So, what happens with Kenji Yamamoto now?

[MewtwoZX]

I felt like making this topic from ages, but just didn't had the urge to do so. Now, at a bit of my free time, does anyone knows what happened with Kenji Yamamoto after he got sued? Did he lost his job, had to pay, got to prison? I completely have no clue.

And will he ever contribute to Dragon Ball Games atleast? Even though i don't think that he will, i still know that he only "stole" BGM's [Battle Point Unlimited for examle], not any music with vocal [Chala Head Chala, We Gotta Power, Progression, Battle of Omega], so he would still be awesome for Opening music.

Will we get Chala (Perhaps We Gotta Power) in every new DB Game now? No more original openings with Kageyama?

[GotenDaisuki]

He got sued? I only thought Toei fired him and that was that.
I kind of thought it was a really bad time to fire Yamamoto considering it was so close to the March earthquake/tsunami and the two episodes left to air on TV, but he got what he deserved. Also,
Toei has nothing to do with Bandai, the video game distributor, so maybe in the future they'll let him make opening themes (I highly doubt this will happen, as word of his plagiarism was widespread).
For now, I have no idea about future video games' opening themes. Maybe they'll use stuff from the Hit Song Collection CDs? That would be nice.

[bkev]

This may be a baseless claim but I've been led to believe that Japan takes issues like plagiarism very seriously in general. He'll probably have an incredibly hard time finding a job after this fiasco.

[MCDaveG]

Well, from my point of view, he got out of luck. Lot of Japanese BGM are plagiarised, for god sake in Yu Yu Hakusho, there is clear sample from Kraftwerk's Telephone Line altough they are clearly stating, that you must personally ask them for use of their work and for 90% they are not responding and if they find out, they'll sue all your blood from you.
That was one of many examples. It's simply that now is age of internet and continents are conected and we know in second, what's hapening now in US and other part of the world and as people hear something familiar, they will seek it up on the net and then alarm message boards and social networks and then it's spreading like virus.
So after our own nitpicking on Daizex, it was matter of time then there will be a trouble with it. Also, the show is f**king bif, airing in US and half of the world.
Next Yamamoto's fail was using almost unchanged music from recent blockbusters. Damn, as I learned he used things from Avatar and Terminator, I thought: ''That guy is completely insane!!!!''.

Well, it's a big embarrasment, I really liked the music in first episodes and then later he started to mix drugs with alcohol or what
That's why I respect Kikuchi. He's taking cues from old films and making theatrical and orchestral pieces as lot of popular composers does.....
I think he got fired and TOEI hell of pissed, as they hired him and it's their responsibility that it got this far or that they didn't bought rights for the music.

[Fionordequester]

Lot of Japanese BGM are plagiarised, for god sake in Yu Yu Hakusho, there is clear sample from Kraftwerk's Telephone Line altough they are clearly stating, that you must personally ask them for use of their work and for 90% they are not responding and if they find out, they'll sue all your blood from you.

About Yu Yu Hakusho, I somewhat suspected that the first time I heard a song that sounded suspiciously like the Pink Panther intro in that Episode where Yusuke became a spirit detective. It wasn't a total copy and paste, but the main theme was pretty much the same.

[MewtwoZX]

Also, one more question.

Was Dragon Ball Heroes theme song (Dragon Soul V2?) composed by Kenji Yamamoto? Was that his last song, or was it Battle of Omega?

Although Kenji plagiarised BGMs for DB Kai and DBZ Budokai games, i still liked to hear his music more than even the originals (Like Battle Point Unlimited).

TOEI should have never found out about that . I wonder which fan spammed their e-mail about Kenji Yamamoto to let them know about like what...20 years XD? (By 20 years i mean when Battle Point Unlimited debuted).

[VegettoEX]

The thing about this is that we'll probably never REALLY know what went down. It's not as if Toei came out and said Kenji Yamamoto's name, and it's not as if they announced that anyone was fired, let go, or replaced. They just kinda did it and moved on with things. That's how it works over there. We'll either see his name pop up in some other project and go, "Oh hey, he got another job!"... or we'll never see it again, and every so often just kinda ask, "So what ever happened to him...?"

TOEI should have never found out about that . I wonder which fan spammed their e-mail about Kenji Yamamoto to let them know about like what...20 years XD? (By 20 years i mean when Battle Point Unlimited debuted).

We've been saying for years that someone else somewhere had to have known about it, because the song NEVER appeared on any subsequent compilations. Wasn't on the four "Complete Song Collection" sets, wasn't even on the 13-disc "chouzenshuu" set... it just... didn't ever appear again. They kinda HAD to include it when they re-released all 20 Hit Song Collection CDs, and we thought it was odd that it appeared again as BGM for the JP version of Raging Blast... but those were two strange, isolated cases when tons of other songs had seen release after release after release after release. Clearly someone somewhere was onto him!

[Castor Troy]

I wonder if I'll have the money to hire him now.

[xzero]

You know, I was going to note that he's still probably working for Retro Studios (Metroid Prime, Donkey Kong Country Returns) as their primary composer. Then I did a little research and discovered that it's a different Kenji Yamamoto. I guess I never considered the possibility that there could be 2 Kenji Yamamotos around the same age, both involved in video game music composition, amongst other things.

So Castor Troy, if you want Nintendo's Kenji Yamamoto, it'll probably cost you an arm and a leg. If you want our beloved DB Kenji Yamamoto, do you have a McDonald's coupon? That might suffice...

Oh, and MewtwoZX, while I don't mean to imply that I know anything about the Japanese legal system, I do know that it's a rather lawsuit-happy country by many reports. However, copyright infringement (alleged copyright infringement) isn't enough to get you sent to prison because it's a civil matter. I have no idea what happened to him. While we all know that many of the songs were really close to copyrighted works, I never read about any of those third parties actually suing Toei or him personally. Thus, I have to conclude that the only thing that happened was he got fired. Granted, copyright infringement is a really, really bad thing for a composer, but in the grand scheme of things, it's kind of minor as far as civil liabilities and penalties go. Again, things could be different in Japan, but I strongly suspect that the whole issue ended with his employment termination.

[kei17]

Actually, Yamamoto is still involved in the music industry and working as an arranger. He recently arranged a song of "不滅のヒーロー SEAJETTER　KAITO" (Immortal Hero Seajetter Kaito). The song was written after the Great East Japan Earthquake, which happened after Yamamoto's music scandal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV6azOZnjdk

[Ringworm128]

My guess is that he will be able to find work as an arranger. But he will find it hard to get work as a composer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV6azOZnjdk

I know its OT but I find it funny that sort of thing most popular with ages 18 to 54.