DB Equivalent of Force Theme

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Super Sonic
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DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by Super Sonic » Sun Dec 10, 2017 4:27 pm

Was thinking would you guys say there's an equivalent in the DB franchise of the Force Theme in its music cues? By that, I don't know the track's proper name, but it often plays throughtout Star Wars when the Force is being used, or in dramatic moments like Luke looking at the horizon and here at Vader's funeral.Been a bit so wondered if there were particular music cues that played often for dramatic, action or other kinds of scenes.

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Captain-Sora
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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by Captain-Sora » Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:15 pm

The Force theme appears in numerous tracks rather than in one specific cue. Binary Sunset is the piece what people usually refer to most when talking about the theme, though.

For Dragon Ball, I think one strong contender is Shen Long's theme. His leitmotif was introduced way back in the original Dragon Ball and Kikuchi always wound up composing a new variation of it whenever he'd appear in a film, all the way up to DBZ Movie 13. Some of those renditions were used during pretty big moments, like Movie 3's version for the end of Cell (M1002).

Another big reoccurring motif is the Saiyan theme. Introduced at the start of DBZ, it grew into this idea associated with Super Saiyan transformations as the franchise went along. Despite not being as old as the Shen Long one, it wound up receiving a lot of attention from Kikuchi over the years. He'd usually whip up a new rendition of that theme for various movie scenes where someone transformed or was fighting while in that state. They wound up with a pretty hefty amount of cues to use for the show (M724, M1119, M1914, M2015 for a few examples).

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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by KBABZ » Sun Dec 17, 2017 3:21 pm

I'd also say that the original Makafushigi permeates the original anime enough to be considered a contender. One of the aspects of the Force theme in Williams' use is that it is played in many different ways; it can be longing and nostalgic as in the binary sunset, or it can be grand and heroic like in the opening to Episode III. The Makafushigi theme in Dragon Ball I think fits that descriptor; it can be played in an excited way like with Goku vs Krillin at the 22nd Tournament, or it can be more slow like an outdoor walk like in the closer to the second episode. On the subject, Piccolo Daimao's theme could be seen as an equivalent to the Imperial March, right?

It's also interesting that, through the repeated use of single tracks, certain pieces effectively become themes associated with certain moments or moods, like how Setting Out is for me closely associated with Goku on the Nimbus flying through the sky in search of his next adventure.

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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by Ringworm128 » Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:53 am

I feel like this could be a contender.
https://youtu.be/JlNojmYunDM?t=3m3s

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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by Danfun64 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 5:58 pm

I don't think DB has a real equivalent of the "Force Theme". To begin with, John Williams composed all the "numbered" Star Wars movies, and most of the non Williams composed Star Wars music (like for video games, tv shows etc) use his work as a obvious influence. Starting around 1995 and 96, when Peter Berring composed the first replacement score for the DB franchise and when Akihito Tokunaga composed the original score for DBGT, you start to see clear divergences where very little influence or compositions from Kikuchi are shared with the newer material. Levi/Wasserman, Team Faulconer, Menza, Johnson, Sumitono... and to a lesser extent Yamamoto (plagiarist that he is) for the most part don't reuse previously composed melodies that don't originate with them themselves.

I'd argue that the closest things to the Force Theme are Makafushigi Adventure (which had several different variations, perhaps more than any other DB theme. It even showed up in Z from time to time, most notable the first two Z movies.) and Cha La Head Cha La (what with it being reused for the "new" Z movies, along with a variation being used as the recap score for Super)
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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by cRookie_Monster » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:53 pm

In terms of vibe for Faulconer I would suggest the Trunks theme. It's been rearranged a number of ways too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzApzm5M-8Y
https://youtu.be/UtVHz-kU48A?t=28s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bwvv69WNLU

But the super Saiyan concept is the most similar idea to the Force in Star Wars.

The most popular SSJ theme is Julius' SSJ3 theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efR4kpts6eg


Runners up:
(Goku) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU5EMlT3Uzw
(Vegeta) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQcX4vFBiZg
And I've already listed Trunks. He was SSJ from the start.
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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by thaman91 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:57 pm

cRookie_Monster wrote:In terms of vibe for Faulconer I would suggest the Trunks theme. It's been rearranged a number of ways too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzApzm5M-8Y
https://youtu.be/UtVHz-kU48A?t=28s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bwvv69WNLU
Those Trunks themes are my favorite. They're just so powerful and stirring. Although it's funny how they were composed for Trunks, yet weren't actually used for Trunks (because of a Funimation mandate to make Trunks' music more hardcore, as I remember you saying in the past). I mean, I can't even recall when "Episodic Trunks" or "Heroic Trunks" were used in the show at all. The Trunks promo ad used "Heroic Trunks" but was it ever in the show itself? And "Frieza's Death" was used when Goku sacrificed himself, while "Heaven Sent Trunks" was used a couple times in the Buu arc. But yeah, because they're not specifically tied to Trunks in the actual show, that particular leitmotif does seem to transcend into a Force-esque theme (although it's not used nearly as often as the Force theme is in Star Wars).

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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by cRookie_Monster » Fri Jan 19, 2018 6:02 pm

thaman91 wrote:
cRookie_Monster wrote:In terms of vibe for Faulconer I would suggest the Trunks theme. It's been rearranged a number of ways too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzApzm5M-8Y
https://youtu.be/UtVHz-kU48A?t=28s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bwvv69WNLU
Those Trunks themes are my favorite. They're just so powerful and stirring. Although it's funny how they were composed for Trunks, yet weren't actually used for Trunks (because of a Funimation mandate to make Trunks' music more hardcore, as I remember you saying in the past). I mean, I can't even recall when "Episodic Trunks" or "Heroic Trunks" were used in the show at all. The Trunks promo ad used "Heroic Trunks" but was it ever in the show itself? And "Frieza's Death" was used when Goku sacrificed himself, while "Heaven Sent Trunks" was used a couple times in the Buu arc. But yeah, because they're not specifically tied to Trunks in the actual show, that particular leitmotif does seem to transcend into a Force-esque theme (although it's not used nearly as often as the Force theme is in Star Wars).
Thanks :)

Yeah it was physically painful to rip those themes from the episodes we had put them into. I wish you guys could have seen\heard it that way. By the third redo we did of Trunks...it felt like a giant mess. That's what aired. I also grieved over the unity of having a single theme ala John Williams.
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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by floofychan333 » Mon Jan 22, 2018 4:38 pm

I don't think the Shenlong themes are played anywhere near as frequently as the Force Theme is so those aren't the equivalent at all.
https://youtu.be/9ApDxmmv8Z0 The variations on the Saiyajin theme are probably the consensus pick, but the Genki-Dama theme also has some relevance in this discussion. https://youtu.be/FjDt5mLZ6dM
I like this one as a unifying theme, as well as its "We Gotta Power" equivalent. https://youtu.be/vXU_EOkilTQ
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Re: DB Equivalent of Force Theme

Post by Captain-Sora » Tue Jan 23, 2018 3:11 am

I don't think renditions of the opening songs reflect the Force theme very well. They're more comparable to the main theme of the Star Wars scores (which in itself was a regularly reoccurring leitmotif for Luke Skywalker, as well as accompanying other heroic moments) because they themselves are the main themes for Dragon Ball. The Force motif is more of a secondary idea in the hierarchy of Williams' musical tapestry for Star Wars, with the title theme being at the top.

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