Shoji Meguro

Shoji Meguro 目黒 将司
Born	(1971-06-04) June 4, 1971 Tokyo, Japan
Genres	Rock electronic jazz J-pop
Occupations	Composer guitarist game director
Instruments	Electric guitar piano electric organ
Years active	1995—present

Shoji Meguro (目黒 将司, Meguro Shōji, born June 4, 1971) is a Japanese composer, guitarist, and video game director who joined the video game company Atlus in 1995. Meguro has since composed for many of their games, mainly those in the Persona series.

Career

Early life

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Meguro became familiar with technology from a young age due to his parents running a factory. When Meguro was a child, he didn't like popular music and he listened to more classical music. In junior high, he became interested in the likes of T-Square, Herb Alpert, and Casiopea. It was in junior high that he became particularly fond of playing music. He then majored in hydrodynamics at the College of Industrial Technology at Nihon University.

Atlus

After sending a demo tape and attending two interviews, Meguro was hired by Atlus in 1995. He got his start in the company by working on Revelations: Persona for the PlayStation, for which he composed 16 tracks, including one that became a staple in the series: "Aria of the Soul". Meguro continued to work on several projects, notably Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers on the Sega Saturn, composing around 50 songs for the game, as well as Maken X on the Dreamcast.

The first time he became a leading composer was on Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne in 2003, where he somewhat diverged from the music in the prior games for the Shin Megami Tensei series, giving the game a more orchestral and fusion sound. A crucial point of his career was Digital Devil Saga; he had creative freedom that let him establish his own sound. In 2005, Meguro took a break from the Shin Megami Tensei series to work on titles such as Trauma Center: Under the Knife, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion.

Meguro's career was propelled to international stardom in his craft with his work on Persona 3, where he used a pop-based vocal style, and the soundtrack to the game sold over 100,000 copies. In 2008, Meguro continued upon his success with Persona 4 where he blended genres to craft a unique sound. A concert at Akasaka Blitz was held to celebrate Meguro’s work on the Persona series, where Persona favorites were played. During this time, he also worked on the music on Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon.

Meguro was promoted to game director for the PlayStation Portable remake of Persona. During this time he received some criticism from some fans for changing the soundtrack for the remake, but overall received a warm response. He later directed the PSP ports of both Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. More recently, Meguro served as the sound director for three spinoff Persona titles, and is currently working on the music for Persona 5.

Musical style and influences

Although many of his works feature a signature rock style, Meguro experiments with different musical genres, such as orchestral, electronica, jazz, and hip hop from soundtrack to soundtrack. Meguro cites T-Square, Casiopea, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as some of his musical influences.

Works

Video games
Year	Title	Role	Co-worker
1996	Revelations: Persona	Composition/arrangement	Hidehito Aoki, Kenichi Tsuchiya, and Misaki Okibe
1997	Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers	Composition/arrangement	Toshiko Tasaki and Tsukasa Masuko
1999	Maken X	Composition/arrangement	Takahiro Ogata
2001	Maken Shao: Demon Sword	Composition/arrangement
2003	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne	Composition/arrangement	Kenichi Tsuchiya and Toshiko Tasaki
2004	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Maniax	Composition/arrangement	Kenichi Tsuchiya and Toshiko Tasaki
	Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga	Composition/arrangement	Kenichi Tsuchiya
2005	Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2	Composition/arrangement
	Trauma Center: Under the Knife	Composition/arrangement	Kenichi Tsuchiya and Kenichi Kikkawa
2006	Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army	Composition/arrangement
	Persona 3	Composition/arrangement
	Trauma Center: Second Opinion	Composition/arrangement	Kenichi Tsuchiya and Shingo Yasumoto
	Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine	Composition/arrangement ("Opening")
2007	Persona 3 FES	Composition/arrangement	Kenichi Tsuchiya
2008	Persona 4	Composition/arrangement	Atsushi Kitajoh
	Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon	Composition/arrangement
2009	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona	Arrangement	Ryota Koduka and Kenichi Tsuchiya
	Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey	Composition/arrangement
	Persona 3 Portable	Composition/arrangement
2010	Trauma Team	Composition/arrangement	Atsushi Kitajoh and Ryota Koduka
2011	Catherine	Composition/arrangement	Atsushi Kitajoh and Kenichi Tsuchiya
	Persona 2: Innocent Sin	Director
2012	Persona 4 Arena	Composition/arrangement	Atsushi Kitajoh
	Persona 2: Eternal Punishment	Director
	Persona 4 Golden	Composition/arrangement	Atsushi Kitajoh
2013	Persona 4 Arena Ultimax	Sound director
2014	Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth	Sound director
2015	Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker	Composition/arrangement
	Persona 4: Dancing All Night	Sound director	Ryota Koduka
2016	Persona 5	Composition/arrangement
Anime/drama/television
Year	Title	Role	Co-worker
2008	Persona: Trinity Soul	Arrangement	Taku Iwasaki
2011	Persona 4: the Animation	Composition/arrangement
2014	Persona 4: the Golden Animation	Composition/arrangement	Tetsuya Kobayashi
Film
Year	Title	Role	Co-worker
2012	Persona 4: the Animation -The Factor of Hope-	Composition (reprises)
2013	Persona 3 The Movie: #1 Spring of Birth	Composition/arrangement
2014	Persona 3 The Movie: #2 Midsummer Knight's Dream	Composition/arrangement ("Fate is In Our Hands")
2015	Persona 3 The Movie: #3 Falling Down	Composition/arrangement	Tetsuya Kobayashi
2016	Persona 3 The Movie: #4 Winter of Rebirth	Composition/arrangement	Tetsuya Kobayashi