Hometown: Hirosaki

Date of death: April 24, 2021

Shunsuke Kikuchi was one of Japan's most prolific and in-demand composers, best known for his incidental music across television, film, tokusatsu, and anime. Active since the early 1960s, he became a go-to name for everything from children's shows to violent action films and period dramas, with his work appearing especially often in Toei productions.

His style was distinctive: Kikuchi built most of his pieces on 16-beat blues and pentatonic frameworks, leaning heavily toward fast-paced, energetic arrangements. The high-octane scores for Kamen Rider and Abarenbo Shogun exemplify his bread and butter, though he's probably best remembered for the jazzy 12/8 theme of Doraemon and the quieter background music that carried long-running series through their years on air.

By the time massive hits like Doraemon, Kamen Rider, Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball Z were in full swing—alongside period pieces like Abarenbo Shogun and various TBS Saturday-night shows—there was an actual saying going around: "If Kikuchi Shunsuke handles the music, the show's going to be a hit." It wasn't quite true, but it spoke to how central he'd become to the industry's biggest successes.

He died of aspiration pneumonia on April 24, 2021, at age 89.