The “Diner” Run by the Man Who Scored My Hero Academia and Haikyu!!—Former Rhythmic Gymnast Yuki Hayashi Opens Gekiban Shokudo IV at Year's End

An Unusual Path—From Accompanying Dancers to the Front Line of Scoring

My Hero Academia, Haikyu!!, Medalist, SAKAMOTO DAYS. Line up the scores that have colored the past decade-plus of anime, and one composer's name keeps surfacing: Yuki Hayashi. Born in 1980 in Kyoto Prefecture, he entered the field of film scoring through a strikingly unusual door—he is a former male rhythmic gymnast. A man who once stood on the side that chose music as a competitor gradually leaned toward the side that makes it. According to his official profile, he had no formal musical training; he taught himself composition while still in university, and after graduating he learned the basics of track-making while getting serious about producing accompaniment music for competitive dance.

This origin—“a composer who used to be a dancer”—is impossible to ignore when discussing his music. The unity of image and sound, the way he places rhythm so that it hugs the movement of the body. Why did the racing cuts of Haikyu!!, or the now-legendary “You Say Run” from My Hero Academia, become music that makes people run? At the root, it seems inseparable from the years he spent drilling in accompaniment—“music in service of motion.” That instinct to put unity with the visuals first, cultivated on the dance floor, is Hayashi's true weapon.

“Gekiban Shokudo”—Hand-Picked Cuts, Served Live

Now Hayashi opens the fourth installment of his concert series, Gekiban Shokudo (“Film-Score Diner”): Yuki Hayashi — Gekiban Shokudo IV, on Sunday, December 27, 2026 at Tokyo International Forum Hall C. He and a Special Band Orchestra will perform, live, a hand-picked selection from the soundtracks he has written, with visuals from the works accompanying some pieces—an experience, the organizers say, that can only be had in live performance.

The name “diner” is very much in character. Rather than putting on airs in a formal concert hall, he serves his music as if from a neighborhood eatery that regulars frequent. From the dramas Legal High and Anata no Ban desu, to the film One Piece Film Gold, to the tokusatsu series Ultraman Arc, this genre-crossing composer offers a wide menu. Which “dish” will land on the setlist this time—imagining that is itself one of the pleasures of the show.

In recent years, orchestral concerts for game and anime music have become a genuine trend, but most of them draw crowds under the name of a title. Gekiban Shokudo, by contrast, hangs its shop curtain under the name of a composer. Bathing in one writer's hand across many works is, in itself, an attempt to push the craft of film scoring itself into the spotlight. That is precisely why the programming—which cut from which work—doubles as Yuki Hayashi's own self-introduction.

General Sale on August 1—Reserve in Summer, Savor at Year's End

All seats are reserved at 12,000 yen (tax included), with the performance starting at 16:30 (doors 16:00). The organizer is Kyodo Tokyo; the advance lottery has already closed, but general tickets go on sale at 10:00 on Saturday, August 1, 2026. As a year-end ritual, there's something to be said for locking in a seat while it's still summer.

It's worth adding that since 2022, Hayashi has also produced Kyoban-sai, a Kyoto-based festival built around animation and soundtracks. He is both a maker of music and a maker of venues. Gekiban Shokudo, too, sits on the same modest-but-vital line of work: shining a light on film scoring—a genre that so often stays in the shade—and drawing an audience under the composer's own name. At year's end, as a lover of film music, I don't want to miss the noren curtain of this “diner” glowing at the Tokyo International Forum.