Hirokazu Tanaka meets Hirokazu Tanaka (repeat 10x)

March 18, 2010 2:56 PM

Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka brings together ten other people also named Hirokazu Tanaka, and they all sing a song about being named Hirokazu Tanaka.
You may know Hip Tanaka's other work already--he's one of the original chiptuners, having written the score for many popular Nintendo video games throughout the 1980's: [ Earthbound • 2 • 3 | Mother | Metroid (live) • 2 • 3 | Super Mario Land • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 | Tetris (arr.) | Balloon Fight | Fire Emblem | Kid Icarus ]
10-min Youtube (in French) which features his more famous works with accompanying gameplay • Interview • Interview • Bio
posted by not_on_display (19 comments total)

Oh, hell yeah. I first saw his name when I wanted to know who wrote the awesome soundtrack after I beat Kid Icarus. Thanks for this!
posted by adamdschneider at 3:05 PM on March 18, 2010

Previously.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:06 PM on March 18, 2010

I think (Mefi member!) Dave Gorman did something like this. Only without the singing bit. And the other people were also called Dave Gorman, Hirokazu Tanaka. Obviously.
posted by afx237vi at 3:09 PM on March 18, 2010

*not Hirokazu Tanaka. Ugh. When is the edit comment button coming?
posted by afx237vi at 3:10 PM on March 18, 2010

I am fascinated by Powerplay (from Metroid (Live)). Rather than doing the Minibosses thing, making NES big and awesome, they actually "demake" their real instruments back into NES sounding things.
posted by effugas at 3:14 PM on March 18, 2010

Yes, Dave Gorman did a show and book based on the premise that he had to find 54 other people (one for every card in a deck (including the jokers!)) also called Dave Gorman. With various other silly restrictions, such as having to keep between 300 and 500 miles per Dave Gorman (cue Powerpoint slide of mpdg graph).

In the end he even got several people to legally change their name to Dave Gorman.
posted by Electric Dragon at 3:20 PM on March 18, 2010

In the late, lamented Might magazine, a writer named Phil Campbell wrote a piece titled, "Phil Campbell? Phil Campbell. Welcome to Phil Campbell!" about his experiences at a convention of people sharing the name. It was held in town in Alabama called, of course, Phil Campbell. As people sort out such simple issues as how to even address one another and refer to one another in an intelligible fashion, it becomes a quite nice little meditation on the nature of identity, as well as being pretty hilarious.

My favourite bit of the story was that no one had informed the desk clerk at the hostel that a couple dozen people with the same name would be checking in that day.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:24 PM on March 18, 2010 [3 favorites]

I read somewhere a long time ago that in Japan "Tanaka-san" is the same sort of generic or placeholder name that "Mr. Smith" is.
posted by XMLicious at 3:35 PM on March 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

fucking hipsters
posted by nathancaswell at 3:41 PM on March 18, 2010

KIDDING
posted by nathancaswell at 3:41 PM on March 18, 2010

My favorite Hirokazu Tanaka is the one in the suit that dances through the whole thing. Thank you for this, though, because I like the composer.
posted by Nattie at 4:28 PM on March 18, 2010 [2 favorites]

HAH, related video: an a capella arrangement of "Pokey Means Business" from Earthbound. I love it.
posted by Nattie at 4:30 PM on March 18, 2010

These are the Hirokazus I know, I know, these are the Hirokazus I know.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:46 PM on March 18, 2010 [3 favorites]

That's fairly cool Nattie, but it actually has a hard time measuring up to the gimmick of the original tune, where the first half of it is done in NES bleeps-and-bloops style, long before this whole "retro" thing, before suddenly turning into driving guitars and drums. Rather cool for a final boss track!
posted by JHarris at 5:54 PM on March 18, 2010

This man is thirteen types of awesome. I'm proud to have his soundtracks in my iTunes Library. (Much to the chagrin of my girlfriend and college roommates.)
posted by spamguy at 7:31 PM on March 18, 2010

I am completely in love with that dancing salaryman guy.
posted by jessamyn at 8:47 PM on March 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have a facebook group called Joel Friesens only. and you can't join.
posted by joelf at 12:02 AM on March 19, 2010

My pet theory is that when people couldn't fit a 1024-voice chorus, the Berliner Philarmonic and spare Einstürzende Neubauten instruments in the soundtrack, they had to come up with catchy melodies to get the listeners' attention. And Tanaka has come up with more than his fair share.

I trust you people have listened to jake's metroid disco?
posted by ersatz at 4:18 AM on March 19, 2010

Somehow reminds me of Paul Giamatti's wonderful monologue, as Harvey Pekar, in American Splendor:

These were the other Harvey Pekars. . . . What were they like? I thought. It seemed our lives had been linked in some . . . indefinable way. But the story does not end there, for two years later, another Harvey Pekar appeared in the phone book. Who are these people? Where do they come from? What do they do? What's in a name? Who is Harvey Pekar?

posted by cirripede at 10:37 PM on March 20, 2010 [1 favorite]