Image song

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The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Character CD vol. 1 Haruhi Suzumiya
.

An image song or character song is a song on a

voice actor or actor
of a character, in character with backing vocals. It is meant to give a sense of the personality of the character.

Character songs are considered an important part of an anime or dorama's success, as they often provide insights to a character that may otherwise go unexplored on the program itself. The series' creators may also include details about a particular character's design stages and evolution, and on occasion even design sketches so fans can see for themselves how a character changed. There may also be comments from the voice actors or actors on how they feel about playing their characters. Sometimes character songs are incorporated into the anime itself, such as

Prince of Tennis
, which has the openings and ending songs for the OVA episodes sung by characters in the anime.

Character songs are not restricted to anime protagonists. Antagonists such as

Devimon and Sōsuke Aizen
) also have their own character songs. In some cases, these are regarded as more interesting than those of the protagonists as they often provide the only glimpse into a villain's character.

In addition, fans are known to buy character song albums based solely on the voice actor or actor. An example of this is Megumi Hayashibara, a well-known voice actress who has released many CDs and albums over her career, including character songs of her characters.

The first anime character song album to reach No. 1 in the Japanese Oricon weekly charts is Hōkago Tea Time (放課後ティータイム, After School Tea Time), performed by the characters from K-On! in 2009, debuting at No. 1 with sales of 67,000 copies in its first week.[1] The K-On! characters later became the first anime image group to reach No. 1 in the Oricon singles chart in 2010, with the opening theme for the second season of the show, "Go! Go! Maniac!",[2][3] which debuted at No. 1 with sales of over 83,000 copies in its first week.[4]

Character version

A related sub-type is a character version, where a voice actor or actor sings a song from the series as the character. A famous example of this are the various versions of

Cruel Angel's Thesis
, Ayanami Version").

Character song

Similarly, a character song can also be a song about a character, but not necessarily sung by the character's portrayer. For example, while

Kouji Kabuto
and his friends, they are not sung by their voice actors. Nevertheless, they still provide some insight into the character's persona.

In the

Pokémon anime
, Dawn and Serena's image song were not sung by their voice actors originally either, although later introduced their voice actors' version.

See also

References

  1. ^ "K-ON! Album is 1st Anime Character CDs to Top Weekly Chart". Anime News Network. July 28, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  2. ^ 「けいおん！」が史上初アニメキャラ首位、聖子以来26年ぶり1、2位独占も記録 [K-On! Produces the First Anime Characters to Top the Charts. They are also the First [Female] Act to Occupy Top Two Spots in 26 Years since Seiko] (in Japanese). Oricon. May 4, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
  3. ^ "K-On!! Puts 1st Anime Band at #1 on Weekly Singles Chart". Anime News Network. May 3, 2010. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  4. ^ 2010年05月第2週のシングルランキング情報 [Oricon Single Rankings for the Second Week of May 2010] (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
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