General Yamamoto Rip off thread

[Thanos]

Anyone ever notice the similarity between the World Tournament stage music from Budokai 3 and the arranged Super Butouden 2 Vegeta's Theme?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh_rQjwjsfA (at around 0:17 seconds in)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggd8dqaK4Jo (at around 0:56 seconds in)

The background noise even sounds the same.

[matt0044]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwZk74mhHLk

Dragon Ball's not the only one.

[kei17]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwZk74mhHLk

Dragon Ball's not the only one.

That has nothing to do with Dragon Ball and doesn't justify what Yamamoto did.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

But it's relevant to the discussion we're having, which is about plagiarism. Plagiarism is a pretty common thing in the music industry, whether or not the case goes to court. It only makes sense that it would extend to anime. He wasn't trying to excuse what Yamamoto did -- only to put it into perspective. Yes, he shouldn't have done it, but it's not such a rare occurrence. On a funnier note, according to the Kenji Yamamoto page on Kanzenshuu, an old track of his ripped off bits from a Led Zeppelin song, who are actually a group notorious for plagiarism themselves.

[Attitudefan]

Good point. I had also brought up when this thread started about Death Note ripped off Tubular Bells song heard in the Excorcist not too dissimilar to what Kenji Yamamoto did for the DBZ games when he ripped and remixed Stratovarius' songs.

So yeah, it is pretty relevant.

[Dbzfan94]

Challengers and Hunting High and Low. (I know its probably been posted before.)


Challengers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66YnFY3-uBI

Hunting High and Low http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miMO00c3OA0

and the mashup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0jLklJ4WVk

I personally love Challengers, plagiarized or not, and think it makes the song better

[TheAldella]

Challengers and Hunting High and Low. (I know its probably been posted before.)


Challengers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66YnFY3-uBI

Hunting High and Low http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miMO00c3OA0

and the mashup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0jLklJ4WVk

I personally love Challengers, plagiarized or not, and think it makes the song better

Much agreed. Yamamoto is great at taking inspiration from, remaking and/or arranging previous works. It's brilliant how awesome he can make things that were not as awesome beforehand for DragonBall.

[Beji]

I know this is a stretch but I didn't want to make a new thread for one song "similarity". Some songs are losel based on others but do you think it's possible for other artists to have taken from Dragon Ball music as well. When this song popped up on the radio for a few seconds we thought we were about to start a Tenkaichi match But maybe its just what we wanted to hear

Lost courage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAIgCiWEYMA
compared to Burn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCT3Li5dfZE&t=0m2s

Ehhh Ehhh? But I just wanted to share and see if anyone heard a similarity.

[dbgtFO]

^Yes, i was actually thinking about making a topic about that one, because I too immediately thought of Lost Courage, when I heard Ellie Gould's Burn for the first time.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Much agreed. Yamamoto is great at taking inspiration from, remaking and/or arranging previous works. It's brilliant how awesome he can make things that were not as awesome beforehand for DragonBall.

I remember going to the actual video for hunting high and low and hearing the comment "Can't we just get a loop of the first 45 seconds?" Well, Yammamoto.

I know this is a stretch but I didn't want to make a new thread for one song "similarity". Some songs are losel based on others but do you think it's possible for other artists to have taken from Dragon Ball music as well. When this song popped up on the radio for a few seconds we thought we were about to start a Tenkaichi match But maybe its just what we wanted to hear

Lost courage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAIgCiWEYMA
compared to Burn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCT3Li5dfZE&t=0m2s

Ehhh Ehhh? But I just wanted to share and see if anyone heard a similarity.

Hoo boy, that's just begging for an AMV. Handing raising, burning souls, vague, romantic, and tonally false notions of team Goku protecting the world ala "We were angels?" (ignoring that that the singer is "starting" the fire)? Man, if I wasn't busy with school right now...

[kei17]

This is not legally problematic at all because the original is in the public domain, but it's so obvious.

Super Butoden 2 - Broly's Theme

Gustav Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde

[DarkPrince_92]

This is not legally problematic at all because the original is in the public domain, but it's so obvious.

Super Butoden 2 - Broly's Theme

Gustav Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde

Wow...

[Insertclevername]

Okay, he wasn't even trying to cover it up that time.

[garnetjester]

I don't know if this one has been brought up before in this thread, but since it's one of my favorites I just noticed how similar the beginning sounds in both of these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIq4mIGKAiE Dragon Ball Final Bout "Thank you"

compared to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap2J9RbXaP4 Van Halen's Jump

[Fionordequester]

So, one thing I've been curious about. How different do songs have to be before they're finally deemed "not plagiarized"? I actually want to score Dragon Ball Z someday, just for fun, if I ever get the right musical chops, but a lot of the songs I have in mind are heavily borrowed from other various video game songs that I've liked. For example, rather than just having one Episode recap theme like all the other versions have, I'd do different recap themes for different sections of the show. For example, this would after the Saiyans arrived on Earth, and wrecking people's stuff...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKe1w5XFzeE

...something like this would play for when Gohan and Krillin are traveling to Namek to revive their dearly departed friends...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Zyb65sSis

...something like this would play after Vegeta, Frieza, and all the other baddies arrive on Namek and put Gohan and Krillin on the run...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLlyScdup08

...And for the time period after Gohan defeats Cell, and starts playing "Great Saiyaman", this would play...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS6FPBwR58Q

All awesome songs that I think their respective eras very well, so of course, I'd want something sounding a lot like that. But how similar can they be without being a rip-off? That's what I wonder, so, does anyone have any examples of Yamamoto songs that were clearly inspired by other songs, but not total ripoffs?

[coola]

I'm sorry for necroposting, i`ve readed almost all posts, and i really don`t understand, what was in Yamamoto mind? Borrowing music from such popular movies, like Mortal Kombat, Terminator Salvation, and Avatar? For shame really, his music was great in video games, why he decided to start steal from others? I can imagine, for what he did, his carrer is finished.

[matt0044]

This seems to be common with a lot of Japanese shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXAX3g0jIYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEu7XO__kfM

[kei17]

I'm sorry for necroposting, i`ve readed almost all posts, and i really don`t understand, what was in Yamamoto mind? Borrowing music from such popular movies, like Mortal Kombat, Terminator Salvation, and Avatar? For shame really, his music was great in video games, why he decided to start steal from others? I can imagine, for what he did, his carrer is finished.

I think that that's because he was originally an arranger instead of a composer. In the Japanese music industry, there are many musicians who specialize in arrangement. They receive melodies written by composers and arrange them according to the composers' orders like "arrange this like Power to the People." So, he might have lost a sense of ethics as a musician through working as an arranger and couldn't help but often "borrowed" good parts from other people's works even after he started working as a composer.

Also, as some people have already stated, this kind of thing often happens among the Japanese music industry although Yamamoto's case is especially blatant and massive. The problem was that the franchise he was involved in is one of the most worldwide thing ever produced in Japan. He might have been still considered "okay" if his compositions have never been introduced to overseas. In fact, recently, Super Butoden 2 was ported to 3DS with his music kept intact since it's released only in Japan. A similar thing happened with Mother 2 aka EarthBound on SNES, too. Its music had a lot of pieces inspired by the Beatles and such, which probably is the reason why it took long to be re-released in the Western market though it have been ported and re-released for several times without any problems in Japan.

What I don't get is that he committed the most infamous case in Budokai though he did know that it was aimed at the North American market, though. The same goes for the Kai score. What the hell did he have in his mind? It's insane. Maybe he ran it over and was thinking "it's just for children, after all."

[matt0044]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwZk74mhHLk

Dragon Ball's not the only one.

That has nothing to do with Dragon Ball and doesn't justify what Yamamoto did.

I wasn't trying to...

[dbgtFO]

After recently watching TFS' version of Revenge of Cooler one track played when Krillin & co. search for Goku and Gohan reminded me of a DBZ Budokai piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SslPTXSYmp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjWKHsD ... 3C0E2463A0

Particularly the first part of the Budokai track, though I guess there aren't enough similarities for this to be a rip-off.