Image Song

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A song specific in content and tone to a character from an anime, sung by the character's voice performer—usually on a soundtrack CD.

The animation houses which produce anime are nothing if not masters of cross-marketing and cross-promotion. One means by which a series is promoted and supported in the Japanese media marketplace is (as is sometimes the case in the United States) the original soundtrack CD.

In the early days of this practice, such CDs usually contained nothing more than the program's opening and closing themes, as well as most or all of the incidental music heard in the show. Eventually, though, the producers of such discs began to take advantage of the fact that most Japanese voice performers are also professional singers, often of the "idol" variety which drives the Japanese pop music market. They began to write songs that typified—and sometimes explored more deeply—the characters.

Thus was born the "Image Song", a uniquely Japanese variety of All There in the Manual. While a viewer can enjoy and understand a series without ever hearing the soundtrack, those that do listen to the music often receive a "bonus" in the form of a deeper understanding of the nature of the characters.

Occasionally the Image Song makes its way back to the series, where it may appear as a character's theme music, or to punctuate a sequence which features them. As time goes on, this has become more frequent, to the point where in some shows the Image Songs almost (but not quite) supplant the traditional soundtrack entirely. And in some cases, the show's theme song is treated as an Image Song—usually sung by the most important female member of the cast, but also remade any number of times by other voice performers from the show.

The Image Song differs from the Leitmotif in that it primarily exists outside of the show, whereas a leitmotif is created specifically for use in the show to represent a character or idea.

In Western musicals, the Cut Song has a similar function. "I Want" Song is similar but occurs in the show.

Examples of Image Song include:

Anime and Manga

  • Digimon is an extreme example in terms of sheer volume of image songs; for instance, Digimon Adventure 02 alone had one song for each of the Digi Destined, one song for each of their Digimon partners, and one song where they sang together, for a total of 36—in addition to ensemble songs and a Christmas album. Digimon Adventure and Digimon Tamers also had songs for secondary characters and antagonists. Digimon Frontier and Digimon Savers eventually leveled off on the practice, and Digimon Xros Wars and Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time has none at all, but it's worth noting that Savers was years off when the 100th CD in the series was released. Tai's Image Song was used as an insert piece late in Digimon Adventure proper, Matt performed his in a concert in Digimon Adventure 02, and several other characters' instrumental themes seem to be derived from theirs (or vice-versa).
  • Slayers has between one to three image songs between each of the major characters (including one of the villians, Valgaav), and there is also both the infamous "Maiden's Prayer" duet by Lina and Amelia's voice actresses from the second season of the anime, and a song where the four leads all sing together. However, these are usually overshadowed by the large number of Anime Theme Songs sung by Megumi Hayashibara
  • Sister Princess had an extensive soundtrack with solo and group songs for all 12 of the sisters.
  • Similarly for Mahou Sensei Negima, featuring all thirty of the girls from Negi's class, alone and in combinations. Similarly, the Opening Theme for the second anime features several re-recordings by different combinations of the girls, which were then used for the actual opening of different episodes.
    • The opening theme has been done with several combinations of the girls, but many of the important characters (i.e., Ala Alba) are given their own songs as well.
  • One episode of Azumanga Daioh features some of the characters singing their image songs as karaoke. Interestingly, some characters turn out to be horrible singers in the "reality" of the show, whereas their voice actors are always at their best on the CDs (even when in character).
    • In a later episode, when Yomi's listening to the radio, the DJ starts to play a request: "Kokoro wa Shoujo de Parachute" by Asakawa Yuu. This is Sakaki's image song and voice actor.
    • They also use Tomo's image song, "Poi Poi Peace," as her ring tone.
  • Some of the earliest examples of image songs may well be found on the various soundtrack albums released for Bubblegum Crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
  • Weiss Kreuz is the poster anime for this trope. For lack of a better term, Takehito Koyasu, Hiro Yuki, Shinichiro Miki and Tomokazu Seki basically formed their own boy band.
  • The Di Gi Charat franchise is extremely guilty of this trope, with lots and lots of discs and singles released. Somewhat justified since the main characters want to be idols and the franchise itself born as an marketing strategy. There was even a crossover CD with Galaxy Angel featuring characters with the same VA.
  • The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, thanks to its immense popularity put out 9 character albums, 4 soundtracks, 3 drama CDs, 8 combination soundtrack and drama CDs that shipped with one of the DVD versions, a live concert, an orchestral concert, followed by 7 more character albums for the 2009 re-airing from the Five-Man Band, plus Tsuruya and Taniguchi. All this for just 28 episodes!
    • Even Emiri Kimidori, who only appears in a single scene for less than three minutes, gets a CD, although this is foreshadowing her increased role in the books that hadn't yet been adapted.
    • Naturally, the Gender Flip faction has redone even these image songs. And they're GOOD.
    • Churuya has 6 image songs.
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, being a musical, uses every image song in the episodes, as well as every other song in the vocal box.
  • The Tenchi Muyo! series—or group of series variants—has released a whole lot of cds, including a Christmas album. Characters have several songs that could be Image Songs, and some made their way into the first television series (which followed, and re-structured, the OVA, during karaoke on-board ship. A few of these were released in America by Pioneer, including one CD called "Meet The Tenchi Muyo" that mimicked the appearance of several Beatles albums.
  • Lucky Star, too, has a large collection of image songs thanks to its overwhelming popularity. And it's not just the four main girls, either. Kagami's classmates and even Konata's deceased mother get songs. Misao, formerly one of Those Two Guys, became enough of an Ensemble Darkhorse to get an album all to herself.
    • In fact, Shiraishi got more songs than anyone else thanks to him taking the lead for the second half of ending songs. One of the songs that got a full version was none other than Ore no Wasuremono.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler's "Butler Network" segment advertises the show's image songs in a very direct, No Fourth Wall kind of way, including having Nagi wonder how well her song is selling.
    • Although not technically her character song, Hinagiku sings the ending of season two, it could fit for it though.
      • Also for the second ending of season two, Hayate and Nagi sing, what could be considered, an image song.
  • Urara from Yes! Precure 5 has two Image Songs which, in the show's reality, she actually wrote herself. She regularly sings them in concerts, accompanied in at least one case by the rest of the main cast.
  • In a rare English language example, there is a soundtrack CD released titled Pokémon: 2B A Master that features Image Songs associated with characters from the show, but not performed directly by their English voice actors. Later, there was even a live theater show -- Pokémon Live—that featured the characters singing some of the songs from that soundtrack.
    • The exception would be "Double Trouble", sung by Team Rocket's VAs. The Totally Pokémon CD released during Johto had a particularly memorable one sung by Brock's VA, Eric Stuart ("Two Perfect Girls").
    • On the Japanese side of Pokémon, for Satoshi's theme, we have Spurt! which is also one of the openings, May's theme is Watashi Makenai (one of the ending themes) and Hikari has Kimi no Soba de. Instrumentals of these are usually heard during their contest appeals.
      • Also, Team Rocket have "Rocket-Dan Yo Eien Ni" which they have occasionally actually sung in place of their motto. And Brock has "Takeshi no Paradise", originally an Ending Theme which he later started singing in episodes whenever there's a need for some kind or distraction. Vocal versions of both these songs have actually made it into the dub.
      • And Kojiro has "Lucky Lucky", a flirtatious Hurricane of (Pokémon) Puns.
  • Fushigi Yuugi had quite a few of these, most of the main characters had two image songs. A few of these were used in the series to punctuate serious moments ie. character deaths. Notably, several of the image songs were actually background music from the show with lyrics.
  • Rurouni Kenshin had quite a few image songs, though they were not actually used in the show. These included songs for characters from mini-arcs.
  • Seto no Hanayome has a massive collection of image songs to its name, most prominently by San and Luna. Magic Music is such a major part of the show it was to be expected.
  • Ojamajo Doremi had four songs for each girl by Dokkan, though Pop still only had two (and one wasn't even sung by her seiyuu). There is also a separate 2 CD set with songs sung by their classmates and teachers.
  • Sailor Moon has image songs and singles for central characters in almost every season; only some of them actually appear in the show. Its live-action adaptation, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, has these as well. The Musicals, Sera Myu also have them in spades.
    • Here's the full list. There have been scads of Sailor Moon albums; a lot of money was made off The Merch.
    • There was also a CD of image songs sold in North America that is now out of print called "Lunarock!", which featured songs that were in episodes about each of the scouts. Sailor Moon had more than one for herself on there, and they hired different voice actresses to sing for the other Inner Senshi.
    • And then there's Stephanie Beard, who wrote the song "The Real SugaBayBee". Supposedly it was for her radio character persona, but she had to have at least drawn some inspiration from her hated character in the series. Most people consider it her image song for Rini.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew follows the suit, with two character songs for each Mew Mew—except Mew Ichigo, who got five.
  • Even thirteen-episode Prétear has image songs for the four older Leafe Knights on the second soundtrack CD.
  • Ranma ½'s Song Calendars and the "Hot Song Battle Contest" album display the voice actors singing wholly in character, sometimes purely for humor (such as Genma trying to sing while in Panda form,) but for surprisingly dramatic effect at other times (girl-Ranma singing an unusually angsty song while crying in the rain.)
    • Shampoo's Wo De Airen (My Beloved) is also surprisingly touching.
    • The juxtaposition of Akane's two song really shows her Tsundere nature. Her infamous Baka Song shows the tsuntsun, while Akane's Lullaby is very deredere.
    • A little in-joke for the fans was the duet by Ryouga and the Jusenkyo Guide - the two characters share the same voice actor.
  • Magic Knight Rayearth often mixed image songs along with traditional soundtrack themes. Although they were usually performed by Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, sometimes Emeraude and Eagle would get a chance to perform. Even Mokona got in on the fun with at least two songs.
  • Arguably, the opening and ending themes for Slayers (sung by either Masami Okui or Megumi Hayashibara, or both) are all ImageSongs for heroine Lina Inverse, as they tend to describe her personality directly.
    • This doesn't prevent her from getting "normal" image songs like the rest of the main characters.
  • An even more extreme case is Prince of Tennis, which keeps delivering image songs, duets, group releases and/or image CD's for almost each player in the show in a more-or-less regular basis.
    • It's gotten to the point where the number of image songs is probably somewhere near four hundred.
  • The second Simoun OST has an Image Song for Rodoreamon.
  • Several of the Bleach characters have Image Songs released on CD, though they have never appeared in the anime itself.
  • Rosario + Vampire has a usual share of image songs in both its seasons, as well as covers of 80's J-Pop songs. In both seasons, all of these have been gratuitously inserted into the anime, with the poolside karaoke in season one and the singing in class in Capu2 being the most obvious.
  • Several characters from Kinnikuman have one of these.
  • Gundam Wing has four OSTs, five if you include Endless Waltz; out of those, two are peppered with Image Songs, while a third is given over to them entirely (the only non-Image Song track being the show's second opening theme). Most of the primary cast gets songs, with the central characters (the Gundam Pilots and Relena) getting at least two while lesser-but-still important characters like Zechs, Treize, Lady Une, and Dorothy each get one.
  • Gundam Seed Destiny's second OST features "Shinkai no Kodoku", Stella Louisser's image song, which is also an insert song for her important scenes in the series, particularly her chance meetings with Shinn, her death scene and Shinn interring her body.
  • Zettai Karen Children, being done by the same creative staff as Hayate, has a pretty large collection to its name. There are songs for the expected characters (The Children) and some less expected (Muscle Okama?).
  • Both seasons of Hidamari Sketch have these, though much more extensively in the second season. Even the Principal gets to sing.
  • One Piece has quite a few image songs for the Straw Hats and for other noteworthy characters like Shanks and Mr. 2. Some of the Straw Hats' image songs have only one character singing, but there are often ones with multiple characters (for example, Hurricane Girls features Nami and Robin), or the entire crew.
    • At one point during the Skypeia arc, Luffy and Usopp sing one of Sanji's songs. Badly.
  • My-HiME gratuitously inserted three image songs - one for each of the main players - into the show in episode 15. The show also got two full albums full of image songs for just about all of the main characters.
  • Ouran High School Host Club has some very fun image songs, as well as a song sung by all of the characters together. Noticeably missing is Haruhi's image song, and she only speaks in the group song. This makes sense as canonically, she's a horrible singer.
    • Although Haruhi in-character cannot sing her Japanese voice actress, Maaya Sakamoto, most certainly can. Haruhi may not have been given an image song or even have been allowed to sing with the boys in "Mata Ashita" due to Maaya's record contract. Caitlin Glass, Haruhi's English voice actress, is also a lovely singer.
  • There are five Fullmetal Alchemist image song CDs, with three image songs on each one. There is one for Ed, Al, Roy, Winry and Hughes. And of course, there's the compilation CD with all of those on it, plus a few group songs.
    • Sheska joins Winry for a duet (likewise; Riza Hawkeye does one with Roy, and Hughes' daughter Elycia joins her daddy for a song that really Tastes Like Diabetes). The Homunculi manage to get in a really strange talk session set to trance music, when an Elric brothers duet probably would be a much better choice for Al's CD.
    • Meanwhile in America, Vic Mignogna (Ed's voice actor) wrote a tribute song in this style.
    • Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood gives us an image song by "Romi Park and the Alchemists", which is A Good Name for a Rock Band.
  • Saiyuki has numerous image albums from the three separate anime series and almost every major character has at least one song. And try not to count how many the four main characters have, you'll give up half way through (I have tried).
    • The only exception is Hakkai, since Akira Ishida doesn't like to sing—when Hakkai absolutely needed an Image Song as part of the "Four Seasons" promotional CD for the movie, he simply delivered a monologue to music. This has led original author Minekura to playfully refer to the group of Goku, Gojyo and Sanzo's seiyuu as "-8," or "Minus Eight," as the "ha" in "Hakkai" is written with the kanji for 8.
  • Pretty much the entire vocal soundtrack of Pani Poni Dash! is sung by the characters involved.
  • Standard practice in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is to include three tracks worth of Image Songs in each Sound Stage as extra incentive to buy them. Nanoha and Fate naturally gets a good chunk of these, with Hayate a close third.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia has CDs for the eight main characters (or nine, since Italy's VA does a song for North and South Italy). They also sing their own versions of the Ending Theme of the anime, which are included as extras on the DVDs.
    • There are actually eighteen different versions of the ending theme – eight for the Axis Powers and the Allies and ten for other characters [1] – if you don't also count the "Non-Stop Version" (a ten-minute medley of all but two of the different versions) that was released as promotional material for the movie. The third season got a new ending theme that already has three versions out and more on the way. The movie also gave us "Wa! Wa!! World Ondo", in which the eight main characters all sing together, and the "Character CD Perfect Guide" gave Prussia his own image song "Mein Gott!" as well as a joint image song for Chibitalia and Roma Anitqua called "Ren Ren Renaissance". Then there are also all the drama CDs...
    • And that's not counting the ones for Austria, Ukraine and Belarus, let alone Prussia's other song, "Song of the Awesome Me."
    • Don't forget "With Love From Iceland" with Iceland and Puffin !!
  • The Rozen Maiden drama CDs all feature image songs to their respective dolls, sans Kirakishou, who doesn't have any drama CD.
  • The Hit Square Character Songs of Saki, a music CD containing the Image Songs of the two most popular characters from each of the four teams.
  • The anime Soul Eater has several albums of songs from the anime out along with at least three image albums out. The image albums each include one song (along with two other versions of the same song and a song from the anime not sung by the voice actors) sung by the Japanese voice actors. Soul Eater Evans along with Maka Albarn have a song sung together, Black Star and Tsubaki have a song sung together, and Death the Kid along with Liz and Patty Thompson have a song sung collectively. All of the tracks are quite awesome.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle has these for all of the major characters: Syaoran's being 'Kizuna,' Sakura's being 'Towa no Omoi,' Fai's being 'Smile,' Kurogane's being 'Zankou,' and Mokona's being 'Tabi no Tochuu de Kibou no Uta wo Utaou'. Though really, Yuui Makino (Sakura's Seiyuu) actually sings quite a couple of songs for the anime.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn even gives an image song to Gola Mosca, a machine who can't talk, much less sing. Instead he makes depressurizing noises from his exhaust ports which sound like creepy breathing.
    • One of the Anime's endings was Sakura Addiction, a duet Image Song for Hibari Kyouya and Rokudo Mukuro.
  • Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh is quite generous with its image songs; the three pilots and The Chick get two or three each, and the remaining 14 main characters each get a song. Even the villains get a shot in a "karaoke showdown" themed song.
  • Ronin Warriors has many soundtrack CDs, often containing image songs. Touma's singing voice is infamously bad and most of the others aren't much better - but a lot of the songs, especially groups, are fun anyway.
  • Claymore has several, from Clare's "Memory" to Irene's "Shippu". They're surprisingly good.
  • Shugo Chara has three "Character Song Collections".
  • Dragon Ball has a few. Including "Vegeta-sama no O-Ryouri Jigoku" or "Lord Vegeta's Cooking Hell". A song about Vegeta... making okonomiyaki. He forgets to add the mayonnaise.
  • Strike Witches has image songs for the entire cast as well as many duets. With five CDs, covers by each girl for a song from their respective country from around that era, and a solo for each character (Yoshika got two solos) The ending theme for both seasons are sung by different cast members each episode as well. So far one of Sanya and Eila's duets, "Sweet Duet" has inserted into the end of season two's sixth episode.
  • Durarara!! is recently coming out with character singles. So far there are only character singles for Mikado, Kida, Shizuo, Kadota, Anri and Shinra. (Izaya's is coming out soon.) Of course, Kida's image song is well known for a certain verse that he repeats multiple times.
  • The Image Songs for Kannagi are the same ones from the Karaoke Box episode, although with improved vocals.
  • Toradora!
  • K-On! has two for each of the five main characters, as well as for some of the side characters.
  • Minami-ke has a few image song albums; in addition, the soundtracks include versions of the opening and ending themes by each of the three sisters.
  • Vision of Escaflowne while there was not much in the way of image songs, Merle got one and it was great.
  • Dancougar has some sung by the voice actors themselves. Some of the notable ones are Ai Wa Zankoku No Fairytail and Ai Wa Shitta Yajuu No You Ni. The former was sung by the entire Juusenki Tai, the latter's just Shinobu.
  • Marginal Prince features a song by any of the characters in focus of the particular episode - episode Nine even features three of them. This was probably mainly done to promote the game the anime is based on, as it main feature is the songs as a "reward" for completing a character route. Luckily, most of the seiyuu are good singers. Unfortunately, not all songs from the game made it into the anime series (but therefore, some new ones were created).
  • Working!!: Takanashi, Popura, Inami, Yachiyo, Sooma, Satou and Yamada have their own image songs, plus their own versions of the song "Wagnaria Sanka." Additionally, the opening and ending theme songs for both the first and second seasons are sung by the voice actors themselves, while in character.
  • Hidan no Aria has a few, notably "First Contact" and "Ring a ding on, Riko-rin" for Aria and Riko
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Kamina and Simon do a duet by the name of "Break Through the Dream." It is filled with about as much manliness as you can cram into a song.
  • Seeing as Saint Beast has an All-Star Cast of Voice Actors and began as an audio drama, there are multiple image songs and cds for the series.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica has Madoka's See You Tomorrow and Kyouko's and Sayaka's duet And I'm Home.
  • The entirety of the Letters and Doll ～Looking back on the memories of Violet Evergarden～ album consists of nothing but image songs for Violet Evergarden from Violet Evergarden.

Comic Books

Fan Works

framerate's mad spotty like a PS 1
the story's still cloudy, sorta like my namesake
so wait-- it turns out that what was in my mind
was a memory, a dream, that wasnt even mine

Film

  • For the James Bond film that eventually became Thunderball, a theme tune was written for its previous title, Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. While the title was changed, necessitating a new theme, "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" typifies Bond's character so well that it served as Bond's Image Song.
    • Though the replacement theme, Tom Jones' "Thunderball", still fits the trope. And years later, in Casino Royale, Chris Cornell wrote "You Know My Name" to serve as an Image Song for the inexperienced Bond (as the Leitmotif is only used at the final scene).
  • Six years after My Cousin Vinny, Joe Pesci revived his character for the album Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You. Many who heard it wished that he hadn't.
  • "Gollum's Song" (Gollum) and "Into the West" (Galadriel) from the The Lord of the Rings films seem to fit.

Live-Action TV

  • Super Sentai releases yearly Image Album songs by the heroes ever since Abaranger, with variable degrees of singing. Gekiranger had villains Rio and Mele be such major characters that they too got to sing.
    • Even before that, there were sentai image songs-not usually sung by the characters, usually done by anime singers such as MoJo or Isao Sasaki. The villain songs were usually done up until the 90s by vocal trio Koorogi '73.
  • Kamen Rider occasionally does this as well, but how many of the actors sing on the album depends entirely on whether their characters would be the type to sing.
    • Den-O is a good example for Kamen Rider. Ryoutarou has a duet with each of his Imagin and he has his own song. The Imagin also do their own version of the opening song!
    • Kamen Rider Kiva gives it a twist in that the primary Riders (and Kiva's alternate forms) all have Image Songs, but these are all sung by TETRA-FANG, a "limited band" formed for this express purpose, with Kiva star Koji Seto providing the vocals.
    • Kamen Rider OOO also has plenty of these. There's one for each of the main character's "Combo" forms (his base form plus every Set Bonus), all of them sung by the main character's actor; the two full-on Super Mode combos are duets with a different character.
  • Jon Pertwee released a spoken-word single titled "Who is the Doctor?" after his character in Doctor Who. (Sometimes called "I am the Doctor" after its "chorus.")
  • A Thunderbirds spinoff single had Lady Penelope singing "Parker, Well Done!" as part of a short dramatization featuring the original voice actors for Parker, Lady Penelope and Jeff Tracy.
  • Dinosaurs has the famous I'm the Baby (Gotta Love Me) song and music video, as well as the 1992 album Dinosaurs: Big Songs, which included songs made for the regular characters, all sung by their respective voice actors. A version in Spanish was also released, but it didn't feature the voice actors from the dub (at least not the Mexican dub).
  • Edd Byrnes recorded the hit song "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb" (with Connie Stevens), which was based on his character in the ABC Detective Drama 77 Sunset Strip.
  • Lizzie McGuire has "I Can't Wait", a Brooke McClymont that Hilary Duff covered, singing "as" her character. The song is on both of the Lizzie McGuire albums and caught a lot of airplay on Radio Disney back in the day, and was actually released as a single in Happy Meals in 2004 (along with another CD that had "Lizzie" narrating a few episodes, although the voice actress was not really Hilary).
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation has the episode "The Inner Light". For anyone who has seen that episode, the song is synonymous with Picard and the character development he goes through in that episode. There's the original flavor, the flute and piano duet, or the complete orchestral version.
  • WWE has put out several albums of songs sung by their wrestlers that are supposed to provide more insight on the characters, including The Wrestling Album, Piledriver: The Wrestling Album II, Wrestlemania: The Album, and WWE Originals. Without exception, they all pretty much suck.
    • One possible exception would be Kurt Angle, who on his "Originals" track claims quite the opposite.
      • Kurt Angle lies. He may not suck, but that song certainly does.
    • Jericho's song was pretty good and And Angle's was so bad it's good. To be fair though, most of the wrestlers did admit they didn't expect to be very good.
    • Sensational Sherri and Shawn Michaels think their song is sexy.
    • Both of John Cena's best-known and longest-lasting entrance themes ("Basic Thugonomics" and "The Time is Now") were written and performed by him. Basic Thugonomics was good. The Time is Now? YMMV.
  • Glee has Get it right for Rachel.
  • Bill Mumy sings The Ballad of William Robinson, from the perspective of his character at age 42, having been Lost in Space with his family for 30 years. He also did Stronger Than Gravity, an image song for his character Lennier from Babylon 5.

Music

  • Dos Gringos, a band comprised of United States Air Force fighter pilots, has a song called "Last of the Breed" that (aside from being written in a future where they're all Retired Badasses) describes what modern USAF fighter pilots are like.
    • "I'm A Pilot" also counts, though it's more satirical and Self-Deprecation (it's written from the perspective of crew chiefs and their perceptions of fighter pilots).

Radio

  • Marvin, the Paranoid Android had four such songs sung by Stephen Moore, his actor from the original radio and TV series.
    • The soundtrack of the movie included as bonus tracks one of the aforementioned Marvin songs and the hilarious campaign song "Vote Beeblebrox."

Video Games

  • BlazBlue includes one for almost every female member of the cast...and Bang. Kanako Kondō, Noel's VA sings the vocal version of her theme, Love so Blue, during one of Calamity Trigger's final battles, as well as singing in duo with Asami Imai for the vocal version of the Noel vs Tsubaki theme and Continuum Shift's credits. Other entries include the VA for Rachel, Tsubaki, Litchi, Makoto and Bang singing each character's theme
  • Sakura Taisen might be one of the most extreme cases. There are literally dozens of versions of the original theme song, recorded by every possible cast member or combination of cast members. In addition, there are straight Image Songs for each of the main cast, which sometimes find their way into the program as individual themes.
  • The Tokimeki Memorial series has had loads of CDs released. The first game in particular had MANY image songs and that was just for the lead character, Shiori.
  • Galaxy Angel has a massive amount of image songs across its various seasons and games, and throws in a few duets for good measure.
  • Higurashi no Naku Koro ni has quite a few, but the one that stands out the most has to be Keiichi and Ooishi's duet from the first season set of songs featuring Gratuitous English rapping. Following true Higurashi fashion, it's a funny song to listen to. Until Keiichi claws out his throat at the end.

"Do you know Oyashiro-sama?"
"Yes, Hinamizawa."
"I kill you, you kill me."
"No, Hinamizawa."

    • The song for Shion and Mion called "Birthday of Two". The difference is, however, that it sounds happy and upbeat...if you don't speak Japanese. Insert Mion begging, probably for her life, and Shion's creepy laugh right before the final chorus and you have something that will does a thorough job of creeping the hell out of random passerby.
    • Shion then got her own image song, called "Sora No Mukou". Most of the characters in Higurashi have their own image song now.
    • And everyone's various renditions of "Dear You".
  • "Ai No Uta" (Love Song), the image song for the eponymous creatures of Pikmin, became a phenomenon in Japan, actually outselling the game it was about. The most popular demographic was middle-aged working men, who strongly identified with the themes of loyalty despite abuse which the Pikmin expressed:

Uprooted, we'll follow you alone.
Today once again we'll carry, fight, multiply, and then be eaten.
Dug up, we'll meet again and be thrown around.
But we'll follow you forever.

  • The King of Fighters has a few image songs on every arranged sound track from '94 to '98. Most of them are usually sung by Athena's VA, but '95 has a song where the entire cast gets in on the action, and '97 has a Kyo/Iori duet. Hell, even Choi gets to sing!
    • The tail end of it is even the short song that's played in his intro during KOF '98 if he's the first character out on the team or if it's a 1v1 match. The song, for the record, is called the "Choi Bounge Ondo."
  • Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 and |Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 have character songs for all the playable characters plus the game's theme tune. Sonic Heroes replaced individual character themes with team themes (fitting the game's gimmick). The trend varyingly continues with the most recent games (different songs for different endings in Shadow the Hedgehog, only one theme song for Sonic Unleashed, etc).
  • The Masou Kishin/Elemental Lords in Super Robot Wars mostly had their Leitmotifs turned into Image Song. Other than Masaki's, they're usually sung by their own seiyuus (Masaki's Image Song is sung by Ichiro Mizuki and Hironobu Kageyama.) There's also image songs by JAM Project about the SRX Team's Leitmotif.
  • Mai Shiranui, from the Fatal Fury games has gotten 2 image songs, based on her background music themes: "Kachou Fuugetsu Otome Mai" (not by her voice actress, but Reiko Chiba) and "Dear MAI Boy" (by her actual voice actress, Akoya Sogi). From the same series, Blue Mary also has an image song, "Blue Mary's Blues" which also has a sprite-based video.
    • Some image songs for Samurai Shodown also exist, at least for Nakoruru and Rimururu (like Egao de Iru for the latter).
    • In fact, a couple of albums made of them were once released by SNK: SNK Gals Vocals Collection and SNK Guys Vocals Collection; the former included one for Yuri Sakazaki.
  • The Disgaea series features Image Songs -- Laharl, Etna, Mid-Boss and Axel each have one ("Lord Laharl's Hymn", "Etna Boogie", "Ah, My Magnificent Life" and "White Tiger", respectively), featured in the characters' respective endings.
  • Xenosaga Episode II contains a track called "The Image Song of Xenosaga Episode II" (a portion of it is played while fighting Margulis). However, it doesn't appear to be from the point of view of any particular character.
  • The three leads of Final Fantasy X-2 all got their own CDs.
  • F-Zero GX featured image songs for all of the characters, some with lyrics. Yes, including Captain Falcon.
  • Super Mario Bros.. combined this with Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics to create Super Mario Compact Disco. Oddly enough, Peach is only mentioned once throughout the soundtrack (specifically during the "Super Mario USA" song), as the rest of it is spent playing up Daisy as Mario's Love Interest.
  • The Harukanaru Toki no Naka de franchise got quite a bit of these; in fact, the Hachiyou Shou anime TV series makes a point of using the ten associated character songs—eight for the main team plus two for the villains—for the character-centered episodes: either within the episode itself, often as a Theme Music Power-Up, or replacing the regular Ending Theme. Even Yasuaki, who is voiced by Akira Ishida, wasn't spared (one episode has a remake version of his Image Song as the ending).
  • Umineko no Naku Koro ni is getting these; so far we have Jessica's Ear Worm-inducing "Dokkyun Heart" and Maria'a absolutely adorable "Happy Halloween MARIA." Coming up next is Beato and George. ...Wait, Beato and George?!?
    • The album Rokkenjima in Love (released alongside EP6) contains Image Songs for Battler, Maria, Bernkastel, Kumasawa/Virgilia, Kyrie, Beatrice, The Seven Sisters of Purgatory, Ange, and one for the EP3 myth battle between Beatrice and Virgilia. Beatrice's Image Song deserves mention, though, for being instrumentalized and used as epic BGM in EP7.
  • Angelique has mulptiple image songs for all of the datable guys, including plenty of duet and group songs. The third set of OVAs even includes music videos for the Cherry Blossom/Sunflower set of image songs.
  • Metal Gear Solid has finally done this with Peace Walker, which has plot-important image songs for Paz and Peace Walker that play in game, and an image song for Big Boss and Kaz each that came on a supplemental drama CD.
  • Young Maylay, the voice of Carl 'C.J.' Johnson in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and accomplished rap musician, used the game's theme song as a backing track for the first song on his LP, San Andreas: The Original Mixtape, where he raps about the game in character. Before that, Love Fist recorded a few original eighties hair metal pastiche songs for the in-game radio stations, as well as the game's soundtrack CD.
  • At the end of Portal, GLaDOS sings a little song about her feelings. It's such a catchy, memorable song it became a triumph.
    • GLaDOS does it again at the end of Portal 2, and while "Want You Gone" wasn't as well received as "Still Alive" it did prove that, yes, giant computers can be Tsundere too.
  • Star Salzman from Over Clocked Remix turns "Robo's Theme" into this with the addition of lyrics, recounting several incidents from Chrono Trigger that focused on Robo, using first person language.
  • Fate Stay Night has one of these for Saber, Shirou, Rin, Archer, Illya, Sakura, Rider, and Caster, respectively. They come with a remix and an instrumental version.
  • Saints Row the Third's Adult Swim-themed radio station includes a song by Unknown Hinson sung in-character as Early Cuyler.
  • The Idolmaster has it in spades, even down to character cover songs. Doesn't help that this game is all about Idol Singers...

Web Animation

  • In 2003, the creators of Homestar Runner released an album called Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits, mostly featuring new versions of songs from the site.
  • RWBY, as part of its deliberately Animesque production, includes among its awesome music multiple songs for each of the four main characters, and most of the other foreground characters get their own songs as well.

Web Comics

  • Fans! actually had an entire chapter about a musical vampire that included Image Songs for most of the main characters.
  • Erfworld has "Quest for the Arkentools", sung by the comic writer, from Warlord Stanely's POV.
  • The songs in 'Homestuck don't normally have lyrics, though a handful of album exclusive ones do, a few of them acting as Image Songs for the characters. The first is the original (Scrapped) version of The Ballad of Jack Noir, which serves as an image song for, well, Jack Noir. The second is Eridan's Walkabout which, while not having a vocal track, was released with a set of lyrics that serve as this for Eridan... or at least, for his pirate persona. Interestingly, the lyrics seem to indicate that Eridan is not, in fact, the one singing. The third is Temporal Shenanigans, which acts as a theme for Aradia, illustrating her character development through the comic.

Western Animation

  • The two-part episode of Kappa Mikey had a karaoke theme and each character had his or her own song included. Being a parody of anime, this is appropriate, although the voice actors' singing abilities are far from American Idol quality.
  • "I Don't Need No Instructions (To Know How to Rock)" from Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters would fit this trope for Carl down to a T if it weren't for the fact that Carl's voice actor never actually sings this in any known media.
  • Pixar put out cassette tapes with corresponding songbooks including songs "sung" by the characters in A Bugs Life and the first Toy Story.
  • The Simpsons had "Do the Bartman" and "Deep Deep Trouble" (among others; the cast recorded an album called The Simpsons Sing the Blues which was about half these and half blues songs sung in character, but those two are the best known). The former gets referenced in later episodes occasionally in order to poke fun at the show's initial reception; in one episode, Bart sings a bit of it only to be dismissed by Ralph Wiggum --

Ralph: That is so 1991!

  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did this in the early 1990s with the Coming Out Of Their Shells, an album featuring the eponymous characters as a rock band, singing character building and motiviational songs about their lives. It's obscure because it's terrible. It's also not sung by the actual voice actors. (On the bright side, one song from the album - "Pizza Power" - was good enough to be featured in the arcade/SNES title Turtles in Time.)
    • This album also gave birth to a live stage tour, which Shredder temporarily takes over to sing an image song of his own, in which he sings about... how much he hates music. Figure that one out.
  • The Around the World with Willy Fog soundtrack CD features image songs for Romy, Rigodón (joined by Tico), and Dix and Transfer (as antagonists with different goals, they share a Distant Duet).
  • June had her own image song in KaBlam!, titled "I'm Flying", which she (most likely) wrote herself. However, she got a neck injury and never finished.

June: * singing* I'm flying, lighter than air, up in the skies, whithout a care, I'm-OOF! * slams into TV screen*

  • Action League NOW: "THUNDERGIRL, FLYING LIKE THUNDER, WHILE OTHERS MUST WONDER, WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
  • Snap from ChalkZone had "I'm Back and Bluer Than Ever".
  • Christy Carlson Romano, Kim Possible's voice actress, sings "Say The Word" as Kim, which is a braggy song about her released on the soundtrack CD. She sang a remixed version in the "Hidden Talent" episode.
  • Toad in X-Men: Evolution has one.
  • Each of the Winx Club girls has one of these released as part of the Winx Club In Concert CD. (However, this excludes Roxy, as the album was released before season 4.)
  • While not sung by any voice actors from the cartoon adaption, there were a few songs back in My Little Pony G1 that described some ponies. The CD was based off the toy line and was European, so it makes sense they wouldn't use anyone from the American cartoons.
  • The My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "A Friend In Deed" gives us Pinkie Pie's "Smile Song", which perfectly describes her personality. It bears noting that back when it was leaked onto the Internet (as an audio track with no sound effects), many fans speculated that it was meant to be a soundtrack CD exclusive.

Real Life

  • The Dutch national anthem Het Wilhelmus is a song written from the point of view of William of Orange, and why he's fighting for the Dutch.
  1. ↑ Chibitalia, the Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Poland, Lithuania, Austria, Prussia, Spain, and Sealand
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