Anime Music & Theme Songs

Japanese Music

Chapter 9 · Anime Music & Theme Songs

Two anime opening themes, released a quarter-century apart, both became genuine commercial phenomena in their own right — one dominating karaoke booths for an entire imperial era, the other becoming, by one real official measure, the single most profitable song in Japan for an entire year.

A Real Cross-Reference

This chapter covers anime theme songs specifically as music-industry phenomena. The anime and manga industry itself — including the shows these songs come from — is covered in full by this site's own sibling course, Japanese Manga & Anime.

A Real, Multi-Decade Karaoke Champion

"A Cruel Angel's Thesis," performed by Yoko Takahashi, is the real opening theme of Neon Genesis Evangelion, released 25 October 1995 as a double-A-side single alongside the show's own closing theme, "Fly Me to the Moon." Composed by Toshiyuki Ōmori and Hidetoshi Satō, with lyrics by Neko Oikawa, it officially topped Japan's karaoke rankings for the entire Heisei era — roughly three decades — a genuinely extraordinary run for any single song.

The Modern Anisong Economy: Gurenge

A Real, JASRAC-Certified Champion

LiSA's "Gurenge," the opening theme for Demon Slayer, debuted digitally in April 2019 ahead of a July 2019 CD release, and had surpassed 1 million digital downloads by July 2020, topping that year's real digital single ranking chart. LiSA herself earned an estimated ¥300 million in 2019 and ¥500 million in 2020 from the song; composer Kayoko Kusano earned over ¥250 million from it independently. Japan's own rights organization, JASRAC, named it the single most profitable song in the country for 2020.

A genuinely surprising real revenue source — karaoke, not streaming or CD sales, was "Gurenge"'s single biggest earner: the composer received roughly ¥3 every time the song was selected in a karaoke booth, and it was the most-selected song in Japan for the entirety of 2020.

Questions to Sit With

Reflection 1

"A Cruel Angel's Thesis" dominated karaoke for an entire multi-decade era. What do you think it takes for a single song to hold that kind of position for so long, when musical trends generally move much faster?

Reflection 2

Karaoke, not streaming, was Gurenge's own single biggest revenue source. Does that surprise you, given how dominant streaming platforms are generally assumed to be in the modern music industry?

Reflection 3

Both songs became genuine commercial phenomena independent of the anime they came from. Do you think a truly great anime theme song can outlive the popularity of its own source show, the way both of these real examples suggest?

Quick Reference — Chapter 9

  • "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" (Evangelion OP, 1995, Yoko Takahashi) officially topped Japan's karaoke rankings for the entire ~30-year Heisei era
  • "Gurenge" (Demon Slayer OP, LiSA, 2019) surpassed 1 million digital downloads and was named JASRAC's most profitable song in Japan for 2020
  • LiSA earned an estimated ¥800 million total across 2019-2020 from the song; composer Kayoko Kusano earned over ¥250 million independently
  • Karaoke, not streaming, was Gurenge's single biggest real revenue source, at roughly ¥3 per selection
Next chapter: Capstone — From Court Ritual to Viral Algorithm — tracing one real thread of Japanese music's changing relationship with technology and mediation, from the 8th century to today.