Harumi Fujita
Harumi Fujita (藤田晴美) is a Japanese video game composer and sound designer known for her work on many notable productions, including Ghosts 'n Goblins, Final Fight, Mega Man 3 and the first Tomba game. Born in 1961 in Tondabayashi, Japan, she first became active in the industry upon joining Capcom in 1984. In 1991, she went freelance. She has written over 5000 video game tracks throughout her career.[1]
Working for Whoopee Camp
After discovering Tokuro Fujiwara's newly established Whoopee Camp website in 1996, Fujita contacted him and submitted a demo track. Impressed, Fujiwara immediately invited her to compose the soundtrack for Tomba, leveraging their prior working relationship at Capcom.
Since she was pregnant at the time of the game's development, she composed the entire soundtrack remotely from her home, with Fujiwara granting her full creative freedom due to their mutual trust.
Shortly after giving birth, she returned to the office to finalize work on the game. She adhered to tight deadlines, one time completing a track in just two hours at Fujiwara's urgent request—her fastest turnaround.
Working with Nao Hatsutani
Though Fujita was the primary composer, Nao Hatsutani (credited as co-composer) contributed to Tomba's soundtrack as well.
Hatsutani, Whoopee Camp's corporate affairs manager, expressed a personal desire to compose music. At Fujiwara’s request, Fujita agreed to mentor her, hosting Hatsutani at her home for private lessons. Fujita later integrated her protégée's work into the Tomba soundtrack, including tracks such as:
- The Familiar-Looking Mansion
- The Mermaids' Singing Rock
Aside from this one project, Hatsutani does not appear to have been credited for any other games.
Production
Equipment used for Tomba's soundtrack:
- Roland JV-1080 sound module
- Korg 01/W synthesizer
- Akai S2800i sampler
The original hardware and master recordings were discarded, though Fujita preserved a digital backup of the files as seen on the right.
Trivia
- As mentioned above, Fujita was pregnant while working on Tomba, saying "It was a very tough time."
- Fujita asked a programmer who worked on Tomba for help because her son could not complete some events:
"So, I composed the music for Tomba, right? After it launched, my son (who was in 1st grade at the time) got stuck on a puzzle he just couldn't solve. Know what I did? Called up one of the game's programmers to ask how to beat it—and my son managed to get past it! What luxury!"
Notes
- ↑ As mentioned during her introduction in the Noda Crystal's Ambition episode starring her.