, also known as , is a Japanese composer, lyricist, and musician. His primary work is composing anime theme songs and for

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

musicians. He contracts through Supalove, a Japanese record label. He has released a number of anime and

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...

remixes, as well as original songs. These remixes have received over 20 million hits on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and Nico Nico Douga.

Musical style

Maeyamada began playing the piano at age four and first composed with a

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

. After graduating from

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = National university, Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff ...

, he apprenticed under lyricist

Gorō Matsui is a Japanese lyricist born 11 December 1957 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, though he considers Tokyo to be his hometown. Beginning with participation in the Yamaha Popular Song Contests, he made his debut writing the lyrics for the 1981 Chage and As ...

. He got his first big break in 2007 for writing the lyrics to "Don't Go Baby", a song featured in ''

Initial D is a Japanese street racing manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Young Magazine'' from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 ''ta ...

Fourth Stage''. In December 2007, he posted his first work under the name "Hyadain" on Nico Nico Douga, a remix of Crash Man's theme from ''

Mega Man 2 ''Mega Man 2'' is an action game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in Japan in 1988 and in North America and PAL regions the following years. ''Mega Man 2'' continues Mega Man (character), ...

'' with added lyrics. He initially struggled with criticism and accusations regarding these remixes' faithfulness to the source material. However, his videos gradually gained in popularity, particularly "Battle With the Four Fiends" from ''

Final Fantasy IV known as ''Final Fantasy II'' for its initial North American release, is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Released in 1991, it is the fourth main instal ...

'' and "Western Show" from ''

Super Mario World ''Super Mario World,'' known in Japan as is a platform game, platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was released in Japan in 1990, North America in 1991 and Europe and A ...

''. In May 2010, Maeyamada revealed that Hyadain was his pseudonym. In 2023, Maeyamada was invited to

arrange Arrange is a mythological figure from the Australian aboriginal creation myth of the Alyawarre people for Karlu Karlu. In the myth, the figure Arrange, who is also referred to as the devil man, comes from Ayleparrarntenhe. Arrange was making a ...

a version of "Battle With the Four Fiends" for '' Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker'', with lyrics by

Takashi Tokita (born 24 January 1965) is a Japanese video game developer working for Square Enix. He has worked there since 1985, and has worked as the lead designer for ''Final Fantasy IV'' as well as the director of ''Parasite Eve'' and ''Chrono Trigger''. ...

. The track, "Forged in Crimson", plays during the

boss fight In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...

with Rubicante, the Fiend of Flame. Maeyamada cites

Yasuharu Konishi is a Japanese musician, composer and DJ. He was a founding member of Pizzicato Five Pizzicato Five (formerly typeset as Pizzicato V and sometimes abbreviated to P5)Yang Jeff, Dina Can, Terry Hong, (1997) ''Eastern Standard Time'' pg 277 N ...

of the

Pizzicato Five Pizzicato Five (formerly typeset as Pizzicato V and sometimes abbreviated to P5)Yang Jeff, Dina Can, Terry Hong, (1997) ''Eastern Standard Time'' pg 277 New York: Mariner Books was a Japanese pop band formed in Tokyo in 1979 by multi-instrume ...

as a major musical influence, as well as Shoichiro Hirata and Yusuke Itagaki. Influence on his video game music stems from

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton Jo ...

(''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

''),

Koichi Sugiyama was a Japanese composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was best known for composing the music for the '' Dragon Quest'' franchise, along with several other video games, anime, film, and television shows. Classically trained, Sugiyama was ...

(''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project (Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo (Koichi Sugiyama) to its publi ...

''), and

Kenji Ito , also known by the nickname , is a Japanese video game composer and musician. He is best known for his work on the ''Mana'' and ''SaGa'' series, though he has worked on over 30 video games throughout his career as well as composed or arranged m ...

(''

Romancing SaGa ''Romancing SaGa'' is a 1992 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Famicom. It is the fourth entry in the ''SaGa'' series. It was subsequently released for the WonderSwan Color in 2001 and mobile phones in 2009. ...

''). Lyrically, both his original works and fanworks are reputed for utilizing strong elements of humor and nostalgia. For his own songs, he provides all the voices, male and female, with the help of a digital voice modifier. These voices, Hyadain and Hyadaruko, appear as characters on his blog and in the

music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for "Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C" and "Hyadain no Joujou Yuujou",Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
with Hyadaruko being portrayed by various actresses including

Natsuko Aso is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings Natsuko can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *夏子, "summer, child" *懐子, "reminiscence, yearn, child" *捺子, "press, print, affix a seal, stamp, child" *奈津 ...

Discography

References

External links

Professional websiteMusic blogNico Nico Douga channel
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maeyamada, Kenichi 1980 births Anime musicians Japanese composers Japanese male composers Japanese male musicians Kyoto University alumni Living people Musicians from Osaka Stardust Promotion artists Video game composers