Shunsuke Kikuchi


Shunsuke Kikuchi is a prolific Japanese composer. He specializes in incidental music for media such as television and film. Active since the early 1960s, 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 television dramas. His works are comparatively more common in Toei-related productions.
Up-tempo works like those in Kamen Rider and Abarenbō Shōgun form the majority of his works, while his 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 Abarenbō Shōgun and Chōshichirō Edo Nikki, and TBS Saturday-night productions ranging from Key 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."
The song "Urami Bushi" which he composed for the series was included in the American film Kill Bill and on its soundtrack.

Awards

Kikuchi was nominated for the Japan Academy Prize for Music in 1983 for his work on The Gate of Youth and To Trap a Kidnapper.
He received an Award of Merit at the 2013 Tokyo Anime Awards.
Kikuchi has won several annual awards from the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers based on the royalties he earned from his works in the previous year. He won the International Award, which is based on foreign income, in 1983, 1989, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2018. He came in second in overall royalties in 2004.
In 2015, he received a lifetime achievement award at the 57th Japan Record Awards.

Selected works