The Fuji TV website has announced that Kenji Yamamoto will be responsible for the background music of Dragon Ball Kai.

While it is unfortunate that Shunsuke Kikuchi’s score will not be making a return, those unfamiliar with Kenji Yamamoto will be happy to hear that he has actually been involved with the series and its spin-off properties for around twenty years, himself. Yamamoto is responsible for the arrangement of many TV and movie theme songs throughout the years, including TV songs like “CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA” and “Unmei no Hi ~Tamashî VS Tamashî~”, as well as movie songs like DBZ movie 6 closing theme “Hero (Kimi ga Hîrō)” and DBZ movie 2 insert song “Pikkoro-san Da~isuki”. In addition to direct involvement with the animated series, Yamamoto has been responsible for the scores of countless Dragon Ball video games like the Super Butōden series from the Super Famicom era, all the way up through more current games like Burst Limit.

Our personal opinion is that if there was going to have to be a background score replacement, this is how we would want it handled. We have full confidence in its integrity and its ability to fit the mood and tone of the series. Of course, we will just have to wait and see what the final product looks (and sounds!) like come April 5th…!

For the record, this Kenji Yamamoto is different than the Kenji Yamamoto responsible for Metroid music. They are two different people that spell their names with different kanji.