Anime Music Career, Hasshin!

 This is the second part of the biography, where this will focus on his anison career before finding himself into the popular music side.

Masayuki Yamamoto found some moderate success with credits as a songwriter and composer for various kayokyoku and comic song artists, as well as his take on contemporary folk music with the release of his Sayonara La-la-la single. However, there was something missing from his path that he still has yet to take part in: creating theme songs for the entertainment.

In 1975, the then-president of Warner-Pioneer sought for a new theme song for a then-upcoming Tatsunoko Production anime work. At that time, Tatsunoko struggled hard to keep its profits going as some recent works were underperforming with TV ratings, like Shinzou Ningen Casshan, Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman and Hurricane Polymar (Tentoumushi no Uta went well and lasted over 100 episodes). Yamamoto was very interested in making theme songs for an anime, as it was on his bucket list for a long time, so he did some research, experimented with it and organized the music notes right away. After it was finished, he went to the Warner-Pioneer studio and played a demo in front of the staff, including Tatsuo Yoshida, founder and then-CEO of Tatsunoko. Warner-Pioneer approved his piece a few days later, and this started the career that people know and love today.

Not only did Time Bokan became a success and brought back Tatsunoko into fame, but audiences were amazed by his cartoony-style BGM arrangements, as well as blending various music genres, both Western and Japanese, incorporated into the themes and insert songs. The LP single containing both the opening and ending themes to that anime marked only the second Tatsunoko-related anime song not released by Nippon Columbia, the first with the first themes to Kurenai Sanshiro, which was published by Nippon Crown instead.

Jacket art for the Time Bokan LP single

Time Bokan's success would help Tatsunoko Production start an anime franchise, with each entry following similar tropes as the series progresses. In New Year 1977, the second (and by far the most popular) entry stole the Saturday 6:30PM slot. The main protagonists and antagonists have been replaced, and the buggy mecha made way for an animal mecha supporter.

And for the record (no pun intended), the music of Time Bokan moved from Warner-Pioneer to Victor Musical Industries (now JVC Kenwood/Victor Entertainment) for the rest of the classic era. Yamamoto even got fellow arranger Masaaki Jinbo as co-composer.

"Yatterman Dispatches, Koron!"

The series was popular for a Tatsunoko anime to receive 108 episodes, the third to pass over the 100 mark (after Inakappe Taishou and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman). Yamamoto managed to recycle some BGM segments from Time Bokan over to Yatterman, where some would be recycled again for future series. The first ending theme, Tensai Doronbo, has an intro that was even recycled and sampled over!

Zendaman took over the timeslot after Yatterman's finale. Once again, the main characters have been replaced, and the heroes are now teenagers, to match its audiences who had been watching since Time Bokan started airing, where most of them had reached their adolescent years. This show is also where Yamamoto started his voice acting career on television (though he actually started voice acting on a Time Bokan LP drama): he provided his voice to Zenda Lion, a mecha-train companion designed as a lion who guides Tet-chan and Sakura on their adventures with his own theme song playing in every single episode.

Then followed Time Patrol-tai Otasukeman, Yattodetaman, and Gyakuten Ippatsuman, and these shows took a step on maturity as its audiences got older. Yamamoto and Jinbo's music even moved away from having its BGM too cartoony and added some action-paced elements. Yamamoto's role as Zenda Lion was stunningly impressive that he got to voice more side characters. Yamamoto also formed an all-female chorus group Pink Piggies during Yattodetaman's run and replaced the children's chorus groups from previous Time Bokan shows.

By the time Itadakiman was about to air, Tatsunoko decided to make some changes with its production and timeslot. What made him disappointed is the fact that Yamamoto and Jinbo would be given less work on BGM and its theme and insert songs. In fact, Yamamoto made ONLY one song for Itadakiman so far: the ending theme Dobibi~n Serenade, and sung by a Yamamoto soundalike. As such, he never referenced any work from Itadakiman for a long time...

And that's just the Time Bokan Series that I covered. Yamamoto would join Jinbo again for two Tatsunoko-produced mecha shows: Toushi Gordian in 1979, and Ougon Senshi Gold Lightan in 1981, the latter a bit more recognizable.

Yamamoto got into the limelight again when Kokusai Eiga-sha (or MIC) was about to release a brand new super mecha series. It went into similar success with Time Bokan, but instead of finding success through new anime tropes, it went through successful toy line-ups. Yamamoto also shifted from cartoon comedy tunes to 80s hard rock styles to best suit the tone and theme of this trilogy.

"Ginga Senpuu Bryger, oyobi to araba soku sanjou!!!"

And the J9 Series was born. However, when providing BGM for Sasuraiger, Joe Hisaishi took over with a jazzier motif and Yamamoto was only provided in composing the OP and ED themes.

Yamamoto seemed to enjoy creating such anime music while working on par with another anime franchise that his works can be found in other shows from MIC. His music, both BGM and themes, can be heard from Little Pollon, Makyou Densetsu Acrobunch, Akuu Daisakusen Srungle, and Chou Kousoku Galvion.

After taking a break to focus on his music career (and sometimes personal life) in the later half of the 80s. Yamamoto returned to produce music for three OVAs: the obscure adaptation of Namakemono ga Miteta by Takashi Murakami (not the one who made the iconic colorful flower), the direct-to-video length Kyuukyoku Choujin R, where he also worked on the image albums, and Time Bokan Royal Revival.

With his popular music career becoming his norm from the 90s onwards, his work on making anime music slowed down and only made music for two Time Bokan-related shows in the 2000s: Kaitou Kiramekiman and the Yatterman remake. But this doesn't stop him from being recognized as an anime singer-songwriter. He made anime-related tracks in some of his albums and even got his own chance to produce a cover album full of anime songs he wrote and composed.

I also have to mention that he also made a bunch more of anime songs outside of Tatsunoko and MIC. I already listed the rest down in this page here.