Opinions on Composers

[Ringworm128]

Shunsuke Kikuchi. Brilliant Composer most of his songs fit perfectly. Though he uses mostly the same instruments for his songs so they all sound pretty similar and can sometimes seem a bit repetitive. But music wise hes a genius.

Kenji Yamamoto. Great to Brilliant composer (Though some of his songs seem a bit to familiar if you know what I mean) Most of his songs are pretty catchy and his Kai score has that same fell that Kikuchis score had but seems more modern and fits with the faster pace of the series.

Akihito Tokunaga. Great composer Like Yamamoto hes themes have that same fell that Kikuchi had but its different enough that it doesn't seem like the same old same old.

Takeshi Ike. Brilliant composer All of his songs are classic and fit with the Kung Fu flick fell DB had. While his other songs like I'll Give You Romance and Lights Journey are more calm and show just how talented he is.

Chiho Kiyooka and Tetsuji Hayashi. Brilliant composers some of my favorite songs come from them. They capture the cheesy fell DBZ while at the same time not making there songs to cheesy.

Keiju Ishikawa Great to Brilliant composer I really liked his score for PTETS it had a Video Game-esc fell to it and was very different to Kikuchis score so its like a breath of fresh air. Though his song Grand Battle Polluted Town and We Gotta Power are beyond awesome.

Takaki Hiroshi. Good composer so far Iv only heard his score for the 2010 remake of PTETS (though I think thats all his composed so far) but from what Iv heard he seems pretty promising.

Shuki Levy. Good to great composer Hes score for DBZ was very subtle but fit very well. My only complaint is that most of his music feels pretty much the same so it can seem pretty repetitive at times and also seems like just noise at times.

Bruce Faulconer. Good to great to brilliant composer His songs vary at times they can seem pretty generic and unfitting. While at other times hes songs are pretty catchy and fit pretty well. While at other times there brilliantly composed and fit perfectly.

Mark Menza. Good composer I cant remember what his scores for DBZ movies 6 and 7 were like but his GT score was pretty fitting but seemed a bit repetitive and dull.

Nathan Johnson. Brilliant composer though a bit more subtle then others his music fits very well hes DBZ movie 2 Kaioken theme was just plain epic also hes Vegeta theme is worth mentioning very prince like but at the same time seems very evil and sinister. Not to mention his Ginyu Force theme.

[dbgtFO]

Shunsuke Kikuchi. Brilliant Composer most of his songs fit perfectly. Though he uses mostly the same instruments for his songs so they all sound pretty similar and can sometimes seem a bit repetitive. But music wise hes a genius.

Kenji Yamamoto. Great to Brilliant composer (Though some of his songs seem a bit to familiar if you know what I mean) Most of his songs are pretty catchy and his Kai score has that same fell that Kikuchis score had but seems more modern and fits with the faster pace of the series.

Bruce Faulconer. Good to great to brilliant composer His songs vary at times they can seem pretty generic and unfitting. While at other times hes songs are pretty catchy and fit pretty well. While at other times there brilliantly composed and fit perfectly.

These guys are my favourites. Kikuchi and Yamamoto are the top favourite, because I grew up with the DBZ Budokai games that featured Yamamoto's music and the local dub used the Japanese soundtrack of course.

Bruce Faulconer is something else. His works are at most times not what I connect with DB, but he did have some nice tracks, which the producers were able to place in their right scenes/contexts compared to the tracks chosen for the original at times.
His BGM did ruin Gohan's SSJ 2 transformation, but it could have been remade like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3dL2VAnXWM
which would make it far more favourable than DB Kai's version, but still not as good as the original IMO.

[Codarik]

Johnson is my favorite. His music is the only reason I hold on to my seasons 1 & 2 DVD sets. I have to watch the horrible picture quality just to listen to his wonderful music, and it's well worth it. I also agree, his Kaioken theme in movie 2 is epic.

[Michsi]

Shunsuke Kikuchi - most likely my favorite. Nostalgia bias or not: it's fun, it's original, it fits it belongs to the DB anime more than any other score. It's just part of it. It's actually had a hard time adjusting to Kai because of the new soundtrack.

Kenji Yamamoto- has some good to great pieces but a lot of the time it doesn't stand out as much as Kikuchi's music as a whole and definately not as memorable. He does, howwever, handle action music for fight scenes better than Kikuchi.

Bruce Faulconer-the only american composer for DB whose work I know. Tbh, I would dare say that I don't like his stuff for DBZ almost at all. It just doesn't fit imo. But I do like his Goku SSJ 3 transformation theme.

[Turtle Marked Stone]

I love Kuichi a lot. Me gushing for a paragraph would be boring to read, so I won't.

Kenji Yamamoto- Do you guys remember Super Mario World? Do you remember how the music was good but all really cut from the same cloth? Kenji's score seems kind of like that. It's fun and fitting but it gets old because a lot of the tracks just sound very alike to me. There could have been a little more variation on where the tracks were placed in general too. Overall I enjoy it to an extent but it had its issues.

Faulconer Productions- It seems FP's stuff falls into one of the two categories. Music that was composed for scenes that appropriately called for music and filler music. The filler music is always the stuff that drones on in the background. It's like standby music when you're waiting on the phone. That kind of thing annoys me and they really could have done with some silence. It's not even FP's fault since the heads demanded there be music in every nook and cranny. The music composed for scenes that were supposed to have music I don't mind. A lot of them are really kind of fun. Super Boo theme and Goku's Super Saiyan 3 Transformation for example are pretty great. I'm a fan of "Groovy DiscoTech" myself since that was the music that played in "HFIL" in Boo's Fury. The only thing I really hate is how they added sound effects by using the music. We literally get things like "WAAAH WAAH WAAH WAAH WAAAAAAH" whenever a joke occurs or no matter what the music is doing if anyone goes tumbling down we get the Loony Toon spiraling music. It makes the tracks on the CDs really hard to listen to. I actually don't dislike it as much as I may appear to though.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Groovy Discotech....... not Faulconer Productions' best work, I must say. Nevertheless, I think Scott Morgan, Bruce Faulconer and whoever else worked on the replacement score are talented composers. They produced a lot of great tracks, most of which I still listen to. However, their placement in the series itself is a different story. I absolutely deplore the "mickey mousing" that is used. In other words, it just won't freaking shut up.

[Coycoy88]

I'm not very familiar with any other score except the Funimation dub score, so I'll talk about them,

Faulconer Production Score (Bruce Faulconer,Scott Morgan,Mike Smith) - My favorite dub score out of them all! (Though,mostly for nostalgia reasons, lol.) When I think "Dbz" I think of this score. I basically grew up watching the dub with this music on Toonami. It seems like such a long time ago. It sucks that the Faulconer score gets so much hate. To each their own I suppose. In the end, where all Dbz fans.

Mark Menza (DBGT and some of the movies) - I almost border-line hate the GT score. I only liked his work with the movies. Aha, I really want the theme that played as Androids 14 and 15 walk through the city creating chaos. I don't know why, but i love the bass beat in that song, lol. All in all, his music was bland, and in my opinion, sounded a little depressing.

Nathan Johnson - Not exactly my cup of tea, but a hell of a lot better than Menza IMO. Also with him, I liked his movie scores better than his series score. My favorite movie score of his was his work on Fusion reborn, and my favorite track from him on the series was the song that played as Vegeta and (Beast) Zarbon fought.

[Gotham22]

Kikuchi's music is good. But the trumpets and all are outdated.

Yamamoto's is great. I fell like it's a subtitute to Faulconer fans.

Faulconer's music, I perfer it more. I like it that is creates a whole new style for the Buu Arc.

[Ultimate_DB_Fan]

Faulconer and his crew are/were the best of the bunch.

I have a tremendous respect for every other composer that was involved and I like some of the sub's scores, but by the time you reach the Boo arc, you're hearin' some of the same tracks from the Saiyan and Freeza sagas. The last saga of Z needed music that would amp up the energy more with some diversity, which is what the dub's synths did.

I shouldn't post anything else about my preferences, though, 'cause liking any of the dub scores means you're "the lowest common denominator"...

[Turtle Marked Stone]

Who did the music for the Trunks Special (dub obviously)? Was that an actual band? I was surprised to hear how great some of the music was. Seriously sub buddies if you like the Kai score go check out The History of Trunk's dub music, a lot of it is pretty impressive.*

*If it is a band that doesn't necessarily mean I like their day to day songs, just the little snippets they used for the bgm.

I have a tremendous respect for every other composer that was involved and I like some of the sub's scores, but by the time you reach the Boo arc, you're hearin' some of the same tracks from the Saiyan and Freeza sagas.

I actually kind of agree with you here. It feels like they were really stuck on a select few tracks from the Z portion and forgot they had this expansive library of music to choose from. Kind of the same thing with the later movies and the specials really. I love the Kuichi stuff it's just kind of annoying to see a bunch of music go unused.

[Ultimate_DB_Fan]

Who did the music for the Trunks Special (dub obviously)? Was that an actual band? I was surprised to hear how great some of the music was. Seriously sub buddies if you like the Kai score go check out The History of Trunk's dub music, a lot of it is pretty impressive.*

*If it is a band that doesn't necessarily mean I like their day to day songs, just the little snippets they used for the bgm.

I have a tremendous respect for every other composer that was involved and I like some of the sub's scores, but by the time you reach the Boo arc, you're hearin' some of the same tracks from the Saiyan and Freeza sagas.

I actually kind of agree with you here. It feels like they were really stuck on a select few tracks from the Z portion and forgot they had this expansive library of music to choose from. Kind of the same thing with the later movies and the specials really. I love the Kuichi stuff it's just kind of annoying to see a bunch of music go unused.

Yeah, that's something else I forgot to mention. The movies and t.v. specials suffer from that stigma, as well. You'd figure that, with different material to work on (both new and familiar), there would be even more diversity with those features, but there's not.

Lately, I've been leaning more towards listening to the old, classic dub cast with the sub scores for the movies and specials, while continuing to watch the show with Faulconer's and Johnson's music.

Oh, yeah, and Kai has proven to be even more of a joke because of it ending at the Cell arc, regardless of how cool Yamamoto's stuff has been.

[penguintruth]

My thoughts on Shunsuke Kikuchi's score (from an article I wrote):

Sometimes cheesy, occasionally cutesy, but mostly grand and atmospheric, the composer of the soundtracks to Doraemon, Tiger Mask, and several Kamen Rider entries happened to score all of the Dragon Ball franchise up until GT. Taking elements of martial arts movie music and adding bits of children-friendly jingles as well as big sweeping pieces that set the mood for danger, Kikuchi creates a sound that feels, for lack of better word, "epic".

My thoughts on Kenji Yamamoto's score are thus.

Yamamoto has shades of greatness in some parts of his soundtrack for Dragon Ball Kai. However, the general feeling of it is very limited, very safe and unadventerous. It can be loud and boisterous, but at the same time, it feels a little bland. And some of my favorite pieces don't even seem that DB-ish, stuff like "The Braveheart's Triumphant Return" which feels like it comes from a different show altogether. That isn't to say that it doesn't work here, but it doesn't feel like it absolutely belongs with the scenes it's used in. It's not a bad score by any means, but it's just not as great overall as Kikuchi's. At least it's orchestral, though.


On Bruce Faulconer (and his team)'s music, it's, eh, it's very MIDI-ish most of the time, like video game music, or maybe generic music beds used for commercials or TV shows, stuff that just kind of passes, but maybe a little better than that. Actually, there are a few half-decent tracks, but none of them really fit the wuxia vibe of the show. There's a very unambitious, superficial feeling to most of this material. It only emphasizes emotion on a skin deep level, trying to amp up the action rather than the emotional atmosphere, trying to play only to the basic level of the show, and often missing the subtleties, or worse, threatening to completely rewrite the emotion of many scenes. The best way I describe this score is "soulless". It has no spirit to it.

From what I can tell, Nathan Johnson's stuff is a bit like a low-key version of Faulconer. I actually prefer it to Faulconer's material, because it doesn't impede on the scenes or make a mockery of them. It's of course, even less ambitious than Faulconer's score, but at least it doesn't presume.

I'm not that familiar with Mark Menza's stuff, but it sounds like a lot of biting off of Faulconer's style.

Shuky Levy's stuff just sort of hung there, and was pretty forgettable, but not offensive.

[Turtle Marked Stone]

Can anyone clarify for me what Mark Menza did and what Nathan Johnson did? I think I often confuse the two.

Edit: DB Wikia says Menza composed DBGT, the GT special and movies 6,7 and 9 is that accurate?

Also nice assessment of FP's stuff Penguin. Well said.

[Codarik]

@Turtle Marked Stone

Menza did do the ones you listed.

Johnson did DBZ episodes 1-67, movies 2,3,12,13

[Turtle Marked Stone]

@Turtle Marked Stone

Menza did do the ones you listed.

Johnson did DBZ episodes 1-67, movies 2,3,12,13

Ah, simplistic enough. Thanks for the help.

[cRookie_Monster]

I'm not that familiar with Mark Menza's stuff, but it sounds like a lot of biting off of Faulconer's style.

Menza had never heard the Faulconer Productions score. He was told not to listen to it.

[penguintruth]

Oh, so he's untalented all on his own.

[xzero]

I'm not very familiar with any other score except the Funimation dub score, so I'll talk about them

Faulconer Production Score (Bruce Faulconer,Scott Morgan,Mike Smith) - My favorite dub score out of them all! (Though,mostly for nostalgia reasons, lol.) When I think "Dbz" I think of this score. I basically grew up watching the dub with this music on Toonami. It seems like such a long time ago. It sucks that the Faulconer score gets so much hate. To each their own I suppose. In the end, [we're] all Dbz fans.

Mark Menza (DBGT and some of the movies) - I almost border-line hate the GT score. I only liked his work with the movies. Aha, I really want the theme that played as Androids 14 and 15 walk through the city creating chaos. I don't know why, but i love the bass beat in that song, lol. All in all, his music was bland, and in my opinion, sounded a little depressing.

Nathan Johnson - Not exactly my cup of tea, but a hell of a lot better than Menza IMO. Also with him, I liked his movie scores better than his series score. My favorite movie score of his was his work on Fusion reborn, and my favorite track from him on the series was the song that played as Vegeta and (Beast) Zarbon fought.

You are the first person I've met (online or otherwise) with whom I agree 100% on the dub scores.

[damkylan]

Shusuke Kikuchi: My absolute favorite. I've been collecting every bit of his score I can find, from unreleased to released pieces, ever since I got into the Japanese version of the show, and have had a great time throughout. My only problem with it in the show is, as mentioned, a lot of really great tracks go unused in favor of the same themes being used over and over in a certain saga. In a way, I like how certain themes sort of became staples for certain time periods in the series, but there were a lot of pieces that were ignored in the process. In my younger days, I loved watching clips of the show so I could set different music to it to see how it would fit. My idea of fun...

Bruce Faulconer: The first score I heard, and it still holds a soft spot for me. But putting aside nostalgia, there's a lot of really good stuff. Goku's Spirit Bomb, New Earth Music, SSJ Transformation, even lesser known tracks like Space Room are a joy for me to listen to. I prefer the Japanese score with the show, but I appreciate this one as just cool music.

Akihito Tokunaga: Some more cool stuff, but I never really got into it as I never really got into watching GT, subbed or otherwise. I've picked up on several songs that I like from watching parts of the show, and I enjoyed his score of the Dragonball re-telling movie (sorry, I forget what it was called).

[cRookie_Monster]

Bruce Faulconer: The first score I heard, and it still holds a soft spot for me. But putting aside nostalgia, there's a lot of really good stuff. Goku's Spirit Bomb, New Earth Music, SSJ Transformation, even lesser known tracks like Space Room are a joy for me to listen to. I prefer the Japanese score with the show, but I appreciate this one as just cool music.

ahem....Faulconer Productions