Kazumi Totaka (戸高 一生, Totaka Kazumi^?, born August 23, 1967)^[1] is a Japanese video game composer and voice actor who composed many major Nintendo games, including Mario Paint and Animal Crossing. He occasionally also does voice acting for Nintendo games, including Yoshi from the Mario and Yoshi series. He is also one of the various composers who worked on the title Super Smash Bros. Brawl^[2] and directed the development of Wii Music.

K.K. Slider [edit]

The character K.K. Slider in Animal Crossing is named Totakeke (とたけけ) in the Japanese version. This name could be derived from how Totaka's name is said in Japanese (the last name coming first), Totaka K. Totakeke is said to be an animal version caricature of Totaka.

At the Mario & Zelda Big Band Live concert, some fans shouted "Totakeke" while the host grabbed a guitar and gave it to Totaka. Totaka then sat down on a chair like K.K. Slider while Shigeru Miyamoto held a picture of K.K. Slider next to Totaka.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl features K.K. Slider singing at the Smashville stage on Saturdays after 8:00 PM, just as he does in the Animal Crossing games.

Totaka's Song [edit]

"Kazumi Totaka's Song" is a short, 19-note tune hidden in almost every game he has worked on as a composer. It was first discovered on the title screen Mario Paint, which led many people to refer to it as the "Mario Paint song", and was thought to be the earliest instance of the song. It was later discovered in the Game Boy game X^[3] (released only in Japan), which predates Mario Paint by months. It has also since been discovered in many other games including Animal Crossing, Link's Awakening, and Luigi's Mansion. People are still actively seeking the song in the few games Totaka has worked on where it has yet to be discovered.^[4]

Confirmed appearances [edit]

The song has been found in the following games:^[3]

• Animal Forest (Japan) and Animal Crossing (World)^[a]
• Animal Crossing: City Folk^[a]
• Animal Crossing e-Reader cards (#P15, "Boy", "Who's Dunnit?")
• Animal Crossing: Wild World^[a]
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf^[5]
• Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and the DX version^[b]
• Luigi's Mansion
• Mario Artist: Talent Studio
• Mario Paint
• Pikmin 2
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
• Virtual Boy Wario Land
• X
• X-Scape
• Yoshi's Story
• Yoshi Touch & Go

Other games [edit]

Kazumi Totaka has worked on several other games and applications in which the song has not been found yet, including Wave Race 64, Wii Music, Wii Sports, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and a Japanese-only cooking game called Healthy Recipe Assistant 1000: DS Menu Anthology.^[3]

A case was made by GameTrailers in their Pop Fiction series that the song was found in Wii Sports hidden within the sound effects for tennis racket swings.^[4] However, this case has been called questionable at best, as the general consensus is that there are actually only two pitches being made, and that the presumed resemblance to the song is merely a psychoacoustic side effect caused by the manufactured synchronization.^[3] GameTrailers has since updated their verdict from "Fact" to "Inconclusive", saying that the notion of the song's presence in the rackets' sounds is almost impossible to determine by conventional means.^[4]

Characters that he portrayed [edit]

• Yoshi
• Professor E. Gadd

Notes [edit]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Kazumi Totaka's Song at NinDB