Editorial: My Day with Yuzo Koshiro

Why I'm writing this 8 months after the fact is beyond me, but I still remember the most minute of details, so there's nothing to regret about this editorial. For those of you who know me, Yuzo Koshiro has been an idol of mine since I heard 1 at my friend's house. Even before that, I watched a bit of Ys II, I think, on the same friend's Turbo Grafx CD system, and to this day still recall one piece of music that was beyond amazing. The rest of you who know who Yuzo Koshiro is, be jealous of me ^_^; there are a handfull of articles depicting reviews of his musical works in this site. However, let me elaborate on the one evening that truly made me happy.

Monday, March 19, 2001 was the night I was supposed to meet Koshiro- sama after arranging to meet him through a month's worth of emails and scheduling conflicts. He met me right outside of the Chuo Line of the Tokyo rail system in Toyoda-chu. As I turned around he was facing me, a man of fairly average stature, though he didn't look quite like I anticipated. Apparently, all the pics I had ever seen of him were from the early 90's when he was in his twenties. Now, reaching the thirties he kinda filled out a bit. Nonetheless, looking hard enough I saw the same face that graced so many magazine and website articles before. We shook hands and he led me down the stairs to the lower end of the platform. We walked down a street for a few houses, and on the right side was this fairly large residential home with a small parking lot in front of it. This was the "other" building that wasn't mentioned on the website. I can see why, though. He led me inside as we talked about how much of a pain in the ass the subway system is for beginners.

As I entered the door and took my shoes off, on the left was a sink with dirty dishes and an ashtray with an inhuman amount of cigarette butts. A lot of long nights, methinks. He led me through a door to the left, passing a small hall with an old Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting maching on my right, a handful of offices on my left, and just around the bend was the main computer center. About ten or so PC's with all sorts of peripherals, including scanners, musical instruments and odd looking wires. The walls were littered with old posters from import games most of us never heard of. There was also a handful of other people still working at the time. Among those who I met was a kid from Seattle who somehow got a job as a graphics assistant in the company. I told him he was the luckiest of bastards, and he agreed. I then met Yuzo's sister, Ayano Koshiro, who I had found out not only did the graphics for both the Actraiser and Streets of Rage series, but the work was all her original ideas. I gave her the widest of smiles and complimented her on how much I loved her style. Lastly, his mother, the president of Ancient, Tomo Koshiro. She never smiled the whole time, though I was told she's always like that. In all my excitement, though, I mentioned her first name first and shook her hand. I tried to maintain their customary greeting style, but at this point all logical reasoning was shot.

Some general questions were asked to me about my trip here and where I was from. Most were simply amazed that I came all the way from the United States just to meet Yuzo and that they really didn't know how popular his and his sister's game creation skills were revered back home. I then took out my SNES Actraiser and my friend James' Actraiser 2 boxes to have them signed. As soon as they saw them a group laugh was heard. Yuzo mentioned how old they were and were nostalgic looking at them again. Next, I took out my Actraiser 1 soundtrack album and Streets of Rage 2 album, the just- released one by Mars Colony Music. It was the first time they had a chance to see the final product of that deal they made. I had both Yuzo and Ayano sign the Actraiser games and SoR2 album and only Yuzo sign the Actraiser album. Then, the greatest surprise of the night was their mother coming back with a gift for me. It was two unopened soundtracks, Super Adventure Island and 2nd Early Collection (Yuzo Compilations). I thanked them countless times for the gift as these are impossibly rare to find anymore.

With such introductions and salutations over, I asked him if I could see his compositional room where he does his work. He smiled and gladly led be back down the hall and up the stairs to a living room/bedroom area. The living room area had another kitchen area and game consoles with musical paraphanelia everywhere, and into his bedroom where his computer lied. On its left was a synthesis keyboard, and on top of his harddrive was a Game Boy Advance attached with some wires. He was at the time working on a GBA game that he couldn't tell me the name at the time (Note: the GBA was released to the public two days later, the 21st). I saw pictures of him and his wife, and the bed that he probably slept in far more than I can imagine with the work he does. When asked about what system's soundchip he preferred, he favored both he SNES and GBA ones the best b/c he can compile pieces much easier than on a CD format, where so many separate instruments and/or others must participate to get the desired effect. I snapped two quick shots of him at his desk and we were off for dinner with the rest of the group.

Yuzo, Ayano, lucky bastard Seattle boy and I headed out, walking down the street and up through the subway station to a small bar/restaurant nearby. Along the way Seattle boy told me about how he made his contacts to find a job here with Ancient, how much of his Japanese really wasn't up to snuff, what with business speak honorifics different in degree than out on the street. We all sat down and first ordered mugs of beer and sushi. I asked Ayano more about where she came up with her character designs and ideas and complimented her once again about how kick ass Shiva was in SoR2. Then, I prattled on to them about the ins and outs of the video game industry in the US, even going into detail about the tiniest of insignificant facts, and how Yuzo's music influenced an entire generation of video gamers. They were all amazed at how much I managed to retain, sounding like the rabid fanboy I am, and replied that video games have been my life since Atari. I asked him if he knew any other infamous game composers, and he only mentioned briefly about Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenogears, Crono Trigger). Other than that, he only listens to classical music nowadays, a big shift from his influence for the SoR saga when he frequented night clubs way back when. I pointed out a few key pieces that were my favorites, though he couldn't really remember them offhand, and stupid me left one of the soundtracks home. A second round of beer came and we ordered entrees. Our focus then came onto the Xbox, and his opinions of it. Right off the bat he said that such foreign products, especially American, are met with skepticism. Not to mention that the size of the machine is a turn-off for many of them. They enjoy their compact products, like the (ha!). Inevitably, I asked about any other of his soundtracks and their possible commercial sale, like SoR2. Yuzo told me a two-fold issue about that. Firstly, most of his older pieces are co-owned, both by him and the company that they worked for at the time to make the game. Either he'd have to wait for their rights to expire or buy them outright. Secondly, even if he did have full rights, he'd have to dedicate huge amounts of time with a 3rd party to re- master the pieces, organize publicity, and pay for the development and manpower. That's a huge undertaking for anyone, and as busy as he is with so many other games now he can't, though he said he'd love to one day.

Nearing the end of dessert, our night was coming to a close. They all paid for my dinner since I was such an honored guest *blush* and we walked back toward the train line, and bid farewells. I told Yuzo in so many words how it was one of my greatest honors to have met him and planned on coming back in two years again. Next, I mentioned to Ayano that I will forever love her old works and look forward to new games she creates characters for. We left on friendly smiles and I hopped back on my train. Luckily, Seattle boy was with me b/c he was heading home for the night, too. We spoke briefly on his job here and that he'd have to go home again soon since he was here only on a work Visa, which had to be revalidated every so often. His stop came eventually, and I was on my way back to my place. I popped in 2nd Early Collection and began indulging in reminiscing one of the greatest nights of my life.

Anyone that wants to find out more about their company can go to http://www.ancient.co.jp/english/index.html. Their english forum is personally run by Yuzo, which he frequents on occassion, so don't expect to see a response to an inquiry for weeks at a time. The forum is here: http://www.ancient.co.jp/eforum/wforum.cgi.

-David Patricola [email protected]