History Main / IMageSOng

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' is getting these; so far we have Jessica's EarWorm-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=].

** Den-O is a good example for ''KamenRider''. 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!
** ''KamenRiderKiva'' gives it a twist in that the primary Riders (and Kiva's [[MultiformBalance 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.
** ''KamenRiderOOO'' also has plenty of these. There's one for each of the main character's "Combo" forms (his base form plus every SetBonus), all of them sung by the main character's actor; the two full-on SuperMode combos are duets with a different character.

* Walter White from {{Breaking Bad}} has "Negro Y Azul : The Ballad Of Heisenberg"

Thus was born the "ImageSong", a uniquely Japanese variety of AllThereInTheManual. 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 ImageSong 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 [[AnimeThemeSong 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 ImageSong 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.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' is an extreme example in terms of sheer volume of image songs; for instance, ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' 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. ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' and ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' also had songs for secondary characters and antagonists. ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' and ''Anime/DigimonSavers'' eventually leveled off on the practice, and ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'' and ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersLeapingThroughTime'' has none at all, but it's worth noting that ''Savers'' was years off when [[SerialEscalation the 100th CD]] in the series was released. Tai's ImageSong was used as an insert piece late in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' proper, Matt performed his in a concert in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', and several other characters' instrumental themes seem to be derived from theirs (or vice-versa).

** Aside from the Season One mini-albums for the major characters (containing 2 songs, karaoke tracks, and interviews), there are a few albums for Season 2, TheMovie, Can't Take My Eyes Off You, and Cuties with a few characters tracks for pretty much everyone - notably most characters got an ImageSong for the ending of their personal episode in Cuties.

* Urara from ''YesPrecure5'' has two {{Image Song}}s 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.

* Arguably, the [[AnimeThemeSong opening and ending themes]] for ''{{Slayers}}'' (sung by either Masami Okui or Megumi Hayashibara, or both) are all {{ImageSong}}s for heroine Lina Inverse, as they tend to describe her personality directly.

* ''GundamWing'' has four [=OSTs=], five if you include ''[[TheMovie Endless Waltz]]''; out of those, two are peppered with Image Songs, while a third is given over to them entirely (the only non-ImageSong 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.

** The only exception is Hakkai, since AkiraIshida doesn't like to sing--when Hakkai absolutely needed an ImageSong 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.

* For the ''Franchise/JamesBond'' film that eventually became ''Film/{{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 ImageSong.

*** By extension from the three female leads(Saki, Miu and Kegalesia), Hiroto also got not one but two ImageSong(s). Not so susprising since his actor is also a singer as well.
* ''KamenRider'' 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.

* ''TheKingOfFighters'' 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 Masou Kishin/Elemental Lords in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' mostly had their {{Leitmotif}}s turned into ImageSong. Other than Masaki's, they're usually sung by their own seiyuus (Masaki's ImageSong is sung by [[JAMProject Ichiro Mizuki and Hironobu Kageyama]].) There's also image songs by JAMProject about the SRX Team's {{Leitmotif}}.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'' series features {{Image Song}}s -- [[EvilOverlord Laharl]], [[TheLancer Etna]], [[UnknownRival Mid-Boss]] and [[NobuyukiHiyama Axel]] each have one ("Lord Laharl's Hymn", "Etna Boogie", "Ah, My Magnificent Life" and "White Tiger", respectively), featured in the characters' respective endings.

** In ''VideoGame/Disgaea4APromiseUnforgotten'', Valvatorez's ImageSong, "Arcadian Vampire", is even brought up within the story - Some of the [[PlayerMooks Prinnies]] write it in the first half of the game to use as a HubLevel theme. Meanwhile, Fuka gets a humorous remix of Flonne's {{Leitmotif}} WithLyrics (or ''one'' lyric, rather), and the song "Naked Requiem" appears to serve as one for Fenrich and Val in Tyrant Valvatorez Mode (which ups their occasionally lampshaded HomoeroticSubtext even further).

* The ''HarukanaruTokiNoNakaDe'' 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 [[CastFullOfPrettyBoys the main team]] plus two for the villains -- for the [[ADayInTheLimelight character-centered episodes]]: either within the episode itself, often as a ThemeMusicPowerUp, or replacing the regular EndingTheme. Even [[ArtificialHuman Yasuaki]], who is voiced by AkiraIshida, wasn't spared (one episode has a remake version of his ImageSong as the ending).

* The songs in '''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' don't normally have lyrics, though a handful of album exclusive ones do, a few of them acting as ImageSongs for the characters. The first is the original (Scrapped) version of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqKvmyPhUf8 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBB7nP6m5OA 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 [[http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/temporal-shenanigans Temporal Shenanigans]], which acts as a theme for Aradia, illustrating her character development through the comic. "G4m3 Grl" serves as one of these for Latula, although perhaps not with Latula singing.

** Although Haruhi in-character cannot sing her Japanese voice actress, MaayaSakamoto, 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. CaitlinGlass, Haruhi's English voice actress, is also a lovely singer, as heard in ''Anime/BlackCat''.

* 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.

** Due to astronomical PopularityPower, Hinagiku now has ''three full character albums'' (HiNA, HiNA 2 Spring Has Come, and HiNA 3 Message). The IdolSinger character has only just gotten ''one''. Both also get a [[Crossover}} album with TheWorldGodOnlyKnows featuring that series {{Tsundere}} Haqua and IdolSinger Kanon.

** 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.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' song "The Best Day Ever" could qualify as one for [=SpongeBob=] since its TastesLikeDiabetes lyrics fit his personality well. Accompanying the song on "The Best Day Ever Album" are original songs performed by the main characters could fit as image songs.

** ''Anime/DigimonSavers'' did eventually get an Image Song CD, but [[DemotedToExtra Yoshi and Lalamon were missing altogether]]. Frustratingly ironic, as their BackStory is that they met after Yoshi failed in a piano recital and Lalamon ''has an attack called Sing A Song'' which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Later in the year, another CD was released that included all new songs from the five "[[TheHero goggle boys]]" for ''Digimon'''s tenth anniversary.

* ''SuperSentai'' 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.

*** Some Sentai characters did perform their own image songs, however. These characters include [[DaiSentaiGoggleFive Goggle Pink]], [[ChoujuuSentaiLiveman Blue Dolphin]] and [[ChoujinSentaiJetman Black Condor]] (the last one even plays out in the middle of his CrowningMomentOfAwesome). There were also an album named ''Sentai Heroine'' that include most female rangers' and villainess(include [[MachikoSoga Bandora]]) songs sung by their actors from 90 to Gaoranger.

* The ''TenchiMuyo'' 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.

* Seeing as ''SaintBeast'' has an AllStarCast of VoiceActors and began as an audio drama, there are multiple image songs and cds for the series.

** ''[[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood]]'' gives us an image song by "RomiPark and the Alchemists", which is AGoodNameForARockBand.

** Although Haruhi in-character cannot sing her Japanese voice actress, MaayaSakamoto, 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. CaitlinGlass, Haruhi's English voice actress, is also a lovely singer.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' 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 --

* Wrestling/{{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.

* Wrestling/{{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, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyS9ewAolH0 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 JohnCena'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.

** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQq2snhu4Vg#t=1m3s Don't forget]] "I Love to [=KaBlam=]([[TradeSnark TM]])"

** 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.
*** Previously, however, there are some Sentai character ImageSong, but not all characters get their own ImageSong. These characters include [[DaiSentaiGoggleFive Goggle Pink]], [[ChoujuuSentaiLiveman Blue Dolphin]] and [[ChoujinSentaiJetman Black Condor]] (the last one even plays out in the middle of his CrowningMomentOfAwesome). There were also an album named ''Sentai Heroine'' that include most female rangers' and villainess(include [[MachikoSoga Bandora]]) songs sung by their actors from 90 to Gaoranger.

* DoubleDragon Neon has [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zze026EoKj8 Glad I Am]] as the BGM to one of the levels, sung by Billy and Jimmy Lee. The lyrics are all about them teaming up and helping each other beat their enemies. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkdh3625Rwg Firebird]] may also count, since it's sung by Billy.

* The two-part episode of ''KappaMikey'' 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 ''AmericanIdol'' quality.

* DosGringos, a band comprised of [[YanksWithTanks 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 Badass}}es) describes what modern USAF fighter pilots are like.

* Two were released along with ''UmJammerLammy'' - one a fairly straightforward extended version album with Katy Kat singing to the game's songs along with the tutors (with occasional [[AWildRapperAppears rap guest verses]] from Parappa), and a more interesting hip-hop remix album by Parappa, whose voice actor was presumably given carte blanche to rap about whatever he wanted and so did a kid-friendly 70s ConsciousHipHop throwback that [[DarkerAndEdgier darkens up the character]] - the implication of the album is that while Parappa is a good, diligent kid who stayed well away from [[GangstaRap gangs, drugs, underage drinking, institutional police violence and so on]], he grew up in an environment where he had to ''work'' to avoid it, instead of being in a situation where he never had to face that at all. (These topics are not even mentioned in [[SugarBowl the games]].)

* Two were released along with ''UmJammerLammy'' - one a fairly straightforward extended version album with Katy Kat singing to the game's songs along with the tutors (with occasional [[AWildRapperAppears rap guest verses]] from Parappa), and a more interesting hip-hop remix album by Parappa, whose voice actor was presumably given carte blanche to rap about whatever he wanted and so did a kid-friendly 70s ConsciousHipHop throwback.

* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' is an extreme example in terms of sheer volume of image songs; for instance, ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' alone had one song for each of the DigiDestined, 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. ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' and ''Anime/DigimonTamers'' also had songs for secondary characters and antagonists. ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' and ''Anime/DigimonSavers'' eventually leveled off on the practice, and ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'' and ''Anime/DigimonXrosWarsTheYoungHuntersLeapingThroughTime'' has none at all, but it's worth noting that ''Savers'' was years off when [[SerialEscalation the 100th CD]] in the series was released. Tai's ImageSong was used as an insert piece late in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' proper, Matt performed his in a concert in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', and several other characters' instrumental themes seem to be derived from theirs (or vice-versa).