(stylized as kensuke ushio) is a Japanese composer, rock and EBM musician. He also releases work under the moniker Agraph.
He is a member of Japanese rock band Lama. Together with Lama, he released two full-length studio records: New! in 2011 and Modanica a year later. Both albums charted on the Oricon Albums Chart.
As an EBM musician, he released three albums, all of which peaked in the Japanese Albums Chart. He wrote and composed soundtracks for several anime television series and movies, such as A Silent Voice, Chainsaw Man, Devilman Crybaby, Liz and the Blue Bird, The Dangers in My Heart and Dandadan.
Biography As a child, Ushio learned playing piano. He studied arts and music at university. At the same time, he learned the usage of the audio editor software Pro Tools. At the age of 20, Ushio got his first contact with electronic music, such as techno. He started his solo career in 2007 under the moniker Agraph and began creating electronic music. His debut album A Day, Phases, which was produced by Takkyu Ishino, was released in December 2008. Two years later, his second album Equal was released, which ranked in the Japanese Albums Charts. In 2011, Ushio and some former musicians of bands like Supercar and Number Girl formed a rock band called Lama. The band released two albums, which both ranked on the official Albums Charts of Japan.
Due to his involvement in Lama, Ushio's third album named The Shader was released in 2016, six years after his second album. Ushio works as composer of film music as well, with a particular focus on animated projects. Among his film and television credits are music composition for Space Dandy (2014), A Silent Voice (2016), Liz and the Blue Bird (2018), and Boogiepop and Others (2019). He is a frequent collaborator of directors Masaaki Yuasa and Naoko Yamada, as well as the animation studio Science Saru, for which he has composed the scores of Ping Pong the Animation (2014), Devilman Crybaby (2018), Japan Sinks: 2020 (2020), and The Heike Story (2021). For The Heike Story, Ushio combined ambient with traditional Japanese instruments that aren't featured in the western musical scale, with an emphasis on the biwa per the director's request. In December 2021, Ushio was confirmed as the composer for MAPPA's anime adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga series Chainsaw Man, which premiered on October 12, 2022, on TV Tokyo and other networks. Ushio considered the soundtrack to be a challenge, having never written a score for a series based on a popular shonen manga at the time. He also collaborated with Sony Computer Science Laboratories to create a custom program as he sought to combine drum patterns with chainsaw samples. Ushio arranged music for the Distant Future chapter of the Live a Live remake, originally composed by Yoko Shimomura, marking his first work on a video game. The game released on July 22, 2022.
Discography Solo Year Album 2008 A Day, Phases 2010 Equal 2016 The Shader
Lama Year Album 2011 Now 2012 Modanica
Works Anime / television YearTitle2014Space DandyPing Pong the Animation2016A Silent Voice (A Shape of Light)2018Sanī/32Devilman CrybabyLiz and the Blue Bird2019Boogiepop and Others2020Japan Sinks: 20202021Words Bubble Up Like Soda PopThe Heike Story2022Chainsaw Man2023Make My DayThe Dangers in My HeartHeavenly Delusion2024The Colors WithinDandadanOrb: On the Movements of the Earth2025CocoonChainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze ArcThe Ghost Writer's Wife2026Journal with WitchAgents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring
Video games YearTitleNotes2022Live a Live arranged "Unseen Syndrome" and "Captain of the Stars"
References
External links
Kensuke Ushio at the Internet Movie Database Kensuke Ushio in the VGMdb Kensuke Ushio on Discogs Kensuke Ushio at Anime News Network