Anime theme songs, by design, are generally meant to be catchy and easy to sing along with (though there will always be exceptions to that rule). So it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone reading this that anime theme songs are a popular choice in Japan when friends gather in karaoke boxes to belt out their favorite songs.
Every year, leading karaoke equipment company Daiichi Kosho releases a list of the most popular anime songs from the previous year according to the stats on their DAM karaoke-on-demand service. The criteria for making it on the list are pretty simple: The anime in question had to finish airing between January 1st and December 31st of the year in question and if a song had more than one version, it was counted as one entry.
As you can see by this list, there’s no real unifying theme to the list that I can see unless you want to count lyrics that inspire you to be a better person, but that’s true for most anime theme songs and not just the ones included on this list.
Ready to find out which songs Japanese fans sang the most in 2021?
5. “Yume o Kakeru!” by various, from Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 2 OP
“Akeboshi” by LiSA, from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train Arc OP
3. “Yasashii Suisei” by YOASOBI, from BEASTARS Season 2 ED
2. “Cry Baby” by Official Hige Dandism, from Tokyo Revengers OP
1. Kaibutsu by YOASOBI, from BEASTARS Season 2 OP
What surprises me about this year’s top five is that there’s only one poppy idol song listed when it feels like there should be more. It also confuses my brain to see that two songs from the same series made it into the top five, but then again, at least it’s not Cruel Angel Thesis at the top again, even with the release of the final movie.
Source: SoraNews24
