Jun Ishikawa

, sometimes known as Mushio Funazawa, is a Japanese composer. Along with Hirokazu Ando, Ishikawa is best known for composing for the Kirby video game series. He left series studio HAL Laboratory in 2023 but has continued to compose for Kirby games.

Early life Ishikawa started taking piano lessons aged 3-4, but felt he could never become good at it despite practice. Later, he discovered artists such as Paul Mauriat, Isao Tomita, Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and Brian Eno. He also purchased a Roland SH-2, as he wanted fellow students to get into Tomita's music, but the synth was the cheapest he could afford. Later he attended Nihon University's College of Art, studying film music. As a student, he gained experience with recording and mixing for a theater, while occasionally writing what he considered to be poor pieces of music.

HAL Laboratory Ishikawa worked at two companies prior to joining HAL Laboratory. He eventually found an advertisement for a sound creator job at HAL; although he had not previously heard of this profession before, he decided to apply for it, which led to him joining in 1990. His first work was composing one track and sound effects for Uchuu Keibitai SDF, along with senior composer Hideki Kanazashi who had already written most of the music prior to Ishikawa joining. He was not directly taught how to write music for the Nintendo Entertainment System, so he had to watch Kanazashi doing so. Kanazashi left HAL just two weeks after Ishikawa joined.

The previous year, composer Hirokazu Ando also joined HAL after sending a demo track; Ishikawa was impressed and met with him before joining the company. He felt that Ando's style was not much different from his own.

As well as the Kirby series, Ishikawa and Ando have also composed for the BoxBoy! series, which features chiptune-inspired music. The final game that he composed music for while working at HAL was Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe.

Ishikawa prefers to keep a low profile and runs for cover when asked in interviews to pose for photos. He has stated that this attitude is a result of his discipline from being at school while studying film music. His first public appearance was in an Iwata Asks interview for Kirby's Epic Yarn in 2010. In 2017 he did a speech at the Kirby 25th Anniversary Orchestra Concert, along with fellow HAL composers.

Freelance work Outside of HAL Laboratory, Ishikawa has produced work using the alias Mushio Funazawa since the mid-1980s, creating several albums, composing for butoh performances, and performing live electronic improvisations. During the late 90s, Ishikawa reflected positively on his job at HAL, deeming it rewarding and for providing the majority of his income, but also feared of judgement from others for working on game music.

Ishikawa left HAL Laboratory in April 2023. Director Takashi Hamada specifically asked Ishikawa to create music in the style of his Mushio Funazawa work, using a modular synth as well as FM synthesis.

Musical style Ishikawa's music often features electronic elements, as well as an emphasis on melodies and fast tempos. As his tracks are written for the purposes of entertaining players, he never thinks about how they would sound performed live, and has also admitted that he would not be able to perform most of his own game compositions live. Max Coburn has also listed both Ishikawa and Ando as being among his favorite video game composers.

In 2021, a cover of Ishikawa's composition, "Meta Knight's Revenge" from Kirby Super Star, performed by the 8-Bit Big Band featuring Button Masher, won a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella. The arrangers, Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman thanked Ishikawa for his music during the acceptance speech.

Works

Video games

Other Year Title Notes 2003 Kirby: Right Back at Ya! (episodes 72-100) Music with various others 2008 TV no Tomo Channel Music 2016 The Sound of Kirby Café Music with Hirokazu Ando, Megumi Ohara, and Shogo Sakai 2019 The Sound of Kirby Café 2 Music with various others

Footnotes