My opinions on DBZ Composers

[dbret12]

Here I'll be listing my opinions on the Japanese and English music of Dragon Ball Z.
Shunsuke Kikuchi
His music may sound old, but it's fitting. I do like the silences and the music used in the series, but it doesn't fit in Kai. I'm not saying Kikuchi's a bad composer, it's just that his music was better in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.
Shuki Levy
I haven't really watched the 53 Ocean dubbed episodes but Levy's music was quite fitting for the Ocean dub. The only thing that annoyed me is that there was too much chanting like sounds in the music.
Bruce Faulconer
His music may be techno and rock styled, but his music in FUNimation's dub for the rest of the series is really fitting and has memorable background music. In my own opinion, his music was better than Kikuchi in most parts, but silences are needed sometimes. So not many cons here.
Mark Menza
His music in some of the DBZ movies and GT are OK, not terrible, but OK. Not as good as Faulconer but still, his music was pretty good in the movies and GT.
Nathan M. Johnson
Edited 1/7/12: His music isn't that memorable, but from what I read, he put a lot of work into his music for those 67 FUNimation dubbed episodes. Well orchestrated and dramatic, but if he did music outside of DBZ, he'd be pretty good at composing dramatic movies.
These are my opinions on these music composers. You can put in your own opinions as well and I'll respect them.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Honestly, I don't think the music of any of the composers listed above is terribly good on its own. Each of them has its own distinctive style, which is fine, but generally there isn't as much variety in them as I would have liked (especially with regard to Menza's score and that of the Ocean dub). I used to have a few Faulconer albums and a couple of Kikuchi ones on my iPod, and I remember always skimming over the boring, generic tracks (and there were quite a few) to get to the awe-inspiring ones -- the ones that vividly call the series to mind. I deleted the albums a while ago in keeping with my anti-piracy stance on released music and the like. So I don't listen to a lot of Dragon Ball music these days because I don't think it's particularly worth buying.


Having said all of that, I prefer Faulconer's score if I'm watching the dub for nostlagia's sake. The lack of silence is a problem, but I think nostlagia gets the better of me from time to time (still haven't quite outgrown it ). If I'm watching the Japanese version or the movies, I go with Kikuchi. I would say his work is probably the best. I can't comment on Menza's or Johnson's work in the movies because it's just been too long. As I touched on above, the Ocean dub score is quite repetitive and wearisome, and so is Menza's GT score apart from a few tracks.

[dbboxkaifan]

Well, if Shunsuke Kikuchi's music in Dragon Ball Kai had a lot more variety and it certainly would fit better than it did with the replacement version.

Try one of these Kikuchi + Kai http://www.mediafire.com/?7c0619c3w5zgo it's custom placements done by an ex-YouTube member, I do wish they would've used these BGMs instead of the 5-7 or 10 that get constantly reused every min on each episode.

Faulconer Productions + Kai would have been better if also done properly placed but Kenji Yamamoto's music is what should've been kept till the end, it was awesome!

[InfernalVegito]

What's your opinion on Akihito Tokunaga's work for GT? Imo his work is the most fitting out of all. Very adventurous and explorative sounding. A lot of diversity and change of pace. GT's original score is my favorite followed by Kikuchi's for Z.

[cRookie_Monster]

I don't think I've ever mentioned this before but the first score I ever heard was the Shuki Levy one...and I actually liked all the dark chorus sounds and such. It was a bit overused though, never seemed to lighten up. Wrt to the other scores I won't go into details(I have in many other threads), but I don't think any of them are perfect, they all have their pros and cons.

[dbret12]

What's your opinion on Akihito Tokunaga's work for GT? Imo his work is the most fitting out of all. Very adventurous and explorative sounding. A lot of diversity and change of pace. GT's original score is my favorite followed by Kikuchi's for Z.

I've listened to Akihito Tokunaga's music on the GT remastered episodes, and the music was fitting. Better than Mark's music. Which is why I watched dub GT with Japanese music.

[dbboxkaifan]

but I don't think any of them are perfect, they all have their pros and cons.

Perfect musicians in DB.. I don't think there's any 'perfect' Dragon Ball composer but we've got a really awesome bunch of composers, Shunsuke Kikuchi, Kenji Yamamoto (yeah he plagiarised but oh well), Faulconer Productions, Shuki Levy, Tokunaga, and etc.

Recently I've been watching Kiteretsu Daihyakka and guess which is the composer of the series, it's Shunsuke Kikuchi, the OP/ED sound lovely, the BGMs too, but to me, there wasn't too much variety as I've often noticed repetitive BGMs being player over and over again.

The BGMs aren't the problem, the limitation of BGMs played is, pretty much like in Dragon Ball Kai, but in Kiteretsu Daihyakka there's far more BGMs being played than Kai.

Majin Boo Vs. Powered-Up Gohan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0zvYefKLmI at 5:15 the same BGM from before gets replayed again and when I take attention to the background music, it sure gets somewhat annoying sometimes due to the repetitiveness.

To be fair, whether it's the original music or replacements (Canada/US) there's always some overused tracks being played, so there's no flawless version.

[Attitudefan]

I love Shuki's gregorian-like chants in the background. It always was done right.

His music was the best in the Raditz arc where each piece was carefully crafted to the scene.

I also love that Closing theme used when Jiece and Burter take on Ginyu.

[Pokewhiz7]

Peter Berring - I haven't heard much of his score. It seems decent enough.

Shuki Levy - Okay music. Pretty generic and tends to drone on, but has its moments.

Faulconer - I can't say I like it. Never shuts up, and very repetitive. A lot of the songs just sound low-quality and synthesized. But, it has some good moments. The songs tend to work well by themselves, and not in Dragon Ball Z.

Westwood Score - Actually decent from what I've heard. A tad repetitive, but is okay.

Menza Score - Garbage. I hate it. Really boring, annoying, not enough variation, and is just too HARDCORE. His score for the movies is a bit better.

Nathan Johnson - Boring most of the time, but pretty damn good sometimes. Probably my favorite replacement score.

Featured Bands - These do not fit Dragon Ball. At all.

Kikuchi - Absolutely superb. Definitely my favorite score, and I wouldn't mind it in Kai if they used the original track placements.

Yamamoto - Nowhere near as great as Kikuchi, but wipes the floor with all the other scores.

[dbret12]

Peter Berring - I haven't heard much of his score. It seems decent enough.

Shuki Levy - Okay music. Pretty generic and tends to drone on, but has its moments.

Faulconer - I can't say I like it. Never shuts up, and very repetitive. A lot of the songs just sound low-quality and synthesized. But, it has some good moments. The songs tend to work well by themselves, and not in Dragon Ball Z.

Westwood Score - Actually decent from what I've heard. A tad repetitive, but is okay.

Menza Score - Garbage. I hate it. Really boring, annoying, not enough variation, and is just too HARDCORE. His score for the movies is a bit better.

Nathan Johnson - Boring most of the time, but pretty damn good sometimes. Probably my favorite replacement score.

Featured Bands - These do not fit Dragon Ball. At all.

Kikuchi - Absolutely superb. Definitely my favorite score, and I wouldn't mind it in Kai if they used the original track placements.

Yamamoto - Nowhere near as great as Kikuchi, but wipes the floor with all the other scores.

I respect your opinion. Kikuchi's music was good in Dragon Ball and Z.

[DarkPrince_92]

I agree with everything except for that opinion on Nathan Johnson's music. It got really good towards the Namek saga, and made DBZ sound more movie like. Excellent replacement score. I would have liked to see his score throughout all of Z.

And Shuki Levy....is so-so. Better than Ocean dub's later Megaman tracks......which were like 5 of them lmao.

[Pissing Rainbow]

Shuki Levy - My favorite also knows where to place the right songs at all the right moments.

Faulconer Productions - Would've been my favorite but i listen to their music one too many times. So i'm getting kind of sick of them slowly.

Yamamoto - Don't care that he plagiarised doesn't change the fact he still delivered good music to my ears!

Kikuchi - Liked his music in Z but in KAI the music placements were just awful.

Westwood - Only like this song from the late Ocean dub (Fast forward to 1:50) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpuPAR_l ... plpp_video And the rest of westwoods music sounds like a bad 1980's porno

Nathan Johnson - Doesn't fit DBZ at all! Atleast for me, however his music would be good in some horror movies.

[Gonstead]

Westwood - Only like this song from the late Ocean dub (Fast forward to 1:50) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpuPAR_l ... plpp_video

I have both of those tracks on one of my channels as individual tracks.

Slow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZOgT6JKLaU&feature=plcp

Fast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ROorWAL7MM&feature=plcp

Plenty more if you visit OceanDubSoundtrack

[Pissing Rainbow]

Westwood - Only like this song from the late Ocean dub (Fast forward to 1:50) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpuPAR_l ... plpp_video

I have both of those tracks on one of my channels as individual tracks.

Slow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZOgT6JKLaU&feature=plcp

Fast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ROorWAL7MM&feature=plcp

Plenty more if you visit OceanDubSoundtrack

Thanks. I'll be sure to visit!

[dbboxkaifan]

The title should be ''DB composers'' because it's also about the other musicians than just in Z.

[dbret12]

I've edited my opinion on Nathan Johnson's music because I went back and watched a few of the 67 episodes. It'd work in dramatic movies though. I didn't like the music replacement for Faulconer's music halfway through episode 67, but I still prefer the original dub music for those scenes.