This paper presents a corpus study comprising 348 anime opening credits (OPs) released between 1989–2024, to highlight formal and audiovisual conventions. The OP serves many functions in relation to the series, including: introducing the title and protagonists, genre, themes/plot, and production credits, all of which grab the attention of viewers before the start of the episode-proper.

This study builds on corpus studies of pop music in two aspects. First, it complements broader corpora on contemporary J-pop—such as Ramage’s (2023) research on the Royal Road progression—by focusing on how the subgenre of anison interacts with a television program’s formal/temporal constraints. Second, it extends Nazare’s (2023) research on anison’s form archetypes and expands their “historico-hermeneutic” approach (Martin 2024).

The author gathered data on 200 OPs from the top 200 anime on MyAnimeList.net, and on 148 OPs from the Japan Billboard Hot Animation year-end charts, 2013–24. The corpus encodes information regarding an OP’s associated anime (title, year, demographics), musical form (formal units, form archetype), vocals (singer’s sex, rapped/sung, language), and visual devices (title screen, protagonists/antagonists, cinematography). In doing so, this study enables an in-depth look on how formal characteristics work in tandem with visual images to capture viewers’ attention.

The names Bunsū-aug (分数-aug, “Fractional-augmented”), Ikisugi (イキスギ, “Extravagant”), “Blackadder” and “Japanese Augmented Sixth,” all describe the same dissonant chord used in anime and videogame music (VGM) in recent years. These names have different origins: Bunsū-aug was popularised amongst online anime blogs, Ikisugi is thought to have been coined by anime and video game music (VGM) composer Tanaka Hidekazu, and both “Blackadder” (with no relation to the British television series) and “Japanese Augmented Sixth” were coined by VGM composer Joshua Taipale (2019).

The chord comprises an augmented chord stacked a tritone away from an independent bass note. Due to the symmetry of the augmented triad above the bass, it is possible that it may be spelled and labelled differently, which at times can obscure the chord’s intended harmonic function. For example, the augmented chord can be respelled as B+/D♭ or D♯+/D♭, including any enharmonic spellings, while no change is made in its pitch class content or 0248 set class. The interval between the bass note and the chordal third of the augmented triad makes an augmented sixth interval; this allows the chord to resolve in the same way as one would resolve a European augmented sixth chord (though the Japanese one is more likely to resolve directly to the key’s tonic than to the dominant).

This paper describes a number of Japanese aesthetic formulations of class and gender, and identifies them in anime soundtracks as “extramusical signs,” drawing on research by Peirce (1931), Greimas (1983) and Simeon (1996). This research provides a better understanding of the musical representations of class and gender in anime.

The upper class is often associated with aesthetics like iki and ga. My research shows that most anime soundtracks illustrate privileged social groups via “refined” Western timbres and genres (jazz, classical). Period anime, particularly in series which portray Japanese nobility, usually feature traditional Japanese timbres and genres (gagaku, kabuki).

On the representation of gender, the contemporary aesthetic of kawaī is inherently connected to iki and ga (Shiokawa 1999). In addition to refinement, kawaī encodes aspects which are mostly associated with younger, feminine or bishōnen characters, or those who exhibit specific “cute” traits. My research shows that kawaī is musically represented by soft or bright timbres or other bright sound effects, as opposed to darker (kowai) timbres.

On the other hand, disadvantaged social groups are characterised by aesthetics like yabo and zoku. This class is musically represented in anime with Western contemporary genres (rock, hip hop), genres which are (unfortunately) stereotypically connected to lower classes.