Popular Japanese content creator and music critic Mino recently published an online essay titled Has J-Pop become just a subcontractor of anime?, in which he discusses how the Japanese anime industry has been influencing recent trends in the domestic pop music scene. The essay comes as an extension of Mino’s YouTube music critique series in which he reviews some of the biggest hits of the 2020s. It was written to address backlash from viewers claiming that “the music can’t be viewed separately from the anime” (arguing that, in order to critique the songs, you need to understand the context of the anime as well). While analyzing the relationship between anime and J-Pop tie-ins, Mino concludes that pop singles which are “self-contained” and don’t rely on being tied in with an anime or a TV series, are now practically a “dying breed.”
We know that many of the J-pop songs that become hits in the West also often serve as anime openings or endings (or rather, they become popular because they are used as theme songs in anime), but is it the same for Japan? To illustrate his points on how the Japanese music industry has changed throughout the years, Mino cites the top 10 singles in Billboard JAPAN’s Hot 100 year-end list for 2025:
- Mrs. GREEN APPLE “Lilac” (opening theme for the anime Oblivion Battery)
- Mrs. GREEN APPLE “Darling” (theme song for NHK’s 18fes special program)
- Rose & Bruno Mars “APT.” (no tie-in)
- Kenshi Yonezu “IRIS OUT” (theme song for Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc)
- Mrs. GREEN APPLE “Kusushiki” (opening theme for the 2nd season of the anime The Apothecary Diaries)
- HANA “Rose” (no tie-in)
- Sakanaction “Kaijuu” (opening theme for the anime Orb: On the Movements of the Earth)
- Mrs. GREEN APPLE “Que Sera Sera” (theme song for TV series At Least on Sunday Night)
- Mrs. GREEN APPLE “Bitter Vacances” (theme song for Saint Young Men The Movie)
- Kenshi Yonezu “Plazma” (theme song for the anime Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX )
Looking at the chart, only two songs in the top 10 are “independent” from tie-ins, and out of the two, only one is by a domestic artist (HANA – “Rose”). “No song can climb to the top of the charts without being associated with other media forms. That’s what Billboard JAPAN’s 2025 lineup seems to be proclaiming,” Mino concludes.
The critic then takes a look at some of the recently popular albums in the scene, singling out King Gnu’s THE GREATEST UNKNOWN as an example of an album having 93% of its tracks (13 out of 14, excluding intros and transitions), used as anime and drama theme songs and commercials. Some of the notable tracks on the album include two theme songs for the Jujutsu Kaisen series.
Looking back at the history of Japanese pop music throughout the 20th century, Mino points out that “Ever since its birth, the Japanese music industry’s connection with visual media has been ingrained in its DNA.” However, he argues that music back then was “clearly separate in meaning” from the visual media it was tied with. Modern J-pop songs that serve as anime openings, on the other hand, are “expected to be subordinate to the original work.”
Of course, having your songs tied to popular anime is huge for breaking through, and can even help expand your music overseas, but as Mino argues, this framework also puts pressure on artistic expression and individuality. One biggest example he gives is the “89-second rule,” where a song has all of its most memorable moments packed in a 89-second-long format, to fit the length of a regular anime opening. According to Mino, in many cases, songs are intentionally made to fit this format, even those that failed to get picked up as anime theme songs – causing the market to get oversaturated. “Even before being inserted into the medium, the music is already optimized to be used in the context of that medium,” he writes.
