Igår berättade vi historien om Mamoru Samuragoch, den döva kompositören bakom bland annat Resident Evil och Onimusha som erkände att han anlitat av en spökskrivare sedan 1996. Spökskrivaren, Takashi Niigaki, har nu klivit fram, och i en presskonferens berättade han bland annat att han ifrågasätter huruvida Samuragoch faktiskt saknar hörsel eller ej. Gadget Tsuushin rapporterar följande om saken:
Reporter: [Samuragoch] has said that he cannot hear, but was there ever an incident where you doubted this fact?
Niigaki: From the first time I met him, I never felt that his hearing was impaired.
Reporter: You said you never felt that his hearing was impaired. Could you elaborate?
Niigaki: He listened to a tape I recorded and gave me instructions accordingly.
Reporter: As to [Samuragoch's] hearing, how did it seem like to you?
Niigaki: We held normal interactions.
Reporter: Then why do you think [Samuragoch] went with that?
Niigaki: At first, he indicated that his hearing was deteriorating to me as well. But during our interactions, he returned to normal.
Reporter: Didn't [Samuragoch] attempt to hide it at all?
Niigaki: He said that this (that he couldn't hear) was how he was going to proceed.
Niigaki uppger att han komponerat omkring 20 låtar under de 18 år han jobbat för Samuragoch. För det fick han 7 miljoner Yen (cirka 450 000 kronor), och när han tog upp saken med Samuragoch hotade japans Beethoven att begå självmord.
Inför de olympiska spelen, när Niigaki fick reda på att konståkaren Daisuke Takahashi skulle tävla med "Samuragochs musik" kände han sig tvingad till handling:
"I was conflicted as to whether I should come out now. But I thought that if I revealed the truth after Takahashi's performance, he might be criticized from around the world for using fraudulent music."
Samuragoch har sedan dess erkänt (via sina advokater) att Niigakis anklagelser stämmer. Takahashi ska fortfarande använda stycket Sonatina for Violin under sitt åk.
Tack, Kotaku.