Interview With Yoko Shimomura
Location: Anime Boston 2019
Interview Date: 4/20/2019
Anime Herald: You drew inspiration from a green and yellow paper bag to create the melody for Blanka’s Theme [in Street Fighter II]. Have there been any other highly dramatic moments that inspired you over your career?
Yoko Shimomura: There’s nothing quite like the impression made by that Green and Yellow bag. When traveling, I have drawn inspiration from Arabic-style buildings that helped me write music for Kingdom Hearts’ Aladdin [stage]. There are occasions like that.
Anime Herald: You had the courage to chase your dreams and go work at Capcom when that wasn’t what your family and teachers expected from you. Looking back, are you surprised that your career has led to multiple “best of” albums and live concerts in and outside of Japan?
Yoko Shimomura: I’m shocked. I first took the job because I loved music and I loved games. I had not been overseas yet, and I wanted to go. I loved [the] orchestra, too, and I attended a lot of concerts personally, but that was more of a hobby. What I did with my job was totally different and had nothing to do with it. Now, decades later, I still love going overseas and I still love [the] orchestra. I feel like it’s a miracle and a gift from God.
Anime Herald: When you were brought onto the Kingdom Hearts project for the first time, what was your reaction, realizing you were going to be treading on the same hallowed ground as some masters such as Alan Menken?
Yoko Shimomura: I was like, “Wow, this is going to be a lot of work.” I love Disney music, myself. I realized that, by working on this project, I’d be following in footsteps of Alan Menken. That’s a very high hurdle to clear. There’s clearly preexisting great music. To be working on a project where I might be compared in some way to Alan Menken was such an honor. I realized that it was a lot of work that I had to do. I had to make sure that whatever I was was not something that I’d be embarrassed by. That’s how I kept up my motivation.
On becoming an independent artist:
Yoko Shimomura: There were a lot of things I didn’t realize as an employee. I had a lot of people protecting me. Once I became independent, I had to do everything myself. Negotiations with other parties, even small things like someone taking my phone calls. Spending money to buy things. All of it I had to do by myself now. I was in an environment where I could purely focus on creating music. After I became independent I became painfully aware there were other things I had to do. I became independent because I wanted to create music more freely and work with more parties. Those were some of the things I learned in the process. As an end result I feel I’ve done the right thing, but those were some of the harder lessons.
On her travel experiences where things went wrong:
Yoko Shimomura: There was a time I went to The Philippines. It was a remote island that required a ride on a small plane there from Manila. On the way back my flight was delayed. I had to get back to Japan for an important meeting. The flight was delayed over two hours and I was going to miss my connection. Eventually, it took off two and half hours later. Maybe because it was a small tropical island, no one was really rushed. I complained to the flight attendant that I was going to miss my flight. She said “Oh, OK, good luck.” (Laughs) Or course, I was a day late getting back to Japan.
On her first experiences with video games:
Yoko Shimomura: It was probably when I was a college student when I got to play a game system. That’s when Nintendo came out. I had limited exposure to them before then. When I was ten years old, I had a rich friend who had a primitive arcade game. It was a tennis game where the stick moved around. I remember thinking “Why aren’t we rich enough to afford that?” (Laughs)
My dad loved playing games. He played in the arcade, which was a small shop in a shopping center. He played a game where the little stick moved around. It was a baseball game, and I played it with him as well, so I’m sure I started loving games early on.
On fun things to do in Boston:
Yoko Shimomura: I had a chance to eat a lot of clam chowder and lobster. My goal today is to have a Boston Cream Pie.
