Definition of Anison

[tenshi_a]

Soluzar asked whether anison = all anime songs, and Tomoe replied with the following.

Soluzar: Well, not really. "Anison" does come from "anime songs" but first of all it doesn't only include anime songs. It also includes songs from games, manga, drama CDs, tokusatsu shows. Even Shocker Ohno during the Super Anison Spirits concert said that they can sing non-anime songs too, since "Anison" is a broad term.
However, J-pop artists and their songs ARE NOT Anison. Even if used in anime. There's another term in Japanese music world for that, and it's "tie-up songs". Generally, the majority of anime songs nowadays are tie-up songs, or the typical "moe" stuff, where seiyuu girls sing with awfully childish voices. Although some Japanese do call that "Anison", the term's definition fits only the songs of particular singers and composers, done in a quite structured and pre-defined manner　(which requires singing about the story or characters, the song should have the mood of the product, etc). I'm doing a research now on Anison music, and I'm surprised to see that even in Japan there is little data about that specific genre. The correct image of Anison can be made mostly from what singers say directly about it.

I decided to make a new thread just to discuss anison and what the boundaries are, because it interests me.

So yeah, Anison includes anime, games, tokusatsu, sentai, drama CDs, everything related to anime. ^_^

I thought it includes most seiyuu songs, as long as they're singing either in character or about something related to the show.

If the seiyuu is just a J-pop idol and the anime places their J-pop song into the show and is using the anime to boost their singing career, it probably doesn't count.

I see what you mean from recent seiyuu idols... for example, Aya Hirano...

Aya Hirano singing as a member of the group Springs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdSLisVFoBE) is NOT anison.

Aya Hirano singing the 2nd OP for Suzumiya Haruhi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rromu2ll97E)... lyrics (http://atashi.wordpress.com/2006/10/19/the-melancholy-of-haruhi-suzumiya-2nd-opening-theme-bouken-desho-desho/) it's kind of relevant, but is it in character, or is it a normal love song? not sure...

Aya Hirano singing a Galaxy Angel Image song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eqa6opNdaA), not really in character, so not sure...

Aya Hirano singing the song "God Knows" in Haruhi as Haruhi as part of the episode... to show off her singing... probably doesn't count.

Aya Hirano badly singing Uchuu Tetsujin Kyodain (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq5abWK2IRg) as the end of the first episode of Lucky Star... well, the song is anison... But it's about the wrong show!

So with seiyuu-jpop-idols like this, where does the boundary stop between what is and isn't anison?

It's easy to tell with songs that are about what's in the series; they're definitely anison.

But why are Sailor Moon's OP theme "Moonlight Densetsu" and Hokuto No Ken's OP theme "Ai wo torimodose" anison, and not just thought of as just love songs?

[Tomoe]

Well, it would be nice to discuss, but I'm afraid that most people really have no clue what we're talking about. Nowadays Anison is a niche, otherwise most topics in this forum wouldn't have been about "your favorite J-pop song". Even I, though doing a research on Anison, cannot explain everything yet.
Seiyuu aren't really J-pop idols. Most of them are known only because of their bond with the anime/game. However, they don't tend to be Anison in its genuine sense too. They're something like a completely different category. In fact, the phenomenon of seiyuu singing anime themes appeared at the beginning of 1990s and it is somehow the basis of today's moe singing. I cannot say where does the boundary between seiyuu and Anison stop; however, I can say that seiyuu-only girls are not part of the still existing original Anison society. They don't appear at concerts with the famous singers, they're not invited by NHK for the annual show. They usually have their own events, where stress is being put on "moe", than on anime songs. A few days ago there was an Anison-only day on NHK-FM radio. Guests in the studio were Ichiro Mizuki and Megumi Ogata. Although Ogata has contributed much to the Anison music, and is very far from "moe", she was still there as seiyuu, and not as a singer. When they played recent anime music performed by the cutey-lovely girls, Mizuki just said "hm, that's good", but you could feel he absolutely hated it.
On the other hand, there are seiyuu who get to have slightly bigger role in the music business, even if only restricted to anime music. Such examples are Minami Kuribayashi and Yui Makino, and although they do take part in the Animelo concerts (promoted by the cell phone music companies), they're still much more seiyuu than singers.
Generally speaking, we can't call seiyuu songs J-pop, but we can't call them Anison as well. Simply because in order to be Anison, it has to be performed by a singer - a person who is working as a singer, and mostly for that genre. Seiyuu's job is voice acting, singing comes later.
"Moonlight Densetsu" is Anison, because of the lyrics and the popularity of the anime. There is a huge problem with this song, however, and it's the lack of a singer nowadays. Yep, that's right, fans do love it and want to hear it, but there's no one to perform it. The seiyuu group that once performed it... it wasn't even a group, just the main characters gathered together. So after the show ended we were left with a song that still has no particular singer. Therefore, during last year's NHK concert, it was covered live by 4 of the present Anison ladies: Mitsuko Horie, Youko Maekawa, Azumi Inoue, Takako Ohta.
"Ai o Torimodose" is a great Anison hit, and when I came in Japan last year, I discovered that it's popularity is much bigger than I expected. But let's not forget that both Crystal King members are welcome in the Anison world, and they often take part in most concerts. Masayuki Tanaka also did Ultraman Gaia and Kamen Rider Kuuga, while Moush Yoshizaki (who still goes under the name Crystal King, although he's the only member now) did lots of songs for Geppy-X and a cover of Lupin III. Sure, "Ai o Torimodose" appeared in the 1980s, when rock bands and their songs incorporated in anime flourished, but while most were one-time hit, Crystal King managed to do some other major Anison tracks, thus being well accepted despite originally being J-pop. It's the same case with Eizou Sakamoto.
To sum it all up, there is no concrete definition for Anison, there are only some basic conditions and rules. Every case is very individual, so the right thing to do is to sort out the songs and deal with every song separately. By default, you don't know for sure if it might be true Anison (in case it's not J-pop of course). You watch the TV Anison charts and TV shows, go to concerts, check what NHK thinks about it, and closely follow the words of the singers themselves. There are hints, and after some time you get used to knowing what is what.
Otherwise you can all call it Anison. But that's not the point. :)

[tenshi_a]

Yeah, I know most seiyuu aren't j-pop idols, or moe idols, it's just the one point where I get most confused.

I'd probably count all of the character vocal collection CDs I own as being anisong... they're normally sung by seiyuu as their characters...

Plus, some of the biggest anisong singers have had successful careers as seiyuu, like Sasaki Isao and Horie Mitsuko...

What about Momoi Haruko (Momoi Halko, Momo-i, whatever she wants to be called)? She's very geared towards moe, a squeaky (and annoying!) type of seiyuu, but at the same time turns up at the main events, was on more recent Anime special Taiko No Tatsujin game singing a vocal version of a 1980s arcade machine song (Wonder Momo -> Wonder Momo-i), sings a lot of anime themes and moe erogame songs (that are often 100% about the anime/game and so are definitely anison), composes some really catchy anime/game songs for other singers too, has sung part of "Soul Taker" with JAM Project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBc3yTL3A84) on stage, and has released the album Famison 8-bit (http://www.famison.com/) which is entirely Nintendo Famicom style versions of 1970s-1990s classic anime songs.

I think perhaps all her stuff ought to be categorised as anison... though she's moe, and the moe fans love her.

So... maybe anison should include some kinds of moe songs? Well, only hers...

So maybe it's not a categorisation down to the artist, but down to the song?

But then... I think Masayuki Tanaka's version of "Katamari On The Rock" - from the first Katamari Damacy game - counts as anisong... but the other variations of the song from later games don't count.

BTW I'm really impressed you've heard the Geppy-X songs! That's pretty rare stuff! And I'm glad Ogata Megumi is still turning up being a seiyuu at events... she hasn't been in very many things recently... and have you heard if any of the NHK events are going to be released on DVD or anything? I saw clips on youtube; it was amazing stuff!

[Tomoe]

Haruko Momoi is a good example of those moe singers that sometimes succeed to get into real Anison concerts (usually JAM or Animelo events; never Spirits), but generally they're on the verge. Yes, we can count her as Anison, but still she's far from the core.
Yeah, I forgot about Katamari on the Rock, that's Anison as well. Though the song is odd...
No, the NHK concerts are never released on DVD, they're only for TV broadcasting. The one I went to will be on air on May 26, so I suppose new clips in Youtube will appear then.

[AkanegasakiSora]

Such examples are Minami Kuribayashi and Yui Makino, and although they do take part in the Animelo concerts (promoted by the cell phone music companies), they're still much more seiyuu than singers.
Personally, I would class Kuribayashi Minami as singer mainly, considering what most of her roles were and the number of roles compared to number of songs and what those songs were for.

"Moonlight Densetsu" is Anison, because of the lyrics and the popularity of the anime. There is a huge problem with this song, however, and it's the lack of a singer nowadays. Yep, that's right, fans do love it and want to hear it, but there's no one to perform it. The seiyuu group that once performed it... it wasn't even a group, just the main characters gathered together.
That's only the second version (Moonlips), not the original (DALI).


I consider anison a wide genre:

Anime-songs.
Hero-songs.
Tokusatsu-hero-songs.
Kaijuu-songs.
TV children's songs.
TV drama songs.
Character image songs.
Drama CD songs.
Video game songs.
Vocal background music.
Seiyuu songs.
Moe anime-songs.
CM songs.
etc etc

Often, I'd class any of these as anison. It's the type of music, the feelings and purpose of the song that makes it what it is. Not who sung it or what it is for specifically (an anison doesn't have to be about a character as well, but can be about the overall show, and a song can be anison-like even when not attributed to an anime e.g. the album First Process which had music written/composed by several of victor's anison writers such as Tanaka Kouhei, Nakagawa Koutarou, Suzuki "Daichi" Hideyuki and Sakai Mikio, alongside JAM Project and Tri-Force, and Endoh Masaaki's first album which had the rest of the anipara stars there, JAM Project, and Momoi Halko, YOFFY, members of Tri-Force composed songs...). A song can also be a combination of genres, so an anison can have flavours/influences of other genres mixed in it.

If a song in an anime really isn't an anime-song, it is often pretty obvious by the feelings of the song and its relation and compatibility to the show.

People that are classed as the greats of the anison genre (Mizuki Ichirou, Sasaki Isao, Horie Mitsuko, Shimon Masato, Kageyama Hironobu etc) are usually people who have either sung a lot of songs considered anison and/or have sung songs that have contributed greatly to the anison genre.

That is what I would consider 'anison'. ^__^

[Tomoe]

First of all, Endou's original albums ("Chakuriku" and "M.e") are *not* considered Anison by any chance. They're just called original albums of an Anison singer.
I cannot fully agree with your idea of Anison's definition, because above everything Anison is *conceptual music*. That means, music that has some idea, motivation, aim, message. And it's like that from the very beginning of its creation up till its usage in the product. And yes, it must have strong relationship with a product, so it's not only about the feeling.

[GreatNekoKoneko]

...uh. akiba-pop, anyone?

(filler)

[tenshi_a]

First of all, Endou's original albums ("Chakuriku" and "M.e") are *not* considered Anison by any chance. They're just called original albums of an Anison singer.
I cannot fully agree with your idea of Anison's definition, because above everything Anison is *conceptual music*. That means, music that has some idea, motivation, aim, message. And it's like that from the very beginning of its creation up till its usage in the product. And yes, it must have strong relationship with a product, so it's not only about the feeling.

um... I think overall you two agree, to a large extent. You've just put your thoughts into different words. You both say that anisong needs a strong relationship "beyond feeling" to the product. I think perhaps, Tomoe, you're more inclined to say it depends on the artist too, though. And whether the work is "moe" or not... AkanegasakiSora's view is more inclusive...

There's something about Masaaki Endoh's album "Chakuriku"... it's such a great album... it feels much more anisong than the latest JAM Project single I own (STORMBRINGER - I as hoping Aniki would make them good again, he didn't). I know it isn't, but I think it's the instruments and the fact that it sounds like older JAM Project work that makes me feel that way. I haven't heard his new album M.e. yet; I've had an order placed for ages now... [sigh]

The STORMBRINGER CD is a great disappointment to me. I just got it this weekend... it's so generic... perhaps Kage-chan is too focussed on following popular trends, as you said.

How do the Japanese fans feel about Ricardo Cruz, btw? I noticed his face on the front cover; although he's been officially a member for so long, this is the first time I've seen him so prominently placed.

[Tomoe]

As I said, by definition "moe" is Anison, but it's very far from the core of true Anison. Singers themselves laugh at "moe" and sometimes feel awkward when they have to sing a moe song or next to a moe girl.
And yes, I do believe that Anison is strongly connected with the artists, because they are the people who make that music genre exist (along with the composers, lyrics-writers, musicians). Outside of that mini-world, Anison would just be an artificial term used for any kind of song in anime. It's the society that makes Anison what it is, and in-charge people are the basis of that society.
I don't know what Japanese think of Ricardo. I know he took part in two of the major JAM concerts in Tokyo from their tour earlier this year. There are videos in Youtube where you can see him perform on stage with the rest. I went to the last show, which was a month later, so Ricardo was already back in Brazil then. But instead, Mizuki was a special guest.