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Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Are Anime Opening And Ending Themes Chosen?
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Huh, is that why anime openings and closings seem to fit with their shows oddly well? I didn't know that they're made concurrently with the anime series.
I do remember during the anime bubble of the 00's, part of the reason the licensing rights shot up so high was because the record companies were demanding huge amounts of money, thinking that anime openings and credits music would catch on with Americans and the record labels wanted some of that. I'd bet that if any music executive were to actually travel to the United States and see how our music is consumed, they'd be frightened at how different it is from in Japan. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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Are you sure that you are not confusing "record companies" with "production committee"? Sure, there is at least one record company representative in every production committee, but I do not remember any attempt to sell anime music CDs (as in, with enlgish labels and maybe english translations of the lyrics) in america besides the Ranma and Sailor Moon (and maybe those were chinese bootlegs) I saw back then at conventions. The sad truth (from a past answerman column) is that Japanese Record companies are lazy, otherwise they would make sure all streams had translations of their songs (even if they had to pay the translator from they pocket), they want foreign companies knocking on their door with a huge check to pay for the rights to distribute their music overseas. |
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 703 |
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There were quite a number of anime soundtracks and other anime-related CDs that were released stateside in the mid-2000s or so, with translated liner notes (there were a few shortly before then, most notably Akira albums and US-specific Sailor Moon and Pokemon CDs, but there was a point when it really ramped up). IIRC, Pioneer produced a lot of these, and you can still find some leftovers from this era for sale at Right Stuf. I own a handful of these of these US releases, including soundtracks for the Utena TV show and movie, The End of Evangelion, and His and Her Circumstances mainly because they were much cheaper than the original Japanese releases. It's kind of sad that they went away around the same time as the overall anime market crashed, but thankfully, some of this sort of stuff has made its way back in digital form (for instance, the ClariS albums on iTunes). |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Hence why if you pay close attention, certain musical groups are virtually "contracted" to produce music for specific studios. TrySail for A-1 anime comes to mind.
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5143 |
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According to this source (and this one, as well) "Connect" was composed -- both music & lyrics -- by Sho Watanabe. EDIT: Nevermind -- upon rereading Andrew's question, the possibility has occurred to me that I may have misunderstood what he was writing. Last edited by nobahn on Wed May 31, 2017 3:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Triltaison
 Posts: 789 |
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Yup, totally agreed. I, too, have all of the Utena soundtracks they released here (we sadly only got half of the total release). I also have US soundtracks from Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Excel Saga, Stellvia, Puni Puni Poemy, Chobits, Trigun, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, Arjuna, Sin, Nadia, and some others that I believe were all released by Geneon/Pioneer. I also have Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, which were released by Milan Records iirc. A couple others that come to mind are my Hikaru Utada's One CD that was heavily promoted through Kingdom Hearts and one of those weird AnimeToonz CDs where Kikuko Inoue covers a bunch of anime theme songs as techno remixes. Not sure who published those two off the top of my head, though. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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I have a foot high pile of old Geneon Music CDs I've picked up cheap over the last couple of years from the bargain bins at TRSI and Anime-on-Line, and that's on top of the ones I bought when they were new (and still had shelf space). Search company#1782 for "soundtrack", and see also: http://www.rightstufanime.com/category/Music-CD http://www.anime-on-line.com/xcart/home.php?cat=32 https://web.archive.org/web/20070928014226/http://www.geneonanimemusic.com/ |
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belvadeer
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Or you have cases where one singer seems to be tied to a long-running series, like Mai Kuraki singing openings and endings for Detective Conan a lot of the time.
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Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
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Given they can top the charts in Japan, thats probably not an unreasonable thing to expect. Here, only Disney movie songs have a chance at doing that. Even Image Songs sung by the seiyuu can hit #1 in Japan. I've always loved anime's relationship with music. Whether its various OP and ED themes or how they make in-character songs. I know dubs used to dub OP and EDs back in the day, but did any ever dub image songs and try to market those in the US? Anime and video game music always seemed overlooked in the American market. I remember importing Final Fantasy CDs and listening to their seiyuu sing their characters image song . |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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I also meant to mention how the ending for Kiddy Grade, Future, was a remake of the Little Viking song Magic which (if I understand the Japanese version if her profile correctly) one of the creators happened to hear:
http://www.junelding.com/english/e_junelding_profile.html http://www.junelding.com/japanese/junelding_profile.html The Deadman Wonderland ED, One Reason, was likewise new lyrics set to the Fade song Black Hearts & Dollar $ign$. |
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5143 |
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IIRC, only Funimation did that. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I imagine this state of affairs is responsible for the fact that Crunchyroll seldom include subtitles for the songs featured in the episodes they stream. A pervasive roll of red tape, presumably. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Nah, James Bond can pull it off too, as far as opening and credits theme music goes. It's really due to a fundamental difference in music production in the west as compared to Japan. Music isn't typically co-produced with a movie or a TV show except as background music meant to disappear and be forgotten, so when you have pop music used for opening and credits theme, it's one that's already been completed for a long while and was already a proven hit in the past, such as "Who Are You?" for CSI or "It's All Been Done" for Baby Blues. |
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Ouran High School Dropout
 Posts: 440 Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA |
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No kidding!  Anime soundtracks are the primary reason I have an account with Amazon Japan. It took a bit for me to realize that isolated OP/ED are often sold as CD Maxis, with cover art having nothing to do with the show. Only problem is when I try to check out certain CDs (but not others), I get a message stating that Amazon.jp cannot ship to the U.S. That's when I try my luck at CD Japan...
Also, I have a real fondness for OP/ED tracks sung by the Japanese voice cast. They may not be professional singers, but the tracks are often a lot of fun anyway! |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Sam Pinansky did the translation for Sakamichi no Apollon ("Kids on the Slope") and translated the OP and ED lyrics as well. The music company on the production committee dragged their feet so the first six episodes were streamed without the translated lyrics. Finally they agreed to accept his work, and his lyrics were retroactively added to the earlier episodes as well. I've wondered whether the record companies want to control the translations as well. As I recall some anime CDs I've owned had English translations in the booklet. Presumably these are the "official" translations, but somehow they don't seem to find their way to Crunchyroll. For an amusing look at the production committee process, I recommend episode fourteen of SHIRABAKO. |
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