Anime World Is Grieving, Dragon Ball Composer Shunsuke Kikuchi Dies

Animated series "Dragon Ball" composer Shunsuke Kikuchi (Twitter @overlook_event)

JAKARTA - Shunsuke Kikuchi, composer for the popular anime series Dragon Ball, died at the age of 89 on Saturday, April 24 at a Tokyo medical facility.

As reported by Variety, Japanese news outlet Oricon News said that Kikuchi was undergoing medical treatment for aspirational pneumonia.

Kikuchi started his writing career in the 1960s, and the first film he worked on was The Eighth Enemy in 1961. He continues to compose music and theme songs for several anime series and TV dramas that have run long into the 2010s.

The Japanese anime Dragon Ball, produced by Toei Animation, premiered in 1986, and Kikuchi composed the music for the series, which gained immense popularity worldwide.

He also joined the sequel series Dragon Ball Z in 1989, a follow-up and remastered series Dragon Ball Z Kai, and composed music for them as well.

Some of his other composition credits include The Unfettered Shogun (Abarengō Shōgun), the theme song for Doraemon, Masked Rider (Kamen Rider), Tiger Mask, Gaiking, Tōshō Daimos, Dr. Slump, and dozens of others. Kikuchi retired in 2017 due to illness.

Overlook Events, a production company that hosts concerts featuring the Dragon Ball music and composers such as John Williams and Ennio Morricone, paid tribute to Kikuchi on Twitter.

"Our work and concerts have been dedicated to him from the very beginning", the company wrote.

Kikuchi was nominated for a Japan Academy Award for his outstanding music in 1983 through works on The Gate of Youth and To Trap a Kidnapper. He received an achievement award at the Tokyo Anime Awards in 2013 and a Lifetime Achievement Japan Record Award in 2015.