What is Anime?
Anime is a style of animation pioneered and popularized by Japanese
animation studios starting in the 1960s. Anime has become basically a standalone genre now with its soaring popularity in the western world, going hand in hand with its manga counterpart. Anime has always gone hand in hand with music, with a large portion of the show budgets and effort being put into just the opening and ending songs alone. As a result, anime music has also become their own subgenera in Japanese pop culture due to its significance. Throughout this project, we will be exploring the evolution of anime openings through three different choices from different time periods as well as the impact of anime music as a whole. |
A brief historyJapanese anime emerged in the 1960's with the first animated full scale-TV series, Tetsuwan Atom or "Astro Boy". The opening theme, "Atom March", was written by poet Shuntaro Tanikawa. As the 1970s arrived, a clear culture of the importance of music in Anime had been established. Themes began having higher importance and their own planning, which propelled anime music into its own genre in Japan. Considered the "Golden Age" of anime, the 70s laid the groundwork for modern anime along with the music.
In the 80s and 90s, series like Pokemon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and more rocketed into the pop culture mainstream all around world. What helped them grow so popular, however, was the iconic and catchy opening title songs that to this day are still loved by so many. Studio Ghibli became a cornerstone in anime movies and soundtracks, further progressing the genre of anime music into the spotlight. These decades saw the coining of the term Otaku, which referred to those obsessed with anime and manga. As the new millennium arrived, late night anime shows grew enormously in popularity, exploring darker, more mature topics. Shows like Attack on Titan and Death Note became huge mainstream hits, reaching levels of popularity unseen before in Japanese and International audiences alike. This gave rise to the trend of voice actors from shows actually singing the opening/ending credits, as well as artists who focused solely on creating music for different anime. Finally, with current day anime and anime openings, we have seen a sharp rise in production as well as budget, allowing for more instrumentation and electronics. Modern day hits such as Kikai Kitan from Jujutsu Kaisen and Kick Back from Chainsawman have given rise to a whole new sound and subgenre of anime music. This young decade can so far be characterized by action packed animation mixed with gritty vocals and layered electronic synth and guitar sounds. In just a few decades, anime has grown and transformed over and over, continuing to evolve at breakneck speed. It will truly be exciting to see how anime openings continue to thrive and evolve through time. |
Patterns and the Project
While anime openings have continuously evolved throughout the later 20th and early 21st centuries, a few things have also remained the same. One big aspect of anime openings is the fact that the opening sequence can only be 90 seconds long, meaning the full song has to be cut down somehow. At some point early on in anime history, producers and music staffers settled on a set form that most, if not all anime opening sequences seem to follow. Whether this was intentional or not is completely unknown. This form that opening sequences follow is:
Intro (Instrumental, refrain, etc.) -> Verse -> Pre-Chorus -> Chorus -> Optional outro
For this project, I will be exploring how this formula for opening sequences has been so successful and has remained strong despite so much musical evolution, as well as deeper analysis of the songs themselves and what makes them so popular. Finally, I will try to tie them in with current trends and pop culture to understand their continues successes and reverence in modern media.
Intro (Instrumental, refrain, etc.) -> Verse -> Pre-Chorus -> Chorus -> Optional outro
For this project, I will be exploring how this formula for opening sequences has been so successful and has remained strong despite so much musical evolution, as well as deeper analysis of the songs themselves and what makes them so popular. Finally, I will try to tie them in with current trends and pop culture to understand their continues successes and reverence in modern media.
Selections
A Cruel Angel's Thesis / 1995
Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion (26 Episodes, 1 Movie) Creator: Hideki Anno Artist: Yoko Takahashi Guren No Yumiya / 2013
Anime: Attack on Titan (4 seasons, 87 episodes as of Dec. 2022) Creator: Hajime Isayama Artist: Linked Horizon Kick Back / 2022
Anime: Chainsawman (10 Episodes as of Dec. 2022) Creator: Tatsuki Fujimoto Artist: Kenshi Yonezu |