J-music = Anime Themes. Hard to believe, huh? Though this equation naturally does not apply to every anime out there, a great deal of anime themes are now, instead of being songs created by the studio, taken from the repetoire of musicians in the current J-music scene. For example, "Hikari", the theme song for the Kingdom Hearts videogame, is the work of Japanese pop music diva, Utada Hikaru (image on right), and is a track from her second album, Distance.

Image from utada.hikaru

Images from Project J

This trend of using J-music for anime themes is most widely acknowledged to have started from the anime, Rurouni Kenshin (RK). Sony, the company producing RK, decided that instead of creating songs to use as opening and ending themes, they would instead use songs from artists under their music label. This resulted in them using the song, "Sobakasu", by the then popular (but now disbanded) J-pop band, Judy and Mary (image on left - top), as the first opening theme; and "TACTICS" by the J-rock band, The Yellow Monkey (image on left - bottom), as the first ending theme. Sony's move turned out to be such a resounding success that other companies soon followed suit. Using this form of advertising, Sony not only was able to boost record sales for the musicians under its label, but was also able to expose these musicians to people that, prior to the anime, would not have listened to these musicians' songs otherwise.

I, myself, am a perfect example. I got into the Jrock band, L'Arc~en~Ciel (image on right), first for their songs, "Niji" and "Fourth Avenue Cafe", in Rurouni Kenshin; and later for their work in DNAČ ("Blurry Eyes"), GTO ("Heaven's Drive"), Final Fantasy The Movie ("Spirit Dreams Inside"), and Fullmetal Alchemist ("Ready Steady Go.") My intense liking for L'Arc~en~Ciel soon led to my interest in the J-music scene on a whole and the rest, as they say, was history. ^^

Image from Kawai L'Arc

However, don't take my word for it. Just check out these further examples of anime themes by popular J-music artists below:

Image from GENKI	Kotani Kinya "Glaring Dream" Gravitation (ED theme) Actually, he did almost every song that Shuichi sings in the anime. And he usually acts like Shuichi too!	PIERROT "Barairo no Sekai" GetBackers (2nd OP theme) "Haruka..." Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (ED theme)	Image from Pierrot HQ
Image from Be With Glay	GLAY "Sabaibaru (Survival)" Kaikan Phrase (OP theme)	BoA "Every Heart" Inuyasha (4th ED theme)	Image from Jap Idol
Image from Divine Ayu	Hamasaki Ayumi "Dearest" Inuyasha (3rd ED theme) "Depend on You" Thousand Arms (OP theme)	Garnet Crow "flying" Tales of Eternia (OP theme) "Mysterious Eyes" Detective Conan (7th OP theme)	Image from nifty:music
Image from necrophilia.nu	Porno Graffitti "Hitori no Yoru" GTO (ED theme) "Melissa" Fullmetal Alchemist (1st OP theme)	Zard "My Friend" Slam Dunk (4th ED theme) "Ashita wo Yumemite" Detective Conan (17th ED theme)	Image from Planet Zard
Image from Story	Gackt "Tsuki no Uta" Texhnolyze (ED theme) "LU:NA/Oasis" New Fist of the North Star (OP/ED themes)	dream "My Will" Inuyasha (1st ED theme) "GET OVER/Sincerely" Hikaru no Go (1st OP & 3rd ED themes)	Image from daydreaming

This is an EXTREMELY partial list but I'm sure you get the picture. At any rate, it's interesting how the J-music scene has recently dominated the realm of anime themes. However, anime music has likewise influenced the J-music scene with artists such as Sakamoto Maaya, WeiB Kreuz, and Hayashibara Megumi rising to fame after their work in anime series. Not to mention the J-rock band, Aucifer (image on right), being completely modeled/formed after the band in Kaikan Phrase! Therefore, I personally think this move to using J-music for anime themes is a great idea and I genuinely look forward to seeing this trend continue in the future! BACK

Image from An Ode to My Obsession