'Deaf' Resident Evil composer exposed as a total fraud

[Scarlett.]

Resident Evil and Onimusha composer Mamoru Samuragochi has admitted hiring someone else to write his music for nearly two decades, according to the Japan Times.

The 50-year-old, dubbed the "Japanese Beethoven", lost his hearing completely at the age of 35 but continued to work using what he calls his "absolute pitch". In Japan he is most famous for Hiroshima Symphony No 1, which he dedicated to those killed in the 1945 atomic blast, but gamers know him best for his work on Capcom's Resident Evil and Onimusha.

According to Samuragochi's promotional website, he composed the music for 1997's Resident Evil: The Director's Cut, called Biohazard in Japan, while hiding "his severe hearing disability and living under harsh conditions".

Then in 1999, just before he started composing the music for 2001's Onimusha: Warlords, he completely lost his hearing, he said. "However the piece he composed, Symphony, Rising Sun, was highly acclaimed and was noticed by the public as a masterpiece," the promotional website claims.

Now, it turns out, Samuragochi paid for commissions while giving the ideas for his work to another mystery composer - despite describing himself as the "sole composer" over the years.

His solicitor apologised on behalf of his client, saying Samuragochi was "deeply sorry as he has betrayed fans and disappointed others".

"He knows he could not possibly make any excuse for what he has done. He is mentally distressed and not in a condition to properly express his own thoughts."

Samuragochi is quoted by Japanese broadcaster NHK as saying he first hired the mystery aid to compose music for him in 1996 "because the ear condition got worse".

So why come clean now? It appears the revelation emerged after NHK aired a documentary about Samuragochi last year in which he toured the tsunami-affected Tohoku region. NHK has now apologised for airing the film. "Through his lawyer, Mamoru Samuragochi confessed that he had asked another composer to create his iconic works," an NHK presenter said.

"NHK has reported on him in news and features programs but failed to realise that he had not composed the works himself, despite our research and checking."

Eurogamer

[Scarlett.]

The strange revelations regarding famed video game composer Mamoru Samuragochi continue. After he admitted that another composer had created his works, reports are now stating that he may have faked being deaf.

ABC News reported yesterday that Samuragochi (pictured above), who was known as "Japan's Beethoven" for composing acclaimed neo-classical soundtracks to games like Resident Evil while being deaf, had actually paid another man to create his works.

He admitted to the press: "I started hiring the person to compose music for me around 1996, when I was asked to make movie music for the first time."

He claimed that his degenerative hearing was the reason for the deception: "I had to ask the person to help me for more than half the work because the ear condition got worse."

However, the case has now grown considerable stranger. Today, the mystery ghost composer came forward. His name is Takashi Niigaki, a music teacher who admitted that he had penned Samuragochi's music for the last 18 years. Niigaki also dropped another bombshell: That he believes Samuragochi has been faking his deafness.

"We carry on normal conversations. I don't think he is [handicapped]," Niigaki said, "At first he acted to me also as if he had suffered hearing loss, but he stopped doing so eventually.... He told me, after the music for the video games was unveiled, that he would continue to play the role [of a deaf person]."

Game Informer

[Mystic Mock]

Wtf? This is the weirdest story of the week lol.