Kentarō Haneda

• 1. Introduction

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  Fans knew Kentarō Haneda by the nickname Haneken, a name that spread across the communities he worked for. He died of liver cancer on the 2nd of June 2007, at the age of 58. His composing career stretched from the late 1970s through the early 2000s, with credits in anime, animated and live-action film, and video games. He had trained in music formally and later taught at a music institution in Tokyo. What connects that classical background to a catalogue covering everything from animated sagas to console video games is the question this documentary follows.

• 2. Conservatory to Credits

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  The Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo trained Haneda and gave him his foundation as a pianist. After graduating, he joined the faculty of the Tokyo College of Music as a professor. Both institutions placed him within Tokyo's formal music world. His composing credits began appearing on television in 1977, with The Adventure of Kohsuke Kindaichi. By 1980 his name was on three more productions: Space Warrior Baldios, The White Whale of Mu, and the live-action film Virus. The range was already visible before his career reached the works that would make his name most recognizable.

• 3. Macross and Beyond

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  The Super Dimension Fortress Macross began airing in 1982, and Haneda scored it. He returned to the property in 1984 for the theatrical film Macross: Do You Remember Love? Together, those two productions became among the credits most closely associated with his name. The same year, 1982, also brought him Space Cobra, meaning two productions carried his name at once.

  His 1983 credits included the theatrical Final Yamato and the animated Barefoot Gen. A sequel, Barefoot Gen 2, followed in 1986.

  Thunderbirds 2086, Sherlock Hound, Super Dimension Century Orguss, God Mazinger, and Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight all appear in his credits from the same decade. His last anime credits were Genji and Mikeneko Holmes: The Lord of Ghost Castle, both from 1992. His final anime work was winding down even as a new kind of project was gaining his attention.

• 4. Dungeon Music

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  Wizardry, ported to the NES and SNES by the publisher Ascii in the early 1990s, was the work Haneda was best known for. The Famicom and Super Famicom versions brought his music to Japanese console players. His game credits also included Suikoden, and a music collection for that series, Genso Suikoden Ongaku-shu, also bears his name.

  In 2003, the live-action television series Bakuryū Sentai Abaranger carried his name in its credits, four years before his death. His credited roles across his career span pianist, composer, and arranger. Ys Symphony and Symphony Sorcerian, two further works among his recognized titles, both carry the word Symphony in their names. That word pointed toward a place for game music in the concert hall, a space that composers working after Haneda would help establish.