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Music / BEMANI

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The BEMANI franchise is perhaps one of Konami's most expansive franchises. As a Rhythm Game franchise with over one hundred games (and that's without counting ports!) across thirteen different series, eight of which are currently active, it's no surprise that Konami's had to call upon not only licensed music to make their games succeed, but also commissioned and in-house talent (the latter currently branded as BEMANI Sound Team).

This is a page dedicated just to the groups and composers who provide the BEMANI series with original music. Not only do these musicians produce plenty of original tracks for the franchise, but some of these have gone on to produce their own albums, albums that contain not just long or full versions of songs from BEMANI games, but in some cases, original songs that have never appeared in a BEMANI title before.

To gush about BEMANI music you like, see the corresponding Awesome Music page and its subpages.

A more thorough list can be found on RemyWiki here.

Entries are in alphabetical order of each artist's most commonly-used stage name, with their real name (if known) after the hyphen.

Individuals and Units with their own pages:

Individuals:

    open/close all folders 

     96 

96 — Daisuke Kurosawa

A key part of the GITADORA series, 96 also appears as guitarist in songs which were not composed by him. 96 has since left Konami in 2017 to join a new music company, INSPION. He has one album, called BLACK ALBUM.

  • Goroawase Number: 96 is read as "kuro". As well as being the first part of Kurosawa, it sounds like the character 黒 (black). Leads to a Lost in Translation moment of brilliance when you consider the name of his album, BLACK ALBUM.

    Akhuta 

Akhuta

Debuting in jubeat saucer, little is known about him.

  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: In Private Bemani Academy, he has a rather feminine appearance. Yoshihiko Koezuka, latching onto this, wears a blond wig and Guyliner in the PV.
  • Gratuitous Latin: His solo releases, if not titled in Japanese, are always titled in Latin.

    Asaki 

あさき (Asaki)

A rock/metal musician, known prominently for his works in the GITADORA series. He has produced two albums, Shinkyoku and Tentei.

  • all lowercase letters: His name is rendered as "asaki", in lowercase, in English-language games. Some of his songs ("uo hi ni nobori kagayoite") get this treatment too.
  • Epic Rocking: The full version of "Tentei" lasts over 10 minutes. It was cut down to a more manageable 2 minutes for its Reflec Beat appearance.
  • Large Ham: In the refrain for "Okome no oishii takikata[...", he screams about rice and its nutritous benefits, before concluding with a subdued "Okome oishii!TL "
  • Mundane Made Awesome: the above rice-related song. Heavy metal with a Large Ham vocal... and it's a song about eating rice.
  • Reclusive Artist: He does not appear to be fond of public appearances. There are very few photos of him in circulation, and he does not show up at BEMANI-related events. He doesn't even reveal his full name. In Private BEMANI Academy, he and his collaboration partner 96 are the only two participating musicians who use stand-ins rather than their actual faces - in particular, Asaki's is a Caucasian male who (presumably) looks nothing at all like him.

    Des-ROW 

Des-ROW — Osamu Migitera

Also known as: MTO, D-crew, positive MA, positive MAD-crew

Started out as a sound analyzer for pop'n music before he wrote his own. He was the sound director for 5-key beatmania during its final installments then later took over as sound producer and director for REFLEC BEAT.

  • One-Steve Limit: Averted with Osamu Kubota, who also has composed for IIDX and pop'n music.
  • Uncommon Time: "Last Memento -花火ないの夏-" is in 5/4 for about the first half.

     DJ Genki 

DJ Genki

A member of HARDCORE TANO*C, he has contributed to the most recent beatmania IIDX games.

  • Ascended Fan: Absolutely. He is a brilliant IIDX player himself, having achieved Full Combos on both ICARUS [黒] and 卑弥呼 [黒]. He says he was first inspired to compose music by hearing legendary That One Boss 冥.

    DJ Mass MAD Izm* 

DJ Mass MAD Izm*

A DJ infamous for producing scratch-heavy songs. He began composing for the series in the late 2000's, starting in beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD. To date, he has exclusively produced songs for IIDX.

He has an album, I AM NOT A DJ.

  • Gimmick Level:
    • His songs are notorious for having copious amounts of scratches, not just in the tracks themselves but also in their IIDX charts. "Shakunetsu Beach Side Bunny", the One More Extra Stage of beatmania IIDX 18 Resort Anthem, is one of the most infamous examples; of the 1719 notes in its single player another chart, scratches make up 667 of these notes. Its sequel song, Shakunetsu Pt.2, has 848 scratches out of 1732 notes in its double another chart.
    • In REFLEC BEAT, the aforementioned "Shakunetsu Beach Side Bunny" uses a large quantity of TOP notes; of the 843 notes on Hard, 325 of them are TOP notes.
  • Sampling: One of his other schticks.
  • Sequel Song: "Watch Out Pt.2", a collaboration between Izm* and DJ YOSHITAKA. It is significantly faster than the original "Watch Out!!".
  • Signature Style: Scratches. Lots and lots of scratches. See Gimmick Level above for what this leads to when his songs appear in BEMANI games.

    dj nagureo 

dj nagureo — Reo Nagumo

Also known as: tiger YAMATO, reo nagumo

One of BEMANI's earliest talents. He composed a handful of songs for beatmania, and some others for IIDX. He left Konami in 2006, after composing his final song for the franchise, "tiger YAMATO".

  • Animal Theme Naming: Anything credited to tiger YAMATO.
  • Meaningful Name: "20,november" refers to his birthday.
  • Sequel Song:
    • "19,November" to "20,november", although that was composed by good-cool.
    • "5.8.8.", to "5.1.1."
    • The "R" series: "R3", "R5", "R10k", "R2".

    DJ Noriken 

DJ Noriken — Kento Oizumi

A producer focusing on hardcore and hard dance genres. He's currently the owner of SKETCH UP! Recordings as well as being a member of HARDCORE TANO*C.

    dj TAKA 

dj TAKA — Takayuki Ishikawa

Also known as: D.J. Amuro, Lion MUSASHI, 金獅子 (Kinjishi)

A longtime composer for the BEMANI series, dj TAKA composed songs for 5-key beatmania starting with beatmania 4thMIX and for beatmania IIDX since its beginning. He is particularly well-known for his extensive use of piano melodies in his songs.

He has produced two albums, milestone (2007) and True Blue (2013).

  • Animal Theme Naming: Lions. Lots and lots of lions.
    • Lion MUSASHI.
    • "Kinjishi", which means "golden lion".
    • In MILITARY SPLASH, he along with other artists took up an alias based on an animal-related mech boss. TAKA's was - you guessed it - Lion.
  • Final Boss / True Final Boss: Several of his songs are One More Extra Stage songs in IIDX, as well as the final unlock in some cross-series BEMANI events. Considering that he was a sound director for IIDX for much of the series' history, it makes sense. Specific examples:
    • "Kakumei" in 7th Style, as a collaboration with Naoki.
    • "quasar" in 9th Style, as a collaboration with TaQ.
    • "One More Lovely" in 10th Style.
    • "Mei" in Happy Sky, as a collaboration with Tatsh.
    • "Nageki no Ki" in DistorteD's CARDINAL GATE Extra Stage system, under his Kinjishi alias.
    • "Tenkuu no Yoake" in Lincle's Lincle Kingdom Extra Stage system.
    • "Elemental Creation" in the multi-series Private BEMANI Academy event, as a collaboration with DJ YOSHITAKA.
    • "IX" in the multi-series Nettou! BEMANI Stadium event, as a collaboration with DJ TOTTO.
    • "Broken Sword" in PENDUAL's "Chrono Seeker" event, under his Kinjishi alias, this time with an artist known as Kirin.
  • Goroawase Number: ".59" and its Sequel Song "G59" are read as "tengoku" (heaven) and "jigoku" (hell) respectively.
  • Insistent Terminology: In the music notes for "THE SAFARI", his alter ego Lion MUSASHI insists that it be called "THE SAFARI", not just "SAFARI".
  • One-Letter Title: "V", "A", "F", and "X".
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: "V" is a remix of part of "Winter" from The Four Seasons. Doesn't stop it from being one of the most loved tracks in BEMANI (and the series' original That One Boss, by virtue of being the first 12).
  • Sequel Song:
    • ".59" is followed by "G59". "G59" also serves as a sequel to "嘆きの樹 (Nageki no ki)".
    • The Renaissance series of songs: "A", "AA", "F", and "ZZ".
    • "rainbow guitar weeps" to "rainbow flyer".

    DJ TECHNORCH 

DJ TECHNORCH — Yutaka Yamashita

A hardcore music producer who has seven albums under his belt. His style can be best described as a blend of early 90's Dutch hardcore with nu-style Japanese hardcore.

  • Ascended Fan: He was first inspired to compose music by L.E.D.'s "HELL SCAPER", featured in one of the 5-key beatmania games. He later remixed it for DJ TROOPERS CS.
    • Spiritual Successor: "Sol Cosine Job 2" from IIDX Tricoro takes a lot of musical cues from the same song, including the samples and gradual tempo change.
  • Final Boss: Two. "KAMAITACHI" (final song of the IIDX GOLD CS Kaiden course, with GUHROOVY) and 888 (DanceDanceRevolution X2).

    DJ TOTTO 

DJ TOTTO — Yoshihiro Tagawa

Also known as: DJ Totoriott, 兎々 (Totto), 二代目朱雀 (Nidaime Suzaku)

Announced as the composer of the final boss of Reflec Beat colette -Winter- in 2013, he later joined the Reflec Beat staff. He leads the "next generation" beatnation records label, beatnation RHYZE.

  • Ascended Fan: He plays IIDX himself and on Single Player he is at Kaiden rank, the highest dan rank in the game.
  • Final Boss: of several Reflec Beat events. "Valanga" and "Chaplet" are two examples. He also produced "IX" with dj TAKA in the multi-series "Nettou! BEMANI Stadium" event.
  • Signature Sound Effect: Like DJ YOSHITAKA before him, he uses the "Suzaku scream" in songs under his Nidaime Suzaku alias.
  • Spiritual Successor: To DJ YOSHITAKA. He is a sound director of Reflec Beat, as Yoshitaka was, he took on the Suzaku alias from him (二代目朱雀 meaning "Second-Generation Suzaku"), and was chosen as part of beatnation RHYZE by Yoshitaka himself. He's even taken up the slack in terms of producing boss songs for the series.

    DJ YOSHITAKA 

DJ YOSHITAKA — Yoshitaka Nishimura

Also known as: Lucky Vacuum, 朱雀 (Suzaku)

One of BEMANI's most prominent artists in recent years. He became part of BEMANI staff in the mid-2000's, and started out by producing a variety of songs for the beatmania IIDX series. His most well-known songs include the "HARD RENAISSANCE" and "TRANCE CORE" series of songs from jubeat and REFLEC BEAT.

Currently, aside from being an executive officer of the Konami Amusement division, he's the head producer for beatmania IIDX, pop'n music, and SOUND VOLTEX. On top of that, he was also the director for REFLEC BEAT. He even plays REFLEC BEAT himself, with a player ID of 1.

Despite his heavy involvement with the BEMANI lineup, Yoshitaka has not produced any albums, with the half-exception of ZEUS (as part of his involvement with VENUS).

  • Arc Number: Yoshitaka seems rather fond of making songs with a tempo of 185 BPM.
  • Boss Battle: A large majority of his songs get Level 10 charts in jubeat and Level 10+ charts in REFLEC BEAT.
    • Final Boss / True Final Boss: "MENDES" from IIDX DJ TROOPERS, "Himiko" from IIDX EMPRESS and "Almagest" from IIDX SIRIUS, each of which is the final One More Extra Stage of their respective games, all credit him (among others for Himiko and Almagest). He was also credited for "Elemental Creation" (with DJ TAKA), the final song of a cross-promotion event.
  • Flanderization: Although he used to compose a variety of tracks—from hip hop to high speed boss song pieces—nowadays the only tracks he seems to compose anymore are the "Hard Renaissance" and "Trance Core" series of songs, and once in a long while, "happy" songs under his Lucky Vacuum alias.
  • Guyliner: In his more recent appearances, he tends to wear eyeliner.
  • Required Spinoff Crossover: Either he or someone at Konami is really fond of putting "FLOWER" or some arrangement thereof in every single BEMANI series.
  • Sequel Song:
    • "VALLIS-NERIA", to "JOMANDA". The IIDX video to the former confirms this.
    • "Lisa-RICCIA" to "VALLIS-NERIA".
  • Signature Sound Effect: All of the songs under the Suzaku alias contain a distinct overdriven guitar note. His successor, DJ TOTTO, also uses it when composing songs under his "Second-Generation Suzaku" alias.
  • Signature Style: His "TRANCE CORE" and "HARD RENAISSANCE" series of songs.
  • The Four Gods: One of his aliases is 朱雀 (Suzaku), used as part of beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD's CARDINAL GATE Extra Stage system but then also used in later songs.
  • With Lyrics: Aside from the Try to Sing Ver. series of songs, he also rerecorded vocals for Ryu*'s "I'm so Happy".

    Gekidan Record 

劇団レコード (Gekidan Record) — Tomoaki Hirono

An in-house composer best known for making ethnic-sounding songs. Occasionally makes cover art for some of his BEMANI songs as well.

    GUHROOVY 

GUHROOVY — Akira Uchibori

Owner of the techno label of the same name. He often produces songs with L.E.D. Certain songs credited to him were also produced by fellow hardcore artist DJ CHUCKY.

  • Final Boss: "KAMAITACHI", also featuring DJ TECHNORCH, is the final song of the Kaiden course on IIDX GOLD CS. The chart used in that appearance is considered a precursor to the Black Another charts.
  • Hardcore Techno: Most of his contribution to BEMANI consists of this, especially Freeform / Speedcore.

    Hommarju 

Hommarju

A hardcore music producer who is a regular in SOUND VOLTEX contests. He is part of beatnation RHYZE and has his own label, THE NO1ZE.

  • Ascended Fan: as most Sound Voltex contributors are. He takes his name from a misspelling of a track from long-time vocalist Sana's album.
  • Iconic Item: His megaphone, which he is almost never seen without.
  • Spiritual Successor: To kors k. He was chosen as part of beatnation RHYZE by kors k, having been part of his S 2 TB label for a while. He also produces a similar type of hardcore music.

    HuΣer 

HuΣeR — Aritomo Hamada

Also known as: 8284, dj Hellix

An in-house BEMANI producer, previously known to the BMS community as "8284". He got his start in beatmania IIDX copula, and has been a regular in beatmania and other games since.

  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: His alias uses the letter sigma as if it were a sideways M (it's pronounced "Hummer") because it looks cool.

    Jimmy Weckl 

Jimmy Weckl — Harumi Ueko

One of the first composers for GITADORA, he continued producing output up to GF/DM XG2 in 2012. He retired from Konami soon after.

  • Boss Battle: "ミラージュ・レジデンス" (Mirage Residence) was crossed over to IIDX DJ TROOPERS, where it featured in the MILITARY SPLASH boss area.
  • Shout-Out: "Weckl", in addition to being an anglicisation of "Ueko", is also a reference to the jazz drummer Dave Weckl.

    jun 

jun — Junko Karashima

Highly prominent in Dance Dance Revolution for a long time, she left along with NAOKI in 2013. She also produces songs for the CROSS×BEATS series.

  • Final Boss: "PARANOiA -HADES-", her remix of the long-running DDR boss song series, appeared in SuperNOVA2 and was later made into IIDX DJ TROOPERS's regular One More Extra Stage.
  • Lucky Charms Title: "HAPPY☆ANGEL", "Sweet Sweet ♡ Magic", "SILVER☆DREAM", "TRUE♡LOVE", "SUNKiSS♥DROP", "KIMONO♥PRINCESS", "CRAZY♡LOVE", "Raspberry♡Heart", "jewelry girl*", "HONEY♡SUNRISE".
  • Smurfette Principle: Only female sound director of a main-series BEMANI title (DDR SuperNOVA2).
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Several of her songs, despite being cute and happy songs, are boss songs in the games they appear in, such as "KIMONO♡PRINCESS" in DDR and "HONEY♡SUNRISE" in crossbeats REV.

    Kanako Hoshino 

星野奏子 (Kanako Hoshino) — 渡辺奏子 (Kanako Watanabe)

A vocalist who joined KONAMI after a vocalist audition held by KONAMI in 2004. She's sung quite a few songs for BEMANI, and written the lyrics to several other songs not featuring her singing. Her earlier songs were mostly done by DJ Yoshitaka, but she's also worked with Keiichi Ueno and dj TAKA, among others.

In 2008, she left KONAMI and became affiliated with HIGH KICK ENTERTAINMENT inc. However, she continued to release songs and albums through KONAMI as late as 2011. In September 2016, she left HIGH KICK ENTERTAINMENT inc. She has released five albums and two EPs.

  • all lowercase letters: "never..."
  • Gratuitous English: "never..." is entirely in English. The pronunciation isn't great, and the grammar gets questionable at times:
    I know, always we have so many many things were
    lost and got and lost and got
    Later...
    will watch not the past,
    watch the future I know
  • Lucky Charms Title: "Punch Love♡Kamen" and "LUV×REVO"
  • Remix Album: EIGHT ELEMENTS OF THE STAR ~ANOTHER SENSE~ features remixes of the songs from EIGHT ELEMENTS OF THE STAR

    kors k 

kors k — Kosuke Saito

Also known as: teranoid, StripE, disconation, Eagle

One of the most popular commission artists, kors k has his own music label: S2TB Recording.

    L.E.D. 

L.E.D. — Toshiyuki Kakuta

Also known as: L.E.D.-G, T.Kakuta

A long-time contributor to console versions of beatmania IIDX games, he eventually became the sound director of the series. He has produced one album, 電人K (Denjin K).

  • Caps Lock: A lot of his English song names are in all caps. Examples include "THE EARTH LIGHT", "OUTER LIMITS", "WONDER WALKER", and "BLUE STRAGGLER".
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the early years of his tenure, his tracks had the artist credit of "L.E.D. LIGHT" or "L.E.D. LIGHT-G". Later on he became simply "L.E.D.(-G)".
  • Gimmick Level: One of "STELLAR WIND"'s gimmicks is that in two of the BEMANI games it appears in, its two most difficult charts will be extremely similar to each other:
    • jubeat: The Extreme chart is just the Advanced chart turned 90 degrees counterclockwise and with one less note.
    • Reflec Beat: The Special chart is the Hard chart with many Top notes—particularly those that fall on the kick—replaced by Vertical notes.
  • Sequel Song: His Denjin Jaeger song series.
  • Signature Sound Effect: A very large number of his songs open with a "fading-in cymbal" for some reason.
  • Signature Style: Several of his "hard dance" songs have very similar chord progressions.
  • Theme Naming: He seems to name a lot of his more hardcore tracks after Biblical beings. "GALGALIM", "DOMINION" and "EXUSIA" all refer to ranks of angels, and "THE FALLEN" can also be taken to mean the Fallen Angels, among whom is Satan. "NEPHILIM DELTA" refers to the proto-humans who existed before the Flood.

    Marl 

MarL

A new in-house vocalist who debuted in 2016. Very little else is known about her, other than she seems to be an acquaintance of PON's.

    Mayumi Morinaga 

Mayumi Morinaga

Also known as: moimoi, MM, senya (as part of Yuuhei Satellite)

A J-Pop singer who often collaborates with Starving Trancer and Ryu☆. Touhou Project fans may know her better as part of Yuuhei Satellite (幽閉サテライト), in which she performs under the alias "senya".

    MC Natsack 

MC Natsack — K. Shiraishi

Provided lyrics for a couple of teranoid songs.

  • The Unintelligible: It's still up for debate what he's saying in "gigadelic" even over a decade later.

    Mr.T 

Mr.T — Tomoyuki Uchida

Also known as: ucchie

A long-time contributor to both beatmania IIDX and pop'n music from 1999 to 2009, and is now a composer and arranger at Sony Music Publishing Japan.

    Mutsuhiko Izumi 

Mutsuhiko Izumi

Also known as: 泉 陸奥彦

One of the all-time greats of BEMANI composition, he mainly contributes to GITADORA and jubeat. He had been around since the first Guitar Freaks title, making him the longest running active BEMANI artist until his retirement on November 2019.

    NAOKI 

NAOKI — Naoki Maeda

Also known as: 180, 190, 200, DE-SIRE, Ω, RevenG/Re-Venge/Reven-G, NAOKI Underground, N.M.R., UZI-LAY, etc.

NAOKI is one of the series' longest-standing talents, and perhaps the best-known amongst DanceDanceRevolution players. His countless contributes to DDR have made him the face of the series; in fact, he was the sound director for DDR for four years. He would later go on to step down from DDR to work on Dance Masters.

NAOKI no longer works for Konami, and has since joined Capcom to work on another rhythm game, CROSS×BEATS before its discontinuation in 2018, and has recently created an indie rhythm game, SEVEN's CODE.

    Nekomata Master 

猫叉Master (Nekomata Master) — Naoyuki Sato

Also known as: 猫叉Master+

A musician known for producing songs with "worldly" themes to them. However, he's open to produce darker, more traditional electronica, which he often composes under the 猫叉Master+ alias.

He is currently a sound director for beatmania IIDX, alongside L.E.D.

Nekomata has done five albums: Rain drops, Backdrops, Sayonara Sekai, Crevice, and follow slowly.

In addition to his work on the BEMANI series, he has also composed music for Elebits.

    OSTER project 

OSTER project

OSTER project is a prominent Vocaloid artist who has also joined the beatnation RHYZE team.

  • Ambiguous Gender: Known as FutanariP in her early days and refused to reveal her gender in order to be taken seriously from the beginning.
  • Ascended Fan: She herself plays IIDX and credits the series for influencing her early music career.
  • Smurfette Principle: The only female member of the beatnation RHYZE team, and only the second prominent female BEMANI composer, after jun. She only became one of the regulars after jun left.

    PHQUASE 

PHQUASE — Takahiro Fukase

Known in SOUND VOLTEX for producing charts and effects for the best known boss songs in the game. He produces his own songs too. He later joined the in-house staff in late 2017.

    PON 

PON / Power of Nature — Daichi Watanabe

Also known as: Mystic Moon

A recurring artist in the pop'n music series, usually well-versed in J-pop and instrumental songs.

    Qrispy Joybox / MAX MAXIMIZER 

Qrispy Joybox / MAX MAXIMIZER — Tatsuya Iyama

Former sound director for the REFLEC BEAT series. His two main aliases could not be any more different: Qrispy Joybox produces light and fuzzy tracks, whereas MAX MAXIMIZER is known for hardcore, aggressive music.

  • Boss Fight / Final Boss:
    • MAX MAXIMIZER songs all have Hard 10+note  charts on Reflec Beat.
    • "CLAMARE" is the final boss of Colette -All Seasons-, and had the hardest difficulty spread in the game (6/9/10+). It is also the ending song of Reflec Beat's REFLEC DOJO final course.
    • The final boss of the 5th Konami Arcade Championship for Reflec Beat VOLZZA is "Rebellio", a MAX MAXIMIZER & DJ TOTTO collab. Its special introductory video declares simply, "Difficulty: XIII". VOLZZA's difficulty scale was only supposed to go up to 12.
  • In the Hood: MAX MAXIMIZER is shown wearing a hood in the Private Bemani Academy PV.
  • In the Name of the Moon / Badass Creed: "My name is MAX MAXIMIZER... the last guardian of corruption and despair."
  • Lucky Charms Title: "Starry ☆ night"
  • Mood Whiplash: Play a Qrispy Joybox song followed by a MAX MAXIMIZER song. It's hard to believe they're the same person.
  • Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Seen through the song jackets (compare "printemps" or "Colorful Minutes" to "ARACHNE" or "HAERETICUS").

    Remo-con 

Remo-con — Tetsuya Tamura

One of the most prolific figures in hard dance in Japan, as well as a prominent member of the duo Y&Co.

    Roughsketch 

RoughSketch — Shohei Uno

Also known as: uno(IOSYS), CANVAS

A well-versed hardcore / gabber artist. Has his own label, Notebook Records, and is also a member of beatnation RHYZE and IOSYS.

    Ryu☆ 

Ryu☆ — Ryutaro Nakahara

Also known as: 青龍 (Seiryu), 雷龍 (Rairyu), HHH

Ryu☆ has written some of the most popular songs in BEMANI history. He is an executive director for EXIT TUNES and has produced seven albums.

  • Arc Number: 191. Every single non-collaborative 青龍 song runs at exactly 191 BPM.
  • Boss Fight
  • Call-Back: "BLUE DRAGON(雷龍REMIX)" contains samples used in most of the major 青龍 and 雷龍 songs up to that point ("waxing and wanding", "Time to Air", "3y3s" and "Thunderbolt").
  • Contest Winner Cameo: His first BEMANI song, "starmine", appeared in IIDX 4th style as this, along with kors k's debut.
  • Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Naturally, if your name starts with Ryu, you're going to base a lot of your motifs around Eastern dragons. His main alternative alias, 青龍, is one of The Four Gods, no less. The jacket for "中華急行" ("China Express") also contains this.
  • The Four Gods: One of his aliases is 青龍 (Seiryu), used as part of beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD's CARDINAL GATE Extra Stage system but then also used in later songs.
  • Letters 2 Numbers / Leet Lingo: "3y3s", which is ostensibly meant to be read as "eyes".
  • Required Spinoff Crossover: Many BEMANI series end up getting "Second Heaven" and "I'm so Happy" in some form.
  • Sampling: Most of his songs do this a lot, with 青龍 and 雷龍 songs featuring it most heavily.
    • The song "Do it!! Do it!!" was built around a couple of samples, one of which is the one named in the title.
  • Shout-Out: In the song production information for "Second Heaven", he references Cascada's "Everytime We Touch". The two songs were then introduced to the same DanceDanceRevolution game (X2).
  • Signature Style: "DANCE SPEED" as 青龍; "HAPPY HARDCORE" otherwise.

    S-C-U 

S-C-U — Shigeharu Saeki

Also known as: ショッチョー (Shoccho)

Got his start in GITADORA, but is now a prominent contributor in jubeat.

  • Animal Theme Naming: Most of his songs under the S-C-U alias are named after, or make reference to, animals. The jackets usually make the references clearer. For example, Little Flipper (dolphin), yellow head joe (a type of fish) and heron (a type of bird).
  • Ascended Extra: Started out playing backing instruments for the unloved licensed covers in GITADORA. He's now the sound director of one of the better liked BEMANI series, and appears in many other series too.

    S.S.D. 

S.S.D. — Arata Iiyoshi

Started with Beatmania IIDX, He composed several tracks for IIDX, Pop'n music and REFLEC BEAT. Outside of Konami he also helped composed music for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.

    Seiya Murai 

seiya-murai — Kiyoshi Murai

Also known as: V.C.O., world sequence

A long term contributor to pop'n music, Seiya Murai has produced two albums: plug+program, and 0/1 ANGEL (with ALT).

  • Synthetic Voice Actor: Regular "contributor" ALT is basically the Mac program VocalWriter's "Sarah" voice, but modified to sing in Japanese and English as opposed to just English. Fittingly, Seiya Murai was the first in-house BEMANI artist to use Vocaloids in his work.
    • He himself was voiced by a computer in the Private Bemani Academy PV.

    SLAKE 

SLAKE — Takehiko Fujii

Also known as: SPARKER, CALF, DEPROGRAM MAN

One of the earliest composers in beatmania, he left in 2004.

  • Boss Fight: His song "SCREAM SQUAD" was the extra stage song in IIDX HAPPY SKY. Yes, that does make it the song you play immediately before legendary That One Boss 冥.

    Sota Fujimori 

Sota Fujimori

Also known as: dj MAX STEROID, SystemSF/SySF, Expander, Recycle

A composer who is best known for his talents with synthesizers. He has been with Konami since the late 90's, having composed tracks for games such as Castlevania Chronicles, and made his BEMANI debut in 2001 in the PS1 port of DanceDanceRevolution 5thMIX. Most of his works have been for the IIDX and DDR series, though he's also composed songs for other BEMANI games.

Sota has produced six albums, five of which are part of the SYNTHESIZED series.

  • Ascended Fan: Gradius is his favorite game, and is what inspired him to start composing music. Taken to its conclusion when he produced "GRADIUS 2012", a medley of tracks from the original Gradius.
  • Dubstep: Becoming increasingly common. "WOBBLE IMPACT" and his tricoro menu BGM are two such examples.
  • Sequel Song: "ANDROMEDA II" is a sequel to, pretty obviously, "ANDROMEDA".
  • Signature Style: Sota specializes in using synthesizers, to the point where he even makes this quip regarding "100% minimoo-G":
    "I'm Sota, and I love synthesizers more than girls or having three meals a day♪"
  • Synth-Pop: Has composed songs a Trace Pop style such as Look To the Sky and Star Gate Heaven
  • Theme Naming: Two of his songs, "ANDROMEDA" and "100% minimoo-G", are named after the synthesisers they were recorded on (an Alesis Andromeda and a Mimimoog).
  • Uncommon Time: "100% minimoo-G"'s time signature is so ambiguous that IIDX doesn't bother to have measure lines for it.

    SYUNN 

SYUNN — Shunsuke Sato

Also known as: Dustup, Captain Sonic, The Foie-Gras of The Sea

An in-house artist who debuted in BEMANI during jubeat Qubell. Since then, he's produced songs primarily for beatmania IIDX and DANCERUSH, but has songs in other series as well.

  • Call-Back: His song "1116" is a reference to the date Megalara Garuda was announced: November 16, 2016 (11/16).
  • Final Boss: "Megalara Garuda" is the final unlock of the "DIG RUSH" event, and also the hardest song from jubeat Qubell. "Prey" also serves as this for BEMANI SUMMER GREETINGS.

    TAG 

TAG — Yasuhiro Taguchi

Also known as: SUPER STAR -満- MITSURU, CAPACITY GATE, TAG underground

The sound director for DanceDanceRevolution from X2 to 2014, and one of the former sound directors of SOUND VOLTEX.

He is perhaps better known for his gig as SUPER STAR -満- MITSURU, a campy, over-the-top dancer wearing white and a pair of sunglasses.

TAG has one album under his SUPER STAR MITSURU alias, ONLY ONE ACT.

On September 2021, TAG announced that he is becoming a freelance producer, ending his tenure at Konami.

  • Department of Redundancy Department: "満" is simply read as "Mitsuru".
  • Ending Theme: Composed the ending theme for beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS, "THANK YOU FOR PLAYING", which is also a playable song, complete with EMPRESS's credits in the video.
  • Final-Exam Boss: For DDR, he created "PARANOiA Revolution", whose Expert chart is a mashup of several previous DDR charts.
  • Grand Finale: "SA.YO.NA.RA SUPER STAR". As the title (and its genre, "ONLY ONE FINALE"), imply, it is his last song under the SUPER STAR MITSURU alias.
  • Gratuitous Chinese: In The Stinger of "SA.YO.NA.RA SUPER STAR".
  • Large Ham
  • Lighter and Softer: Of "London EVOLVED"'s three versions, version C has an ending that is "happier" than the other two versions' and would not sound out of place in a song under his SUPER STAR MITSURU alias.
    • Darker and Edgier: In contrast, version B takes a darker turn, speeding up to 210 BPM and changing completely from a melodic standpoint.
  • Sampling: In Sound Voltex, "KHAMEN BREAK"'s (composed by TAG) INFINITE chart plays samples from TAG's "POSSESSION" and "She is my wife".
  • Signature Line: "She is...my wife!"
  • Silly Love Songs: "She is my wife" seems to start off as one, but as he drops the title, the song doubles in tempo and turns into a high-speed dance piece.
  • Theme Naming: In IIDX, his MITSURU songs all carry the "ONLY ONE ____" genre format.
  • With Lyrics: "Diamond Dust", "UNLIMITED FIRE", "Cosmic Hurricane", and "LIGHTNING THUNDERBOLT" have vocal versions – all sung by DJ YOSHITAKA, except the latter, which is sung by DJ TOTTO. Amusingly, all four songs are credited to "TAG rejected by DJ YOSHITAKA / DJ TOTTO".

    Tatsh 

Tatsh — Tatsuya Shimizu

Also known as: 白虎 (Byakko) dj Killer, DJ MURASAME, Persona, 世阿弥 (Xeami/Zeami)

Tatsh made his debut in IIDX 10th style, becoming one of the sound directors in IIDXRED. He left after DistorteD, citing health problems, but returned in 2010. He has produced one album, MATERIAL.

Tatsh has his own doujin music circle, Tatsh Music Circle. Most of his works as part of the circle are Touhou Project arranges.

Tatsh can be found in non-BEMANI music games, including Groove Coaster (sometimes under his Zeami alias), Cytus (under his Persona alias), and CROSS×BEATS.

  • Chromatic Arrangement: His "Eyes" songs in Cytus: "Red Eyes", "Green Eyes", and "Blue Eyes".
  • The Four Gods: One of his aliases is 白虎 (Byakku), used as part of beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD's CARDINAL GATE Extra Stage system.
  • Gimmick Level: His IIDX songs under his DJ MURASAME alias are known for having multiple parts split by chart or play mode:
    • "Scripted Connection⇛" has three parts: the first was originally playable on Normal difficulty, the second on Hyper, and the third on Another. All three parts got their own full sets of charts in GOLD.
    • "ANTHEM LANDING", the Extra Stage of Resort Anthem, as well as "SHADE", the Extra Stage of Lincle, do the same. However, both songs have yet to be split into three different song entries.
    • "仮想空間の旅人たち" ("Kasoukuukan no tabibitotachi", officially translated as "The Travelers of Virtual Space") is split into two parts, the former half playable on Single Play and the latter half playable on Double Play.
  • Marathon Level: He has the only "long version" IIDX song in the entire series, "Scripted Connection⇒ long mix". It is the entire 5-minute 36-second song in one chart.
  • Perspective Flip: "24th Century BOY", according to Word of God, is "RED ZONE" from the perspective of one of the girls in the video.
  • Sequel Song: "reunion" to "Xepher", and "24th Century BOY" to "RED ZONE".
  • Spell My Name With An S: Tatsh can't seem to decide whether to romanize 世阿弥 as "Zeami" or "Xeami".

    Togo project 

Togo project — Hiroyuki Togo

Also known as: Togo-chef, Bongo Mango

More info and tropes to come.

    TOMOSUKE 

TOMOSUKE — Tomosuke Funaki

Also known as: Zektbach, Orange Lounge, 黒猫ダンジョン (Kuroneko Dungeon), Dormir (with vocalist crimm)

TOMOSUKE has produced five albums, none of which use his primary alias (marble as Orange Lounge, three Epic of Zektbach albums, and Petit March as Dormir). He also leads the mixed-media HinaBitter (ひなビタ♪) project.

  • Ominous Latin Chanting: Ominous chanting, in other languages as well as Latin, is rife in Zektbach songs.
  • Required Spinoff Crossover: His song "Rin to shite saku hana no gotoku" (凛として咲く花の如く) (Nadeshiko Rock) was the first to be crossed over to every single BEMANI series.
  • True Final Boss: Composed and arranged the TFB, "Almagest", in SIRIUS with DJ YOSHITAKA.
  • Uncommon Time: "ZETA -The World of Prime Numbers and the Transcendental Being-" is in 5/4 for the ending part, after switching repeatedly between 4/4 and 3/4. This is rather tame by IDM standards.

    U1-ASAMI 

U1-ASAMi — Yuichi Asami

Also known as: 2MB, U1 overground

One of the first artists to contribute to DDR, especially on older console releases. He is currently the sound director of the DanceDanceRevolution arcade series since A.

  • Catchphrase: "Why do you need KONAMI original songs...?" (in English) as 2MB.
  • Final Boss / True Final Boss: As 2MB, he produced several boss songs for DDR, which players still dread to this day. In fact, "MAX. (period)" was initially intended to be the True Final Boss of the entire DDR series, and it holds up pretty well.
  • Goroawase Number: "U1" is read as yuichi, as in his given name.

    Vivian 

Vivian — Yasunori Nishiki

More info and tropes to come.

    wac 

wac — Jun Wakita

Also known as: DJ. W, 少年ラジオ, virkato, among others...

wac is a regular contributor to and a sound director of the pop'n music series, though he also produces songs for other series. He composes songs in a wide variety of genres.

  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Is almost always shown wearing a cat mask in his public appearances.
  • Call-Back: The long version of "neu" contains a three minute montage of clips from previous wac songs.
  • Epic Rocking: Several.
    • Naturally, being written as classical pieces, all virkato tracks are this in their full versions.
    • neu usually lasts seven minutes (as the three difficulties make up one longer song). The version on the "ongaku" album, however, lasts 12 minutes, including samples from 50 other wac songs, plus its sequel song, uen, before returning to the main song for the ending.
  • The Faceless: Wears the above cat mask most of the time.
  • The Four Gods: One of his alises is 玄武 (Genbu), used as part of beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD's CARDINAL GATE Extra Stage system.
  • Hidden Track: At the end of the long version of "neu", the final track of wac's Ongaku album, if you wait about 30 seconds, the long version of "uen" will start.
  • I Don't Know Mortal Kombat: At JAEPO 2013, he played one of his own songs, "Ongaku", on pop'n's EX difficulty. "Ongaku" on EX is rated at level 50, the highest difficulty rating in pop'n music. His attempt ended in utter failure.
  • I Have Many Names: Uses several different aliases, with his so-called "main" alias only being credited in ten BEMANI songs since his debut.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: "uen", the remix / Sequel Song to "neu".
  • Stellar Name: His songs tend to have this. Balance of Asteria, stray march, Spica, Regulus, and Scorpion Fire, and Waltz of the Big Dogs refer to constellations or stars, and Ganymede and moon_child refer to moons. Not all his songs have this though.
  • Team Pet: Described as the "mascot" of the pop'n music series in the credits for Lapistoria.
  • Variable Mix: "neu" and "音楽" both vary between difficulties, with neu being the most noticeable - it's three parts of one 7-minute song, not unlike "Scripted Connection" in IIDX.

    Waldeus vön Dovjak 

Waldeus vön Dovjak — Junichiro Kaneda

Also known as: J_KANE

Composed for KONAMI since 1988, but is best known for the CLASSIC series in pop'n music. Left KONAMI in 2005.

  • As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Or, at least, like a famous foreign composer's name.
  • Boss Battle: Composed the first ever 43 (at the time the highest difficulty rating) in an arcade release of pop'n music, "GALAXY FOREST 11,6&12".
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: The CLASSIC series, which is made up of medleys of classical music.

    Yoshihiko Koezuka 

Yoshihiko Koezuka

Also known as: 肥塚良彦, OJ ENSEMBLE

A former member of KONAMI Kukeiha Club, he became a frequent contributor to the GuitarFreaks and DrumMania series, and is also a recurring bassist on a handful of songs from other BEMANI series.

    Yvya 

Yvya — Yuya Yokoyama

One of the newest members of the in-house sound staff who joined in April 2018. Usually composes songs for the GITADORA series and provides guitars for a handful of songs in other BEMANI games.

Units:

    Another Infinity 
A collaboration between Ryu☆ and Starving Trancer. Some of their songs include "800nm" and "Fly you to the star".

    BeForU 

BeForU

A J-pop unit formed by Naoki Maeda in 2001, out of four contest winners: Riyu Kosaka, Noria Shiraishi, Yoma Komatsu, and Shiyuna Maehaea. They released their first album, which was self-titled, in November 2003. In 2004, Shiyuna left the group to pursue other venues. They had another contest for two new members, but there was a tie for either first or second place, so the grand total became six instead of five. The new members were Miharu Arisawa, Sayaka Minami and Risa Sotohana. This iteration of the group was called BeForU NEXT. They released a new album, BeForU II, in February 2006. In March 2007, they released BeForU III: Breaking Into the Probability Changes under the Avex label.

In December 2007, everyone except Sayaka and Riyu left — Miharu due to illness, Yoma for personal reasons, and Noria and Risa wanted to pursue solo careers. In February 2008, it was announced that three new members — Ayano Tachibana, Hiromi Nishiuchi and Megumi Fukushita — would be joining the group. Then, in April, Sayaka left the group due to illness, leaving Riyu as the only remaining original member. The third generation of BeForU used a new label, Gambit (Sheeps Eyes). BeForU released its last album, Shangri-La, in October that year. It is assumed that the group was disbanded shortly after the release of that album.

Their music provides examples of:

  • Gratuitous English: Like so many other J-pop artists, BeForU liked to throw in unnecessary English:
    • "Firefly", "DIVE", "true...", "Scenario", "Perfect Warriors" among others have English titles despite having Japanese lyrics.
    • "♥Loveシュガ→♥" has a couple of lines in English.
    • "Red Rocket Rising English Edit" is an Engrish version of "Red Rocket Rising". Kind of odd considering that neither version was released outside of Japan anyway.
  • Lucky Charms Title: "♥Loveシュガ→♥", "LOVE♥SHINE", "CANDY♥", "BRE∀K DOWN!", "HONEY♂PUNCH", "LOVE②くらっち" and "PEACE (^^)v".
  • Numbered Sequels: Their second album was simply titled BeForU II.
  • Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Their first two albums were simply titled BeForU and BeForU II. Their third one? BeForU III: Breaking into the Probability Changes
  • Punny Name: Their name is a pun on the phrase "before you".
  • Self-Titled Album: Their first album was simply titled BeForU. Their second album was titled BeForU II. Their third album? BeForU III: Breaking into the Probability Changes.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: "BRE∀K DOWN!". Presumably the inverted A is there because it looks cooler than a regular A, and not to be used as a universal quantifier.

    Dokyou Kyoudai 

度胸兄弟 (Dokyou Kyoudai)

A name for collaborations between L.E.D. and wac. The Dokyou Kyoudai (Courage Brothers) are also boss characters in beatmania IIDX.

  • Boss Battle: They made their debut with "DIAVOLO", the One More Extra Stage song of beatmania IIDX 19 Lincle.
  • Public Domain Soundtrack: Known for their classical arrangements.

    Prim 

Prim

A collaboration between L.E.D. and Mayumi Morinaga for producing happy hardcore songs with high-pitched vocals.

    TËЯRA 

TËЯRA

A duet group consisting of NAOKI who composes the music and Junko Karashima who does vocals. Their music appears in all of Konami's music sims and is generally of the rock and J-Pop genres. Following how their name is stylized, most of their English titled tracks are often stylized in a similar manner.

  • Book Ends: "LETHEBOLG ～双神威に斬り咲けり～" begins and ends with the lines "I'll reach you in time/defying destiny/this prayer has started to shine". They're the only English lines in the song.
  • Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: Which is odd, because they're not a metal group.
  • Lucky Charms Title: "ESCAPE TO THE SKY★彡" and "STARS★★★" (as well as its remixes).
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: They'll throw in random symbols and letters from foreign alphabets — regardless of their actual pronunciation and meaning — just to make their titles look cooler.
    • Their name consists a gratuitous backwards R and a gratuitous umlaut.
    • The song titles "ZËNITH" and "ULTiM∧TE".
    • The album titles RЁVOLUTIΦN and ЁVOLUTIΦN, which are also song titles.

    VENUS 

VENUS

A duet consisting of DJ YOSHITAKA and Sota Fujimori, the former doing vocals and the latter composing the track. They are perhaps best known for their songs' album art, which tend to have Homoerotic Subtext, as well as the songs themselves, which tend to come off as romance songs.

Their songs debut in REFLEC BEAT, with the exception of "Brand New World", which debuted in pop'n music instead. Furthermore, in pop'n, there is a character (duo) based off of VENUS.

In addition to original songs, they also cover a few licensed songs.

VENUS released their first mini-album, ZEUS, on October 23, 2013, alongside volume 2 of the REFLEC BEAT colette original soundtrack. It includes extended versions of their original songs, instrumental versions of those and their cover of "1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou".

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