Shikao Suga

Shikao Suga (スガ シカオ) is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter from Tokyo known for writing the theme songs for several anime, movies and commercial ads.

His name in kanji is 菅 止戈男.

He uses katakana as his professional name.

Suga went to Kosei Gakuen Male High School (ja) in Suginami, Tokyo.

After graduating from Tokyo Keizai University in 1989, he worked as a "salaryman" for four years in the advertisement industry.(ja)

By 1993, at 27, he had set his mind on becoming a musician.

He already had a number of lyrics written.

He made his first indie single, "0101", which he released using his birth name in kanji.

After 2 years struggling to have a major recording label, by age 30, he was signed up by Office Augusta.

His debut single ヒットチャートをかけぬけろ("Hit Chart o Kakenukero") opened up a world of possibilities.

His EP album Clover, released in 1997, shows his J-Pop music has jazz, funk and soul influence.

His work in Office Augusta began displaying his name as スガシカオ, in katakana, which continues today.

"Yozora no Mukō", the song he wrote the lyrics to, and was sung by SMAP, has appeared in several Japanese music textbooks.

Both SMAP's "Yozora no Mukō" (1998) and KAT-TUN's "Real Face" (2006) either debuted at or reached quickly the top spot in the Oricon charts, and sold over 1 million units each.

(YnM)

Several of his songs have been used in anime and live action dramas and movies adapted from manga.

Honey and Clover included songs from his album "Clover", like "Hachigatsu no Serenade", "Tsuki to Knife" and "Yubikiri".

Suga provided the song "Aozora Pedal" for the live version movie, starring Arashi's Sho Sakurai.

His song "Yūdachi" was used as the closing theme for the movie Boogiepop and Others, and as the opening theme for the 2000 anime series Boogiepop Phantom.

"Hajimari no Hi" was used as the first opening theme to Letter Bee, and after a year and three months, he released "Yakusoku", which would be the opening for the "Letter Bee" sequel, Letter Bee Reverse.

Other programs, like NTV's news program News Zero ("Shunkashuutou", October 6, 2006, to December 27, 2007) have also used Sugs's songs.

They have appeared as well in countless of TV ads, like those of insurance agency Sony Sompo, and some car brands and housing businesses.

For Chica Umino's seinen manga series, March Comes in Like a Lion, his song "Kizashi" was used in the commercial ad for the manga, and has appeared in it, as requested by Umino herself.

"Sofa" was the song used in the OVA "xxxHOLiC: Shunmuki" on February 17, 2009.

In Gintama, his name has been mentioned on episode 115, and his song "Progress" has been included in a parody in the series' "Shirogane no Tamashii" arc 2nd season's episode 9.

"Progress" has also been included in a parody in episode 69 of Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion The Animation.

In February 2013, XXXHOLiC live action drama started on Wowow, and Suga's "Aitai" was used as its opening theme song.

Suga's 2013 album "Aitai" cover and artist photos were made by Photographer and Film Director Mika Ninagawa

His songs have also been included in non-manga movies, like Dark Water ("Aozora") and Sweet Little Lies ("Ame agari no asa ni").

In 2015, CLAMP made the drawings for the music video for "あなたひとりだけ 幸せになることは 許されないのよ" (Anata hitori dake shiawase ni naru koto wa yurusarenai no you, also known as "Anayuru"), including in it images of characters from "XXXHOLiC", to celebrate his debut anniversary.

The song would become Arashi's 17th single.

The song "Manatsu no Yoru no Yume" appeared in the first Death Note live action movie as an insert song.

In Arashi's program "Arashi ni Shiyagare" of June 30, 2018, a parody of "Professional Shigoto no Ryuugi" was made in the section "Sakurai Sho no asakatsu", headed by member Sho Sakurai, including Suga's song "Progress".

In 2019's live action adaptation of the manga "Yotsuba ginkō Harashima Hiromi ga mono mōsu!~ Kono hito (on'na) ni kakero ~", his song "Tōi yoake" would be the first song he's written as a theme song for a TV Tokyo dorama.

On June 26, 2022, it was revealed that he would provide the song "Monster disco", arranged by Hyadain, which would serve as ending for Digimon Ghost Game's episodes, from ep 32 on.

Starting April 7, 2023, Suga's song "Hachimitsu" (ハチミツ) will serve as ending song for Isekai's new anime series.

He also did the theme songs to the XXXHOLiC anime series from CLAMP, including its movie xxxHOLiC: Manatsu no Yoru no Yume (Sanagi ~theme from xxxHOLiC the movie~), its first TV series season (Jūkyū-sai), and from "XXXHOLiC Kei", its second season (Nobody Knows).

After 2020, Suga has participated in projects related to the medical industry, starting with the song "Anata e" which he shared on his YouTube.

In February 2024, his song "Anata e no tegami" was used as theme song for Leverage's Levwell's campaign, while his song "Kakusei" (included in his album "Innocent") was used in November 2023 in Jolly Good's "Hirake Iryou" campaign cm. in which he also appears.

His name and songs have also been mentioned in other anime, series and books.