16 Facts About Yoko Kanno

Yoko Kanno is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer of soundtracks for anime series, video games, television dramas and movies.

Yoko Kanno has written scores for Cowboy Bebop, Terror in Resonance, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf's Rain, Turn A Gundam and Darker than Black.

Yoko Kanno was born on 18 March 1963, in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

Yoko Kanno studied keyboard on both the piano in her home and the organ at her kindergarten.

In elementary school, she began participating in composition contests, but in high school, Yoko Kanno began to take more of an interest in literature than in music.

Yoko Kanno attended Waseda University, where she majored in literature, but she transcribed music for various student groups at Waseda in her free time.

Yoko Kanno spoke of this experience in an interview with Akihiro Tomita:.

Yoko Kanno once said that this is a way she likes to work, for she does not have to deal with rules during composing.

Yoko Kanno was the lead member of the project band Seatbelts, which regrouped in 2004 to compose the soundtrack for the PlayStation 2 Cowboy Bebop video game.

Yoko Kanno has composed for Koei games released during the late 1980s to early 1990s and for Napple Tale, a Dreamcast game.

Apart from anime and games, Yoko Kanno composes for live-action films and television commercials.

Yoko Kanno attended Otakon and Anime Expo in 1999, as well as Anime Expo New York in 2002.

Yoko Kanno performed her solo PianoMe concert at Otakon 2013.

Yoko Kanno composed a three-movement suite, entitled "Ray of Water," for the ascension of Emperor Naruhito.

Yoko Kanno has penned several journals for Newtype magazine, accompanying her articles with her own photographs for illustrations.

In 2011, Yoko Kanno expressed her support for the victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, composing a song titled "Kimi de Ite, Buji de Ite".