Takashi Kudou (#3244)

[isdapi]

I am suspecting that "Shu Takafuji" is not the correct romanization of 工藤崇, but I need confirmation.

I think that a more correct romanition of 工藤崇 can be "Takashi Kudo" or even "Shu Kudo". Anyway, any information about the artist is welcome.

[.59]

Shu Takafuji is a very unlikely romanization at least. This page has a Takashi Kudo listed as an anime composer: http://www4.airnet.ne.jp/akiban/comp/k.htm

Wasn't able to find anything definitive though...

[CHz]

ugh alright so

工藤 隆 / Takashi Kudo
Trombonist and member of the band TOPS (1986-1991). Here is an artist page: http://vgmdb.net/artist/9810.


工藤 隆 / Takashi Kudo
Jazz pianist. He performed on Norihiko Hibino's album Now I'm Here to Hear..., and his website is here: http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/ya-man-kudo/. He's surely a different guy from the trombonist, unless he's decided to give up the trombone entirely and not mention it anywhere on his site.


工藤 隆
Composer and arranger, mostly of anime. Anison Generation lists a whole bunch of vocal works, and it also gives a birth date of 1957-07-30. If that's correct, then he's definitely not the pianist, who was born in 1968 and doesn't list any anime works on his site. He may be the trombonist, but I couldn't confirm that.

Anison gives the reading "Takashi Kudou" like the above two guys, but I couldn't confirm that either.


工藤 崇 (this artist entry)
Arranger on some game albums. Someone with this name worked on two albums featuring games by Human ([1] [2]) and three Lunar albums ([3] [4] [5]). I'm not 100% positive they're all the same guy, but I'm pretty confident they are. Two of the albums were produced by CUBE and two others were produced by Twofive, which was formed by people from CUBE.

Our current reading of "Takashi Kudou" is unconfirmed.


工藤 崇
Composer and arranger, mostly of anime. He also has a whole bunch of vocal credits, and we have a few albums featuring his works ([1] [2] [3] [4]), all of which are also currently linked to this artist. I have zero idea if he's the same guy as the one who worked on the game albums, or if he's a different dude. If they are two different people, then my separation of their works shouldn't be taken as gospel: maybe the game guy did some anime too, or vice versa. (There's also this image album for La Wares which I have no idea who to credit for, if they're really two people.)

Anison also gives his name as "Takashi Kudou," but that's yet another unconfirmed Anison reading.

[isdapi]

I think I've stumbled upon something that may be very useful to know who really is Takashi Kudo (anime composer, arranger and member of the band TOPS).

According to this scan (from The Hakkenden Ost), looking at the profile section (purple text) of this artist the following can be read:

＜プロフィール＞
1957年7月30日、北海道芦別市生まれ。1986年に、ビクターからTOPS（後にTHE TOPSとなる）としてデビュー。バンド活動と並行し、アレンジャーとしても活躍する。1991年のバンド 解散後、アレンジャー、コンポーザーとして新たなスタートを切る。主なアニメ作品は「THE八犬伝」「勇者 特急マイトガイン」「紅いハヤテ」など多数。またトロンボーン奏者としてCHAGE&ASUKA、矢沢永吉 などのツアーでも活躍中。

Relevant facts revealed through the text:
- Member of the band TOPS from 1986 to 1991.
- In parallel with the band's activities, he worked as arranger too.
- After the band broke up in 1991, he made a new start as arranger and composer.
- He mentions three anime titles as his major works as anime composer ("The Hakkenden", "The Brave Express Might Gaine" and "Akai Hayate"), and also confirms that he has composed many others.
- Finally, he says that plays the trombone for other artists and is active in a tour.


So, IMHO, this pretty much confirms that all the credits of anime songs and anime soundtracks under the name of 工藤隆 or 工藤崇 belong to the same artist, Takashi Kudo(u/h). I think is extremely unlikely that around the same time, two different composers/arrangers were working in the anime industry, with so similar names, doing mostly the same kind of work. And about the game credits that this artist got too, would be a comparable case to Norimasa Yamanaka, another arranger/composer of anime songs that in the late 80's and early 90's worked in a few game related albums as arranger.

I know the most difficult part to prove is that 工藤隆 is the same artist as 工藤崇 (as credited in most albums in our database), but this could be another case of inconsistent use of kanjis because either one (隆 or 崇) can be read as Takashi.

[isdapi]

I've been looking for in our database for all the albums in which 工藤隆 is credited and the results are interesting.

For example, in this album, 工藤隆 (Takashi Kudo) is credited along with Junichi Kanezaki. Then, credited as 工藤崇 he's credited along with Kanezaki on these albums too (1, 2, 3). But, you know what's more interesting, Takashi Kudo is a regular member of the Donpei Big Band (look at the trombone section) whose leader is 兼崎順一 (Junichi Kanezaki).

There is at least an album where both (工藤隆 and 工藤崇) are credited at the same time. The track (#5) where both are credited as composer and arranger respectively is performed by 石原慎一. Now, guess who is singing in the Akai Hayate album that is mentioned by 工藤隆 as one of his major works as anime composer (previous post reference)?

According to anison this is a comprehensive list of songs in which 工藤隆 is credited as composer/arranger. These are just some of the artists that have worked with 工藤隆 and 工藤崇 in different albums: 三浦一年, 保刈久明, 岩本正樹, 宮城純子, 伊藤薫, 周防義和.

All of this seems to indicate that 工藤崇 is just a kanji variation of 工藤隆. I would merge both artists unless anyone thinks this is just a big coincidence and they're not related at all.