Hirokazu Tanaka

Tanaka worked across composer, engineer and musician. The registers place that work in chiptune. This article rests on 79 catalogued compositions, 3 published texts, 46 issued recordings and 3 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Hirokazu Tanaka • Native Name — 田中 宏和 • Other Names — * Hip Tanaka • Chip Tanaka • Born — 13 December 1957 • Birthplace — Kyoto, Japan • Occupation — * Composer • sound designer • producer • executive • Employer — * Nintendo (1980–1999) • Creatures Inc. (1999–present) • Years Active — 1980–present

Born to a schoolteacher mother who had Tanaka undergo piano lessons, Tanaka recounted that he first began paying serious attention to music while in elementary school, and attempted to form a band during that time. His first band was formed when he was in middle school, a Beatles and Elton John cover group, which sometimes performed concerts at his school. He has held a longstanding obsession with reggae music. In his teens, he was also in a reggae band, which was known variously by the names the Shampoos or Roots Rockers. For the music event "Reggae Sunsplash" held in Osaka, the Shampoos were an opening act for Sly and Robbie on more than one occasion. Tanaka did meet the duo during those times. On The Shampoos, Tanaka described it as an obscure local band which did gigs in Tokyo about once or twice a year, and that it was "never a formal thing".

In 1980, after graduating from university with a degree in electronic engineering, Tanaka successfully applied for a job at Nintendo as a sound designer. He did not initially want to be an engineer, but Nintendo were accordingly scouting for "different sounds or toys or something at the time. I thought toys would be relatively stress-free, so I applied." The first game Tanaka worked on was Space Firebird (1980), where Tanaka was composer and constructed a new sound chip for particular sound effects. Following this, Tanaka worked on Donkey Kong (1981), providing the sound effects for Mario's footsteps and jumps. Usually, the same sound effect was repeated across many different actions, but Tanaka's approach differed where he invented subtle variations. He attempted to insert voice synthesis for the game's damsel-in-distress, but the idea was vetoed by then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi's daughter, who did not feel that the sample sounded like the exclamation "help me!". Tanaka noted that he learned "a lot" from series creator Shigeru Miyamoto due to his perfectionism and "level of commitment". Donkey Kong 3 (1983) was the first game where Tanaka acted both as composer and sound effects designer. His approach to game composition carried on from his dub obsession: "For instance, if you listen to the music in Wrecking Crew (1985), you could recognize that some parts are drum and bass only. So that turned out to be an idea for working around the limitations of the game software. I figured that, to get the most out of the game music, a dub-based structure would be a really great solution. I'd play the melody in some parts, then cut it off and insert a part with just drums and bass, and vice versa. No one else was doing it, but it was what I wanted to do." Tanaka described what he remembered as a "typical day" at Nintendo in the brief period following the release of the Famicom home game console: While working full-time at Nintendo on two or three games a year, and sometimes two simultaneously, Tanaka continued playing gigs in Osaka and Tokyo with the Shampoos. Sometime in the late 1980s, they recorded the 45 rpm "Thunder Dub" which prominently sampled the opening drumbeat from the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" (1967). Tanaka did not personally see a difference between the music he composed for video games and the music he composed in his off time. For Metroid (1986), Tanaka acknowledged that games were becoming more complex, and his scores were becoming more like a film's, desiring in Metroid not to "repeat the same game-melody cliches," although he recalls that the game's soundtrack was not well-received within Nintendo because of its dark atmosphere. He was inspired by the film Birdy (1984) to create a game score that was dark until the very end, where the player would finally receive music with a strong melody. Despite disapproval from his Nintendo colleagues, Tanaka was allowed full creative freedom on projects, and even had a fluctuating role in influencing some games' content and play style. He remembers Nintendo's strict, repeated criticisms over the amount of "fun" a game would have, but that there was no financial pressure in creating games, nor were there sales quotas to meet. At the time of Dr. Mario (1990), Tanaka began observing an increasing number of "serious" game composers who had graduated from music schools. Dr. Mario was thus the first time Tanaka had asserted his musical personality in a game. Tanaka was one of "about five or six" Nintendo-based developers who designed the Game Boy, researching and creating its audio hardware. He was inspired to develop the Game Boy Camera from a product called ViewCam that was popular at the time — Tanaka also ran experiments on the possibility of watching television via the Game Boy.

At the advice of EarthBound (1994) co-worker Tsunekazu Ishihara, Tanaka would join Creatures Inc. as a guest composer, where he would end up composing dozens of songs for the first Japanese Pokémon anime and various Pokémon promotional releases. Despite the fact that his themes were not used in the West, they inspired best-selling singles and albums in Japan due to their popularity there. Tanaka was eventually forbidden by Nintendo to continue to write more songs for the anime due to their policy of not allowing employees to work for other companies, so he resigned at Nintendo and joined Creatures full-time in 1999. Tanaka succeeded Ishihara to become the president of Creatures in 2001, while Ishihara continued as CEO. Starting in the late 2000s, Tanaka began to perform at Japanese dance clubs under the name "Chip Tanaka". The moniker was suggested by a foreign acquaintance, as Tanaka thought "Hip Tanaka" was too attached to his time at Nintendo. After the death of Satoru Iwata in 2015, Tanaka wrote a tribute track titled "Dedicated to Satoru Iwata". In April 2023, Tanaka announced he was stepping down as president and executive director of Creatures, but would remain as a Creative Fellow.

Video games • Year — Title — Notes • 1980 — Space Firebird — Sound effects • Radar Scope • Heli Fire • 1981 — Donkey Kong • 1982 — Mickey & Donald — Programmer • Donkey Kong II • 1983 — Donkey Kong 3 — Sound effects • Mario Bros. • Pinball — Programmer • Mario's Cement Factory • Donkey Kong Jr. • Snoopy • Popeye • Mario's Bombs Away • 1984 — Spitball Sparky • Wild Gunman — Music, sound effects • Duck Hunt • Hogan's Alley • Urban Champion • 1985 — Balloon Fight • Wrecking Crew • Stack-Up • Gyromite • 1986 — Gumshoe • Metroid • Kid Icarus • 1987 — Ginga no Sannin — Music supervisor • 1988 — Famicom Wars — Music with Kenji Yamamoto • 1989 — Super Mario Land — Music, sound effects • Yakuman • Tetris • Mother — Music with Keiichi Suzuki • Golf — Sound effects • 1990 — Knight Move — Music, sound effects • Dr. Mario • Balloon Kid • 1992 — Hello Kitty World • Fire Emblem Gaiden — Supervisor • Mario Paint — Music with Ryoji Yoshitomi and Kazumi Totaka • X — Sound effects • 1994 — EarthBound — Music with Keiichi Suzuki, Hiroshi Kanazu, and Toshiyuki Ueno • 1995 — Snoopy Concert — Music with Minako Hamano • 1997 — Game & Watch Gallery — Advisor • 1998 — Game Boy Camera — Director, graphic designer, music • Wrecking Crew '98 — Sound director • 2001 — Chee-Chai Alien — Director, game designer, music • Machop at Work — Director • Kingler's Day • 2003 — Pokémon Channel — Supervisor • 2008 — Super Smash Bros. Brawl — Music arrangements • 2009 — PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure — Producer • 2011 — Pokédex 3D • PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond • 2012 — Pokémon Dream Radar • Pokédex 3D Pro • 2014 — Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U — Music arrangements • Pokémon Art Academy — Pokémon Trading Card Development • 2016 — Detective Pikachu — Producer • 2018 — Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — Music arrangements • 2025 — Street Fighter 6 — "Glorious Match" Anime • Year — Title — Notes • 1997–2002 — Pokémon — Japanese opening and ending themes • 2002–2006 — Pokémon: Advanced Generation • 2006–2010 — Pokémon: Diamond & Pearl • 2010–2013 — Pokémon: Best Wishes • 2013–2016 — Pokémon XY Other works • Year — Title — Notes • 2011 — Play for Japan: The Album — composed "HVC-1384" • 2017 — Django — Original album • 2020 — Domingo • 2021 — Lost Tapes — Demo and prototype music • Domani — Original album

Tanaka worked as composer, engineer and musician. Tanaka was active from 1980. The fields Tanaka worked in include chiptune. Tanaka played the keyboard instrument. Tanaka worked in Japanese.