{"id":349620,"date":"2021-10-07T16:07:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T13:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/controversial-dragon-quest-composer-koichi-sugiyama-passes-away-at-90\/"},"modified":"2021-10-07T16:07:41","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T13:07:41","slug":"controversial-dragon-quest-composer-koichi-sugiyama-passes-away-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/controversial-dragon-quest-composer-koichi-sugiyama-passes-away-at-90\/","title":{"rendered":"#Controversial Dragon Quest Composer Koichi Sugiyama Passes Away at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Controversial Dragon Quest Composer Koichi Sugiyama Passes Away at 90<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The official Dragon Quest<\/strong><\/em> website announced<\/span><\/a> today that composer Koichi Sugiyama passed away on September 30<\/strong> from septic shock. Sugiyama<\/strong> was most well known for being the original composer of the Dragon Quest <\/strong><\/em>series<\/a>, creating more than 500 songs for the franchise by himself, including tracks for the upcoming Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate<\/strong><\/em> game<\/a>, which will be his last game in the series. A funeral for Sugiyama<\/strong> was held with his close friends and family in attendance.<\/p>\n

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Koichi Sugiyama<\/strong> was born in Tokyo on April 11, 1931, and began writing music from a young age. He graduated from the University of Tokyo with full honors in 1958 and entered the entertainment business through Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, eventually moving over to Fuji TV as a director. From 1958, Sugiyama<\/strong> went freelance to focus on music, where he was commissioned to create pieces for anime<\/a> such as Cyborg 009<\/strong><\/em>, Science<\/a> Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie<\/strong><\/em>, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Sugiyama<\/strong> started working at Enix after sending the game developer a fan letter for a PC Shogi game that led the team to invite the celebrity\u00a0composer to write music for their games, including the first Dragon Quest<\/strong><\/em> game, where he continued until his death.\u00a0Since then, Sugiyama<\/strong> has written the music for every Dragon Quest<\/strong><\/em> game and holds the title of the first video game composer to record with a full live orchestra.<\/p>\n

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Due to the success of\u00a0Sugiyama<\/strong> and the Dragon Quest<\/strong><\/em> series, Sugiyama<\/strong> was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun 4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette<\/em> in 2018 from the then Shinzo Abe<\/strong>-led government, as well as selected as a Person of Cultural Merit<\/em> from the Yoshihide Suga<\/strong>-led government. His compositions were also used in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

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Image via the Dragon Quest website<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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Outside of video game composing, Koichi Sugiyama<\/strong> was a political activist\u00a0in Japan. He was a member of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, a right-wing think-tank that promotes the amendment of Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, opposes the world view that Japan held Korean women as comfort women during WWII, and works closely with the Abe<\/strong> and Suga<\/strong> government on policy proposals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Sugiyama<\/strong> has personally weighed in on the issue, being a co-signer of “The Facts”, a full-page ad in The Washington Post<\/em> that was published on June 14, 2007, which disagreed with the United States House of Representatives House Resolution 121; a\u00a0resolution which asked the Japanese Government for an official apology for its involvement with comfort women. Sugiyama<\/strong> also denies that the Nanjing Massacre occurred. He\u00a0tried to put an ad in The Washington Post <\/em>and New York Times<\/em> saying that the \u201c300,000 who died at the hands of the Japanese military at Nanjing is not fact,\u201d but was denied by the papers.<\/p>\n

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He was also said to be against LGBT education in Japanese schools, mimicking talking points from conservative politician Mio Sugita<\/strong>, who app<\/a>eared together on a Japanese variety program saying that LGBT members of society were “unproductive” because they didn’t produce children.\u00a0He later stated<\/span><\/a> in a blog post on his website that LGBT people are \u201cunreasonably discriminated against\u201d and that the power of the government should help in those situations.<\/p>\n

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Sugiyama<\/strong> will be remembered for his massive contributions to video game music across the world.<\/p>\n

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Source: Dragon Quest website<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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—-<\/em><\/p>\n

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News<\/a>. He also runs a YouTube<\/a> channel about Japan stuff called\u00a0TheDoctorDazza<\/a>, tweets at\u00a0@DoctorDazza<\/a>,\u00a0and posts photos of his travel<\/a>s on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>\n<\/div>\n