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  #1  
Old Jul 15, 2011, 12:02 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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Would we consider him enough of a VGM composer to include this on this site as original work? It's being released on a classical label as a classical work, so I'll let others make the call.

For what it's worth, I would personally not bother, as he's only composed scores to two games and no anime.

Last edited by Xenofan 29A; Jul 15, 2011 at 01:49 PM.
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  #2  
Old Mar 9, 2012, 03:39 AM
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I'm not really sure, but wouldn't it be Mamoru Samuragouchi? Don't most Japanese names end in a vowel, or am I mistaken?

EDIT: Looking around, it seems the omitted I is indeed a mistake, the liner notes to the Biohazard album he did has the I included.
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  #3  
Old Mar 9, 2012, 05:48 AM
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It usually would be, but this is another case of stylization when writing his name in English. For whatever reason (maybe because he thought it sounded more western?), he generally chose "Samuragoch" in English, not "Samuragochi" or "Samuragouchi." It's on both versions of the Onimusha OST, his old website, and a profile in Time magazine. (His Japanese Wikipedia article even explicitly points out that it wasn't "Samuragochi," heh.)

It's not really a change in sound. English words ending in -ch are usually transcribed with -chi (チ) when borrowed, so it'd end up the same in Japanese.
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  #4  
Old Mar 9, 2012, 03:01 PM
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Since his Japanese wiki page says that he uses Samuragoch, not Samuragochi, I've reversed the edits.

Quote:
ラテン文字表記はMamoruSamuragochを使用(Samuragochiではない)
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  #5  
Old Mar 10, 2012, 11:47 AM
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Alrighty, but for my personal metadata, it looks better with the I. :P
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  #6  
Old Feb 4, 2014, 04:19 PM
Xenofan 29A Xenofan 29A is offline
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He comes out with the fact that he's been using ghostwriters for over a decade. He would give an idea of what the instrumentation and feel would be, and have someone else compose. He apologizes to all of his fans for having "betrayed" them.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/2014...025061000.html (Article in Japanese)
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  #7  
Old Feb 5, 2014, 04:25 AM
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News hit the western press:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...sed-as-a-fraud
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  #8  
Old Feb 5, 2014, 06:50 AM
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They should reveal who the real composer is. Give the mystery man the credit he deserves.
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  #9  
Old Feb 5, 2014, 07:34 AM
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This article says it's a music teacher, Aragaki Takashi.
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  #10  
Old Feb 5, 2014, 09:27 AM
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Seems that article has been updated and now Takashi Niigaki is claiming to be the composer. Niigaki's only credit on VGMdb is as conductor on the Onimusha Original Soundtrack.
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  #11  
Old Feb 5, 2014, 03:08 PM
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Oh man, I love his two VGM works.
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  #12  
Old Feb 5, 2014, 04:48 PM
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Niigaki is also credited in the PSP port of Resident Evil: Dual Shock as the conductor, so he does look to be the real composer here.

Does he now get credited as the composer where Samuragoch used to be?

Last edited by dissident93; Feb 5, 2014 at 04:50 PM.
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  #13  
Old Feb 5, 2014, 04:53 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CHz View Post
Oh man, I love his two VGM works.
I didn't listen the Resident Evil, but Onimusha ~ Rising Sun is one of my favorite albums, so yeah, he was an hero to me.

Edit: Nigaki's site: http://www.matsudafilm.com/matsuda/b...Niigaki-j.html

Last edited by The Gambler; Feb 5, 2014 at 04:55 PM.
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  #14  
Old Feb 6, 2014, 03:26 AM
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Kind of odd how this is seen as a big revelation. It's not exactly unusual in the arts scene for artists to have e.g. assistants who do the actual work etc. without getting credited for it. And we don't know how detailed Samuragochi's instructions were.
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  #15  
Old Feb 6, 2014, 06:53 AM
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... so Niigaki is now claiming that Samuragochi isn't deaf and can't even write a music score.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ghost...e-music-2014-2
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  #16  
Old Feb 6, 2014, 07:21 AM
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Ok, *that* is sleazy...
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  #17  
Old Feb 6, 2014, 12:50 PM
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I've found the one track Samuragoch managed to compose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppY3INenSjk#t=7488

Last edited by strugglepoo; Feb 6, 2014 at 12:57 PM.
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  #18  
Old Feb 6, 2014, 11:36 PM
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This news spread even to New Zealand's main television stations. It got a five minute mention after all the major domestic stories (escaping sheep, cricket, and rugby) got covered!
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  #19  
Old Feb 7, 2014, 08:19 AM
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The main focus seems to be the fact an ice skater was going to skate to a commissioned worked by him in the Olympics, which is why it's gettting so much press (and apparently the reason it came out in the first place)
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  #20  
Old Feb 7, 2014, 03:45 PM
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I just saw it on NY Times frontpage as well.

Well, somebody has to pay for the Basement Theme in Resident Evil Director's Cut.
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  #21  
Old Feb 8, 2014, 06:56 AM
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(Summary of the press conference and Bunshun's article)
Quote:
- Samuragochi can hear; he listened to Niigaki's songs through recordings.
- Samuragochi has a government-issued type 1 level 2 disability card and received benefits for his hearing impairment.
- He's only a beginner on piano.
- Takashi Niigaki composed over 20 songs for Samuragochi and received ¥7 million in the past 18 years.
- Samuragochi received ¥30 million just for the royalties and broadcasting rights of "Symphony No.1 HIROSHIMA".
- "HIROSHIMA" was a rejected song that was supposed to be used for the game Onimusha.
- Samuragouchi presented the song "Sonatine for violin" to Mikkun, the violinist with an artificial arm, in 2012, who was 11 at that time. Samuragouchi found out about Mikkun 5 years ago on TV and contacted her. Mikkun and Samuragochi were both featured on an NHK special in March 2013, and on KinSMA in April 2013. After the TV broadcast, Samuragochi wrote to Mikkun's parents: "You were able to get on TV because of me, you lack gratitude towards me". Mikkun's parents who were surprised by this replied: "We appreciate you for all the help you've done, but we did not ask you to make us appear on TV.". Samuragochi became extremely mad and demanded things that were not feasible, and both sides have cut off ties since. The parents discussed this with Niigaki and Kouyama (the Bunshun writer). Niigaki confessed that he was the ghost writer and apologized. Kouyama also found out about this, which in turn led to this whole fracas.

(Niigaki's presscon)

- "I kept writing songs according to his instructions, and am his accomplice. I would sincerely like to apologize to all disabled people, to the people who believed in his words and listened to his pieces, and to the musicians who have performed these magnificently."

- "I initially started writing songs for him lightheartedly, but I will admit that I felt happy at how people have accepted the songs that I created through him. But the more he became popular, the more I grew worried that people would find out about this relationship, and I didn't want to deceive the people anymore with the music that I love."

- "I told him numerous times that we should put an end to this, but he threatened me and said that he would commit suicide if I didn't write for him anymore."

- "And after finding out that figure skater Daisuke Takahashi was going to use the song 'Sonatine', which I composed for his performance at the Sochi Olympics, I thought that at this rate, Takahashi-senshu would indirectly reinforce the lies that Samuragochi and myself have created. I hesitated in announcing this when I learned that Takahashi was shocked at this fact as this might hamper his preparations. But I didn't want to stay silent, as this will cause Takahashi-senshu trouble if this came out after the Olympics. People around the world would say that 'This skater performed with a fake song!'. I want Takahashi-senshu to know the truth and head into the Olympics fair and square."
Only 7 million over 18 years. Less than 400k a year. That's crazy.

That bit about how HIROSHIMA was supposed to be an Onimusha track is interesting.

Last edited by cal; Feb 8, 2014 at 07:02 AM.
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  #22  
Old Feb 8, 2014, 03:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nextday View Post
That bit about how HIROSHIMA was supposed to be an Onimusha track is interesting.
indeed. Isn't this enough to welcome a database entry for "Hiroshima" at vgmdb?
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  #23  
Old Feb 9, 2014, 01:06 AM
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You could surely submit it as an original work album at least, and put something about that in the notes.
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  #24  
Old Feb 9, 2014, 05:48 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nisto View Post
You could surely submit it as an original work album at least, and put something about that in the notes.
Maybe prototype/unused as well.
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  #25  
Old Feb 12, 2014, 11:52 AM
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WSJ has the full, translated text of the statement he released today. This whole case is fascinating.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2...-of-deception/
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  #26  
Old Feb 13, 2014, 01:19 PM
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Fresh allegations suggest Capcom knew he wasn't completely deaf:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ompletely-deaf
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  #27  
Old Mar 13, 2014, 12:58 PM
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Samuragochi recently held a press conference. This detailed summary clears up the situation further.

He admitted that, while he was a professional composer before, he hasn't composed any music at all since the 1997 film Cosmos which started his collaboration with ghostwriter Takashi Niigaki.

This confirms that Niigaki is the composer of all works since then, including Biohazard Symphony, Onimusha and Hiroshima.

Samuragochi said that he laid out a "detailed blueprint of the content" for the music and Niigaki then wrote the notes to it. So Samuragochi apparently had the visions and Niigaki realized them.
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  #28  
Old Mar 4, 2015, 10:43 PM
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For those interested, a new, highly detailed article about the whole Samuragouchi debacle was published this week.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1...what-he-seemed

One particularly VGM-relevant piece of info, according to the article, is that Samuragouchi (which is to say, Niigaki) had only 10 freaking days to produce the score for the Resident Evil Dual Shock edition. I'm not sure how that situation could have possibly come about, but it would certainly explain the infamously sloppy, haphazard quality of much of that score, and also how the same person could go on to compose the far superior Onimusha.
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  #29  
Old Mar 5, 2015, 08:11 AM
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It also says that Niigaki called on other composer friends to help with it, so apparently he's not the sole composer. Good piece. It was long, but I didn't mind at all.
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  #30  
Old Jun 1, 2017, 04:03 AM
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/...e-documentary/

a documentary about Japan's "fake Beethoven".
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