Music is essential to every anime and goes since its first seconds. Almost always after an anime release (series, OVA or movies) its soundtrack goes on sale. For very popular productions especially of several seasons, disks will be released for fans. No wonder as a whole, since apart from its basic objective anime OSTs also have a financial function - series are mostly financed by producers of such accessories as audio and video disks, toys. So series soundtrack sales support further series.



Disks contain compositions, songs and sometimes some character dialogs. Of course, most such disk songs are opening also predefining the series' commercial success. Opening and ending themes are performed by specially invited musicians or vocal actors seyu recording soundtracks. Sometimes producers can cast a beginning actor for a series part only to let him/her perform a song there and become famous so. Ending themes are less prestigious than introductory ones but still granted to few.

Many top bands agree to record anime songs. In 1999 The Pillows recorded 2 popular tracks for FLCL - Ride On Shooting Star and I Think I Can. In 2001 it was released in the US boosting its popularity in North America.

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross series known in America as Robotech in fact gave rise to the seyu industry in the early 1980s due to featuring Iijima Mari, a young actress and singer in the key female role of Lynn Minmay. These series songs performed by her were top-rated in Japanese hit parades and for the first time in anime history aroused great viewer interest to this profession.

Unlike feature movies with popular songs sometimes used to create a mood or contemporary atmosphere, animes usually have specially composed songs (mainly opening and ending themes). As an exception, The Story of Young Hanada (2002) series featured Backstreet Boys band songs as opening and ending themes.

The Bubblegum Crisis (2002) cyber punk series directed by Akiyama Katsuhito became the 1st with a soundtrack so popular the key actresses organized a band, Knight Sabers to perform a number of very successful concerts. Then this became common practice though such bands exist only during series production and release. Another popular band is DoCo with actresses who recorded a soundtrack for Ranma 1/2 TV series.

There're lots of websites about anime music for its boosting fan base. Many post polls to choose the best soundtrack. Thus BeStuff.com's poll attracted about 2K visitors who chose 5 best anime soundtracks of 2008. They included:

1. Death Note (Film, TV)

2. Naruto (Film, TV)

3. Fullmetal Alchemist (TV)

4. Cowboy Bebop (TV)

5. Howl's Moving Castle (Film)

As seen, greatest popularity is enjoyed by music from series rather than full-length movies. Notably, Cowboy Bebop's soundtrack has long been considered one of the best. It consists of a large collection of jazz compositions mixed with folk, rock and pop music. The series itself is named after Be Bop, a music style.

A top seyu and J-pop performer is Megumi Hayashibara. She has voiced tens of characters and numerous songs within the DoCo and Ties bands. Her popular roles include:

* Ayanami Rei (Evangelion)

* Lina Inverse (Slayers)

* Hello Kitty

* Ranma-chan (Ranma 1/2)

* Catgirl Nuku Nuku

* Lime (Saber Marionette J)

* Tira Misu (Bakeretsu Hunters)

* Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop)

* Haruka (Love Hina).

Though most tracks on such disks are performed in Japanese (except adapted versions for the English market), there're some animes with prevailing English compositions. An example is City Hunter's soundtrack with mostly English themes by Japanese bands and singers.

As mentioned, most anime OSTs are performed by seyus. However, Japanese music showbiz and seyu industry seem to have started merging. So some seyus set up their own music careers and beginning pop performers try to play a part in a popular anime series to sing a song there thus promoting their 1st album.

Moreover, pop music and animation are financed by the same corporations with the top ones being Sony and Pioneer.