Rank the Dragon Ball anime music scores

[TechExpert2021]

Now with Kosuke Yamashita composing the BGM for DB Daima, how would you rank the Dragon Ball anime music scores?

Here is a list of composers for reference:

Japanese

• Shunsuke Kikuchi (1986-1996, 2011 – Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, All DB and DBZ movies, Dragon Ball Kai episodes 1-98)
• Akihito Tokunaga (1996-1997 – Dragon Ball 10th Anniversary Movie, Dragon Ball GT)
• Kenji Yamamoto (2009-2011 – Dragon Ball Kai episodes 1-96)
• Norihito Sumitomo (2014-2018 – Dragon Ball Kai Buu Arc/The Final Chapters, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Super: Broly)
• Naoki Sato (2022 – Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero)
• Kosuke Yamashita (2024-2025 – Dragon Ball Daima)

English

• Peter Berring (1995 – FUNimation/BLT/D&RSS dub of DB episodes 1-14)
• Ron Wasserman (1996-1998 – FUNimation/Ocean/Saban dub of DBZ episodes 1-53 + FUNimation/Ocean/Saban dub of DBZ movie 3)
• Bruce Faulconer, Mike Smith, Julius Dobos, and Scott Morgan (collectively Faulconer Productions) (1999-2003 – FUNimation in-house dub of DBZ episodes 54-276/67-291 + FUNimation in-house dub of DBZ movie 4 + FUNimation in-house dubs of DBZ TV specials (TV broadcasts only))
• Dale Kelly, Andy Baylor, and Mark Akin (2000-2001 – FUNimation in-house dubs of the DBZ TV specials)
• Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell, and David Iris (collectively Anitunes) (2001-2003 – AB Groupe/Westwood/Ocean dub of DBZ episodes 108-276/123-291)
• Mark Menza (2003-2006 – FUNimation in-house dub of DBGT + FUNimation in-house dubs of DBZ movies 1, 6-9, 11)
• Nathan Johnson (2005-2006 – FUNimation Ultimate Uncut in-house dub of DBZ episodes 1-67 + FUNimation in-house dubs of DBZ movies 2-3, 10, 12-13)

And here's how I rank them:

1. Shunsuke Kikuchi
2. Akihito Tokunaga
3. Kosuke Yamashita
4. Kenji Yamamoto
5. Ron Wasserman
6. Peter Berring
7. Naoki Sato
8. Tom Keenlyside, John Mitchell, and David Iris (collectively Anitunes)
9. Norihito Sumitomo
10. Nathan Johnson
11. Bruce Faulconer, Mike Smith, Julius Dobos, and Scott Morgan (collectively Faulconer Productions)
12. Mark Menza
13. Dale Kelly, Andy Baylor, and Mark Akin

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

1. Shunsuke Kikuchi
2. Akihito Tokunaga
3. Anitunes
4. The various artists Kenji Yamamoto plagiarised
5. Kosuke Yamashita
6. Norihito Sumitomo
7. Ron Wasserman
8. Faulconer Productions
9. Naoki Sato
10. Nathan Johnson
11. Mark Menza
12. Peter Berring
13. Dale Kelly, Andy Baylor, and Mark Akin

[MasenkoHA]

I only saw Super Super Hero once and barely remember the score and haven't seen Daima yet so leaving those composers out

I enjoy the scores very much
1. Kikuchi
2. Yamamoto

Pretty darn good
3. Sumitomo

Tis fine
4. Tokunaga
5. Wasserman


Meh
6. Johnson
7. Anitunes
8. Berring

Not a fan of most of it
9. Mike Smith and Friends


What is this Kami-sama forsaken shit?

10. Menza

11. Dale Kelly and Andy Baylor

[Trouser]

To me there's really no competition here. Kikuchi and Tokunaga are the best with Sato being very close to them. The rest is at best "okay" to "meh".

[Jord]

I like the music of Kikuchi score in itself, but the implementation in the anime makes it sound really old fashioned. Like something from a 70's Godzilla film. It works in some of the more calm parts like Genki dama theme but 80% of the score brings down the anime for me. It's like it makes the show feel slower or older than it already is. It's also goofy how he uses a slide whistle in some of it's tracks.

[GhostEmperorX]

I like the music of Kikuchi score in itself, but the implementation in the anime makes it sound really old fashioned. Like something from a 70's Godzilla film. It works in some of the more calm parts like Genki dama theme but 80% of the score brings down the anime for me. It's like it makes the show feel slower or older than it already is. It's also goofy how he uses a slide whistle in some of it's tracks.

Well, he did go on record in a 1997 booklet interview saying that modern style wasn't really his thing, and the same likely applied to some extent in the 80's. But hey, his was the style that the directors at Toei wanted, even if they (and Nippon Columbia) failed to meaningfully preserve it.

The slide whistles, flexatones, and trumpets are always mentioned as downsides, but no one ever mentions his incorporation of elements like grand piano and Timpani which are more or less always on point. And the motif work always gets overlooked because of the movie score substituting BGM that could have been made for the series proper.

For example, one of his Z OP re-arrangements translated a more modern part of the original (the synth arpeggio) into more regular instrumentation, i.e. woodwinds.

Also, the tracks that made it to stereo from original DB right on till the end of Z were all recorded in top notch quality, the real problem with age is with the mono tracks which had no reason to exist in that form at the time.

[Fizzer]

Just ranking the ones I'm familiar with with (I've only seen Super Hero once for example)

1. Kikuchi
2. Sumitomo
3. Tokunaga
4. Wasserman
5. Falconer
6. Yamamoto
7. Johnson
8. Menza

Kikuchi never hits the hype moments like some of the others do. A lot of Sumitomo or Faulconer for example can really elevate the emotion and adrenaline of a scene. However, the old-timey Spaghetti Western but also Chinese sounding music is just the VIBE, and it's the most comprehensive score that actually has the material to cover the whole series. There also is a lot of really beautiful music there, mostly the motifs based on the various OP/ED songs throughout.