Kenji Kawai (?? ??), born April 23, 1957 in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is a Japanese music composer, for motion pictures, anime movies, videogames and televised programs. He has contributed to the musical scores for numerous films from Japan and other countries in Asia, working in film genres as diverse as anime, horror, sci-fi and historical epic. Among his credits are Chen Kaige's The Seven Swords; Mamoru Oshii's films The Red Spectacles, StrayDog: Kerberos Panzer Cops, Ghost in the Shell, Eden of the East and Avalon; the anime adaptations of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku; and Hideo Nakata's films Ring, Ring 2, Chaos, Dark Water and Kaidan.