Yuki Kajiura

**Yuki Kajiura** (Japanese: 梶浦 由記, *Kajiura Yuki*, born August 6, 1965) is a Japanese musician, composer and record producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as the final *Kimagure Orange Road* movie, *Noir*, *.hack//Sign*, *Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution|Aquarian Age*, *Madlax*, *My-HiME*, *My-Otome*, *Pandora Hearts*, *Puella Magi Madoka Magica*, *Fate/Zero*, *Sword Art Online*, *Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle*, *Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba* and the *Kara no Kyoukai* movies (amongst others). She also assisted Toshihiko Sahashi with *Mobile Suit Gundam SEED* and *Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny*. Kajiura has also composed for video games, including the cutscene music for *Xenosaga II* and the entire *Xenosaga III* game soundtrack. She composed the music for NHK's April 2014 morning drama (asadora) *Hanako to Anne*.

## Biography

She was born on August 6, 1965, in Tokyo, Japan. She has been into music since 1972 and accompanying her father on the piano. Her family later moved to West Germany because of her father's work. Kajiura wrote her first composition when she was seven years old titled " Thank you, Good-bye" as a farewell for her grandmother before leaving Japan.

Kajiura moved back to Japan when she was in middle school and later graduated from college. She began working as a systems engineering programming until 1992 that she decided to focus more on music.

In 2002, See-Saw participated in another Mashimo's project, *.hack//Sign* During the production of the series, Kajiura met Emily Bindiger and impressed by her vocals, offered her to perform over 10 of the series' insert songs. She has also jokingly called Bindiger "her English teacher" at Anime Expo 2003.

One of Kajiura's solo projects includes FictionJunction. The project involves collaboration with artists such as Yuuka Nanri, Asuka Kato, and Kaori Oda. FictionJunction Yuuka, with Nanri as the vocalist, is the most prolific of these collaborations. In 2004, the duo produced the opening and ending songs for Kōichi Mashimo's Madlax and in the next year, published their first collaborative album, Destination.

In October 2007, it was announced that Yuki Kajiura would be attending the performances of the Eminence Orchestra's concert, 'A Night in Fantasia 2007 – Symphonic Anime Edition', as a special guest.

The 2014 series Aldnoah.Zero's opening theme "Heavenly Blue" was composed by Kajiura and was performed by Kalafina.

In July 2016, Aniplex of America announced that the “Yuki Kajiura LIVE ~featuring SWORD ART ONLINE~” concert that took place in March 2016 in Japan would be having an additional date on January 14, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, but was later canceled due to visa issues.

In December 2017, a source reported to a news site, Sponchi Annex that Kajiura was planning to leave her agency, Spacecraft Produce, over contract disputes. In February 2018, Kajiura herself confirmed via her Twitter that she has officially left her agency.

Kajiura has performed internationally at various anime conventions including Anime Expo 2003, Anime Boston 2009 (with Kalafina), Anime Expo 2012 (with FictionJunction), and Anime Expo 2018 (as part of Anisong World Matsuri).

On February 22, 2018, her contract ended with SpaceCraft Produce after being a talent for 25 years. She is now represented by FictionJunction Music, a talent agency she founded herself.

## Music Menus

Kajiura stated in a leaflet for Volume 3 of the DVD release, Director Koichi Mashimo created a list of brief descriptions of every recurring character for her to base their respective musical themes upon. Basically, a Leitmotif. She refers to this list as *"Mashimo Menu"* and commented that the director's descriptions provide deeper insight into the characters . These are the following menu titles:

* Margaret Burton: Picture Book, Blood, and Deep-Sea Fish
* Madlax: The Gatekeeper of Hell is All Alone
* Vanessa Rene: Gatekeeper of Happiness
* Elenore Baker: Everyday Gatekeeper
* Friday Monday: The Gatekeeper of Heaven Smiles

## Discography

### Game soundtracks

 *Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra* | PlayStation 2 | 2006 | Namco

## Trivia

* Yuki once went under the pseudonym "Fion" when singing in her songs. Since little information was found about Fion, it was suspected by some of fans that she might have been Kajiura herself based on her name and voice. Her true identity was unconfirmed until the discovery of Yuki Kajiura’s twitter account in early 2010, with the username Fion0806 – containing both the name of the mysterious vocalist along with Kajiura’s birth date. On September 9 2010, Yuki officially revealed in her blog that she was the owner of the twitter page. As Fion, she has performed in *Madlax* ("Open Your Box", "Cannabinoids", "Saints"), *Mai Hime* ("Mezame"), *Tsubasa Chronicle* ("Play The Game", "Sacrifice"), *El Cazador de la Bruja* ("Place of Eternity"), *Kara no Kyoukai* OST 1, and provided backing vocals in *Velvet no Inori* and *Toki no Sabaku*

## References

1. ↑ 連続テレビ小説 (in Japanese). NHK, Japanese Broadcasting Corporation. [1]
2. ↑ *Madlax Volume 3: The In-Between (insert leaflet Staff Talk #5 (Yuki Kajiura))*
3. ↑ Directory of World Cinema: Japan [2]
4. ↑ Canta-per-me.net [3]
5. ↑ Canta-per-me.net [4]
6. ↑ Yuki Kajiura Official Website [5]
7. ↑ NHK[6]
8. ↑ Canta-per-me.net

## External links

* Official Website (Archived)
* AnimeCons
* Anime News Network
* IMDb
* Yuki Kajiura anime at Media Arts Database
* vgmdb.net