A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

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A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by ZODX_750 » Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:42 am

It's been exactly a decade since Kenji Yamamoto got fired cause of that plagiarism situation. And I think a lot of ppl can agree that he can be a great composer if he had some "originality" but sadly he doesn't have that lol.
But real talk Yamamoto really shines when he arranges tracks instead of composing them cause he uses very unique melodies that make a song sound catchy asf, Idainaru DragonBall Densetsu OST is the perfect example for him using catchy melodies.

Here, 2 tracks that I like a lot from the game and it might also make ppl say "Damn, Yamamoto can be a very good composer if he had some originality" lol

Theme of Assault (Medley Version): https://youtu.be/uSR-4eKxhGg
Crisis (Powerful Arrange Version): https://youtu.be/eVwiYLfAz5M


Idfk if those tracks are plagiarized or not lmao

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by UltraInstinctRorikon » Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:56 am

His plagiarized tracks sound better than the originals.
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by ZODX_750 » Tue Mar 09, 2021 2:41 am

UltraInstinctRorikon wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:56 am His plagiarized tracks sound better than the originals.
I agree lol. its more catchy

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by GhostEmperorX » Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:20 pm

UltraInstinctRorikon wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:56 am His plagiarized tracks sound better than the originals.
Meh, it’s obviously much easier to take an already finished product and tweak it in ways that can improve on any perceived flaws or take it in a new direction entirely, than it is to make a product that’s high caliber from scratch (and he’s clearly incapable of doing the latter). Even a simple transposition can create the same effect.
So pardon me for saying that making glorified covers/remixes that are “better” in one way or the other isn’t much of an achievement at all compared to what the originals were.

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by precita » Sat Mar 20, 2021 6:11 pm

He should have gotten much worse. Criminals deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If he lived in the U.S. instead of Japan, I think he would have received far harsher punishment.

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by linkdude20002001 » Sat Mar 20, 2021 8:45 pm

GhostEmperorX wrote: Wed Mar 17, 2021 12:20 pm Meh, it’s obviously much easier to take an already finished product and tweak it in ways that can improve on any perceived flaws or take it in a new direction entirely, than it is to make a product that’s high caliber from scratch (and he’s clearly incapable of doing the latter).
This is true. This is why teams (in anything) often give better results. But still, his vast library of musical tastes has led to a man I'd certainly hire to arrange my own compositions. ...Arrangement is the one area (oh, and singing) that I just can't do. I simply love his instrument choices, and the way he can make the arrangement perfectly fit the lyrics.

precita wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 6:11 pm He should have gotten much worse. Criminals deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If he lived in the U.S. instead of Japan, I think he would have received far harsher punishment.
But do we know the full extent to which he was punished? And as far as I'm aware, the extent the US punishes this kind of thing is more-so based on how much money the originator thinks they can get. They probably sued Toei and got money. All that could happen to the composer, tho, is to be fired. I mean, it's not like sueing Yamamoto would get you much. Not like sueing a famous band who's making bank off your composition or lyrics.
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by coola » Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:16 am

And he got away with it for so many years too, unfortunately for him, nobody told him it isn't 90's/early 2000's and anime is "little" more popular and available, so maybe it wouldnt be good idea to rip blockbuster movies soundtracks?
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by Hellspawn28 » Sun Mar 21, 2021 9:56 pm

I'm surprised that it took people this long to notice it.
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by GhostEmperorX » Thu Mar 25, 2021 4:07 pm

linkdude20002001 wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 8:45 pm
This is true. This is why teams (in anything) often give better results. But still, his vast library of musical tastes has led to a man I'd certainly hire to arrange my own compositions. ...Arrangement is the one area (oh, and singing) that I just can't do. I simply love his instrument choices, and the way he can make the arrangement perfectly fit the lyrics.
Yea because he was primarily an arranger and a good one at that. Should have been restricted to that from the beginning tbh.
He could also have been a guy who picks temp tracks that aren’t to be used in the final production.
precita wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 6:11 pm He should have gotten much worse. Criminals deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. If he lived in the U.S. instead of Japan, I think he would have received far harsher punishment.
Well the US doesn’t care as much about OST’s to begin with and he wouldn’t quite be a big name individual. BTW the Smith/Morgan replacement score also had some instances of plagiarism here & there but no one batted an eye.
Also, Yamamoto got banned from composing so that’s certainly enough. Came too late though.

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by Thanos » Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:48 pm

ZODX_750 wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:42 am It's been exactly a decade since Kenji Yamamoto got fired cause of that plagiarism situation. And I think a lot of ppl can agree that he can be a great composer if he had some "originality" but sadly he doesn't have that lol.
Is there enough data to suggest his entire catalogue of material is plagiarized? My impression was that, aside from a handful of glaring examples, most of the time he would steal hooks and particular sections, but not entire pieces. You might have a riff or melody ripped straight from a particular song, but the motif, production and mood are entirely original. There's plenty of his works that I don't think anyone has narrowed down as being stolen, though maybe we're just not aware of the sources. I'm not saying it wasn't all definitely stolen, but if you omit the known plagiarized work, there's still a healthy amount of great material there (granted, in my person view even the stolen stuff is super great).

Certainly, I'm not defending his actions, but I feel as though 90's/00's Yamamoto soundtracks are to the Dragon Ball video game universe as Kikuchi's are to the anime series. There's something inseparable about the games and their music to me. It's often the first thing that I think of when I think of these games and that era. Because ever since, I guess the first Raging Blast or so back in 2009 after Yamamoto stopped producing Dragon Ball OST's, you have been stuck with empty, boring, generic, forgettable guitar wank music with meandering melodies. I don't think I can recall a single track from that game up until FighterZ. It's a far cry from the earworm melodies accompanied by Toto and Tower of Power. You have a few exceptions here and there (Xenoverse has some nice music that doesn't sound like they were pulled from a royalty free library), but otherwise they're pretty shit. I understand the tendency to associate the fast, aggressive action of the series with heavy guitars or whatever, but it isn't my cup of tea and you're missing a lot of nuance and playfulness that the Super Butoden games and onward illustrated perfectly.
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by Captain-Sora » Fri Apr 02, 2021 10:18 pm

Thanos wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:48 pm Because ever since, I guess the first Raging Blast or so back in 2009 after Yamamoto stopped producing Dragon Ball OST's
2010 with Raging Blast 2. Funny enough, I believe that's the only Spike game he composed all of the BGM for (not counting BT1's reusage of his Budokai library before they started doing new music for the overseas releases). BT2 was done by a group of other people, and Toshiyuki Kishi did BT3, Raging Blast 1, and Tenkaichi Tag Team.

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by UltraInstinctRorikon » Wed Apr 07, 2021 6:12 am

Thanos wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:48 pm
ZODX_750 wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 1:42 am It's been exactly a decade since Kenji Yamamoto got fired cause of that plagiarism situation. And I think a lot of ppl can agree that he can be a great composer if he had some "originality" but sadly he doesn't have that lol.
Is there enough data to suggest his entire catalogue of material is plagiarized? My impression was that, aside from a handful of glaring examples, most of the time he would steal hooks and particular sections, but not entire pieces. You might have a riff or melody ripped straight from a particular song, but the motif, production and mood are entirely original. There's plenty of his works that I don't think anyone has narrowed down as being stolen, though maybe we're just not aware of the sources. I'm not saying it wasn't all definitely stolen, but if you omit the known plagiarized work, there's still a healthy amount of great material there (granted, in my person view even the stolen stuff is super great).

Certainly, I'm not defending his actions, but I feel as though 90's/00's Yamamoto soundtracks are to the Dragon Ball video game universe as Kikuchi's are to the anime series. There's something inseparable about the games and their music to me. It's often the first thing that I think of when I think of these games and that era. Because ever since, I guess the first Raging Blast or so back in 2009 after Yamamoto stopped producing Dragon Ball OST's, you have been stuck with empty, boring, generic, forgettable guitar wank music with meandering melodies. I don't think I can recall a single track from that game up until FighterZ. It's a far cry from the earworm melodies accompanied by Toto and Tower of Power. You have a few exceptions here and there (Xenoverse has some nice music that doesn't sound like they were pulled from a royalty free library), but otherwise they're pretty shit. I understand the tendency to associate the fast, aggressive action of the series with heavy guitars or whatever, but it isn't my cup of tea and you're missing a lot of nuance and playfulness that the Super Butoden games and onward illustrated perfectly.
Absolutely agree. He gave soul to these games.
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by RandomGuy96 » Sun Apr 11, 2021 3:05 am

It's almost a shame he was exposed. Because while he was blatantly plagiarizing (and thus committing a serious crime), he was plagiarizing some good stuff.
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by Lord Beerus » Sun Apr 11, 2021 5:28 am

I have zero sympathy for Yamamoto. If he had more creativity in him he wouldn't have had to resort to stealing the works of other more talented composers and musicians.

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by MasenkoHA » Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:24 am

RandomGuy96 wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 3:05 am It's almost a shame he was exposed. Because while he was blatantly plagiarizing (and thus committing a serious crime), he was plagiarizing some good stuff.
It’s a shame because anything he might not have plagiarized (Has Brave Heart Triumph or Courage Fills the Heart been revealed to plagiarize anything yet?) will just naturally be assumed to have ripped off something.

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:32 pm

I knew before then that Battle Point Unlimited was heavily cribbing parts from The Murderer of Love, The Chase and P-Machinery which is all by Propaganda but i didn't know much of his other stuff that was outed as plagiarized.
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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by GhostEmperorX » Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:55 am

MasenkoHA wrote: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:24 am It’s a shame because anything he might not have plagiarized (Has Brave Heart Triumph or Courage Fills the Heart been revealed to plagiarize anything yet?) will just naturally be assumed to have ripped off something.
Brave Heart Triumph was plagiarized off some track from a Captain Tsubasa game.
But yea, definitely safe to assume that he basically plagiarized everything he did for any project from somewhere. It’s way too rampant for him to ever have done anything original.

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Re: A decade ago... Kenji Yamamoto was fired

Post by GhostEmperorX » Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:04 pm

Thanos wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:48 pm Is there enough data to suggest his entire catalogue of material is plagiarized?
Given the sheer number of people across different fields he’s copied, this can be the only sensible explanation. However,
maybe we're just not aware of the sources.
Exactly, and he was copying numerous people at home and abroad, there’s no project where he didn’t plagiarize something in some way. In the end only he actually knows the full extent of what he stole.

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