Shirō Hamaguchi

is a Japanese composer, arranger and orchestrator. He is best known for composing music to the anime franchises Girls und Panzer, One Piece, and Oh My Goddess! and arranging/orchestrating music in the Final Fantasy series. He frequently collaborates with fellow composers Kohei Tanaka and Akifumi Tada on anime scores. Biography Early life and career Born in Fukuoka, Japan, Shiro Hamaguchi graduated with a music degree from Tokyo University of the Arts, where he befriended fellow video game musician Masashi Hamauzu. After graduation, he was hired as a department project manager at Victor Entertainment from 1994 to 1996. In 1996, he joined the anime and video game music production company Imagine, where he worked alongside famed composers Hayato Matsuo, Kohei Tanaka, and Kow Otani. His debut role was the anime series Violinist of Hameln (1996), where he arranged Tanaka’s works. His music impressed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, who chose Hamaguchi as the arranger for the Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks album. He provided orchestral renditions of “Aeris’s Theme”, “Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII”, and “One-Winged Angel”, which have become iconic through their use in various Fin