岡部啓一 (Keiichi Okabe)

Keiichi Okabe is a Japanese composer and arranger born in 1969, best known for his work scoring the NieR video game series, including the original NieR and its acclaimed sequel NieR:Automata. He began his career as an in-house composer at Namco in the 1990s, writing music primarily for arcade titles before moving into a broader career as a freelance and studio composer. In 2004 he founded the music production studio MONACA, which has since become one of the most respected houses in Japanese game and media scoring, employing and mentoring numerous composers who have gone on to notable careers of their own.

Okabe's sound is distinctive for its blend of invented, quasi-linguistic vocals, orchestral and choral arrangements, and melancholic, atmospheric songwriting that treats game soundtracks as fully realized concept albums rather than incidental background music. Tracks like «Weight of the World», «Kainé / Salvation», and «City Ruins / Rays of Light» exemplify this approach, layering constructed languages over emotionally direct melodies to create a haunting, otherworldly texture that became a signature of the NieR series' identity.

Beyond NieR, Okabe has contributed music to the Tekken fighting game series and to anime productions such as Working!! and Yuki Yuna Is a Hero. His collaborations with vocalists and lyricists at MONACA, and his willingness to blend Japanese, English, and invented-language lyrics, have made his work influential among a generation of video game composers seeking to elevate game scores as standalone artistic works.