Composer famous for producing the musical work ‘Dragon Ball’ Shunsuke Kikuchi reportedly passed away on April 24th. It was reported that the 89-year-old man died of pneumonia.
According to IGN, the Kikuchi family has held his funeral in private. He even underwent medical treatment at the facility before passing away.
The composer’s first work was for a film from 1961 entitled ‘Hachininme no Teki’. He is well known for producing music for anime, action series, as well as movies.
His work includes the theme song for the Doraemon anime that is Doraemon no Uta as well as the theme song for the anime Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Interestingly, he also composed the ‘Let’s Go !! Rider Kick’ theme for the first Kamen Rider series, which is one of the most iconic Tokusatsu franchises.
Kikuchi once won a lifetime achievement award at the 57th Japan Record Awards in 2015. In addition, he was also nominated for a Japanese Academy Prize in 1983 for his work on The Gate of Youth and To Trap a Kidnapper. He went on to receive the Merit Award at the 2013 Tokyo Anime Awards.
