Who are some of the greatest anime soundtrack composers?

Nujabes...composed most of the soundtrack for Samurai Champloo which has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time imo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJNWvjGhBxs&feature...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS6uWWrjf8c&feature...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz5AG-WwwGk&feature...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e6X6ftE0rM&feature...

RZA of Wu-Tang did an awesome job on the Afro Samurai soundtrack, he nailed the vibe of the show. Just watching it today, it was gory and groovy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICmdpgIG0PM

That's all I got, haha. Half-assed answer from a half-wit.

BQ: Whoever did the Fable soundtrack...

Yuki Kajiura

Tsubasa Chronicles

.Hack

Pandora Hearts

The Pillows did an awesome soundtrack that FLCL is famous for. I especially like their song "Hybrid Rainbow" from episode 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pbyagcLj8g).

Aya Hirano, the voice actress of Haruhi Suzumiya is also an amazingly epic singer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBS0AGgGTnQ), as is her English counterpart Christina Vee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDvrqRq6veI).

Utada Hikaru is popular, probably most famous from the Kingdom Hearts series. My favorite is the new Birth By Sleep version of Simple and Clean (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsOywtgsDyU in Japanese or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGyaJErGa1g in English). She can sing epicly in both English and Japanese.

JAM Project is good too, but they have far too many songs for me to pick from.

Lastly, May'n and Nakajima Megumi have to be my favorite singers. They are amazing, especially in duets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qWnDqeXMhA) and they voice two of the most popular anime characters in Japan.

Toshiro Masauda Of Naruto is a good music composer

Taniuchi Hideki

He did some great stuff for the Death Note ost, and also made the Kaiji and Akagi osts, which are both top notch. Probably my favorite.

Links -

Kyrie (death note) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpTAN5yEmPY

Kaiji theme (kaiji) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHRes2_wZE4

Nothing from the Akagi ost is on youtube, which is a shame. Good stuff on there too.

Whoever composes the music for any KEY anime.

Joe Hisaishi?

interesting! you made me look up whoever did the 'Paranoia Agent' music... it's this fella- Susumu Hirasawa... not sure about the 'greatest', but definitely worth a look/listen ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susumu_Hirasawa

'Paranoia Agent' (wicked little series ;)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-anabfAg06U&feature...