Yoko Kanno

Yoko Kanno (菅野 よう子 Kanno Yōko, born 19 March 1964 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan) is a composer and keyboardist. She has made music for many anime, video games, and movies. Kanno runs Meow on the Bridge (music office) and Captain Duckling Records (music label).

 Biography 
Some of her most famous music includes "Voices" (Macross Plus), "Tank!" (Cowboy Bebop), "Yakusoku wa Iranai" (Escaflowne), "Gravity" (Wolf's Rain), and "Inner Universe" (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex). She was the singer of a band called The Seatbelts, which was created just to make the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.

She has worked on music for many Koei games sold from the late 1980s to 1990s, and even for a Dreamcast game. Because she worked a lot in the Cowboy Bebop anime, the game sold by Bandai also features her work.

Apart from anime and games, Kanno also makes pieces for live-action films and television commercials. She likes Grand Funk Inc. recording studio for producing for these two media. Contributions to films started in the 90s but only since 2002 has there been a trend towards the medium. Most of the latter were shown in international film festivals.

There are some rumors that one of her frequently hired vocalists, Gabriela Robin, is Kanno herself under a pseudonym (fake name).

She was married to fellow composer Hajime Mizoguchi. They worked together to create the music for Please Save My Earth and Escaflowne.

She has gone to Otakon and Anime Expo in 1999, as well as Anime Expo New York in 2002.

On September 13, 2005, Gamespot said that Kanno had been hired by Gravity Corporation to create the music for their in-development MMORPG, Ragnarok Online 2.

Anime works
 Brain Powerd
 Cardcaptor Sakura (TV opening theme)
 Cowboy Bebop
 Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
 Dai-Guard
 Earth Girl Arjuna
 Escaflowne: The Movie (in collaboration with Hajime Mizoguchi)
 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
 Ghost in the Shell: Tachikoma Days
 Macross 7 (some of the music)
 Macross 7 Encore (some of the music)
 Macross Dynamite 7 (some of the music)
 Macross Plus
 Memories: Magnetic Rose
 Sakamichi no Apollon
 The Vision of Escaflowne (in collaboration with Hajime Mizoguchi)
 Wolf's Rain (TV & OVA)

Movie works
All of the movies are live-action except for Noiseman Sound Insect.

 Ashura-jo no Hitomi (Blood Gets in Your Eyes)  
 Beautiful Sunday
 Boku wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (I Can't Study)
 Mizu no Onna (Woman of Water)
 Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls)

Video games
 Cowboy Bebop
 Earthwinds
 Romance of the Three Kingdoms
 Storm of the Meiji Restoration

Hired vocalists
 Crystal Kay

 Other websites 
 YOKO KANNO OFFICIAL (official website)
 Meow on the Bridge: YOKO's shop (authenticated music sheet music sales site)
 Yoko Kanno Official (@YokoKannoCH) - Twitter
 The Yoko Kanno Project 
 Yoko Kanno Database_
 Voices: An EX.org Exclusive Interview with Yoko Kanno 
 A Gabriela Robin Site 
 Grand Funk Inc. Official Site
 Yōko Kanno at the Internet Movie Database
 Nippop Profile | Yoko Kanno 

 References 

Category:1964 births
Category:Living people
Category:Japanese musicians
Category:Japanese composers
Category:Movie score composers

Category:People from Miyagi Prefecture
Category:People from Sendai
Category:Video game composers
Category:Waseda University alumni