Kenji Yamamoto's history with DBZ

[tinlunlau]

I recall listening to the podcast where VegettoEX mentioned that Kenji Yamamoto did some game music for the DBZ franchise. But then, I began re-watching DBZ from the Dragon Box set. I watched the classic "Cha La" opening as usual and quickly noticed something right away. In the credits, Kenji Yamamoto's name was credited as the guy in charge of the music arrangements in "Cha La Head Cha La". So there you have it! Yamamoto's been around since the beginning of DBZ. Not just some guy replacing Kikuchi.

[VegettoEX]

Well, yes... Yamamoto had done many things for the DBZ series proper during its run, but he was never exclusively in charge of anything other than video game music. Take, for example, "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA":

• Lyrics: Yukinojô Mori
• Music: Chiho Kiyooka
• Arrangement: Kenji Yamamoto
• Vocals: Hironobu Kageyama

With the exception of video games (and up until Kai in terms of traditional animation material), he's been limited to composition and arrangement in conjunction with others, rather than being the "leader", for lack of a better phrase.

[Hujio]

Didn't we mention all this way back when the original announcement came out?

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 Hîrô)" and DBZ movie 2 insert song "Pikkoro-san Da~isuki". In addition to direct involvement with the series, Yamamoto has been responsible for the scores of countless DragonBall video games like the Super Butôden series from the Super Famicom era, all the way up through more current games like Burst Limit.

According to the official Fuji TV DragonBall Kai website, Kikuchi Shunsuke will not be returning to score the background music, but is instead being replaced by Yamamoto Kenji. This is rather unfortunate, but if Kikuchi is going to be replaced, there's no better person to do so than Yamamoto. He has actually been involved with the series for over 20 years, creating arrangements for themes such as, "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA" (1st DBZ Opening Theme), "Come Out, Incredible ZENKAI Power!" (1st DBZ Ending Theme), and "Hero (You're the Hero)" (DBZ Movie 6 Ending Theme).

Not trying to take anything away from you tinlunlau, but just thought I'd throw that out there.

[linkdude20002001]

Well it's worth mentioning that he composed a good number of DBZ's vocal songs from the DBZ Hit Song Collections. Not as many as Chiho, but he's the second most important composer for DBZ (or third if you include Shunsuke).

Wikipedia page of awsomeness!