Does the Nathan Johnson score get unfairly overlooked?

[WittyUsername]

As far as FUNimation dub scores go, people seem to be the most indifferent towards Nathan Johnson’s score. His music doesn’t have a passionate following like the Faulconer and Levy/Wasserman scores do, but it also doesn’t seem to get brought up very often as something that people particularly hate (as far as replacement scores go). Is that just a testament to how forgettable people think his music is?

Honestly, from a purely technical standpoint, the Nathan Johnson score is probably the most “cinematic” of the dub scores, and if I recall, there actually were some very brief moments where the music wasn’t playing. Also, I would say that the ending theme he composed was pretty catchy. What exactly do you guys think?

[Robo4900]

It's very well-produced, but it's honestly a bit of a bland score, and it kind of replaced the highly-memorable Wasserman score for that era, which is a big shame, and it's the noise the Faulconer fans have to get to before that score starts in Z, and it's not the god-awful unfitting nonsense of the Menza score... It's just okay... Mostly just flies under the radar.

Though, minor pet peeve -- you say the "Levy/Wasserman [score]"; Shuki Levy contributed nothing to the Saban dub's score, it was entirely Ron Wasserman, it was simply credited to Levy -- as I understand it -- as a part of Saban's deal with the independent contractors they had on board at the time that it would all be attributed to the in-house musician Levy so as to keep things going through Saban, hopefully avoiding the possibility of other companies going to the contractors directly. This effect was a total success in Dragon Ball, where Funimation didn't bother attempting to get Wasserman back.

[90sDBZ]

It was okay but like everyone says just not that memorable, although there are a few tracks that stick in my mind as good and get brought up by fans from time to time;

Gogeta's Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQAfdeffrvM

Vegeta vs (Beast) Zarbon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaANU4km_cs

Recap theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kwtoTijrHA

[DarkPrince_92]

Only theme I like from his score was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLVtbaPyoB8

The Zarbon x Vegeta theme, but some alternate version.

[Cure Dragon 255]

Where is his score from? Z? GT? I thought Mark Menza did GT...

[DHM211]

Where is his score from? Z? GT? I thought Mark Menza did GT...

First 67 episodes of Funimation's Remastered dub for Z, and DBZ Movies 2, 3, 10, 12, & 13.

[90sDBZ]

Where is his score from? Z? GT? I thought Mark Menza did GT...

Menza did do GT and movies 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 but Nathan Jonson did Episodes 1-67 of the Z redub and movies 2, 3, 10, 12 and 13.

[IHaveNoUserName]

Yes, his score is unfairly overlooked, I really like the work he did for the DBZ movies that they did

[MasenkoHA]

I prefer it to the Faulconer score to be honest.

It never does anything as badass as Ginyu transforms or Super Buu’s theme but its just overall more listenable instead of a lot of garbage with some good ones

[SaiyamanMS]

It’s also worth noting that less than half his episodes were released on home video before Funi finally gave us the option to watch the dub with the original Japanese music. I’ve seen all of the Faulconer and Menza episodes because that’s the only way the dub was available back then. I’ve still not seen most of Johnson’s work to this day.