Kai Part 5 Discussion Thread

[Kuwabara]

I'm a conspiracist and think Toei just got rid of Yamamoto's score to drum up more interest in the series. Like Gotham22 said, Kenji Yamamoto composed music for various Dragon Ball-related media for as long as DBZ has been around, so why is he only being chastised now for some risky sounding tracks? I think this could be attributed to past media containing Yamamoto's music being much more profitable when compared to Toei's expectations for Kai. What better way to sell Kai media containing Yamamoto's music than to scare consumers into submission by abandoning it all together? For the sake of my sanity, I won't go back and pinpoint the numerous quotes from members on this very board about a feared recall of the first four parts of Kai in the US.

Thankfully those fears were unfounded, at least for now. I say that because even though they weren't recalled, they'll still go out of print eventually. Until that fateful day occurs, I have a feeling Parts 1-4 along with the Wal-Mart bundles containing them will turn out to be highly lucrative for all companies involved, due in some part to Yamamoto's music.

And what about all of the people that prefer Kikuchi over Yamamoto anyway? I'm not trying to claim that the music is the all-encompassing force driving Kai's ability to sell, but there are plenty of people who suddenly became more interested in Kai once it was announced Kikuchi's music would be utilized in place of Yamamoto's. What about super hardcore collectors who will buy whatever they can get of both versions? Toei and all of it's licensors benefit from all three types of fans in the end. But if you ask me, all three fall short for overlapping but non-identical reasons, with Yamamoto fans receiving the shortest end of the stick...

[Echo64]

I actually haven't bought this part yet because of the music, I know it sounds silly, but I really loved his music. I actually have every track that was released on my iPod and I listen to them daily. It's a shame because every time I hear the old music I think to myself "Why don't I just watch the Dragon Box instead?".

[ohaimynameiserik]

I actually haven't bought this part yet because of the music, I know it sounds silly, but I really loved his music. I actually have every track that was released on my iPod and I listen to them daily. It's a shame because every time I hear the old music I think to myself "Why don't I just watch the Dragon Box instead?".

I'm in your exact situation, but the reason I keep watching Kai is the great new dub that I had such aspirations for.

[G1Ravage]

A bit off-topic, but not completely unrelated:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/12/metal ... sm-claims/

After Konami was notified that the theme to Metal Gear Solid, initially composed in 1998, sounded very similar to a piece of classical Russian music composed in 1979, Konami dropped the theme from all future games. It was in fact discovered, by people who hacked into unused files from the Wii game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, that the Metal Gear Solid theme was in there, but then subsequently not used in the final product.

So it would seem then, that there is an existing sensitivity in Japan toward such "plagiarization".

[Mewzard]

It's kinda funny. After all of this fiasco, I noticed that the opening theme to Denshi Sentai Denjiman (1980) had some similarity to that one Moscow song done by Dschinghis Khan in 1979.

Perhaps we notice similarities more if we look, and see things that aren't there, or perhaps we just happen to catch stuff...but one has to widen the gap between inspired by and stolen from, if they want to avoid legal issues.

[jjgp1112]

Most TV soundtracks are full of pieces that are heavily based off of popular songs. However, Japan seems to be more weary about it. For example, I was watching this episode of The Wayans Bros the other day, and every song in the soundtrack were just recreated instrumentals of songs from prominent East Coast rappers of the mid 90s. Any hip-hop fan would be able to name the beats off the top of their heads.

[ohaimynameiserik]

For all we know, forty pieces of BGM are actually ripped compositions, but because the right kinds of fans of this franchise aren't the right kinds of fans of other types of media and haven't necessarily been exposed to those other pieces of music, we don't have a flippin' clue.

I understand that it's much more likely with Yamamoto as the composer, but this could honestly be true for every collection of music to ever exist. Removing the couple of tracks that we knew were blatantly plagiarized would probably have removed all risk for legal issue. Is what they've done now a much safer route? Well, yes, but it doesn't seem like the quality or "Kai"-ness of the show was on their minds in the slightest.