# Chiyomaru Shikura (志倉千代丸)
**Chiyomaru Shikura** (志倉千代丸, born 1970) is a Japanese lyricist, composer, music producer, game designer, and businessman from Toda, Saitama, best known as the creator of the [Science Adventure](https://www.edgepedia.org/science-adventure) series of visual novels, including *[Steins;Gate](https://www.edgepedia.org/steins-gate)*, and as a founder and longtime head of the game and media company MAGES.[1](https://www.mobygames.com/person/244550/chiyomaru-shikura/) • [2](https://www.tv-ranking.com/detail/35481/profile/) He has worked across games, anime, and music as a planner, original creator, songwriter, and executive.[3](https://townwork.net/magazine/serial/d_creator/70679/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1970, Toda, Saitama, Japan[1](https://www.mobygames.com/person/244550/chiyomaru-shikura/) |
| Early career | Research programmer at an NEC subsidiary in 1990, leaving after seven months; composer at Human Entertainment from 1992[1](https://www.mobygames.com/person/244550/chiyomaru-shikura/) |
| Company founding | Founded 5pb. in April 2005 with investment from TYO Entertainment; took control through a management buyout in April 2009[1](https://www.mobygames.com/person/244550/chiyomaru-shikura/) |
| MAGES. leadership | Chairman from April 1, 2015; stepped down on January 4, 2023 to serve as executive producer focused on original works and new game development[4](https://baike.sogou.com/m/fullLemma?g_ut=3&lid=5310659) • [5](https://mages.co.jp/topics/%E3%81%8A%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%89%E3%81%9B/20230104/post-338) |
| Signature franchise | Science Adventure series (*CHAOS;HEAD*, *STEINS;GATE*, *ROBOTICS;NOTES*, *ANONYMOUS;CODE*), for which he writes the original work[6](https://roboticsnotes.tv/special/interview1.html) • [7](https://www.famitsu.com/news/202008/13203932.html) |
| Music credits | Music producer for *Fire Pro Wrestling* and *Clock Tower*; composer and lyricist for games and anime[8](https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/chiyomaru-shikura-interview) |
## Early life and start in music and games
Shikura began both of his main trades in childhood. He has described himself as an elementary-school programmer who was already making games in sixth grade; his first game was a golf game, followed by a take on *Hyper Olympic* that he and his friends competed on and rebalanced when jump distances became unrealistic.[3](https://townwork.net/magazine/serial/d_creator/70679/) In middle school he started a band, playing drums and helping on guitar, and studied music theory at the same time, so that game making and music began in the same period of his life.[3](https://townwork.net/magazine/serial/d_creator/70679/) He has also said that a household upright piano, which he learned by ear while his sister took lessons, and a computer bought by his parents in sixth grade were the two prerequisites that opened the path for him.[9](https://www.uta-net.com/user/tatsujin/183.html)
His family is itself in entertainment: his father is Toshio Shimura, leader of the group Musical Boys, and his older brother is music and game producer Sho Fujimaru.
## Human Entertainment and 5pb.
Shikura originally aimed to be a computer programmer and was hired at an NEC subsidiary in 1990 as a research programmer, but left after seven months. He joined Human Entertainment as a composer in 1992, working on many titles alongside [Goichi Suda](https://www.edgepedia.org/goichi-suda), the later designer of *No More Heroes*.[1](https://www.mobygames.com/person/244550/chiyomaru-shikura/) At Human he worked on games from *Fire Pro Wrestling* onward, a series whose cumulative sales he recalled in the millions of copies.[10](https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20091212-chiyomaru/) Sony's artist profile credits him as music producer for the classic games *Fire Pro Wrestling* and *Clock Tower*.[8](https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/chiyomaru-shikura-interview)
He left Human in 1997 to join Scitron & Art, later Scitron Digital Contents, as a music producer. In April 2005 he founded 5pb. with investment from TYO Entertainment and later took control of the company through a management buyout in April 2009.[1](https://www.mobygames.com/person/244550/chiyomaru-shikura/) In 2011 the group company MAGES. was established to handle game production, investment in animation, and music planning, production, and sales.[3](https://townwork.net/magazine/serial/d_creator/70679/)
## The Science Adventure series
The Science Adventure (科学アドベンチャー) series, whose entries include *CHAOS;HEAD*, *STEINS;GATE*, and *ROBOTICS;NOTES*, begins with Shikura writing the original work. He has explained that the series is not conceived as a game or an anime first: the original text he writes may become a game, an anime, a comic, or a novel, and games are simply the easiest format to move forward inside the company, which is why the series has started as games.[6](https://roboticsnotes.tv/special/interview1.html) He has repeated this media-agnostic approach in later interviews, saying he is not attached to the original being a game and that the same worldview, settings, and characters can support games, anime, novels, or drama CDs.[7](https://www.famitsu.com/news/202008/13203932.html)
In *Steins;Gate Zero*, the artificial intelligence character Amadeus, built around a brain-data-sampling premise, was explained by Shikura himself in a cover commentary for the Journal of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, where he was identified as the story's creator.[11](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjsai/33/5/33_691/_pdf/-char/ja) The franchise has also extended to novels: he is credited as original creator, with MAGES. and Nitroplus, of the *Steins;Gate* film novelization published by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko in 2013.[12](https://www.kadokawa.co.jp/product/321301000106/)
## Full-animation adventure games
**Full-ani ADV.** In 2017 Shikura described the engine behind *Steins;Gate Elite*, internally called the "full animation adventure" (フルアニADV). The idea grew out of his search for a way to evolve the text adventure genre, which he called the least evolved genre in the game industry, and out of admiration for the older *Yaru Drа* series of animation-heavy adventure games. Because producing animation to match modern text volumes was unaffordable, the 2014 *Robotics;Notes Elite* had reused television anime footage, and *Steins;Gate Elite* extended that approach: more than 7,000 cuts from the *Steins;Gate* anime were disassembled and reassembled into game staging driven by player input, requiring every scene to be rebuilt rather than simply played back.[13](https://www.famitsu.com/news/201709/21142252.html)
## Songwriting and composition
Shikura writes and composes for games and anime, and performs as an artist. He has described a lyric-writing method in which hidden threads planted in a song are recovered as the audience watches the work, so that over a weekly anime broadcast the song itself becomes part of the scenario; he considers this the ideal form of a tie-in song.[9](https://www.uta-net.com/user/tatsujin/183.html) His composition workflow starts from interpreting a melody, searching for the phrase breaks the composer intended inside the notes, and he captures melodic ideas on an IC recorder before working them out at a keyboard.[9](https://www.uta-net.com/user/tatsujin/183.html) • [14](https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20091212-chiyomaru/6) His song catalog has been collected in the ongoing *THE WORKS* compilation series, whose eighth volume was celebrated with a career retrospective interview.[15](https://barks.jp/?p=712501) He also provided a song for the joint public-service campaign by AC Japan (then Public Advertising Organization) and NHK featuring AKB48.[2](https://www.tv-ranking.com/detail/35481/profile/)
## Corporate roles and later career
Shikura's positions have spanned several companies: he has served as president of CHIYOMARU STUDIO, chairman of MAGES., and a director of Dwango, among other posts.[13](https://www.famitsu.com/news/201709/21142252.html) MAGES. left the KADOKAWA group in 2019, and on March 30, 2020 the mobile game company COLOPL announced it had acquired all shares of MAGES., making it a wholly owned subsidiary; Shikura explained the move as a search for an environment in which MAGES. could keep producing original works across media.[7](https://www.famitsu.com/news/202008/13203932.html) • [4](https://baike.sogou.com/m/fullLemma?g_ut=3&lid=5310659) On January 4, 2023, MAGES. announced that Shikura had stepped down as representative chairman and would continue as executive producer, concentrating on original works and new game development.[5](https://mages.co.jp/topics/%E3%81%8A%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%89%E3%81%9B/20230104/post-338)
His production credits outside the Science Adventure series include planning and original creation for the television anime *B-PROJECT*, whose stage productions credit him as planner and original creator alongside general producer Takafumi Nishimura.[16](https://corp.marv.jp/img/170321bpro.pdf)
## References
1. [Chiyomaru Shikura biography, MobyGames](https://www.mobygames.com/person/244550/chiyomaru-shikura/)
2. [志倉千代丸 プロフィール, tv-ranking](https://www.tv-ranking.com/detail/35481/profile/)
3. [マルチクリエーター志倉千代丸さんインタビュー, タウンワークマガジン](https://townwork.net/magazine/serial/d_creator/70679/)
4. [志仓千代丸, 搜狗百科](https://baike.sogou.com/m/fullLemma?g_ut=3&lid=5310659)
5. [【お知らせ】エグゼティブプロデューサー就任のお知らせ, MAGES. Inc.](https://mages.co.jp/topics/%E3%81%8A%E7%9F%A5%E3%82%89%E3%81%9B/20230104/post-338)
6. [Interview1, TV Animation ROBOTICS;NOTES official site](https://roboticsnotes.tv/special/interview1.html)
7. [『シュタゲ』や『アノニマス・コード』に関する新情報も!? 志倉千代丸氏に直撃インタビュー, ファミ通.com](https://www.famitsu.com/news/202008/13203932.html)
8. [Sony Interviews Chiyomaru Shikura About Hi-Res Audio, Sony Australia](https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/chiyomaru-shikura-interview)
9. [言葉の達人/株式会社MAGES.代表：志倉千代丸さん, 歌ネット](https://www.uta-net.com/user/tatsujin/183.html)
10. [業界の裏側、そして5pb.の内側を大激白 - 志倉千代丸トークショー in 法政大学, マイナビニュース](https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20091212-chiyomaru/)
11. [表紙解説─『シュタインズ・ゲート ゼロ』アマデウス─, 人工知能学会誌 33巻5号](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjsai/33/5/33_691/_pdf/-char/ja)
12. [劇場版 STEINS;GATE 負荷領域のデジャヴ 上, KADOKAWA](https://www.kadokawa.co.jp/product/321301000106/)
13. [志倉千代丸氏インタビュー 『シュタインズ・ゲート エリート』は"ゲーム以上でいて、アニメ以上", ファミ通.com](https://www.famitsu.com/news/201709/21142252.html)
14. [志倉千代丸の作曲法, マイナビニュース](https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20091212-chiyomaru/6)
15. [【インタビュー】志倉千代丸、「昼はマイコン、夜はバンドマン」からアニメ・ゲーム音楽の世界へ, BARKS](https://barks.jp/?p=712501)
16. [B-PROJECT stage production news release, Marvelous](https://corp.marv.jp/img/170321bpro.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen composers*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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