Best to worst soundtrack of DBZ/DBZ Kai

[EXBadguy]

Just rank them from best to worst and state why. Anyway I'll start mine.

1. Kenji Yamammoto(DBZ Kai)- If that wasn't there and if DBZ Kai never existed, Bruce could've been on top, but Yamammoto's score beats both of them. Kenji has made a thrilling and balanced soundtrack, especially the song when Trunks was going to finish off Cold.

2. Bruce Falconer- Not only I love the soundtrack cuz of nostalgia, I loved it because IMO, it fitted the atmosphere way more than the original one did. I love every last one of the songs that he did, but the three songs I loved the most are the Gohan Unleashed, Goku's Super Saiyan 1 theme and the Super Saiyan 3 theme.

3. Shinuske Kikuchi- I like some of his soundtrack but the thing about it is that it was too boring for my taste. Maybe it was perfect for Dragon Ball(Piccolo's theme sounded cool) but for DBZ...naw. With all the action and intense storytelling, I don't think his songs wouldn't have fitted. And TBH, I'd be less of a fan of the series as I am now if his stuff was localized in the US, so I'm kinda glad they didn't bring Kikuchi's stuff there.

[kei17]

Reverse everything what the original post says and that'll be my opinion.

[DarkPrince_92]

Reverse everything what the original post says and that'll be my opinion.

This. Except Faulconer Productions have a lot more variation with character themes, while with Kikuchi it get repetitive and tired. I still like Kikuchi's over Faulconer's, as much as Faulconer gets a nostalgia bonus. Also you left out Levi with and the other ridiculous Megaman soundtrack for the Ocean dub. They're at the bottom.

[Black_Liger]

1: Hiroshi Takaki

His score is just amazing, even though he only did 2 specials and animated cutscenes he transformed them into symphonic masterpieces. I would hope he scored Battle of Gods.

2: Shunsuke Kikuchi

Great motifs, he knows how to handle them, his music fits the image perfectly, Has some annoying tendencies though (like the annoying TWOINK sound. It works for comedy, but for sad and serious parts? C'MON). However he is like a motif factory, and that makes his score great.

3: Norihito Sumitomo

I would actually like some of his pieces better than Kikuchi, But lots of his score is pretty bland, it does grow over time though, His best pieces are the ones that use pure orchestra and choir, the lyrics in his pieces are the top selling aspects of his score, very deep. He could grow to be a great dbz composer, but time will only tell.

4: Kenji Yamamoto

His score is GREAT. there's a problem though, most of it is not really his, I give it to the guy, he's a talented arranger since a lot of his "arranges" are better than the originals, I would shift him higher if we are talking about the snes era orchestral Yamamoto. But let's just say that his score works.

5: Bruce Faulconer

Most of his stuff isn't really his, just taken from the talent that co-worked with him. I'll just call it the english score for that. This dub music ranges from very good, to good, to outright awful. I'd call it very decent, I can't deny I love some tracks to death, but it just doesn't work with dbz, if we really need a sci fi type techno soundtrack, I think Sumitomo nailed it pretty well with some of his pieces. I would leave this to just an earthly desire to listen to it. I like it as music, not as dbz score.

[TheGmGoken]

1. Kenji Yamammoto(DBZ Kai)- It fits the atmosphere of DBZ(Well Dbz and Kai) way more than the original one did. I love every last one of the songs that he did even though they was stolen . My favorites are Win TOUGH FIGHT! Chou Super Dragon Soul! Saiyan BLOOD!

2: Shunsuke Kikuchi

Great motifs, he knows how to handle them, his music fits the image perfectly, Has some annoying tendencies though (like the annoying TWOINK sound. It works for comedy, but for sad and serious parts? C'MON). However he is like a motif factory, and that makes his score great.(Credit to Black_Liger I agree with everything he said)

3. Hiroshi Takaki: I love his work. Can;t really explain why though. Just something about it is badass.

4. Norihito Sumitomo:
Wasn't a huge fan of his score. Sounded boring and put me asleep. Not special IMO. I think his tracks sound to much alike. Maybe he needs to make more DB tracks or something. But right now he's average.

5. Bruce Falconer(his entire team):
His team score for DBZ was bad. The placement of those scores was worst. I like his music but I rather listen to the others more than Bruce's teams. He's bad. A little contradiction there. But he just bad but I like some of his pieces.

6. Levi:
We don't speak of him often for a reason. I never heard anybody praise his score besides Tenjin. Sounds like a Cat walking on a Piano.

7. Megaman DBZ:


Bonus:
LOG Bruce Falconer remixes. THE LOG score was better than Mr. Bruce's score. Sounded me DBZ-ish and fun

[Roland_ELoG]

Kenji Yamamoto lied to me. Lied to my face.

Okay not directly to my face, but I feel bad praising any of his music now, just in case somebody out there deserves the credit more than he does.

[TheGmGoken]

Kenji Yamamoto lied to me. Lied to my face.

Okay not directly to my face, but I feel bad praising any of his music now, just in case somebody out there deserves the credit more than he does.

It's not that hard to credit the people he stole from. Most of the bands he stole from aren't hard to find.

[90sDBZ]

1. Team Faulconer: Really incredible music that fits very well during the scenes that count. Lots of appropriate variety from saga to saga and very well established character/situation themes. Brings out the emotion and excitement of DBZ to the full and does the epic nature of the show justice. And it suits the Sci-Fi elements in Z perfectly.

2. Shuky Levy: I love the dark and intense feel it has a lot of the time. It felt really appropriate when everyone was getting killed in the Saiyan saga. Plus it also has some really good happy music too like when Goku arrives on the battlefield and right after Vegeta gets hit by the Spirit Bomb. And I like all the instrumental variations of Rock the Dragon and a lot of the other heroic sounding pieces.

3. Nathan Jonson: Similar to Levy but not as memorable. Still had a few standout pieces though.

4. Kikuchi: Serviceable enough as BGM but isn't half as good as it was in DB. A lot of the pieces sound all too similar and aren't really memorable enough. Plus the 60s horror movie and Martial arts movie feel it has feels irrelevant in the largely Sci-Fi Z era.

5. Ocean Megaman music: Repetitive, boring, soulless, cheap, grinding on the ears, uninspired and makes DBZ feel like a generic Saturday morning cartoon. The worst score by far that I had the misfortune of growing up with.

I haven't really heard much of Kenji Yamamoto outside of the games. I love his "work" in the Budokai games though and it sounds pretty good in Kai from what I've heard in Youtube clips.

[KentalSSJ6]

Id love to hear Naoki Sato compose DBZ. He did Sword of The Stranger and it was amazing, one of the best anime films out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOXx5WRB ... FD8A1AE5B2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kVEyvgL4O8

[DBZGTKOSDH]

I'll only mention the Japanese music because I've only watched Dragon Ball with its Japanese music. I also don't have anything to say about why I like this more than that, because I just like them. I'm also not referring to the music placement. So:

1. Shunsuke Kikuchi - Dragon Ball [1-153, M1-3, SP1-2], Dragon Ball Z [1-291, M1-13, SP1-4, Terebikko SP, JSAT], Dragon Ball Kai [1-98]
2. Kenji Yamamoto - Dragon Ball Kai [1-95, Live-Action SP1-2]
3. Akihito Tokunaga - Dragon Ball GT [1-64, SP]
4. Norihito Sumitomo - Dragon Ball Z [M14]
5. Hiroshi Takaki - Dragon Ball Z [PtEtSS, EoB, UB cutscenes]
6. Keiju Ishikawa - Dragon Ball Z [PtEtS OVA]

[dbboxkaifan]

DB: Shunsuke Kikuchi
DBZ: Shunsuke Kikuchi > Canada Music > US Music
DBGT: Akihito Tokunaga > Mark Menza
DBK: Kenji Yamamoto > Replacement Music

So basically for me it's always the original music because that's how it was intended to be watched.

Don't even get me started on Kai's replacement music, such an atrocious job.