Can anyone help me locate villain themes + leitmotifs composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi for Dragon Ball Z movies?
In Resurrection 'F', Norihito Sumitomo composed an exclusive theme for Freeza, which is track 17. However, parts of that rhyme resonate in the tracks: 06, 09, 13, 19. This is what we call a leitmotif.
Can anyone help me locate villain themes + leitmotifs in Z movies?
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Grande Pesquisador
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Re: Can anyone help me locate villain themes + leitmotifs in Z movies?
Well, first, you got the luck of asking that in the time that I started to work in a huge analysis about every single Kikuchi score for the series, locating, recognizing and listing every leitmotif he made, but I'm still working on it, but I think that what I've concluded so far will help you.
The difference is that the Sumitomo's work you've mentioned, tends to repeat a musical pattern, while Kikuchi always wanted to make something much more complex, extending the universal musical ambience of his work, which makes, a lot of times, some themes even being unrecognizable, or being confused with others, but let's start, I'll count the Main villains themes only, don't forget that the themes aren't just in movies, but in the TV series scores as well.
#1 A-J TV Score "Pilaf Arc": there is a menacing theme in G3 and J16 (I can also hear a variant of it in I15), and It's…well, impossible to tell which villain that theme was meant to represent, J16 was used just one time, when Pilaf, Mai and Shu enter in their Robots in episode 77, G3 okay, was used in several episodes, but for several characters, Pilaf Gang, Yamcha, Oolong, Piccolo…
Well, in my analysis, I could only conclude that it's Pilaf Gang's theme, reason: besides the Shenlong Theme in J6, there aren't other menacing themes in the A-J score, so who would this theme represent? Yamcha? The theme in I8 already represents Yamcha (check M632), Oolong? Is he even a true villain at all? The Rabbit Gang? Seriously? Pilaf Gang appears since episode 1, so, I'm sure that the theme was made for them, now, I'll skip to the M100 score, the M00 score doesn't have villains themes.
#2 M100 TV Score "Red Ribbon Arc Part 1/General Blue arc": Even though the Red Ribbon have it's own theme, General Blue also got his own theme, two actually, and since that I feel he's the major antagonist for the most of the time in first part of the arc, I'll count his theme only, his first theme is present in M108, the full track, except in 0:53-0:59, in this part is the Red Ribbon theme, M110 and M122 in their entirety, and M123, the first 45 seconds only. His second theme is present in two tracks from the beginning of Great Mystical Adventure (DB Movie 3), M605 and M608.
#3 M200 Movie Score "Dragon Ball The Movie/The Legend of Shenlong": The theme of King Gurumes is present in: M204 (first 30 seconds), M205 (the last 8 seconds), M206, a variant in M233 at 0:34-0:36 and 0:38-0:40, M238, M247 at 0:28-0:33, M251, M254, M260, M261, and the first 28 seconds of M264.
#4 M300 TV Score "Red Ribbon Part 2/Tao Pai Pai Arc": The theme of Tao Pai Pai is present in this score but a reworked version of the theme is also present in Great Mystical Adventure (DB Movie 3), but I'll list the tracks with his theme in Movie 3 in the M600 set only, in the M300 score, his theme is present in M309, M310, and M311, all in their entirety.
#5 M400 Movie Score "The Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle": The theme of Lucifer theme is present in: M401 (variant), M414, M416, M424/EXT, M425/EXT, M429A/B, M434EXT, M439A, M439B and M441A/B, all in their entirety
#6 M500 TV Score "Piccolo Daimao Arc": Even though the theme was used for the Good Guy Piccolo Jr later in the series, it was always originally for Piccolo Daimao, so yes, I'll just count the Piccolo Daimao arc tracks here, since he was the villain, his theme is in: M501, M502, M503, M504, M505 and M506, all in their entirety.
#7 M600 Movie Score "Great Mystical Adventure": Tao Pai Pai again, but his theme was reworked here, so it sounds slightly different compared to his M300 tracks, his theme is present in: M602, M609, very probably a variant in M612, M625, M626, M633, M635, variant in the last 22 seconds of M645, the first 3 seconds of M647, and the first 10 seconds of M650.
#8 M700 TV Score "Beginning of Z/Saiyans Saga": I'll do here the same I've done with Piccolo's theme, count only the tracks from the score that represented the era that he was a villain, the theme in the M700 tracks originally represented the villains "Saiyans", but later, in Movie 4, the theme was reused, to represent the Transformation "Super Saiyan", the theme originally had two sections, I'll call as "section B" the famous "tan tan tan", and as "section A" the melody present in the track the we like to call as "Vegeta's theme", because it was Kikuchi's original intention, for that to be the beginning of the theme, I'll count the original proposed use of the theme: M724 (section A in the 23 first seconds, section B in the last 18 seconds), M725 (section A in the first 17 sec, section B in the last 20 sec), M726 is section B only, M727 is section A only, M728 is section B only, and maybe, maybeeeee M742, the first 45 seconds sound a bit like section A, and the last 7 sec definitely sound like section B.
#9 M800 Movie Score "Dragon Ball Z The Movie/Dead Zone": The Garlic Jr. Theme is present in: M802, M803, the last 1 minute and 10 seconds of M806, the last 45 seconds of M807, M813, M814A, M817 at 0:26-0:30 and 0:38-0:45, and the first 20 seconds of M818.
#10 M900 Movie Score "The Strongest Man in the World": Dr. Wheelo's Theme is present in: M901, short variant in M910, M912, M913, Variant in M917, M918, M919, short variant in M921, the first 50 seconds of M923, And M925.
#11 M1000 Movie Score "The Three of Might": No, Turles' theme isn't the theme from the beautiful M1018, that is the Three of Might (Shinseiju) theme, Turles' theme is the theme present in: first 1 minute and 15 seconds of M1012, first 14 seconds of M1014, the unused M1018 at 0:26-0:31, M1019, and a variant in the last 18 seconds of M1021.
#12 M1100 Movie Score "Goku, The Super Saiyan": Lord Slug's theme is present in: M1107, M1108, the last 51 seconds of M1109, the last 20 seconds of M1110, the last 22 seconds of M1117, last 32 sec of both versions of M1120, first 10 seconds of M1121, and a variant in M1124.
#13 M1200 Movie Score "The Strongest Rivals": Cooler's theme is present in: M1201, A variant in M1207A/B, M1213, maybeeeeeeeee a variant in M1215, variant in M1216, M1217, M1218, variant in the first 9 seconds of M1219, and a almost unrecognizable melancholic variant in M1220 and in the last 50 seconds of M1221.
#14 M1300 Movie Score "10-Billion Power Warriors": Here we have 2 themes, a separate theme for Metal Cooler, and the original Cooler theme, slightly reworked: the last 28 seconds of M1303 have the OG Cooler theme, M1308 has the Metal Cooler theme, Variant of OG Cooler theme in M1310, variant of Metal Cooler at 0:09-0:16 and 0:21-0:23 of M1311, OG Cooler in M1312, Metal Cooler in M1313A/B, in M1314, is Metal Cooler in the first 6 seconds, OG Cooler at 0:07-0:53, and then Metal Cooler in the last 40 seconds, Metal Cooler in M1317A, and a variant of Metal Cooler in the last 22 seconds of M1318.
#15 M1400 Movie Score "The Three Great Super Saiyans": Android 13's theme is present in: the first 14 seconds of M1409, M1410, the first 13 seconds of M1411, A Variant at 0:14-0:19 and last 12 seconds of M1414, M1418, and the last 16 seconds of M1421.
#16 M1500 Movie Score "Broly, The Legendary Super Saiyan": It's being the hardest score for me to analyse, things can be changed, Broly's theme is present in: M1513, maybeeeee a variant at 1:31-1:36 and 1:51-1:56 of M1514?, M1515, first 18 seconds and at 1:25-1:31 of M1517, variant at 0:18-0:25 of M1519, the same variant at 0:21-0:30 of M1520, first 20 seconds of M1522 but, it's impossible for me to tell, but maybe the last 1 minute contains a variant, variant in 0:20-0:39 and the regular theme in 0:40 onwards in M1523, and a variant in the last 18 seconds of M1525
#17 M1600 Movie Score "The Galaxy in Danger": Bojack's theme is present in just 2 tracks: the last 21 seconds of M1614, and M1615. No villains themes in M1700 TV Score at all, so I'll skip it.
#18 M1800 Movie Score "Broly: Second Coming": Broly returns! His theme too, in: M1801, M1807 at 0:10-0:20, M1809, M1813 at 0:27-1:14, M1814, last 29 seconds of M1818, and a variant in M1819
#19 M1900 Movie Score "I Will Get The Victory": Broly's original theme returns for last and for once, them it's replaced by a distorted version of his theme, used for Bio Broly: Broly in first 3 minutes and 50 seconds and at 4:07-4:09 and at 4:26-5:19, then in the last 15 seconds it's Bio Broly, and starting from here, it's just Bio Broly's theme, M1913, M1916, first 1 minute and 15 seconds of M1917, maybe M1920?, and the last 26 seconds of M1924.
#20 M2000 Movie Score "Fusion Reborn": Janemba's theme is present in: last 24 seconds of M2004, M2005, M2007, M2009, M2013, M2017, and a variant at 0:10-0:13 and the last 6 seconds of M2019.
#21 M2100 Movie Score "Ryu-Ken Explode!": Hildegarne's theme is present in: Last 22 seconds of M2101, last 12 seconds of M2108, M2112, last 11 seconds of M2115, M2117, M2118, M2119, last 10 seconds of M2120, last 7 seconds of M2121, M2122, and the last 10 seconds of M2126.
That's it, Yeah I've spent 4 hours and a half writing this, hope it helps you
Now if you also want help in identifying other character's themes, like, Paragus have his own theme, Cooler's Armoured Squadron have their own theme, and it goes further…well you might wait for the future, when I finish my analysis, it's important to note that themes not always represent just characters, they can also represent a relation, a feeling, a object, a place, a scenario…an example, M732 have a theme, a theme that reappears in every movie starting from Movie 4, I personally called it the "Menace Motif", because it always plays in the movies in situations where a villain is planning to attack, I'm moments of fear or of a incoming destruction, M1208, M1614, M1806, M1919…, I really want to make out this analysis detailed as possible.
The difference is that the Sumitomo's work you've mentioned, tends to repeat a musical pattern, while Kikuchi always wanted to make something much more complex, extending the universal musical ambience of his work, which makes, a lot of times, some themes even being unrecognizable, or being confused with others, but let's start, I'll count the Main villains themes only, don't forget that the themes aren't just in movies, but in the TV series scores as well.
#1 A-J TV Score "Pilaf Arc": there is a menacing theme in G3 and J16 (I can also hear a variant of it in I15), and It's…well, impossible to tell which villain that theme was meant to represent, J16 was used just one time, when Pilaf, Mai and Shu enter in their Robots in episode 77, G3 okay, was used in several episodes, but for several characters, Pilaf Gang, Yamcha, Oolong, Piccolo…
Well, in my analysis, I could only conclude that it's Pilaf Gang's theme, reason: besides the Shenlong Theme in J6, there aren't other menacing themes in the A-J score, so who would this theme represent? Yamcha? The theme in I8 already represents Yamcha (check M632), Oolong? Is he even a true villain at all? The Rabbit Gang? Seriously? Pilaf Gang appears since episode 1, so, I'm sure that the theme was made for them, now, I'll skip to the M100 score, the M00 score doesn't have villains themes.
#2 M100 TV Score "Red Ribbon Arc Part 1/General Blue arc": Even though the Red Ribbon have it's own theme, General Blue also got his own theme, two actually, and since that I feel he's the major antagonist for the most of the time in first part of the arc, I'll count his theme only, his first theme is present in M108, the full track, except in 0:53-0:59, in this part is the Red Ribbon theme, M110 and M122 in their entirety, and M123, the first 45 seconds only. His second theme is present in two tracks from the beginning of Great Mystical Adventure (DB Movie 3), M605 and M608.
#3 M200 Movie Score "Dragon Ball The Movie/The Legend of Shenlong": The theme of King Gurumes is present in: M204 (first 30 seconds), M205 (the last 8 seconds), M206, a variant in M233 at 0:34-0:36 and 0:38-0:40, M238, M247 at 0:28-0:33, M251, M254, M260, M261, and the first 28 seconds of M264.
#4 M300 TV Score "Red Ribbon Part 2/Tao Pai Pai Arc": The theme of Tao Pai Pai is present in this score but a reworked version of the theme is also present in Great Mystical Adventure (DB Movie 3), but I'll list the tracks with his theme in Movie 3 in the M600 set only, in the M300 score, his theme is present in M309, M310, and M311, all in their entirety.
#5 M400 Movie Score "The Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle": The theme of Lucifer theme is present in: M401 (variant), M414, M416, M424/EXT, M425/EXT, M429A/B, M434EXT, M439A, M439B and M441A/B, all in their entirety
#6 M500 TV Score "Piccolo Daimao Arc": Even though the theme was used for the Good Guy Piccolo Jr later in the series, it was always originally for Piccolo Daimao, so yes, I'll just count the Piccolo Daimao arc tracks here, since he was the villain, his theme is in: M501, M502, M503, M504, M505 and M506, all in their entirety.
#7 M600 Movie Score "Great Mystical Adventure": Tao Pai Pai again, but his theme was reworked here, so it sounds slightly different compared to his M300 tracks, his theme is present in: M602, M609, very probably a variant in M612, M625, M626, M633, M635, variant in the last 22 seconds of M645, the first 3 seconds of M647, and the first 10 seconds of M650.
#8 M700 TV Score "Beginning of Z/Saiyans Saga": I'll do here the same I've done with Piccolo's theme, count only the tracks from the score that represented the era that he was a villain, the theme in the M700 tracks originally represented the villains "Saiyans", but later, in Movie 4, the theme was reused, to represent the Transformation "Super Saiyan", the theme originally had two sections, I'll call as "section B" the famous "tan tan tan", and as "section A" the melody present in the track the we like to call as "Vegeta's theme", because it was Kikuchi's original intention, for that to be the beginning of the theme, I'll count the original proposed use of the theme: M724 (section A in the 23 first seconds, section B in the last 18 seconds), M725 (section A in the first 17 sec, section B in the last 20 sec), M726 is section B only, M727 is section A only, M728 is section B only, and maybe, maybeeeee M742, the first 45 seconds sound a bit like section A, and the last 7 sec definitely sound like section B.
#9 M800 Movie Score "Dragon Ball Z The Movie/Dead Zone": The Garlic Jr. Theme is present in: M802, M803, the last 1 minute and 10 seconds of M806, the last 45 seconds of M807, M813, M814A, M817 at 0:26-0:30 and 0:38-0:45, and the first 20 seconds of M818.
#10 M900 Movie Score "The Strongest Man in the World": Dr. Wheelo's Theme is present in: M901, short variant in M910, M912, M913, Variant in M917, M918, M919, short variant in M921, the first 50 seconds of M923, And M925.
#11 M1000 Movie Score "The Three of Might": No, Turles' theme isn't the theme from the beautiful M1018, that is the Three of Might (Shinseiju) theme, Turles' theme is the theme present in: first 1 minute and 15 seconds of M1012, first 14 seconds of M1014, the unused M1018 at 0:26-0:31, M1019, and a variant in the last 18 seconds of M1021.
#12 M1100 Movie Score "Goku, The Super Saiyan": Lord Slug's theme is present in: M1107, M1108, the last 51 seconds of M1109, the last 20 seconds of M1110, the last 22 seconds of M1117, last 32 sec of both versions of M1120, first 10 seconds of M1121, and a variant in M1124.
#13 M1200 Movie Score "The Strongest Rivals": Cooler's theme is present in: M1201, A variant in M1207A/B, M1213, maybeeeeeeeee a variant in M1215, variant in M1216, M1217, M1218, variant in the first 9 seconds of M1219, and a almost unrecognizable melancholic variant in M1220 and in the last 50 seconds of M1221.
#14 M1300 Movie Score "10-Billion Power Warriors": Here we have 2 themes, a separate theme for Metal Cooler, and the original Cooler theme, slightly reworked: the last 28 seconds of M1303 have the OG Cooler theme, M1308 has the Metal Cooler theme, Variant of OG Cooler theme in M1310, variant of Metal Cooler at 0:09-0:16 and 0:21-0:23 of M1311, OG Cooler in M1312, Metal Cooler in M1313A/B, in M1314, is Metal Cooler in the first 6 seconds, OG Cooler at 0:07-0:53, and then Metal Cooler in the last 40 seconds, Metal Cooler in M1317A, and a variant of Metal Cooler in the last 22 seconds of M1318.
#15 M1400 Movie Score "The Three Great Super Saiyans": Android 13's theme is present in: the first 14 seconds of M1409, M1410, the first 13 seconds of M1411, A Variant at 0:14-0:19 and last 12 seconds of M1414, M1418, and the last 16 seconds of M1421.
#16 M1500 Movie Score "Broly, The Legendary Super Saiyan": It's being the hardest score for me to analyse, things can be changed, Broly's theme is present in: M1513, maybeeeee a variant at 1:31-1:36 and 1:51-1:56 of M1514?, M1515, first 18 seconds and at 1:25-1:31 of M1517, variant at 0:18-0:25 of M1519, the same variant at 0:21-0:30 of M1520, first 20 seconds of M1522 but, it's impossible for me to tell, but maybe the last 1 minute contains a variant, variant in 0:20-0:39 and the regular theme in 0:40 onwards in M1523, and a variant in the last 18 seconds of M1525
#17 M1600 Movie Score "The Galaxy in Danger": Bojack's theme is present in just 2 tracks: the last 21 seconds of M1614, and M1615. No villains themes in M1700 TV Score at all, so I'll skip it.
#18 M1800 Movie Score "Broly: Second Coming": Broly returns! His theme too, in: M1801, M1807 at 0:10-0:20, M1809, M1813 at 0:27-1:14, M1814, last 29 seconds of M1818, and a variant in M1819
#19 M1900 Movie Score "I Will Get The Victory": Broly's original theme returns for last and for once, them it's replaced by a distorted version of his theme, used for Bio Broly: Broly in first 3 minutes and 50 seconds and at 4:07-4:09 and at 4:26-5:19, then in the last 15 seconds it's Bio Broly, and starting from here, it's just Bio Broly's theme, M1913, M1916, first 1 minute and 15 seconds of M1917, maybe M1920?, and the last 26 seconds of M1924.
#20 M2000 Movie Score "Fusion Reborn": Janemba's theme is present in: last 24 seconds of M2004, M2005, M2007, M2009, M2013, M2017, and a variant at 0:10-0:13 and the last 6 seconds of M2019.
#21 M2100 Movie Score "Ryu-Ken Explode!": Hildegarne's theme is present in: Last 22 seconds of M2101, last 12 seconds of M2108, M2112, last 11 seconds of M2115, M2117, M2118, M2119, last 10 seconds of M2120, last 7 seconds of M2121, M2122, and the last 10 seconds of M2126.
That's it, Yeah I've spent 4 hours and a half writing this, hope it helps you
Now if you also want help in identifying other character's themes, like, Paragus have his own theme, Cooler's Armoured Squadron have their own theme, and it goes further…well you might wait for the future, when I finish my analysis, it's important to note that themes not always represent just characters, they can also represent a relation, a feeling, a object, a place, a scenario…an example, M732 have a theme, a theme that reappears in every movie starting from Movie 4, I personally called it the "Menace Motif", because it always plays in the movies in situations where a villain is planning to attack, I'm moments of fear or of a incoming destruction, M1208, M1614, M1806, M1919…, I really want to make out this analysis detailed as possible.
I simply wouldn't want to imagine my life without Dragon Ball, thank you Akira Toriyama (1955-2024), you are now immortal.
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Grande Pesquisador
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- Posts: 28
- Joined: Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:05 am
Re: Can anyone help me locate villain themes + leitmotifs in Z movies?
Dude, thank you very much! I imagine it was a lot of work to write all this.