Mitsuyoshi Takenobu, born December 12, 1967) is a Japanese composer of video game music. He has composed music for various games produced by Sega, including Virtua Fighter 2 and Shenmue.

Mitsuyoshi's name first gained major recognition after the release of Daytona USA, for which he had written all music and personally sang all vocals.

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.

Works

• R360 G-LOC (1990) - "Earth Frame G"
• GP Rider (1990) - with Hiroshi Kawaguchi
• Strike Fighter (1991)
• Virtua Racing (1992)
• OutRunners (1992) - with Takayuki Nakamura
• Daytona USA (1993)
• Virtua Fighter 2 (1994) - with Takayuki Nakamura and Akiko Hashimoto
• Virtua Striker (1994)
• Sega Rally Championship (1995)
• Sonic the Fighters (1996) - with Maki Morrow
• Virtua Fighter 3 (1996)
• Virtua Fighter Kids (1996) - with Takayuki Nakamura and Maki Morrow
• Fighters Megamix (1997)
• Virtua Striker 2 (1997)
• Daytona USA 2 (1998) - vocals
• Burning Rangers (1998) - vocals
• Shenmue (1999) - with various others
• Derby Owners Club (1999)
• Crackin' DJ Part 2 (2001) - with various others
• Shenmue II (2001) - with various others
• World Club Champion Football (2002)
• Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz (2003)
• Sega Rally 2006 (2006) - with various others
• Let's Go Jungle!: Lost on the Island of Spice (2006)
• Maimai (2012) - with various others
• Samurai Bloodshow (2012)
• Chunithm: Seelisch Tact (2015) - "Angry Hammer"
• Daytona 3 Championship USA (2017)

Concerts

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.

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.

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.

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.