Evan Call (born June 29, 1988) is an American composer and arranger working in Japan. He has composed music for multiple anime series, such as Violet Evergarden, Muv-Luv Alternative and Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Call is affiliated with the Japanese agency Miracle Bus and was previously a member of the musical group Elements Garden.
Biography Call was born in California, U.S., on June 29, 1988, and grew up in the city of Lincoln. As a teenager, Call was diagnosed with occipital neuralgia and had to take a break from going to school. During that time, he learned to play bluegrass guitar from a local teacher. Call later made a friend in his hometown who taught him about Japanese anime and video games, which prompted him to start composing orchestral music. He joined the choir club when he entered high school. After graduating, Call enrolled at the Berklee College of Music, where he majored in film scoring.
After graduating from college, he debated if he should pursue a career in film music in Hollywood. In the end, he decided to move to Japan on a tourist visa to work in the anime and game industry. Three months after his arrival, he was introduced to Junpei Fujita, a music creator working at Elements Garden. After an interview with Fujita and a review of his music portfolio, Call joined Elements Garden. He began composing music in Japan in 2012, where he gained attention for his grand arrangements and impressive symphonic music. After his employment, Call was introduced to Yōta Tsuruoka, a sound director at Kyoto Animation. Alongside Tsuruoka, Call began composing the soundtracks for the anime series Tokyo ESP and Violet Evergarden. Call would continue to compose soundtracks for other anime series and films such as Josee, the Tiger and the Fish. In 2025, Call won a Tokyo Anime Award in the Sound/Performance category, and was nominated for Best Score at the 9th Crunchyroll Anime Awards for his work on Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.
Call left Elements Garden on June 30, 2016, due to his contract expiring. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Japanese agency .
Musical style and influences Call's musical style is primarily orchestral, often blending classical instrumentation and scoring with European folk elements. This influence is particularly evident in his work on Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, where he incorporated traditional instrumentation inspired by an early experience hearing folk music performed with instruments such as the psaltery and hammered dulcimer, which he described as sounding "like magic". He also cited the American folk song "Oh Shenandoah" as an inspiration for its nostalgic, "coming home" feeling, which he reflects in his compositions.
Works Anime Year Title Notes 2013 Symphogear G With Junpei Fujita, Noriyasu Agematsu, and Hitoshi Fujima 2014 When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace With Junpei Fujita and Haruki Mori Kamigami no Asobi With Junpei Fujita and Hitoshi Fujima Tokyo ESP 2015 Tantei Kageki Milky Holmes TD With Daisuke Kikuta, Haruki Mori, and Tomohiro Kita Symphogear GX With Junpei Fujita and Hitoshi Fujima Dance with Devils With Junpei Fujita 2016 Schwarzesmarken Big Order Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Blue With Junpei Fujita and Seima Iwahashi 2017 Chronos Ruler 2018 Hakumei and Mikochi Violet Evergarden 2019 YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World With Keishi Yonao, Ryū Takami, and Ryū Kawamura Midnight Occult Civil Servants 2020 Appare-Ranman! 2021 Muv-Luv Alternative The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window 2022 Muv-Luv Alternative (season 2) 2023 My Happy Marriage Frieren: Beyond Journey's End #77 in the German Album Charts 2024 Sengoku Youko2025 My Happy Marriage (season 2) Pokémon: Dragonite and the Special Delivery Gundam: Next Universal Century Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube Necronomico and the Cosmic Horror Show 2026 Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (season 2) 2027 The Record of a Fallen Vampire
Anime films Year Title Notes 2014 Bodacious Space Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace With Noriyasu Agematsu, Junpei Fujita, and Hitoshi Fujima 2016 Tantei Opera Milky Holmes the Movie: Milky Holmes' Counterattack With Seima Iwahashi 2019 Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll 2020 Violet Evergarden: The Movie Josee, the Tiger and the Fish 2023 Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom
Video games Year Title Notes 2014 Chaos Rings III Arrangement with Junpei Fujita and Hitoshi Fujima Shining Resonance With Junpei Fujita, Hitoshi Fujima, and Tomohiro Kita 2015 Chronos Ring With Yoko Shimomura and Kenji Ito
Television dramas Year Title Notes 2017 Star Concerto: Ore to Kimi no Idol Dō Sayonara, Enari-kun Keishichō Ikimono Gakari With Audio Highs 2018 Holiday Love With Masaru Yokoyama Daisy Luck With Moe Hyuga Harassment Game Iyo! Benkei 2019 Keiji Zero With Masaru Yokoyama Hotarugusa: Nana no Ken 2022 The 13 Lords of the Shogun Taiga drama 2024 Swallows
Live-action films Year Title 2019 Until I Meet September's Love
Television programs Year Title 2018 Weekend Kansai 2019 NHK Special Dinosaur Superworld 2020 NHK Sunday/Saturday Sports
Other involvements Year Title Artist Role(s) Album 2012 "Avalon no Ōkan" Nana Mizuki Arrangements Rockbound Neighbors 2013 "Neverending Dream" Minori Chihara Composition & arrangements Neo Fantasia 2014 "Ai no Hi" Ayahi Takagaki "Aurora" Tomoaki Maeno (as Camus) rowspan="2" "Tenka Muteki no Shinobi Michi" Arrangements "Yasashisa no Tsubomi" Faylan Zero Hearts "Meisō Solitude" Kato*Fuku Arrangements, with Seima Iwahashi With 2015 "Arigatō, Daisuki" Minori Chihara Arrangements Innocent Age "Pirates of the Frontier" rowspan="3" "Saintly Territory" Tomoaki Maeno (as Camus) "Seien Brave Heart" Kenichi Suzumura (as Masato Hijirikawa) Composition & arrangements "Tenshi no Inori" Shouta Aoi Unlimited "Alice to Toki no Yurikago" Kato*Fuku Wonder Tale: Smile to Happiness to Fushigi na Hon "Tsunagareta Asa ni" 2016 "Lovely Eyes" Arrangements "Give Me Your Heart: Mayoeru Kohitsuji" Composition & arrangements 2017 "Akane-iro ni Kakushite" Ayane Sakura (as Hikari Tsuneki) rowspan="3" "Muteki no Megami" Shino Shimoji (as Tōru Miyamae) "Koi no Theory" Juri Kimura (as Kyōko Tōno) Arrangements 2018 "Union!!" 765 Million Allstars "Sincerely" True Arrangements, with Shōta Horie Violet Evergarden: AutomemoriesViolet Evergarden Vocal Album: Song Letters "The Songstress Aria" Composition, arrangements & lyrics "Letter" Arrangements "Believe in..." Aira Yūki Composition & arrangements 2020 "Will (Movie Version)" True Violet Evergarden: Echo Through Eternity "Mirai no Hito e (Movie Version)" Arrangements "Michishirube (Movie Version)" Minori Chihara "Dear Violet" Yui Ishikawa Composition & arrangements Letters and Doll: Looking Back on the Memories of Violet Evergarden "Jōjō" Nino Synapusyu Songs 2021 "Makka Akka Aki" Kyogo Kawaguchi Synapusyu Songs 2 "Breakers" Wataru Hatano style="text-align:center;" 2023 "Anytime Anywhere" Milet Arrangements style="text-align:center;" "Bliss" Composition & arrangements "Anytime Anywhere" (single) 2025 "Paper Airplane" Composition & lyrics style="text-align:center;" "Sora to Yakusoku" (as China Kuramoto) Composition & arrangement 2026 "The Story of Us" Milet Arrangements style="text-align:center;"
References
External links Official Miracle Bus profile Evan Call at VGMdb