[Editor's Picks] What Is an Anisong? A Look Back from the Past to the Present

What is your favorite anisong (or anison, anime song)?

Mine is Pegasus Fantasy from Saint Seiya. On August 9, 2025, NoB, also known as Nobuo Yamada, who sang that song, passed away at 61 due to kidney cancer. I sincerely pray for his soul. Saint Seiya is an anime based on Masami Kurumada’s manga serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, and it aired in Japan from 1986 to 1989. I think I watched it when I was about five or six. The opening theme Pegasus Fantasy is etched into me. Few anime themes fit their works so perfectly, and it sits unshakably at No. 1 in my personal ranking of anime theme songs. I welcome disagreements. His passing made me think about how different the environment for anime theme songs is now compared with back then, so in this column I want to talk about what an anisong really is.

I will also upload this article to X, so I would love to hear your thoughts.

Table of Contents

１．The dawn of anisongs
２．The turning point of the 1980s
　　　- The 1980s: Increasing Use of J-pop Songs
　　　- How fans and singers felt in the 1980s
３．TM NETWORK Enters Anisongs
　　　- City Hunter, Gundam
４．A Peculiar Tie-Up
　　　- High School! Kimengumi
５．The Tie-Up Boom: Are These Truly Anisongs?
　　　- Slum Dunk
６．The Debate Over Anisongs
　　　- Rurouni Kenshin
７．Fusion of Anime and J-pop
　　　- Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemis
８．Streaming era Anisongs
　　　- YOASOBI, Creepy Nuts…
９．Bonus
　　　- Covers of Past Hits

Anime and Music Are Inseparable

Writing this column with Pegasus Fantasy as my anchor, I kept noticing fresh anisong headlines every day. Not long ago, a post on X blew up when YOSHIKI of X JAPAN said an insert song in Dandadan sounded similar to one of his compositions. I did not expect Elon Musk to jump in. The article about GARNiDELiA, a duo behind many anime themes, announcing an indefinite hiatus also drew a big response from Japan Anime News readers.

News on theme songs for the Fall 2025 anime season is already rolling out. Once you start paying attention, it is obvious that anime and music are inseparable. Compared to before 2000, anisongs feel far more accepted in the mainstream.

So what exactly is an anisong?

This question sounds simple, but it is not. I am interested in those moments when people ask whether a particular song used in an opening or ending can truly be called an anisong. Some tracks do not reflect the story’s world, and some look like label-driven tie-ups.

Here is my conclusion up front. If a song is used in anime, it is an anisong.
To examine that, I will trace anisongs by era and group them by how close the music feels to the work. There is one tricky category, and I definitely want your thoughts on it.

■Categories
1.A song created only for the anime
2.A commissioned tie-up written for the anime
3.A song sung by anisong singers or voice actors, which I will barely touch today
4.An already finished song later tied up with an anime
5,A cover of an older song

Now, let's look at how anisongs have changed over time!