Kenji Ito

Best known for his songwriting contributions to the soundtracks of Mana, SaGa, and other video game series, Kenji Ito is a Japanese composer, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger. He was born in Tokyo on July 5, 1968, and became an accomplished player on several instruments — including alto saxophone, clarinet, and piano — as a young boy. Meanwhile, Japan's video game industry began to expand rapidly during the late 1980s, offering young composers like Ito an opportunity to create music for a relatively new medium. Inspired, he began working for the video game company Square in 1990 and collaborated with fellow composer Nobuo Uematsu on his first project, Final Fantasy Legend II. 1991's Final Fantasy Adventure marked his first time composing a game's soundtrack alone, and he composed music for various titles of the SaGa series — including 1992's Romancing SaGa, 1993's Romancing SaGa 2, 1995's Romancing SaGa 3 — during the following years. After leaving Square in 2001, he launched his freelance career by composing music for Culdcept Second, followed by games like Cross Gate Power Up Kick 2 Heavenly Eggs and Dawn of Mana as the decade progressed. Meanwhile, Kenji Ito also performed his catalog in concert, occasionally accompanied by orchestras and guest vocalists. He remained prolific well into his 50s, composing music for 2019's Rakugaki Kingdom and 2022's Sin Chronicle along the way.

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