Yoshihisa Hirano

This article is about the composer. For the baseball player, see Yoshihisa Hirano (baseball).

Yoshihisa Hirano (平野 義久, Hirano Yoshihisa, born December 7, 1971) is a Japanese composer and arranger.^[1] He is best known for composing the scores for anime series, such as Death Note, Hunter × Hunter (2011), and Edens Zero.^[2] He has also made the orchestration for video games, mostly in the Final Fantasy franchise.^[3] His musical style combines impressionism and atonal music. He employs techniques such as polyrhythm, tone clusters, polytonality, brass glissandi and polymodal chromaticism to create unique musical textures.

Yoshihisa Hirano 平野義久
Born	(1971-12-07) December 7, 1971 (age 52) Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
Genres	Contemporary Music Soundtrack Classical Experimental Music
Occupation(s)	Composer Arranger Conductor
Labels	VAP
Website	www.yoshihisahirano.com

Biography

Yoshihisa Hirano was born in Wakayama, Japan, in 1971. He started to study composition by himself as an elementary student because of his interest for baroque music. He then discovered jazz in high school, and this enthusiasm has shaped his career in music. He mentioned having listened to Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, among others.^[4] His admiration of them once gave him dreams of becoming a jazz musician, but he then discovered contemporary music. He gained interest in the works of John Zorn,^[5] one of the musicians who had the biggest influence on him in his youth. On the other hand, symphonies by Shostakovich also greatly impressed him,^[6] and helped him make up his mind to study composition seriously.

He moved to the United States and studied composition at Juilliard School, in 1992, with Stanley Wolfe. He later entered Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Christopher Rouse and Joseph Schwantner. Some of the awards he has received include first prize in the Axia Tape Competition, in Japan, during his high school years, and New York's New Music for Young Ensembles.^[7]

Hirano made his debut as a composer in 2001, in the anime series Beyblade. After that, he made the music for Tokyo DisneySea's 2002 and 2004 countdown celebrations. In 2002, Hirano paired with pianist Masako Hosoda to form the unit Bleu, releasing 3 albums since then.^[8] Hirano was also responsible for some of the orchestration and arrangement for a number of Ali Project's albums.^[which?]

Since then, Hirano has composed for many anime series, as well as music for concert, dance, film and radio, with compositions ranging from classical to pop and contemporary music.^[9]

Works

Classical music

• 2000 - Variations on the Overture from “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” for Orchestra
• 2002 - Piano Suite “Le Miracle de la Rose”
• 2005 - Four Variations on Mahler's “Adagietto” for Chamber Orchestra
• 2006 - Conte ~ after Kenji Miyazawa's "Night on the Galactic Railroad" for Piano solo
• 2007 - Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Orchestra
• 2008 - Death Note Concertino for Wind Band
• 2009 - Symphonic Suite “Final Fantasy XIII” for Orchestra
• 2012 - String Quartet “Descending Dragon”
• 2015 - Piano Sonata
• 2015 - “San Narciso Capriccio” for Saxophone Quartet
• 2015 - Exercises Radio Nobles et Sentimentals for Piano Solo
• 2015 - Nocturne of Princess Tankaku for Piano Solo
• 2016 - “LIBERAL DANCES” for Saxophone Quartet
• 2016 - 10 Preludes for Piano Solo
• 2017 - Symphonic Suite “Hunter x Hunter” for Orchestra
• 2018 - Picaresque for Cello Solo
• 2019 - Concerto for Koto and Orchestra “Fukuyama Fantasia”
• 2022 - “Elegy” for Harp and Contrabass
• 2024 - Unnamed Piece for Piano Solo

Anime

Yoshihisa Hirano has participated in the making of the soundtracks from the following anime works:

Year	Title	Note(s)	Ref(s)
2001	Beyblade	TV	^[10]
2002	Seven of Seven	TV
	Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Ajisai Yumegatari~	OVA
	Hanada Shōnen-shi	TV
2003	Air Master	TV
2004	Maria-sama ga Miteru	TV Music arrangement
	Midori Days	TV
	Doki Doki School Hours	TV
	Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Haru~	TV Opening theme song arrangement
	Harukanaru Toki no Naka de Hachiyō Shō	TV
	Ginyuu Mokushiroku Meine Liebe	TV
2006	Strawberry Panic	TV
	Ouran High School Host Club	TV
	Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Maihitoyo~	Film
	Silk Road Boy Yuto	TV
	Super Robot Wars Original Generation: Divine Wars	TV
	Death Note	TV Other tracks by Hideki Taniuchi	^[11]
2007	Kotetsushin Jeeg	TV
2008	Top Secret ~The Revelation~	TV
	RD Sennō Chōsashitsu	TV
2009	Hajime No Ippo: New Challenger	TV
	Tatakau Shisho	TV	^[12]
2010	Chu-Bra	TV
	Broken Blade	Film series
2011	Hunter × Hunter (2011)	TV	^[13]
2012	Tanken Driland	TV
2013	Hajime No Ippo: Rising	TV
	Hunter × Hunter: Phantom Rouge	Film	^[14]
	Hunter × Hunter: The Last Mission	Film	^[15]
2014	Broken Blade	TV
	Ai Tenchi Muyo!	TV
2021	Edens Zero	TV	^[16]
2023	Helck	TV	^[17]

Movies

Year	Title	Director	Ref(s)
2022	I Am Makimoto	Nobuo Mizuta
2023	We're Millennials Got a Problem?	Nobuo Mizuta
	Confess to your Crimes	Nobuo Mizuta

Video games

Year	Title	Note(s)	Ref(s)
2006	Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-	PS2 game Orchestration	^[18]
2009	Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles	Wii game Orchestration & additional music	^[19]
	Final Fantasy XIII	PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 game Orchestration & additional music

References

1. . University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Archived from the original on June 2, 2010. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
2. Phillips, Demi (April 18, 2022). "10 anime with incredible soundtracks". We Got This Covered. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
3. Pineda, Rafael Antonio (May 2, 2019). "Montreal's Otakuthon Hosts Yoshihisa Hirano, FAKY, Rica Matsumoto". Anime News Network. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
4. "平野義久 公式サイト". Yoshihisa Hirano Official Site. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
5. "平野義久 公式サイト". Yoshihisa Hirano Official Site. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
6. "平野義久 公式サイト". Yoshihisa Hirano Official Site. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
7. "平野義久 公式サイト". Yoshihisa Hirano Official Site. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
8. "Yoshihisa Hirano". VGMdb. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
9. "Official 2010 Winter Anime Preview: Headless Bikers, Pantsu and Breast Feeding". Otaka Review.net. January 2, 2010. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
10. "BEYBLADE: Original Soundtrack". CDJapan. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
11. "Death Note Original Soundtrack". CDJapan. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
12. "TV Anime "Tatakau Shisho The Book of Bantorra" Original Soundtrack". CDJapan. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
13. "Funimation UK/IE to stream Hunter x Hunter (2011 anime series)". Anime UK News. July 13, 2020. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
14. ""Hunter X Hunter: Phantom Rouge (Anime Movie)" Original Soundtrack". CDJapan. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
15. ""Hunter X Hunter The Last Mission (Theatrical Anime)" Original Soundtrack". CDJapan. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
16. Pineda, Rafael Antonio (January 12, 2021). "Edens Zero Anime's Teaser Video Reveals More Staff". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
17. Dempsey, Liam (February 10, 2023). "Fantasy TV Anime Helck Gets Fully Equipped with Teaser Trailer, Main Staff and 20 Cast Members". Crunchyroll. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
18. "DIRGE of CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII- Original Soundtrack | CRCP-40137~8 - VGMdb". VGMdb. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
19. "Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Original Soundtrack | SE-3001-2 - VGMdb". VGMdb. Retrieved June 11, 2022.

External links

• Official website(in Japanese)
• Yoshihisa Hirano discography at VGMdb
• Yoshihisa Hirano at Oricon (in Japanese)
• Yoshihisa Hirano anime at Media Arts Database (in Japanese)
• Yoshihisa Hirano at IMDb
• Yoshihisa Hirano at Anime News Network's encyclopedia