[DragoonEnRegalia]

Kageyama is not the risk-taker of Pokemon music. I think you're giving the sound directors way too much credit for the majority of the cool things happening in Pokemon game soundtracks. Here's an excerpt from a roundtable between Shinji Miyazaki and the Game Freak sound team—

Regarding the fact that neither Ichinose-san nor Sato-san were originally part of the sound team; does Game Freak often make personnel changes among members?

Masuda: No, it’s not personnel changes; it’s more like we approach people who are familiar with music and ask them, “Hey, do you want to try and make a music piece like this?” When we find someone talented, we slowly tell them to “come over here” (laughs). So it’s not like they change sections and become part of the sound team.

Ichinose: We say, “We’re a bit busy, wanna help us out?” That’s what it feels like.

Masuda: After we let them produce something, we tell them that they’re talented.

Not only does this excerpt hint at the possibility of Kageyama originally being hired due to his proficiency with sound tracking equipment and general sound programming, but it also insinuates a lack of strict direction and control of the musician's output at Game Freak itself. Knowing how Western and non-conformist developing games and working at Game Freak is can do a lot to help your argument! Here's another one—

(Miyazaki) Of the Game Freak people, is it you who determines the worldview and decides things like, “It’s a good tune, but it doesn’t fit the image”, Masuda-san?

Masuda: Since I’m working as a director for the games now, it appears to be that way. And when it comes to troubling aspects, it’s one of the things I worry about very much. For example, if we made one CD and it consisted entirely of heavy rock, you’d become exhausted, wouldn’t you? That’s when you say things like, “Let’s take it a little easier in this scene” or something. We also try to create a flow that adapts to the chronological order of the adventure. Those are things I’m always concerned about.

Ichinose: The things Masuda is particular about – for example, whether something is important scenario-wise or concerning places that are important for the worldview – those are things for which he conveys a very clear image. However, other than that, everyone implements their own respective images and if Masuda says nothing, everything is OK.

Masuda: There aren’t that many “no-go’s” getting submitted anyway. But, for example, while the Jouto region had cities around Kyoto serving as models, I said something like, “Don’t make it too Japanese.” By adding non-Japanese music to a Japanese place, I want to create a new, slightly different worldview.

So, to conclude: the sound director doesn't need to do too much to begin with. I suspect that the majority of what they do is try to piece together each submission and WIP into a general album-like sequence of tracks that'll be played in-game, all sorted by the standards set for a certain project. Being mostly managerial work, though, every musician producing for B/W was able to submit their own unique musical contributions, so long as they fit the general overarching theme (which they can do whilst getting into experimental realms of music-crafting). And since Ichinose is the one credited for "Village Bridge" on the actual soundtrack, he will have had far, far more impact on the development of that piece than Kageyama (whereas Masuda would have had more to say on it). The same goes for every Pokemon game soundtrack done by Game Freak; saying that HG/SS is that much more inconsistent than B/W is a flawed proposition, because the only reason that B/W's music sounds the same so much of the time is simply because Kageyama composed and arranged all of the story progression-integral tracks himself, leaving the side material to the others. Back when HG/SS was in the works, Ichinose divvied the album material amongst each musician with less regard for defining clear roles than Kageyama did, which led to more stylistic diversity and interesting inconsistency in style (note: not quality, except where noted).

Who's saying there was a different "main theme", either (and there wasn't)? Or that Sayonara was so special? We can't say for certain that he was the person responsible for the ideas and execution revolving around bringing back the album arrangements either, given that Ichinose did those for R/S and FR/LG! The sound director isn't that important of a role to begin with, as it mainly affects how the album's going to be organized, and how the general responsibilities of each musician working on the soundtrack will be managed. My most recent guess for sound director, actually, would have to be Sato herself, simply because Ichinose is trying to vary up who gets to lead projects for the sound team, and because Kageyama's direction isn't going to be as fitting for him and the game as well—not to mention that Sato's constantly been sidelined, and she hasn't yet had any leadership experience on the sound team. So: since the musicians generally get to apply their own style and experience(s) to each soundtrack, following a series of vague parameters, I can safely say that Ichinose's tracks have been his work. For that matter, they've been, on average, more well-developed, more stylistically-creative, and more fitting for the Pokemon world itself than anything from Kageyama.

There is a point to be made about the new trailers, though, and I'm glad you brought that counter-point up. They're definitely focusing on the legendaries—which, to be fair, is different from both the champion focus and the gang focus, both usually being the primary dual conflicting areas of interest in past Pokemon games. Here, it seems, they're really pushing for the Pokemon aspect to sell B2/W2, with both Team Plasma and battling to become a Pokemon battling champion now flanking it in terms of importance. Still, though, that means that anyone is up for grabs when it comes down to who'll lead the sound team for this installment, even if it's already different from G/S in a peculiar story-related way. If not Ichinose or Kageyama, than Sato or Adachi will probably take the lead for this one—the former for her experience and excellence in many fields at the company, or the latter for her long-standing experience with game music ever since 1995's Robo Pit, plus the fact that she was an integral part of Sting's sound team for a while. Either way: I don't think Kageyama would work as the sound director for B2/W2, and we're not certain if Ichinose would be a fitting choice either. It all comes to down to what Masuda wants, and that's what's most important in the equation (and, outside of the story differences that abound, B2/W2 is an analogue to G/S in many other different areas—Ichinose's not out of the question).