An anime composer is a composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 who mainly composes music for anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 productions.

There have been many anime composers over the years, and while anime soundtracks are big business in Japan, there have been few notable, long-term composers of anime music before the 2000s.

Notable figures

One notable exception is Joe Hisaishi

Joe Hisaishi

, known professionally as , is a composer and director known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981.While possessing a stylistically distinct sound, Hisaishi's music has been known to explore and incorporate different genres, including minimalist, experimental electronic,...

, best-known for his collaboration with Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki

is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...

 beginning in the mid-1980s. Since most of Hisaishi's anime music has been for Miyazaki, his influence has been somewhat muted compared to later composers.

Another early, notable anime composer was Shigeaki Saegusa, composer for Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

is a television anime, part of the Gundam series and a sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The show was created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, with character designs by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, while the series' mechanical designs is split amongst Kunio Okawara, Mamoru Nagano, and Kazumi Fujita...

in 1985. He was a classical composer who produced a symphonic score for this series, and the series went on to be extremely popular (one of the foundation successes of the Gundam

Gundam

The is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots called "Mobile Suits" ; usually the protagonist's MS will carry the name Gundam....

 franchise). While Saegusa produced only a little more anime music, his Zeta Gundam soundtrack is still considered a classic among otaku

Otaku

is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga or video games.- Etymology :Otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family , which is also used as an honorific second-person pronoun...

. For many of them, Saegusa and Hisaishi were the first to inspire the idea that anime music could be of very high quality.

Meanwhile, Kenji Kawai

Kenji Kawai

, born April 23, 1957 in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is a Japanese music composer, for motion pictures, anime movies, video games and televised programs. He has contributed to the musical scores for numerous films from Japan and other countries in Asia, working in film genres as diverse as anime, horror,...

 was producing scores for series such as Blue Seed

Blue Seed

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuzo Takada. The plot is based on the Izumo cycle of Japanese mythology and the tale of the god Susanoo and the eight-headed monster Yamata no Orochi. The main character, Momiji Fujimiya, is a descendant of the mythical . When Japan is menaced...

, Patlabor

Patlabor

Patlabor also known as , is an anime and manga franchise created by Headgear, a group consisting of director Mamoru Oshii, writer Kazunori Itō, mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi, character designer Akemi Takada, and manga artist Masami Yūki.The popular franchise included a manga, a TV series, two OVA...

, and Ranma 1/2. While few of these scores were groundbreaking, they were almost all solid works of music. Kawai was arguably the first composer to produce a number of anime soundtracks and achieve at least a modicum of popularity within the otaku community while doing so.

During the 1990s, Yoko Kanno

Yoko Kanno

is a composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks for many games, anime films, TV series, live-action movies, and advertisements...

 garnered some interest with her soundtracks for Escaflowne and Macross Plus

Macross Plus

is a four-episode anime OVA and theatrical movie in the Macross series. It was the first sequel to the original Macross television series that took place in the official timeline...

, but it was her soundtrack for Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop

is a critically acclaimed and award-winning 1998 Japanese anime series directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and produced by Sunrise. Its 26 episodes comprise a complete storyline: set in 2071, the series follows the adventures, misadventures and tragedies of five bounty...

in 1998 that made her extremely popular among anime fans.

Meanwhile, Taku Iwasaki

Taku Iwasaki

is a Japanese composer and arranger. His hometown is Tokyo, Japan. He is a graduate of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Iwasaki is generally known for his jazz-like score music.-Anime:...

 (the Rurouni Kenshin

Rurouni Kenshin

, also known as Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The fictional setting takes place during the early Meiji period in Japan. The story is about a fictional assassin named Himura Kenshin, from the Bakumatsu who becomes a wanderer to...

OVAs, Witch Hunter Robin

Witch Hunter Robin

is a Japanese anime series created by Sunrise. It follows the STN-J, the Japanese branch of a secret global organization called "SOLOMON" or the "Solomon Toukatsu Nin'idantai" , abbreviated as "STN"....

, Read or Die

Read or Die

is a series of light novels authored by Hideyuki Kurata, published under Shueisha's Super Dash Bunko imprint. Read or Die follows Yomiko Readman, codename "The Paper", an agent for the Special Operations Division of the British Library. There are currently 11 Read or Die novels. In volume 11, a...

TV) and Yuki Kajiura

Yuki Kajiura

, born August 6, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as one of the Kimagure Orange Road movies, Noir, .hack//SIGN, Aquarian Age, Madlax, My-HiME, My-Otome, .hack//Roots, Pandora Hearts, Puella Magi...

 (Noir

Noir (anime)

is a 26-episode Japanese anime television series produced in 2001 by the Bee Train animation studio. Kōichi Mashimo directed Noir, it was written by Ryoe Tsukimura, and the soundtrack was composed by Yuki Kajiura...

, .hack//SIGN

.hack//SIGN

.hack//Sign is an anime television series directed by Kōichi Mashimo and produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual, that makes up one of the four original storylines of the .hack franchise...

, Kara no Kyoukai) have both produced several well-respected soundtracks in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Another well-known composer, Toshio Masuda (composer), has composed music for anime such as UFO Baby

UFO Baby

is a shōjo comedy manga by Mika Kawamura, serialized by Kodansha in Nakayoshi from February 1998 to March 2002 and collected in nine bound volumes. The series was adapted as a 78-episode anime television series, produced by NHK and animated by J.C.Staff, which was broadcast between March 2000 and...

(2000) and Naruto

Naruto

is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become the Hokage, the ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of...

, both of which are popular shows.