Michiru Yamane facts for kids

Michiru Yamane (born September 23, 1963) is a talented Japanese video game composer and pianist. She mixes different music styles like Baroque, classical, and rock. Two of her biggest inspirations are Johann Sebastian Bach and the band Yellow Magic Orchestra. Michiru Yamane is most famous for working at the gaming company Konami for 20 years. Her music for the Castlevania game series is some of her best-known work.

Michiru Yamane loved music from a young age. She practiced on the electric organ and piano a lot. She studied how to write music in college. Then, in 1988, she started working as a composer for Konami. She was part of the Konami Kukeiha Club, where she worked with other musicians on many Konami games. Her most important work came with the Castlevania games: Bloodlines (1994) and Symphony of the Night (1997).

Early Life and Music Training

Michiru Yamane was born in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, on September 23, 1963. She started learning the electric organ when she was about four years old. She also began playing the piano soon after. She liked playing popular rock songs on the organ. But she became very interested in classical music when she played the piano.

She started writing her own music around age eight. By the time she was a teenager, she knew she wanted to write songs for movies or commercials. She also thought about becoming a jazz pianist. She went to a special music high school where she focused on piano. There, she learned about harmony, counterpoint, and music theory. Around this time, she also started playing video games at arcades. She decided to study composition at the Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts. In college, she learned to write music for large orchestras. She wrote her main paper about the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. She also kept playing games on a friend's Famicom.

Her Career in Video Games

Working at Konami

Michiru Yamane started working for Konami in 1988. This was just before her last year of college. She had a teaching license and was teaching part-time. But she felt that job wasn't right for her. She applied to Konami after seeing a job opening through her college. She was hired even though she had never thought about becoming a game composer specifically. She just liked games and music.

At Konami, Yamane was part of the Konami Kukeiha Club. This was the company's special sound team. At first, she was only a composer. Later, she learned how to use computer programs to make music. Her first projects at Konami were the main songs for King's Valley II and Risa no Yōsei Densetsu (1988). She also worked on the Track and Field games, creating short victory tunes.

After that, she worked on many games for Game Boy, Famicom, MSX, and arcades. Many of her first projects were shoot 'em up games. These included the Nemesis series and Detana!! TwinBee. She felt these games helped her learn the "Konami sound." At first, it was hard to work with only three sound channels on the Famicom. This was very different from writing for orchestras. But she learned to enjoy working with these limits. She was inspired by Bach's "Inventions and Sinfonias," which also used only two or three notes at a time.

Yamane's first time as the main composer was for Ganbare Goemon 2 (1989). She learned how to edit sounds from older sound programmers. She also worked on Rocket Knight Adventures (1993) and its two follow-up games. She wrote music for Sparkster and made sound effects for Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2. Akira Yamaoka joined Konami around this time and worked with Yamane on the second Sparkster game.

Music for Castlevania

Michiru Yamane is most famous for her work on the Castlevania series. After moving to Konami's Tokyo office, her boss thought she would be great for the new Castlevania game. This game was Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994). The Castlevania series was already popular and known for its great music. So, she felt pressure to do well. She was asked to write music based on themes from older games. Yamane felt a connection between the game's vampire themes and the classical music she loved. She worked to mix her classical style with the rock themes already in the series.

Yamane worked closely with Koji Igarashi, who produced many Castlevania games.

The next game in the series was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997). This game was made for the PlayStation. The art director asked Yamane to join the team. Because the PlayStation used CD-ROMs, the music could be much higher quality. Yamane felt more freedom because she could use real sounds instead of being limited by older sound chips. For Symphony of the Night, she was greatly inspired by the artwork of Ayami Kojima. She used special equipment and computer programs to record the music. This was the first time she tried putting rock music into a game. It is still one of her most popular soundtracks. She also made all the sound effects for the game because there weren't enough staff members.

Yamane stayed very involved with Koji Igarashi and the Castlevania team after Symphony of the Night. She looked at artwork and story ideas for future games. She composed for Lament of Innocence (2003) and Curse of Darkness (2005). She also wrote music for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS Castlevania games. These games had limits on how many notes could play at once, like older consoles. She listened to many different types of music to get new ideas. This helped her music stay fresh. On Portrait of Ruin (2006), she worked with Yuzo Koshiro. The last Castlevania music she wrote was for Order of Ecclesia (2008). She worked on this game with Yasuhiro Ichihashi. She says her favorite scores were for Aria of Sorrow (2003), Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia.

While working on Castlevania, Yamane also composed for other games. She helped with Suikoden III (2002) and Suikoden IV (2004). She also worked with Sota Fujimori on Gungage (1999) and Elder Gate (2000). They mixed her classical style with his modern electronic music. She also worked on the Winning Eleven series and The Sword of Etheria (2005).

Working as a Freelancer

After writing music for over 40 games at Konami, Yamane left the company in 2008. She decided to become a freelance composer. This meant she could work for herself. She wanted more freedom to choose her projects and manage her own time. Since then, Yamane has continued to compose music for video games. She has also written music for films, commercials, television, and anime. She has thought about making her own music album. Some games she has composed for include Otomedius Excellent (2011) and Skullgirls (2012). Even though she no longer works directly for Konami, she has still helped with Castlevania music. She has also composed for Koji Igarashi's game Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

Yamane sometimes performs in live concerts. Her first live performance was a song from Symphony of the Night in Leipzig in 2006. She also played live at a Castlevania concert in Stockholm in 2010. In 2015, she played with other Japanese composers at a concert in China.

Her Musical Style and Inspirations

Game Developer magazine has described Yamane's music as having an "old, gothic, Victorian style." Yamane feels she became interested in dark classical music through her studies of Bach in college. She has also been inspired by other famous composers. These include Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin.

In high school, Yamane listened to bands like Kraftwerk, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). YMO was a big influence on many Japanese game composers. She also enjoys listening to Dream Theater. She gets ideas from many types of music. These include techno pop, progressive rock, film scores, folk, jazz, rock, bossa nova, and contemporary classical music. She likes film scores by composers like Jerry Goldsmith. When she was younger, she enjoyed American pop music from artists like Barry Manilow, Burt Bacharach, Eric Carmen, The Doobie Brothers, and The Eagles.

Yamane has said she enjoys music from other game composers too. She especially likes the work of Nobuo Uematsu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yoko Kanno, and Motoi Sakuraba. She also explained that the games Tomb Raider and its sequel changed how she thought about sound design in games.

List of Works

Michiru Yamane contributed music to over 40 games while at Konami. As a member of the Konami Kukeiha Club, she often worked with other composers and sound programmers.

See also

In Spanish: Michiru Yamane para niños