Can we all please agree that Shunsuke Kikuchi is a totally sweet musical genius?

[floofychan333]

Kikuchi is the John Williams and the Beethoven of anime and I listen to his Dragon Ball/Z BGMs on a regular basis. He captures every mood perfectly and makes every episode enjoyable, yet his score is grievously underappreciated. I've had to find the BGMs on YouTube due to the fact that many BGMs are unreleased and it's almost impossible to find recordings or sheet music for any of his work. Why are these great musical pieces basically unavailable?

[Noah]

Of course we can! Even though Sumitomo had improved greatly his tracks for the current arc, nothing beats Kikuchi soundtrack! I wish he and Kageyama were still in the franchise.

Some of my favorite Kikuchi soundtracks:

Cell presence

Cell theme

Near the end of an episode in Boo Arc

SSJ2 Goku vs Majin Vegeta prelude

Gohan, Goten and Trunks training to defeat Majin Boo

[Bansho64]

YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT !!!!

The guy did some of the most awesome and most beautiful tracks I've ever heard in anime. I really love this guy's stuff. All of those tracks that Noah listed we're amazing in my opinion. Next to the Inuyasha soundtrack, Dragon Ball and Z's soundtrack is right up there.

There's so many tracks I love that it'd take me at least a day to list half of them. I'll just start with the one that I've listened to most recently. And that'd have to be this one.

[Noah]

Next to the Inuyasha soundtrack, Dragon Ball and Z's soundtrack is right up there.

I would include Yu-Gi-Oh! JPN soundtrack too, it's really good

Another Kikuchi favorite of mine

[Bansho64]

I would include Yu-Gi-Oh! JPN soundtrack too, it's really good

Another Kikuchi favorite of mine

Dude, it's like you read my mind!!
I was literally about to list that one along with Inuyasha's sountrack. I freaking love the Jpn Yugioh soundtrack. Very underrated. I actually think some of the openings would fit as DB openings

And yeah, I always loved that theme. And since you mentioned a M5 piece, I'll list one as well.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Kikuchi Shunsuke is the SOUL of Dragon Ball. His music is what got me into the series. I don't think it's underappreciated. Besides a few Western areas, it is the universally accepted score and from what I've heard it still sells well.

I'm not a hardcore Dragon Ball fan and I think it is nothing more than an average battle shounen, but the music is the best thing and it is up there among the best musical scores for a cartoon. I'd say he is tied with Masuda Toshio(Naruto) and Takanashi Yasuharu(Naruto Shippuden) for my 2nd favorite composer.

[MCDaveG]

Kikuchi's music set the tone and atmosphere a lot and it was one of the huge reasons next the art, that really got me into the series

[DBZAOTA482]

Shunsuke Kikuchi and Kenji Yamamoto are the composers for Dragon Ball we need. Others just can't compete.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

I fully agree with everything written above. I have nothing to add.

Why are these great musical pieces basically unavailable?

I guess that Nippon Columbia has no idea that there are people all around the world who would like to have something like Dragon Box: The Music on their shelves.
Fans aren't active at that field at all. I intend to change that. Wait and see

[Lord Beerus]

Nothing tops Kikuchi. He captured everything about Dragon Ball flawlessly. From the comedic moments, to the heartwarming moments, to the sad moments and the intense/awesome moments.

Kikuchi's score is Dragon Ball.

[Noah]

I freaking love the Jpn Yugioh soundtrack. Very underrated. I actually think some of the openings would fit as DB openings

And yeah, I always loved that theme. And since you mentioned a M5 piece, I'll list one as well.

When you said that, these songs instantly came into my mind

Also I love these these tracks made by Kikuchi, Android/Cell Arc had some great soundtracks! God! Listening to this gives me chills!

Nothing tops Kikuchi. He captured everything about Dragon Ball flawlessly. From the comedic moments, to the heartwarming moments, to the sad moments and the intense/awesome moments.

Kikuchi's score is Dragon Ball.

Exactly! We can always compare the scene where Goku arrives in the tournament for one day and all his friends greets him both DBZ and Kai 2.0.

Kai took all the emotion that was in this scene with that new trash soundtrack

[Kamiccolo9]

Meh, he's okay. He's no John Williams, and he's definitely no Beethoven (like, seriously?)

I'm with the guy who said that the Inuyasha OST was better. Possibly Yugioh as well, although that's a closer contest.

[Bansho64]

I'm with the guy who said that the Inuyasha OST was better. Possibly Yugioh as well, although that's a closer contest.

Yeah, for me, Inuyasha's got a lot of brilliant tracks in there. So does Yu-Gi-Oh.

[PsionicWarrior]

Removing Kikuchi soundtrack is removing 50% of the series, how could they dare to do that lol

Meh, he's okay. He's no John Williams, and he's definitely no Beethoven (like, seriously?)

Bear in mind OP put some context and said "of anime", and I would say it's a complete success that there is no need even to defend, making comparisons the way you do could you imagine Cell appearing under the Hymn of Joy lol

It is creating music that perfectly goes with the images and script fitting 100% that matters in this kind of job lol

[Noah]

Meh, he's okay. He's no John Williams, and he's definitely no Beethoven (like, seriously?)

I'm with the guy who said that the Inuyasha OST was better. Possibly Yugioh as well, although that's a closer contest.

I agree that he's no Beethoven, but the comparison with John Williams is appropriate as both:

Capture everything about their series/movies. From the comedic moments, to the heartwarming moments, to the sad moments and the intense/awesome moments.

as said by Lord Beerus.

Removing Kikuchi soundtrack is removing 50% of the series, how could they dare to do that lol

I think I feel the same about Kageyama.

[PsionicWarrior]

I agree that he's no Beethoven, but the comparison with John Williams is appropriate as both:

Capture everything about their series/movies. From the comedic moments, to the heartwarming moments, to the sad moments and the intense/awesome moments.

as said by Lord Beerus.

Yep he perfectly worded that, but you forgot to quote the best part

Kikuchi's score is Dragon Ball.

To me this couldn't be more accurate, same could be said with Nozawa lol

[ssj5]

Absolutely, he gave the anime a very characteristic and special vibe. In fact I just made a thread asking if anyone knows any copyright-free music similar to his work:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36293

(maybe admins should move my thread on this subforum)

[Kamiccolo9]

It is creating music that perfectly goes with the images and script fitting 100% that matters in this kind of job lol

So does the guy who makes the Spongebob soundtrack. My response was in reference to quality, not whether or not the music is appropriate. Kikuchi's work doesn't measure up to Williams, and has absolutely nothing on Beethoven.

[floofychan333]

It is creating music that perfectly goes with the images and script fitting 100% that matters in this kind of job lol

So does the guy who makes the Spongebob soundtrack. My response was in reference to quality, not whether or not the music is appropriate. Kikuchi's work doesn't measure up to Williams, and has absolutely nothing on Beethoven.

To be fair Kikuchi's work doesn't have anywhere near a sufficient release in the English-speaking world and nobody except Dragon Ball fans and maybe Doraemon fans know who the hell he is. I feel like if there was an actual release of his work in the West and it hadn't been overshadowed by Faulconer music then he would be appreciated at least somewhere near as much as he should be.

[JulieYBM]

Kikuchi Shunsuke is a great composer allowed free reign in a franchise with multiple genres all at work. He created truly memorable and engrossing music. He's definitely a genius and it's a shame I didn't know his work until I was already an adult. The mythical nature of the Hunt for the Dragon Balls arc, the martial arts and East Asian flavors of the tournament arcs, the 1960s spy movie music for the Red Ribbon Army arc, the B-movie sci-fi music for the Saiyan and Namek arcs and the dip into horror for the early Artificial Humans arc, to say nothing of the triumphant, hero-esque music for the Majin Buu arc. Kikuchi certainly dabbled around for Dragon Ball.

Oddly enough, the older I've gotten the less enamored I am with supposed geniuses like John Williams. The thing about Williams is that outside of his big themes his background music scores are forgettable or annoying while set to the films they are composed for. There are maybe, what, four or five good pieces from Star Wars, his biggest franchise? The Star Wars main theme, the Imperial March, Duel of Fates and Battle of the Heroes. The rest I cannot even remember.

My man Jerry Goldsmith had a similar issue. His main themes for Star Trek are great, but a lot of the background music just sounds like noise meant to dictate an emotional response. It's the same phenomenon you see in most Hollywood movies and it feels like eating raw sugar. Tasteless and headache-inducing. The only time I can think of his score being damned near perfect as a cohesive whole was Rudy. That was a movie that knew how to drive the emotions home.