Kenji Kawai is a music composer for film, television, and videogames. After dropping out of a nuclear engineering program at Tokai University, he joined a fusion rock band called Muse. His first work in the entertainment industry was scoring televised animated programs, including Ranma ½. He achieved widespread recognition within the anime sphere composing for many of Mamoru Oshii's films, such as as Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 2, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and The Sky Crawlers. He has also worked on music for anime serialized on television, including Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit and Eden of the East He also provided the soundtrack to all scores for Japanese horror director Hideo Nakata (including Ring and Dark Water).
In the realm of videogames, Kenji Kawai contributed tracks to the FolksSoul original soundtrack, together with Super Sweep game music composers Shinji Hosoe and Ayako Saso.