Kinuyo Yamashita

Japan · Born 1965 · Composer

Composed her first game soundtrack straight out of university: Castlevania, whose opening theme "Vampire Killer" became the most recurring melody in Konami's horror series.

Kinuyo Yamashita was born on 31 December 1965 in Amagasaki, Hyōgo. She studied electronic engineering at Osaka Electro-Communication University, graduated in 1986 and joined Konami the same year. Her first assignment was Castlevania (1986), which she scored with Satoe Terashima. In the credits she appears as "James Banana", a pun on James Bernard, the composer of Hammer's 1958 Dracula — a fitting nod for a game built from the iconography of horror cinema. The Castlevania soundtrack is driven by fast tempos and strong melodies that suit the game's deliberate, punishing action. Its first-stage theme, "Vampire Killer", has been rearranged in many later games in the series and is one of the most recognisable pieces of 8-bit music. Yamashita went on to compose for other Konami titles including Esper Dream, King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch, Arumana no Kiseki and The Maze of Galious, and was a member of the original line-up of the Konami Kukeiha Club, the company's in-house sound team. She left Konami in 1989 to work freelance. Her later credits include Mega Man X3, the Power Blade games and the Medabot series, along with many Game Boy titles. In 2010 she moved to the United States.