This isn't anything particularly revealing or shocking, considering that Zuntata (and All of Japan, for that matter) were likely quite influenced by Kraftwerk's electronica, but I just happened to notice something today since I was seeking out some vids.

The Red Shirts with Black Ties that Zuntata wore in their '98 live show is pretty much a direct homage to "The Robots" by Kraftwerk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzXR9DqXMi4

One of OGR's songs seems similar to The Robots as well, but at the moment it escapes me which one that is, and I'm too tired to dig for it right now...

Yeah, they had that style on the cover of the Man Machine album too (a great album, by the way).

Another Kraftwerk - VGM connection is the last track on the Vagrant Story OST, "Dungeon Robot Mix" by Hirosato Noda, sounds very much like Kraftwerk's style in the videoclip you linked to.

Thanks for another example, and there's probably tons more.

Oh yeah, the "Mecha-Robo Corps Charge" from Nobuo on Blue Dragon OST has a similar feel, if I remember right.

While many VGM composers are quick to cite YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra) as an influence, less make a mention of Kraftwerk, so now I'm kinda wondering the time frames of those 2 groups and how much "overlap" there was, if they influenced each other.

I was more familiar with YMO and am only now starting to digg around about Kraftwerk, but they seem very similar.

Kraftwerk started in 1968 (best known Quartet part starting in 1975), YMO started in 1978 (and was active until 1983 at the time). YMO is generally seen as the Japanese version of Kraftwerk, and their active area overlapped more with the rise of video gaming in Japan.

I personally think the influence of Japanese progressive rock of the 1980's on Japanese VGM was more prevalent though.

Kraftwerk formed in 1968. In their initial years they had a "krautrock"-style much different from what most people today know them for, but they started with their revolutionary electronic style in 1974 with the "Autobahn" album. YMO was formed in 1978, the same year Krafwerk's "Man Machine" album was released, so, yeah, its pretty reasonable to assume that YMO was influenced by Kraftwerk and not the other way around.

For many Japanese VGM composers, though, I think YMO was the big influence. I know Hitoshi Sakimoto is a big fan, he used to credit himself as "YmoH.S" in early projects, which was a tribute to YMO.

Thanks for the timeline guys, yeah it seems Kraft was indeed ahead of YMO.
Computer Love 1981 is awesome, the tones have such a warm and inviting sound.

the Pocket Calculator performance in 1981 is pretty much the same as watching any modern Chiptune artist today, nice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZt64_XOflk

That depends on what composers and what time we're talking about, it probably varies a lot from case to case. My own impression is that the biggest influences on 80s Japanese VGM composers was probably European and American synthpop and rock/metal (in early arranged works by Falcom and others for example I sense a lot of influence from Iron Maiden and other British heavy metal bands). Japanese prog-rock was also itself very influenced by Western prog-rock. The Japanese are such shameless copy-cats. But its all good to be influenced by stuff if the end result gives something back, I guess.

It would probably be very interesting to research the root influences on early Japanese VGM composers and make a big project-thingy out of it if the time and proper channels were available. Problem is, without actually tracking down and asking the composers themselves, all we can really do is speculate. If I can venture a guess, I think the result would be that most composers were probably influenced by big Western artists of the 1980s, and following that trail even further we'd probably end up at The Beatles and a whole bunch of big classical composers.

Also, a sidenote. The keyboardist in Yellow Magic Orchestra was Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also went on to compose some VGM, most notably Lack of Love on the Dreamcast.

Falcom caught their bug too, now I know where Provincialism Ys got that "Boing Boom Tschak" sample from: Kraft's "Electric Cafe" album.

I fully agree, but for many Japanese composers the influence cited is still the Japanese "copy/pasta". That's why YMO is cited more often than Kraftwerk etc. (and to be fair I'm sure in the transition the style also become more interesting to Japanese). I think in one interview Uematsu even complained about this and stated that's why he goes to the other extreme and tends to cite only Western artists as influences (may have been in that long 1up interview with him).

I just found a missing link between Kraftwerk and 8-bit VGM. Check out this excellent cover of Kraftwerk's 1981 classic "Computer Love" by Covox, done in NES-synth! I usually don't like non-VGM songs redone in "bitpop" fashion, but here it really works, this is one mixing of styles that was just meant to be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mdTwdo5mZo

I'm melting here... Pure chiptune bliss.

Apparently, there's a whole album:

http://8bitoperators.com/