JAPANESE animated films, or anime, play a key role in the worldwide fascination with Japanese pop culture.
While early screenings may have targeted niche markets, in recent years they have managed to win over a huge audience, at least in part thanks to their soundtracks.
The popularity of this music has given rise to the phenomenon of "anisongs."
The term "anisong" is a portmanteau of the words "anime" (the abbreviation of the Japanese transcription of the word "animation"), and "song." It refers to the songs created for Japanese animated films' opening or closing credits.
These are crafted to pique viewers' interest, while giving clues to some of the major themes on screen, as Laurence Green, a specialist in anime and Japanese popular culture, explained to Chartmetric.
Anisongs first appeared in the 1960s, with the emergence of animated series such as Osamu Tezuka's ‘Astro Boy’. Its opening theme was composed by Tatsuo Takai, with lyrics by the poet Shuntarō Tanikawa.
It gained cult status two decades later, when the animated TV series ‘Astro Boy’ was broadcast beyond the borders of the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’.
During that period, Japanese studios began to pay particular attention to the soundtracks of the anime they produced, regularly calling on anime music legends.
Among them was Shunsuke Kikuchi; known for his work on a large number of anime series, including ‘Doraemon’; ‘Dr Slump’; ‘UFO Robot Grendizer’; ‘Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX’ and the two legendary adaptations of Akira Toriyama's manga, ‘Dragon Ball’ and ‘Dragon Ball Z’.
From TV to TikTok
While the success of anisongs has long gone hand in hand with that of the cartoon series where they originate, some of these songs became hits in their own right starting in the 1980s.
For example, Japanese singer Anri's single "Cat's Eye" topped Japan's Oricon Singles Chart for five weeks in autumn 1983. This served as the opening credits for the animated series based on Tsukasa Hôjô's manga of the same name.
Moreover, this anisong appears in 398 different playlists on Spotify, attesting to its longevity for Chartmetric.
Other anisongs follow a similar path. LiSA's ‘Homura’; the theme from the animated film ‘Demon SlayerM Kimetsu no Yaiba’, reached number 8 on the Billboard Global 200 in 2020, while ‘Kick Back’; the opening music from the anime ‘Chainsaw Man’; reached number 13 on the same chart the following year.
Meanwhile, the track ‘Idol’ by the duo Yoasobi, which serves as the opening credits for the anime series ‘Oshi no Ko’; has topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100 for 11 consecutive weeks.
A major triumph for an anisong and, more generally, for any Japanese song.
The phenomenon of anisongs scaling the music charts is a direct result of their success on the small screen and these days especially, on the internet.
Streaming platforms are overflowing with playlists dedicated to these treasures of Japanese animation, whose popularity continues to grow.
The ‘Anime Now’ playlist on Spotify has over 772,000 "likes," a sizeable audience in a highly competitive music ecosystem. And TikTok hasn't been spared the "anisong" phenomenon either.
The social network is home to hundreds of videos revolving around the world of Japanese anime, the majority of which are devoted to dancing and lip-syncing. All the more reason for these Japanese soundtracks to have a bright future. – ETX Daily Up, July 5, 2023
