Toei Officially Acknowledges Yamamoto's Kai Rip-Offs

[Kendamu]

If this means that the Kai Blu-rays in the US will have the Z score, then I'm down. Yamamoto's stuff was great, but it's not all that iconic.

[penguintruth]

Fair enough point. I guess what I was really trying to get at is the fact that it is a shame to see a man who has been with the series for so long dumped in this fashion. It's a major black eye on his career.

Bah. He'll get more work. Everybody copies in Japan. It's their national pastime, after variety shows and judging you.*


*Disclaimer: penguintruth does not actually know much about Japan. Please do not take this statement as fact or even an educated guess. In fact, penguintruth gets most of his knowledge of Japan via watching Japanese TV commercials on KeyHole. (Why the hell do they put lemon in every drink?)

[fps_anth]

Man, if that SSJ2 music replacement is true... disappointing. I mean, nothing can replace Unmei no Hi, but why not use something like this at least? That's Kikuchi, right? It's pretty much the movie 9 equivalent of the scene in question

Meh, I was gonna be disappointed by that change regardless. Here's to the rest of the series sounding great with the new...eh, old score!

[Gotham22]

I've realised Kai may be a little off with 2 different tracks. The music from the opening, endings, eyecatchers, and then the Z music.

[JulieYBM]

Man, I hope we can get some videos from these re-airings. This news is killing me. O.o

[Turtle Marked Stone]

I know I'm jumping the gun again here but if the music does get replaced over here in terms of DVDs will Funi be obligated to pull the old copies off the shelf (out of...online...shelves?) I'm just thinking how much of a mess it would be to try and buy a DVD with the replacement score only to get a residual Kenji OST set. Assuming they have the same packaging.

[Cipher]

Bah. He'll get more work. Everybody copies in Japan. It's their national pastime, after variety shows and judging you.*


*Disclaimer: penguintruth does not actually know much about Japan. Please do not take this statement as fact or even an educated guess. In fact, penguintruth gets most of his knowledge of Japan via watching Japanese TV commercials on KeyHole. (Why the hell do they put lemon in every drink?)

I did a summer homestay there. This seems pretty accurate, from my experience.

And no matter what happens, if there's ever an R1 home release with the Kikuchi score, I'm buying it. Until there is, this series is remaining strictly on its current back burner. We can debate the "Well, is it a replacement score? Is that good?" all day. This is a strange situation. Yes, the Yamamoto score is what was originally intended for Kai, but Kai itself is made up of Z footage, which was originally paired with the Kikuchi score. When you have a Yamamoto track playing over a scene left nearly untouched from Z, which becomes the replacement score? Does it matter at all?

Not really. I'm really, really excited about all of this. I might finally get to experience Kai without what has been, in my opinion, its biggest detractor.

[Greenman]

I know I'm jumping the gun again here but if the music does get replaced over here in terms of DVDs will Funi be obligated to pull the old copies off the shelf (out of...online...shelves?) I'm just thinking how much of a mess it would be to try and buy a DVD with the replacement score only to get a residual Kenji OST set. Assuming they have the same packaging.

Yamamoto is given a music credit on the back of the Blu-ray box so we should be fine if they issue replacements.

[Zephyr]

I know I'm jumping the gun again here but if the music does get replaced over here in terms of DVDs will Funi be obligated to pull the old copies off the shelf (out of...online...shelves?) I'm just thinking how much of a mess it would be to try and buy a DVD with the replacement score only to get a residual Kenji OST set. Assuming they have the same packaging.

I wouldn't be surprised if they just use this as an opportunity to re-release the Kai sets.

Dragonball Z Kai: Special Altered Audio Edition!! Now with the original Z score!!

And the milking continues. Not that I'd mind. I'd finally be able to watch not only a better US dub with a lot of filler trimmed off, but with the old music too.

[Flamingwindjutsu]

Just thought I'd throw my hat into the ring here with my opinion.

I've respected and quite enjoyed Yamamoto's work in Kai, and as this is my first time learning some of his tracks are plagiarized, that's kind of a downer. I have to agree that the Kikuchi score will not fit in properly with the faster pacing of Kai. I can say that with almost absolutely certainty. I also have a problem with most of the Kikuchi score, not saying it's a bad score, or he's a bad composer, but the music that's I've heard I don't particularly care for. There's a style going on in his music that doesn't appeal to my ear. I don't know what that is, maybe I just need to listen to it more, switch my mindset around a little to get what they were going for with that score. But regardless of my opinions towards Kikuchi's score, I simply enjoyed the hell outta Yamamoto's work in Kai. It's one of my personal favourite soundtracks I've heard in an anime, partially because of its fast paced nature. For me, Yamamoto > Kikuchi > He who shall not be named (who I believe composed a single good piece of music in his score, and that was Perfect Cell's theme, which I have to admit, was extremely awesome and I'm listening to it right now, but I'm rambling and going off topic now, so I apologize.)

Now, what do I believe the future brings for the Kai soundtrack? I'm inclined to believe that they're just going to throw in the Kikuchi score everywhere they can, although unfortunately since the guy who picks the music placement is garbage we get abominations like the SSJ2 Gohan transformation that make me want to punch myself in the head. If you bring back the Z score do it right and bring back Spirit vs Spirit goddammit. Now (wishful thinking time) what I hope will happen with the remainder of the series (I'm speaking of the last 2 or so episodes as well as the English DVD/Blu-Rays releases) is that what has already been scored by Yamamoto, is kept. You know, the things that he actually scored. But for the plagiarized material, they sweep it under the rug, and either bring him in to compose new material (ideal outcome for me), they use the pre-existing piece of music that are not plagiarized as replacements, or they just use the Kikuchi score to replace the stolen work. As long as when I go to pick up DBZK Volume 5 I'm not hearing horribly out of place Kikuchi tracks (talking about placement here, not the tracks themselves) I'll be a happy individual.

Oh, and they had BETTER not pull DBZK Vol 4 off of the shelves before I can get to it!

[CODii]

I know I'm jumping the gun again here but if the music does get replaced over here in terms of DVDs will Funi be obligated to pull the old copies off the shelf (out of...online...shelves?) I'm just thinking how much of a mess it would be to try and buy a DVD with the replacement score only to get a residual Kenji OST set. Assuming they have the same packaging.

I would assume they would have to pull them all. Remember the GTA: San Andreas "hot coffee" scandal? They immediately removed every copy from store shelves. When they removed the offending content they were allowed to re-release the game using the original cover.

[Elite49]

Wow, Kai can't catch a break can it. I have to find the last 3 Kai DVD's before they pull them. I like Kai's soundtrack, well from what I've seen (Up to episode 55).

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I'm probably getting my hopes up way too high in regards to where this will go, but KIKUCHI IN KAI BABY!

[obiwan23s]

Let's also not forget that Yamamoto track during the Raditz arc of Kai that sounded ridiculously like the Imperial March from Star Wars. Sad to say that one might still not be the first plagiarized track. Congrats Yamamoto, you made Kai's soundtrack a glorified cover album.

[ohaimynameiserik]

Let's also not forget that Yamamoto track during the Raditz arc of Kai that sounded ridiculously like the Imperial March from Star Wars. Sad to say that one might still not be the first plagiarized track. Congrats Yamamoto, you made Kai's soundtrack a glorified cover album.

? I can't think of what track you're referring to.

[kei17]

Let's also not forget that Yamamoto track during the Raditz arc of Kai that sounded ridiculously like the Imperial March from Star Wars. Sad to say that one might still not be the first plagiarized track. Congrats Yamamoto, you made Kai's soundtrack a glorified cover album.

? I can't think of what track you're referring to.

I think he is talking about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ubLwytYo-Y

[fps_anth]

I remember everyone thought he was ripping off the Imperial March with that song.

But we were kinda joking at the time

[Piccolo Daimao]

Kind of funny how he ripped off Terminator music for the Cell arc considering Future Trunks and the jinzoningen were partly inspired by the old Terminator movies. It's wrong to rip off other compositions, but that's still an amusing song to pick considering.

Which is even funnier when you think about the fact that Terminator itself is actually a rip off, which James Cameron himself admitted (bragged about).

It is...?

[Undercooked Sausage]

Help me out: Which Kai track matches up with this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdt-S_Nq ... re=related

[kei17]

Help me out: Which Kai track matches up with this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdt-S_Nq ... re=related

You mean this, right? I don't find this identical though. Some kind of influence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdPG2FPMoKI

*edit: Oh, this is it? Hm, sounds a little bit similar..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV5xVCO332U