Kouhei Tanaka is a Japanese composer and arranger best known for his sweeping orchestral scores across anime, tokusatsu, and video games. He's affiliated with IMAGINE, a music production company.

Birthday: February 14, 1954

Birthplace: Ebisubashi, Osaka

Tanaka studied composition at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music under Tomojiro Ikenouchi, then spent three years at Victor Music Industries before attending Berklee College of Music for two years. After returning to Japan, he began his career in earnest—though he started by playing at hotels, he landed his first real gig composing an insert song for the 1982 anime Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX. From there, he gradually took on more work, including Super Sentai compositions and the background music for Konpora Kid in 1985.

His breakthrough came with Top o Nerae (Gunbuster), whose soundtrack is widely considered his signature work and remains iconic among anime fans. He later revisited the series with Top o Nerae 2 (Diebuster) seventeen years later, bringing a distinctive new arrangement to his earlier compositions. Tanaka's style is especially recognizable for his use of dramatic, soaring strings.

Another major highlight is Yuusha Ou GaoGaiGar (1997) and its OVA sequel GaoGaiGar Final (2000), both of which are frequently listed among his most important works. In 2002, he won the Tokyo Anime Award for Best Music for Overman King Gainer.

Around 2008, Tanaka announced plans to pursue singing alongside composing. He launched an official website on February 14 and released his first album, Kokorone song 1st, later that July.