Arisawa was mostly self-taught, having been interested in music from childhood. He started to learn piano when he was 20 years old, and entered
Senzoku Gakuen College when he was 22, eventually graduating with degrees in Composing and Orchestral Music. He studied
jazz and
pop arrangement with arranger
Norio Maeda. In 1980, Arisawa's song "Shinjuku Transfer" was recorded by the
chorus group SOAP for
Epic/Sony Records. The group released a full album the following year, "Harmotopia," and received the New Composer Incentive Award at the 1981
Tokyo Music Festival. The group broke up in 1982, but "Harmotopia" was re-released in 1993. During the 1980s Arisawa worked as a composer and arranger for
Tokyo Broadcasting System and wrote music for
television commercials, including
Coca-Cola advertisements. He also composed for various
TV dramas, and released a
single, "Takeoff of Love", for
Japan Airlines' 30th anniversary celebration. He later served as music director for the
NHK series
Let's Learn English!. As the music director for
Sailor Moon, Arisawa's first award was the 1993 Golden Disk Grand Prize from
Nippon Columbia. He continued to compose for the entire anime series, plus several video games and some of the
stage musicals. In 1998, 2000, and 2001 he won the
JASRAC International Award for most international royalties, owing largely to the popularity of
Sailor Moon music in other nations. Arisawa expressed an admiration of
Hollywood-style music, drawing his initial inspiration for the tone of the
Sailor Moon soundtrack from the ''
Charlie's Angels'' TV series. He frequently made use of symbolism when writing themes for specific characters or groups, borrowing thematic elements from diverse
genres and from other countries. As the series progressed, his music gravitated from a
pop feeling toward more
classical arrangements to represent the protagonist having passed through painful experiences and grown as a person. In 2005, his score piece for Sailor Moon was used in
Steven Spielberg's
War of the Worlds, before his death on November 26 after the movie was released on June 29. ==Works==