Shunsuke Kikuchi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shunsuke Kikuchi (菊池俊輔, Kikuchi Shunsuke^?, born November 1, 1931) is a prolific Japanese composer from Hirosaki. He specializes in incidental music for media such as television and film.

Active since the early 60s, he has been one of Japan's most highly demanded film and TV composers, working principally on tokusatsu and anime productions for children, as well as violent action films, jidaigeki and dorama. His works are comparatively more common in Toei-related productions. As of 2006, he is still active.

Kikuchi's compositions characteristically have a 16-beat blues and pentatonic basis. Up-tempo works like those in Kamen Rider and Abarenbo Shogun form the majority of his works, while the 12/8 theme of Doraemon and the slow background music from long-running series have become some of his best-known works.

As anime and tokusatsu like Doraemon, Kamen Rider, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, jidaigeki such as Abarenbo Shogun and Chōshichirō Edo Nikki, and TBS Saturday-night productions ranging from Kii Hunter to G-Men '75 became long-running hit series, people began to say that "if Kikuchi Shunsuke is in charge of the music, the show will be a hit."