Hiroyuki Namba

• 1. Introduction

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  Hiroyuki Namba composed the score for Dallos in 1983, entering a format that had never existed before in anime. Dallos was the first anime released directly as an Original Video Animation, made for home video distribution rather than broadcast or theatrical release. By that year, Namba had already been professionally active for some time. His earliest listed professional association dates to 1978, with Tatsuro Yamashita. His first solo album, titled "Sense of Wonder," appeared on the 21st of September, 1979. Two years later came "Party Tonight," in May 1981. His name sometimes appears in credits under a slightly different spelling: Hiroyuki Nanba. His career raises two distinct questions. How did a musician who spent decades in a Japanese band come to accumulate anime credits stretching across thirty-one years? And how did a single film come to define his reputation in the United States?

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• 2. Sense of Wonder

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  "Synphobeat," the debut album from the band Sense of Wonder, arrived on the 21st of April, 1987. Namba plays keyboards in the group, which performs Japanese progressive rock. A second studio album, "Aquaplanet," followed on the 7th of September, 1988. His collaborative work with the group predated those releases. Image albums credited to "Hiroyuki Namba and Sense of Wonder" appeared from March 1984. One of them, titled "Green Requiem," arrived in April of that year. A third image album appeared in December 1985. A joint album, "Earth Side," was released on the 25th of November, 2001. Acoustic Progressive Jazz, another of his associated acts, ran from 2000 onward. Nuovo Immigrato began in 1997, the same year as Yajuh Ohkoku.

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• 3. OVA to Television

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  Ladius and Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei both arrived as OVAs in 1987, each carrying Namba's music. A Starship Troopers OVA followed in 1988. Two 1989 productions extended his credits: an OVA called Baoh and a television series titled Wrestler Gundan Seisenshi Robin Jr. Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings appeared as an OVA in 1991. Burn Up W arrived in 1996. DT Eightron arrived in 1998 as a television series, and Transformers: Car Robot followed in 2000. Fourteen years then separated Transformers: Car Robot from his next listed animation credit, Space Dandy, a television series from 2014.

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• 4. The Falcom Years

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  Starting in 1988, Namba arranged tracks from Falcom's game music catalog. His first listed credit was four tracks from Music from Ys II. A second project that year, the Sorcerian Super Arrange Version, was followed by a second Sorcerian volume covering tracks one through seven. In 1989, he arranged tracks for two additional Sorcerian installments and contributed to the Ys III: Wanderers from Ys Super Arrange Version. That same year, his arrangements appear on the Falcom Sound Catalog Special Digest Disc. In 1992, Falcom released a compilation titled the Falcom "NAMBA" Collection, whose name incorporated his own directly. His work appeared in the Very Best of Ys collection in 1998. In 2001, he produced the Genso Suikoden Music Collection, taking a producer's role for a different game franchise. He both composed and arranged a track for Heavy Metal Thunder: The Recordings in 2005.

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• 5. Armitage in America

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  The 1995 OVA Armitage III gave Namba his most internationally recognized score. A film version, Armitage III: Poly-Matrix, appeared in 1997 and carried the work to American audiences. Namba's score for Poly-Matrix was issued as a standalone soundtrack album in 1997. It stands as the only release in his discography listed specifically under soundtracks. In the United States, the Armitage III film became the primary reference point for his name. Three of his solo albums from the 1980s are listed in his discography by release date alone: January 1982, March 1985, and April 1986.

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