Bruce Faulconer

For countless American kids who discovered Dragon Ball Z on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, the sound of the show was not Shunsuke Kikuchi's brass and funk. It was Bruce Faulconer's shimmering synths, distorted guitars, and driving industrial rhythms. Faulconer began writing for the Funimation dub in 1998, and his replacement score premiered with season three in September 1999, running from episode 68 straight through to episode 291 in 2003. He also scored the theatrical dub of Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.

His music did not just play under the action, it reshaped it. Where Kikuchi leaned into orchestral funk, Faulconer pushed the series into the territory of late 1990s rock and electronica, closer to a video game soundtrack than a traditional anime score. The result is a version of Goku's final forms, Cell's arrival, and Majin Buu's rampage that feels distinctly North American, and which remains the definitive sonic memory of the show for many Western fans.

Faulconer came to Dragon Ball from a deeply credentialed classical background. He studied composition at the University of Texas at Austin with Hunter Johnson, Karl Korte, Joseph Schwantner, and Eugene Kurtz, earning a bachelor's with high honours, a master's in composition, and eventually a Doctor of Musical Arts. Two Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowships at Ohio State followed, along with commissions and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Fort Worth Symphony. His symphonic poem Washington-on-the-Brazos was premiered by the Dallas Symphony and toured with the San Antonio Symphony.

All nine of his Best of Dragon Ball Z and character focused albums, including Buu: The Majin Sagas, Trunks Compendium I, and Android 18: The Androids Saga, were recorded and mastered at his own CakeMix Recording studios in Dallas. His Dragon Ball Z Title Theme later reappeared in Atari's Dragon Ball Z video games, and his score was widely credited with helping Dragon Ball Z become the Nielsen number one rated cable show in children's programming three years running from 2001 through 2003.

Faulconer did not return for Dragon Ball GT, which Funimation handed to Mark Menza, and when the studio later attempted to redub the first two seasons for their Ultimate Uncut and Remastered releases, his score was unavailable and Nathan Johnson was brought in to replace it. From season three onward, however, his music was kept intact, and it is still the version many fans insist on when they revisit the show.

The debate between Kikuchi loyalists and Faulconer loyalists is one of Dragon Ball's most durable fan arguments, and the fact that the argument is still fought so passionately is itself the measure of Faulconer's impact. Beyond Dragon Ball he has continued scoring feature films, PBS documentaries, and concert works, but for millions of fans his name is locked forever to the sound of Goku powering up on a Saturday morning.