Kaoru Wada is a Japanese composer and arranger. Perhaps best known for his work on the Kingdom Hearts videogames by Square Enix, he is also the composer of many anime soundtracks, including Inuyasha, Gilgamesh, Battle Angel Alita, Ninja Scroll and Tesla Note.
Wada studied at the Tokyo College of Music under Akira Ifukube and Sei Ikeno. He is also an apprentice of the famed Godzilla composer, Akira Ifukube. After graduating he went to Europe to learn more about music life there. He was based mostly in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 1986 his “Three Fragments for Orchestra” with the Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orchestra premiered. The next year it was played in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw by the Royal Orchestra.
In 1987 his “Aikake for Flute, Harp and Percussion” won the International Contemporary Music Composer Competition Award in New York. When Wada returned to Japan he also began composing for film, anime and videogames. He is married to Inuyasha voice actress Akiko Nakagawa, who voices Sota Higurashi in that anime.
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Wada composed the soundtrack for the 1998 tv series Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight.