Image via Yuji Ohno’s X/Twitter account
Musician and composer Yuji Ohno’s official website announced on Wednesday that Ohno died of natural causes on May 4. He was 84. Ohno’s production company Office Augusta noted that he died after going to sleep, without any change in his prior condition before going to sleep.
Ohno is best known for his work as a jazz pianist and composer, and his soundtrack for the Lupin III anime series includes the anime’s now iconic opening theme which has persisted in various arrangements by Ohno throughout the anime’s many television series, specials, and films. He first worked on the franchise in Lupin III: Part II, the franchise’s second television anime, in 1977. He has performed music from the franchise in many concerts throughout the decades as part of the jazz act Yuji Ohno & Lupintic Five (which was later renamed to Yuji Ohno & Lupintic Six).
Ohno began practicing piano in his early childhood, and taught himself jazz in high school. He was part of Keio University’s Light Music Society band and played as part of clarinetist Kōji Fujika’s jazz quintet in his college years. He later formed a jazz trio with drummer Hideo Shiraki and singer Yūzō Kayama. After the trio dissolved, he focused on composing work, and later scored Kon Ichikawa’s iconic mystery film The Inugami Family and Junya Satō’s Proof of the Man film, both in 1977. He also composed the music for the 1978 Yasei no Shōmei film, whose theme song “Senshi no Kyūsoku” was covered by Sōichirō Hoshi as one of the ending songs for the Heaven’s Lost Property anime.
Aside from the Lupin III franchise, Ohno has also composed music for Captain Future (including the insert song “Oira wa Sabishii Spaceman” which would later be covered by Minori Chihara for the Cat Planet Cuties anime), Andromeda Stories, Undersea Super Train: Marine Express, A Time Slip of 10000 Years: Prime Rose, a piece for the Daicon films from the staff that would later form the studio Gainax, and the theme for the Space Adventure Cobra anime series.
Source: Yuji Ohno’s website
