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Shunsuke Kikuchi, legendary composer for Dragon Ball, Kamen Rider, etcetera has passed away

hikarutilmitt

hikarutilmitt

Member
Dec 16, 2017
11,404
Argh, no! At least he lived a long life...

I've been going through DBZ again by way of the recent steelbook sets, I hope I didn't inadvertently curse this to happen... :(
 
Anth0ny

Anth0ny

Member
Oct 25, 2017
46,819
www.kanzenshuu.com

News | Composer Shunsuke Kikuchi Passes Away

Dragon Ball franchise composer Shunsuke Kikuchi has passed away at age 89 from aspiration pneumonia.
www.kanzenshuu.com www.kanzenshuu.com

As part of a cast and staff Q&A alongside the first "Dragon Box" DVD release in Japan in 2003, in response to a question about what he might wish for with the Dragon Balls, Kikuchi responded he would wish for, "…a peaceful world without lies or violence."
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I could go on all day with clips. Kikuchi's score played a huge role in making me a life long fan of the series. When I got my hands on my first fansub, the music was probably what stood out the most compared to the dub... and I loved it instantly. It enhanced every scene. There was no going back at that point.

To me, Dragon Ball is Toriyama's quirky storytelling and art style, it's Goku and friends, it's Masako Nozawa and the other voice actors, and it's Shunsuke Kikuchi's unforgettable score (and Kageyama's banger vocal tunes!)

When I think about it, I probably own more Kikuchi music in CD form than any other musician, period.



Rest easy king.
 
Mekanos

Mekanos

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 17, 2018
44,124
DanarchyReigns said:




Some Kamen Rider tracks to be different.
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This thread is (justifiably) mostly about his Dragon Ball work but his Kamen Rider compositions are legendary in their own right. He set the tone for Showa era music in those shows. It's hard to put into words how big Kikuchi's legacy is; he won seven awards for his work across multiple different franchises.
 

Irmavep

Member
Oct 27, 2017
422
Shunsuke Kikuchi was indeed legendary. I want to highlight some of his other works, my favorite being the Prisoner Scorpion 701 series



First two tracks from this video



Also, Gamera!
 
BLEEN

BLEEN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,871
Oh wow. Some of this music is fantastic.

What a great composer. They replaced all of this with something else? Much of it sounds a bit familiar. It's been years since I've seen DBZ.
 
DanarchyReigns

DanarchyReigns

Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,777
BLEEN said:
Oh wow. Some of this music is fantastic.

What a great composer. They replaced all of this with something else? Much of it sounds a bit familiar. It's been years since I've seen DBZ.
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In the English dub shown in North America, Kikuchi's score got replaced with an original one because executives (on both sides) believed Americans didn't want the original music (apparently, Toei were surprised that Americans preferred the Japanese OST). When Saban handled the dub, we got an original score by Shuki Levy. When Funimation took it in-house, we got an original score by Bruce Faulconer (and several others he took credit for). Other dubs like the Spanish one used Kikuchi's score.

Funny enough, Kikuchi's score was used to replace another one. When Toei released Dragon Ball Kai (a re-edit of Z that cuts out filler and reduces slow panning shots to allow for a faster series), it was given a new score by Kenji Yamamoto. However, evidence came out that Yamamoto plagiarized music from Avatar and Terminator: Salvation (there's years of evidence in the DBZ games and original tracks but that's a looong story). So he was fired, and Toei very sloppily put Kikuchi's music over it. It is not the best way to hear his work
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
RIP. His music in Dragon Ball and Z was superb, and one of the reasons I loved it so much.
 
Yasuke

Yasuke

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
19,817
Oof, that sucks. Dude scored a good chunk of my childhood just off the strength of DB/Z. RIP.
 
Leo

Leo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,546
What a fucking legend. Part of my childhood, I will keep listening to his songs forever.

RIP.
 
Leo

Leo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,546
When I tried to remind of a good song to listen to in memory of him, this one came to me. It's less known, but has always been in my mind, since I was a small kid:



He's going upward to heaven now too.
 
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