Shoji Meguro

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Shoji Meguro
目黒 将司
Born (1971-06-04) June 4, 1971 (age 50)
Tokyo, Japan
Genres
Occupation(s)
Instruments
Years active1995–present

Shoji Meguro (目黒 将司, Meguro Shōji, born June 4, 1971) is a Japanese composer and guitarist who works for the video game company Atlus. Meguro joined them in 1995 and has since worked on many of their games, mainly those in the Persona series. His musical style spans several genres, including rock, electronic, jazz, classical, and J-pop. He has also served as a creative director on the PSP remakes of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona and Persona 2.

Career[]

Early life[]

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Meguro became familiar with technology from a young age, due to his parents running a factory.[1] As a child, Meguro did not take an interest in popular music, and instead listened to and enjoyed classical. In junior high, he became interested in the likes of jazz artists such as T-Square, Herb Alpert, and Casiopea. It was in junior high that he became particularly fond of writing and profiteering music.[1] He then majored in hydrodynamics at the College of Industrial Technology at Nihon University.[1]

Atlus[]

After sending a demo tape and attending two interviews, Meguro was hired by Atlus in 1995. He got his start in the company by working on Revelations: Persona for the PlayStation, for which he composed 16 tracks, including one that became a staple in the series: "Aria of the Soul".[2] Meguro continued to work on several projects in the mid to late 1990s, including Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers on the Sega Saturn, composing around 50 pieces for the game, as well as Maken X on the Dreamcast.[1]

The first time he became a leading composer was on Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne in 2003, where he somewhat diverged from the music in the prior games for the Megami Tensei series, giving the game a more orchestral and fusion sound. A crucial point of his career was Digital Devil Saga; he had creative freedom that let him establish his own sound.[1] In 2005, Meguro took a break from the Shin Megami Tensei series to work on titles such as Trauma Center: Under the Knife, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion.

Meguro's career was propelled to international stardom in his craft with his work on Persona 3, where he used a pop-based vocal style, and the soundtrack to the game sold over 100,000 copies. In 2008, Meguro continued upon his success with Persona 4, where he blended genres to craft a unique sound. A concert at Akasaka Blitz was held to celebrate Meguro's work on the Persona series, where Persona favorites were played. During this time, he also worked on the music on Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon.[1]

Meguro was promoted to game director for the PlayStation Portable remake of Persona. During this time he received some criticism from some fans for changing the soundtrack for the remake, but overall received a warm response. He later directed the PSP ports of both Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. In the mid-2010s, Meguro served as the sound director for three spin-off Persona titles, as well as composing and producing the majority of the soundtrack for Persona 5.[3][4] Meguro also contributed to the upcoming Project Re Fantasy game, the film Mint, and Persona 5 Royal.[5][6][7] He also served as the lead composer for Persona 5: The Animation, arranging various tracks from the original game in addition to writing new material.[8]

Musical style and influences[]

Although many of his works feature a signature rock style, Meguro experiments with different musical genres, such as orchestral, electronica, jazz, and hip hop on various projects.[4][9] Meguro cites video game composers Koichi Sugiyama, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, as well as T-Square, Casiopea, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky as some of his musical influences.[4][1] Regarding the use of English lyrics in many of the Persona games, Meguro stated that due to Japanese people not fully understanding the language, it helped create music that was not as distracting to them as Japanese would be.[4]

Works[]

All works listed below were composed by Meguro unless otherwise noted.

Video games
Year Title Notes
1996 Revelations: Persona with Hidehito Aoki, Kenichi Tsuchiya, and Misaki Okibe
1997 Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers with Toshiko Tasaki and Tsukasa Masuko
1999 Maken X with Takahiro Ogata
2001 Maken Shao: Demon Sword
2003 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne with Kenichi Tsuchiya and Toshiko Tasaki
2004 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniax
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga with Kenichi Tsuchiya
2005 Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
Trauma Center: Under the Knife with Kenichi Tsuchiya and Kenichi Kikkawa
2006 Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
Persona 3
Trauma Center: Second Opinion sound director[10]
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine opening theme
2007 Persona 3 FES with Kenichi Tsuchiya
2008 Persona 4 with Atsushi Kitajoh
Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
2009 Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Game director. Arrangements with Ryota Kozuka and Kenichi Tsuchiya
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Persona 3 Portable
2010 Trauma Team with Atsushi Kitajoh and Ryota Kozuka
2011 Catherine with Atsushi Kitajoh and Kenichi Tsuchiya
Persona 2: Innocent Sin game director
2012 Persona 4 Arena with Atsushi Kitajoh
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment game director
Persona 4 Golden with Atsushi Kitajoh
2013 Persona 4 Arena Ultimax sound director
2014 Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
2015 Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker
Persona 4: Dancing All Night sound director
2016 Persona 5 with Toshiki Konishi and Atsushi Kitajoh
2017 Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux with Toshiki Konishi
2018 Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight sound director
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
2019 Persona 5 Royal with Toshiki Konishi
2020 Persona 5 Strikers sound director
TBA Project Re Fantasy
Anime
Year Title Notes
2011 Persona 4: The Animation
2014 Persona 4: The Golden Animation with Tetsuya Kobayashi
2016 Persona 5: The Animation – The Day Breakers
2018 Persona 5: The Animation
Film
Year Title Notes
2013 Persona 3 The Movie: #1 Spring of Birth
2014 Persona 3 The Movie: #2 Midsummer Knight's Dream composed "Fate is In Our Hands"
2015 Persona 3 The Movie: #3 Falling Down with Tetsuya Kobayashi
2016 Persona 3 The Movie: #4 Winter of Rebirth composed "Boku no Akashi"

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Greening, Chris. "Shoji Meguro Profile". Video Game Music Online. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015.
  2. ^ "Shoji Meguro interview". RocketBaby. Archived from the original on August 26, 2002. Retrieved December 21, 2012.
  3. ^ Greening, Chris. "Atlus releases three-disc Persona 5 album". Video Game Music Online. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Mielke, James. "'Persona 5' Creators Talk Series' Legacy, Character Design and J-Pop". Glixel. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  5. ^ Romano, Sal. "First details on Atlus' new fantasy RPG, "Project Re Fantasy" [Update]". Gematsu. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  6. ^ First, Marlene. "NEGA, Persona Creators Make Anime-Live Action Film Mint". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
  7. ^ Romano, Sal. "Persona 5 Royal launches October 31 in Japan, 2020 in the west; first details, trailer, and screenshots". Gematsu. Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  8. ^ Farrell, Reilly. "Shoji Meguro returning for Persona 5 anime". Video Game Music Online. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
  9. ^ Wan, Zhiqing. "Twinfinite's Endless Playlist: Persona 5's Soundtrack and the Definition of Smoothness". Twinfinite. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  10. ^ Atlus (November 19, 2008). Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii). Atlus USA. Scene: Credits.
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