Kenji Ito facts for kids

Kenji Ito (born July 5, 1968) is a famous Japanese video game composer and musician. People often call him Itoken. He is best known for creating music for popular game series like Mana and SaGa.

Throughout his career, Kenji Ito has worked on over 30 video games. He has also composed or arranged music for more than 15 other albums, concerts, and plays. He started learning musical instruments when he was very young. In 1990, he joined a company called Square right after college. He worked there as a composer for over ten years, creating many of his most famous songs. In 2001, he decided to become a freelance composer, meaning he worked for himself. Even so, he still works with Square (now Square Enix) on new projects.

Since becoming freelance, Ito has composed music for many games. He has also started making music for plays and albums for other singers. His music has been played in special concerts just for his work. He has also performed piano at other video game music events. Some of his famous songs from the SaGa and Mana series have even been turned into piano solos. You can find these in sheet music books.

About Kenji Ito

Early Life and Music Beginnings

Kenji Ito was born in Tokyo, Japan, on July 5, 1968. He became interested in music when he was just four years old. He started learning to play the piano after hearing its beautiful sounds from a classroom. He also liked Electone music, but his piano teacher told him to stick with the piano.

By the time he was ten, he could play the alto saxophone, clarinet, and piano. He even thought about becoming a singer and songwriter. When he was about to finish college, he decided he wanted to compose music for a living. His professor suggested he become a video game music composer. This was because games like Dragon Quest III were very popular in Japan. In March 1990, after applying to several game companies, Ito began working at Square.

His Career in Gaming Music

Kenji Ito's first project was in 1990. He worked with Nobuo Uematsu on the music for Final Fantasy Legend II for the Game Boy. The next year, his music was released on an album called All Sounds of SaGa. This album included music from Final Fantasy Legend II and other games.

Soon after, in 1991, he composed his first solo soundtrack for Final Fantasy Adventure. This was another Game Boy game. He then returned to the SaGa series. He created music for Romancing SaGa, Romancing SaGa 2, and Romancing SaGa 3 on the Super Famicom. These soundtracks were so popular that they led to special arranged albums.

In 1995, Ito worked on games outside the Mana or SaGa series for the first time. He composed music for Koi wa Balance and was part of a team for Tobal No. 1. He went back to the SaGa series in 1997 with SaGa Frontier. He also worked on Chocobo Racing and Chocobo's Dungeon 2. For Chocobo Racing, he mostly arranged older songs. He only made a few new tracks for Chocobo's Dungeon 2.

In 2001, he left Square to become a freelance composer. He wanted the freedom to work on different types of music, not just video games.

Freelance Work and Beyond

The first game Kenji Ito scored after leaving Square was Culdcept II. He feels this is his best work. He liked that it was his first freelance project. He also handled all parts of the music production himself.

After that, he worked with Square (now Square Enix) again. He remade his second soundtrack, Final Fantasy Adventure, into the music for Sword of Mana. He did this again two years later for Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song. He has also worked on the Mana series two more times. These were for the games Children of Mana and Dawn of Mana.

Since 2004, most of his video game soundtracks have been made with other composers. However, he worked alone on Hero Must Die in 2007. During these years, he also started composing and producing music for albums and plays. He even released an album of his own piano pieces. Only two of these eight songs were from his video game work.

His Music's Impact

Kenji Ito has performed piano live at several concerts. On September 22, 2006, he played at the Press Start 2006 -Symphony of Games- concert. An orchestra also performed some of his pieces there. Before that, on August 26, 2006, he played piano for songs he composed for singer Manami Kiyota. He has also played with The Black Mages, a band made of Square musicians.

His music has been featured at other events too. These include the Extra -Hyper Game Music Event 2007 and Christmas Live 2008 "gentleecho -prelude-" concerts.

A special concert just for Kenji Ito's music happened on February 21, 2009. It was called "gentle echo meeting" in Tokyo. Five musicians played eight of his songs. Ito himself also performed and talked about his music. He wanted to host a concert of his own music. The event grew to include discussions when the company found out the hall was run by Ito's old classmate.

Music from Dawn of Mana and Sword of Mana has been arranged for piano. These have been published in sheet music books. Two collections of music from the Mana series have also been released. These include Ito's songs from Final Fantasy Adventure and Dawn of Mana. All the songs in these books are simplified for beginner to intermediate piano players. They are still made to sound like the original game music.

Piano music from some of the SaGa games Kenji Ito composed has also been published. These include music from Romancing SaGa 3, Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song, and SaGa Frontier.

How He Creates Music

Kenji Ito's music is mostly inspired by the images and feelings of the games he works on. He doesn't usually play the games himself. He only plays sports games. For most role-playing games, he has only seen the opening movie.

Many of his songs are orchestral, meaning they sound like they are played by a large orchestra. But he also enjoys making "normal songs" in a recording studio. Some of his favorite video game music comes from games like Star Fox, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy.

Outside of games, he is inspired by Japanese pop music and anime soundtracks. He also likes easy listening music, especially string music. These influences make him want to create music "that you can listen to while you relax." He also hopes to compose more music outside of video games, like ballads.

His Works

Video Games

Other Projects

Compositions

Arrangements

• "Ai no Sumika"~"Hyouhaku no Toki /Komoro Nikki -Touson no Fuyuko" Stage Music Collection~ (1999) – album by Kyoko Fujimoto
• Hyouhaku no Toki/ Touson to Fuyuko (2001) – concert
• Katakoi (2002) – single by Muneyuki Satoh
• Soredemo Kisetsu wa (2002) – single by Muneyuki Satoh
• Tougenkyo -Masashi Sada Chromatic Harmonica Music Collection- (2002) – album by Etsuko Kitani
• Mirai (2003) – album by Yusuke Matsumoto

See also

• Music of the Mana series
• Music of the SaGa series
• Music of the Chocobo series