Kazumi Totaka
戸高一生
Born (1967-08-23) August 23, 1967
Tokyo, Japan
Alma materKunitachi College of Music
Occupations
  • Composer
  • sound director
  • voice actor
Years active1990–present
EmployerNintendo
Musical career
GenresVideo game music, jazz, easy listening
Instrument(s)

Kazumi Totaka (戸高 一生, Totaka Kazumi, born August 23, 1967)[1] is a Japanese video game composer and sound director who is best known for his various compositions in many Nintendo games. He occasionally does voice acting as well, most notably voicing Yoshi from the Mario series. He also directed the development of Wii Music.

Works

Year Title Role(s)
1992 X Music
Mario Paint Music with Hirokazu Tanaka and Ryoji Yoshitomi
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru Music
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins Music
1993 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Music with Minako Hamano and Kozue Ishikawa
1995 Virtual Boy Wario Land Music
1996 Wave Race 64 Music
1997 Yoshi's Story Music
1999 Mario Artist: Paint Studio Music with Chris Jojo, Martin Goodall, and Suddi Raval
2000 Mario Artist: Talent Studio Music with Kenta Nagata and Toru Minegishi
Mario Artist: Polygon Studio Music
2001 Animal Crossing Sound director, music with Kenta Nagata, Toru Minegishi, and Shinobu Tanaka
Luigi's Mansion Music with Shinobu Tanaka
Machop at Work Music with Takuto Kitsuta and Yasushi Ida
Kingler's Day Music with Takuto Kitsuta and Yasushi Ida
2004 Pikmin 2 Sound director, music with Hajime Wakai
2005 Yoshi Touch & Go Sound director, music with Asuka Hayazaki and Toru Minegishi
Animal Crossing: Wild World Sound director, music with Asuka Hayazaki
2006 Yoshi's Island DS Sound supervisor
Default Wii Channels Music
Wii Sports Sound director, music
Kenkou Ouen Recipe 1000: DS Kondate Zenshuu Music
2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Arrangements[lower-alpha 1]
Wii Music Director
Animal Crossing: City Folk Sound director, music with Manaka Kataoka and Shiho Fujii
2010 X-Scape Music
2012 Animal Crossing: New Leaf Sound director, music with Manaka Kataoka and Atsuko Asahi
2013 Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon Sound supervisor
Wii Sports Club Music
2014 Yoshi's New Island Sound director
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Arrangements[lower-alpha 2]
2015 Yoshi's Woolly World Main theme
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Sound director, music
2016 Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge Music supervisor
2017 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Music with several others
2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Arrangements[lower-alpha 3]
Mario Tennis Aces Sound supervisor
2019 Yoshi's Crafted World Sound supervisor
Luigi's Mansion 3 Sound supervisor
2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Sound director, music with several others

Characters portrayed

Totaka has portrayed several characters for Nintendo games. He mostly voices Yoshi (first appearing in Super Mario World), but he also voices, Professor E. Gadd, Captain Olimar,[2] Birdo, and K.K. Slider, as well as portraying Shy Guy from 1997 to 2002.

K.K. Slider

The character K.K. Slider in Animal Crossing is named Totakeke (とたけけ) in the Japanese version. This name could be derived from how Totaka's name is said in Japanese (Totaka K.) as last names usually come before personal names in the language. Totakeke is said to be an animal version caricature of Totaka.[3]

At the Mario & Zelda Big Band Live concert, some fans shouted "Totakeke" while the host grabbed a guitar and gave it to Totaka. Totaka then sat down on a chair like K.K. Slider while Shigeru Miyamoto held a picture of K.K. Slider next to Totaka.[4]

Totaka's Song

"Totaka's Song" is a short, 19-note tune hidden in almost every game Totaka has written music for as an easter egg.[5] It was first discovered on the title screen of Mario Paint and was later discovered as having originated in the Game Boy game X,[6] which predated Mario Paint by two months.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Title (Animal Crossing)", "The Roost"
  2. ↑ "Wii Sports Resort", "Wii Sports Resort Ver. 2"
  3. ↑ "Title (Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer)"

References

  1. ↑ 「ゼルダの伝説 夢をみる島」開発スタッフ名鑑. Nintendo Official Guide Book – The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (in Japanese). Shogakukan Inc. July 1993. p. 120. ISBN 4-09-102448-3.
  2. ↑ "1-2 開発スタッフインタビュー" (in Japanese). Nintendo. Archived from the original on September 12, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  3. ↑ Jackson, Kai (May 8, 2013). "Profile: Kazumi Totaka - The Man Behind Animal Crossing's K.K. Slider". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  4. ↑ 1Button (2010-03-12), p-nintendo.com — Totaka, Mario & Zelda Big Band Live, 2003, archived from the original on 2021-12-19, retrieved 2018-03-25{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ Kubba, Sinan (January 13, 2015). "Nintendo's famous easter egg song discovered in Mario Kart 8". Engadget. Verizon Media. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
  6. ↑ "'Kazumi Totaka's Song'". NinDB. Archived from the original on February 26, 2015.
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