Suspiciously Similar Song / Anime

• The opening theme of Laid-Back Camp (Yurucamp), "SHINY DAYS!! Atarashii kaze!" is very similar to The Jackson 5's I Want You Back and ABC, and the internet didn't pass up on the opportunity.
• Mazinkaiser's opening theme, Fire Wars by JAM Project sounds very much like Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name .
  • Someone even put the latter to the intro and it suprisingly synchs up very well with the animation.
• "Tension" music from Slayers. "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Pt. 1" by King Crimson. You may notice a slight similarity.
  • "Beginning", from Mobile Suit Gundam III sounds very similar to Crimson's Prince Rupert Awakes. Observe.
• From 1974's Jack and the Beanstalk (1974), No One's Happier Than I sounds eerily similar to the Carpenters' Top Of The World
• "Uprising" sung by the English rock band Muse takes its inspiration from the song Pray For You sung by Cindy Wood from the Opening of the 1983 anime film Golgo 13.
• The lyrics of the song "Golgo 13 and I" sung by Cindy Wood from the 1983 anime film Golgo 13 sounds closely familiar to the 1970 spaghetti western Opening theme of Indio Black/Adios Sabata composed by Bruno Nicolai.
• Orochimaru's theme in Naruto borrows part of its melody from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
  • The opening to Sarutobi, the Third Hokage's Battle Theme Music, is an almost exact copy of Ozzy Osbourne's 'Bark at the Moon'...
• Bomberman Jetters: Mujoe's theme sounds more like a Shout-Out to the Seinfeld theme, as it uses ALL the instruments and arrangement of the infamous theme, but with just little changes on some notes.
• The theme "Nunnally" from Code Geass uses the same melody, same lead instrument, SAME KEY, and a similar chord progression to the main theme from an obscure Ennio Morricone-scored film, Malena. Hear for yourself.
• For whatever reason, Gojou Shioji from Excel♡Saga appears to have "Another One Bites the Dust" as his theme song, with a few courtesy notes thrown in.
  • The second episode uses a parody of Metallica's "Sad but True."
  • The track "Ikamino Gekiban" sounds like the theme song from The Simpsons for some reason.
• Nandemo Q was a children's television show which aired on NHK between 1995 and 2004 that featured educational Suspiciously Similar Songs of popular western songs that often featured Pun Based Titles such as "Hotaru California".
• Full Metal Panic!: "Tokkou Yarou", a background theme used in that series is incredibly similar to the theme from The A-Team. The title is actually "Tokkou Yarou?" / 「特攻野郎？」(yes, with question mark) which means something along the lines of "Gung-ho guys". Lampshaded with a cameo as a cellphone ring tone and someone says it sounds like an old American TV show (which indeed was called Tokkou Yarou A-Chiimu when broadcast in Japan).
  • Also, in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, the ending song, "Kimi Ni Fuku Kaze" sounds VERY similar to Santana and Michelle Branch's "The Game of Love."
  • "Tokku Yarou" is also used in Fumoffu for the next episode preview. The Second Raid switches it out for "Shissou", a piece suspiciously similar to the theme from Airwolf.
• Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation has an end credits theme that has a soundalike of Brian Culbertson's "Colors of Love", entitled "Neptune Sagashite" by Afilia Saga.
• One of Shirou Sagisu's pieces ("Decisive Battle") for Neon Genesis Evangelion is suspiciously similar to a John Barry composition, "007", used in From Russia with Love.
  • Another example ("Barefoot in the Park") is suspiciously similar to "The Girl from Ipanema" used when the characters are having a coffee break.
  • Shinji's theme, "I. Shinji" is basically a minor-key version of "God Save the Queen" mashed-up with "The Godfather Waltz".
  • On the soundtrack for Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, the track "2EM05_KK_B09" sounds suspiciously similar to "The Third Man Theme" by Anton Karas.
  • Another example of this, also from the soundtrack of "Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance", in which the track "L'Agresseur (2EM03)" [1] sounds pretty much the same like "Dennis steals the Embryo" [2] from the soundtrack to Jurassic Park.
  • "Misato's Theme" also shadows parts of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" which has been covered by artists like Diana Ross and The Beach Boys.
  • "Komm, Susser Tod" — that song that plays when everyone gets turned into Tang — sounds a lot like "Hey Jude".
    • The slide guitar solo at the end of the song owes a bit to the ending solo of Pink Floyd's High Hopes.
• In what can only be called a hilarious example of Follow the Leader , RahXephon has The Chariot, aka Ayato's kill music, which is a hybrid of "Decisive Battle" with "The Beast 2" (the theme of berserk Eva-01). Since "Decisive Battle" already sounds suspiciously similar to "007" above, this turns it doubly suspicious.
• The Italian version of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, which composed all-new songs, made many of them sound suspiciously like the songs they were replacing. Try comparing Assoluto Amore, Sara's Villain Song, with its original, Return to the Sea, and see what we mean.
  • A closer similarity is within the original version of the series itself, and intentional: Tsubasa wo Daite, Michel's Villain Song, and Ashita ga Mienakute, Michal's Image Song. Their names already matched, as did the names of their birds, and they couldn't be active at the same time... but when their songs matched, all bets about coincidence were off.
• One episode of Gintama has a Suspiciously Similar Song to the Rocky theme. This gets lampshaded by Gintoki and Kagura.
  • Speaking of Rocky, the boxing OVA Bewitching Nozomi'' featured a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Eye of the Tiger".
  • Another Suspiciously Similar Song of the same often accompanied the Bear's appearance in Gakuen.
  • In Gintama, there's also a Supiciously Similar Song of Fist of the North Star's Ai wo Torimodose. Hilariously, the song lyrics only consist of the parts of "You Wa Shock" changed into "I Am Shock".
  • Gintama's Dragon Ball parody ep introduced the song "Dondake" (basically a Japanese "WTF?"), a Suspiciously Similar Song to Hironobu Kageyama's Dragon Ball themes.
• Soul Eater occasionally uses a music piece that sounds like that damn Milkshake song.
  • And one that sounds oddly like the opening to "Gimme Shelter".
• The S Cryed theme "Reckless Fire" sounds slightly similar to Ricky Martin's "She Bangs".
• Air Gear was inspired by the Jet Set Radio series, and has several background songs that are soundalikes to the music used in those games. Compare: Not Hummin' But Vibin' (Air Gear) vs. Hummin' The Bassline (Jet Set Radio); Sky 2 High (Air Gear) vs. Fly Like A Butterfly (Jet Set Radio Future).
  • Justified: Hideki Naganuma composed both of the last two songs (he two songs for Air Gear under a pseudonym, so as to not break his contract with Sega). Not Hummin' But Vibin was composed by Masao Mase under Naganuma's supervision.
  • Air Gear also has a non-JSR example in "Rise Electric", which is suspiciously similar to Europe's "The Final Countdown".
• The Training Montage in the first episode of GunBuster uses a musical cue essentially ripped off from Vangelis' theme from Chariots of Fire. So much so, in fact, that Studio Gainax ordered the US distributors to replace the music in the North American re-release.
  • Public Domain Example: The last episode uses a conspicuously-synthesised piece of music that sounds suspiciously similar to the Hallelujah chorus. Considering that the original song would later turn up in Neon Genesis Evangelion, this example's rather perplexing.
• In an earlier example of ripping off Vangelis, the music from the first scene in the original Bubblegum Crisis OVAs is suspiciously similar to the opening theme from Blade Runner.
  • "Konya wa Hurricane" is very clearly an attempt to create a song in the style of Jim Steinman, particularly those from Streets of Fire.
  • The intros to "Victory" and "Akuma to Tenshi no Kiss" are derived from different parts of the intro to "Nowhere Fast", the opening theme from Streets of Fire.
  • The intro and chorus of "Mysterious Night" copy French singer Jeanne Mas's 1985 song "Johnny Johnny".
  • The guitar riff in "Say Yes" from OVA 7 resembles U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name".
  • The entire melody of "Hateshitenai Tabi", the opening theme from Bubblegum Crash, is plagiarized from Filipina singer Joey Albert's 1982 song "Larger Than Life".
• The opening theme to The Big O sounds suspiciously like Queen's "Flash Gordon". This one was also replaced for the USA DVD re-issue, although not from [adult swim]. The full version also contains a tiny hint of "Bohemian Rhapsody"; it appears the artist is a major Queen fan.
  • "Roger, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save Paradigm City."
  • The second theme tune is heavily inspired by Barry Gray's theme tune for UFO.
• Battle Programmer Shirase's opening tune bears an uncanny resemblance to, you guessed it, Rick Astley's "Never Gonna give You Up".
• Kogarashi's Theme from Kamen no Maid Guy is suspiciously similar to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme (or a pastiche thereof). This doesn't prevent it from being awesome.
• An Imagine Spot in Lucky Star of a trip to the dentist as a Super Robot show is accompanied by a brief Suspiciously Similar Song to the Gunbuster theme "Active Heart".
  • "Yuuchou Sentai Dararenja" has a part that sound suspiciously like a remix of Snake Man's theme from Mega Man 3, and "Ore no Wasuremono" is reminiscent of Storm Eagle's theme from Mega Man X
  • The repeated use of an almost-but-not-quite "Gunbuster March" cue.
  • And the 1942 beat used a few times... And 24, and... A lot of others.
  • Gravity by MOEV sounds very much like Noizy Tribe by m.o.v.e. Fitting, since it's played during the Initial D parody.
  • The Full Metal Panic/Super Robot Wars parody even features "Tokko Yaraou?", mentioned above in that series.
• The music from Mr. Lonely Chaser, theme song for the Transforming Mecha show Super High Speed Galvion sounds suspiciously similar to Michael Jackson's "Beat It". The lyrics, however are something else altogether.
• One of the riffs from CLANNAD's Dango Daikazoku / Chiisana Te No Hira -- Rock Version sounds like "Oh Come All Ye Faithful".
• Viral's Leitmotif Nikopol sounds a lot like Linkin Park's Points of Authority, minus the rap bits.
• It's a lot harder to recognize than most examples, but Shinken from one of the Love Hina soundtracks is suspiciously similar to "Eye Of The Tiger".
• In SonicX, the X-Tornado theme from the eighth episode can be similar to the music that is played when Tina uses her psychic powers from the film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.
• The Trigun theme is eerily similar to Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog".
• A recurring piece in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, from A's on, is suspiciously similar to the Metroid main titles.
  • Don't forget Ace of Aces sounding a great deal like the Main Title from Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack.
• In Death Note, one of Mello's themes sound like the Terminator 2: Judgment Day theme.
  • The Death Note soundtrack is actually quite notorious for this. For instance, L's theme sounds like Tubular Bells from The Exorcist.
• "Ark" from Yoko Kanno's Brain Powerd soundtrack starts off like the Terminator theme with bagpipes. Och, I'll be back, laddie!
• Also by Yoko Kanno, "Jig" from ∀ Gundam resembles John Williams' "Letting Off Steam" from Far and Away.
• In Genesis of Aquarion, Kanno's piece "Exodus" borrows from "Victorius Titus", from the Titus score by Elliot Goldenthal.
• Somebody in charge of Bleach's soundtrack seems to be a fan of Andrew Lloyd Weber...
• Near the end of the Ah! My Goddess OVA, a Suspiciously Similar Song to "L'amour est bleu" shows up in the scene where Keiichi works several part-time jobs to buy Belldandy a ring.
• On the soundtrack for Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, Mitsuo Hagita directly copies, note for note, extensive parts of two pieces from James Horner's Brainstorm score: "The Battle of Solomon Sea" was Brainstorm's "Race For Time", and "Burn Down" was "Lillian's Heart Attack".
  • "The Winner" (especially the English version sung by Ritchie Kotzen) from the same show, sounds somewhat like "Danger Zone" from Top Gun.
  • Gundam F91 is full of Suspiciously Similar Songs to Star Wars pieces, most notably the Imperial March.
  • And Mobile Suit Zeta Gundams dub theme had to be changed because one of the original openings sounded a little too close to George Michael's '80s hit "Careless Whisper".
    • The opening and ending themes in Japan were written by Neil Sedaka (for which he made Suspiciously Similar Songs to some of his past works).
• "Rush! Issei and Yohshi" from the score of Giant Robo OVA 2 is a suspiciously similar to the How the West Was Won theme.
  • "Vogler's Landing" from OVA 3 rips off a passage from Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring".
• Yoko Kanno pulled this off again several times in Macross Frontier:
  • "Big Boys" sounds suspiciously like "Will & Elizabeth" from Pirates of the Caribbean.
  • "The Target" takes more than a few cues from the TIE Fighter theme from Star Wars.
    • By the same token, the TIE Fighter theme can be considered a modification of the magic spell from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", which "The Target" also resembles.
  • The first twenty seconds of Sayonara no Tsubasa ~ the end of triangle sound suspiciously like the first seventeen seconds of school food punishment's futuristic imagination with some parts switched around.
• Speaking of sorcerers, "Materialise" from Kuniaki Haishima's My-Otome 0~S.ifr~ soundtrack copies verbatim from the Eagles' "Journey of the Sorcerer", better known as the theme from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Yuki Kajiura isn't immune from this either. The track "Sacrifice" from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- shares many similarities with "Navras" from The Matrix Revolutions.
  • Listen to Handel's "Sarabande", better known as the theme music to Barry Lyndon. Now listen to the main theme from the seventh The Garden of Sinners movie. Notice anything?
• Episode 7 of My Bride is a Mermaid has a Suspiciously Similar Song to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries".
  • So does Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea; or rather, Joe Hisaishi reworks the Ponyo theme In the Style of "Ride of the Valkyries".
  • Mermaid also has a Suspiciously Similar Song to the Terminator 2: Judgment Day theme (the iconic metallic beat) because, well, one of the characters IS the Terminator.
• "Daybreak Symphony" from Yakitate!! Japan sounds quite suspiciously like a certain other Britpop "Symphony"... with the "We Will Rock You" beat also thrown in just for good measure.
• The opening theme of Tenamonya Voyagers is suspiciously similar to theme from Mel Brooks' Silent Movie. Both are played by marching bands.
• Umineko: When They Cry: Jessica's image song, Dokkyun Heart is a faster-sung and slightly cheerier version of Tsurupettan.
• One of the BGM tracks in Coyote Ragtime Show sounds strikingly similar to the Mission: Impossible theme song.
• The BGM track from K-On! called "Pinch Daisuki!" is suspiciously similar to the 1970s synthesizer piece "Popcorn".
  • And "Happy End" sounds a lot like "Daydream Believer".
  • A Suspiciously Similar Song to Pachelbel's Canon plays during the graduation ceremony in K-ON!! episode 24, which is peculiar because, again, it's in the public domain.
  • When the music store clerk tells the history of Sawako's guitar, images of Eric Clapton, Angus Young, Tony Iommi and Pete Townshend are shown, along with Suspiciously Similar Songs to Sunshine of Your Love, Thunderstruck, Paranoid, and Won't Get Fooled Again respectively.
  • The opening riff in "Cagayake GIRLS!" sounds oddly similar to the melody that occurs 20 seconds into a piece of music from the unreleased Sega Genesis version of the game Time Trax.
  • Air Of Northern Countries from the movie is practically an instrumental cover of Where The Streets Have No Name by U2.
• There are so many examples of this across Dragon Ball Z media that recurring composer Kenji Yamamoto^note not the one from Metroid! was publicly blacklisted for plagiarism in 2011. As a result, all of his music for Dragon Ball Z Kai was replaced with Shunsuke Kikuchi's score for the original anime and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai HD Collection replaced his tracks with songs from the Budokai Tenkaichi games. Some examples from Yamamoto:
  • The DBZ incidental piece "Battle Point: Unlimited" sets a new bar by ripping off an entire album: A Secret Wish, by German Synth-Pop band Propaganda. This video even recreates the song with samples from A Secret Wish.
  • "A New Foe Rears His Head" so blatantly rips off the opening theme of Terminator Salvation that it almost feels like a parody: it was used for Dragon Ball Kai's version of the Android Saga, which itself is a send-up of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • While not composed by Yamamoto, compare "Super Buu's Theme" from the English dub of DBZ with Marmalade by System of a Down. Both songs have near identical riffs throughout.
• The first opening of Wedding Peach lends some notes from 1960s singer France Gall.
  • Sugar Sugar Rune's theme is based on the same song, only more blatantly.
• The second opening of A Certain Scientific Railgun sounds sort of like Hong Meiling's stage theme. Take a listen.
• One of the pieces of music from Read or Die sounds like the stock music piece "Valse Aux Champs-Elysees", which was used on The Ren & Stimpy Show.
  • That's minimal, Read or Die's main theme rips off from every musical aspect of James Bond's main theme... without actually ripping a note from it, and made a much more cohesive, surprising and captivating version, like Picasso (allegedly) said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal".
• The first ending theme in the English dub version of Haré+Guu sounds suspiciously like the soul classic "T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia)".
• The opening song of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX English dub sounds an awful lot like blink-182's "Dammit" at times.
• The chorus of Blood Shepherd's Japanese theme in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS sounds quite similar to the main theme from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
• A track on the Baccano! soundtrack, "Yurumikatta Kannou no Dance", sounds distinctly similar to the famous "Habanera" from Suite No. 2 of Bizet's Carmen.
• One of the Character Songs from Hetalia: Axis Powers, "Carrots and Sticks", is sung by Belarus and Ukraine. If you pay attention to the Background Music, it sounds like a pitched-down, remade version of t.A.T.u.'s "All The Things She Said".
  • To say nothing of the music cue for the opening titles, which strongly evokes "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (AKA the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme).
• The Monster anime has "Over The Rainbow" played multiple times; it's even explicitly referred to as such. Except, it's instrumental and only vaguely sounds like it. The song isn't in the public domain. It's not known if the original Japanese version had this problem or not.
• This parody scene of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt has a Suspiciously Similar Song to "I'm Kissing You" by Des'ree.
  • "The Diet Syndrome" from has two tracks that play in succession to one another: the first one sounds like "Gonna Fly Now" or "Eye of the Tiger", and the second one sounds like "Theme from Mission: Impossible".
• The chorus of the song "Cendrillon" from by Kagamine Len sounds an awful lot like the chorus of the Transformers: Animated Japanese opening theme. Or is it the other way around?
• In Ultra Maniac, a Suspiciously Similar Song to the theme song of The Powerpuff Girls plays whenever Nina's cousins arrive. The creator of the manga, by the way, loves the PPG.
• In Bakemonogatari, the song Suteki Meppou by Kousaki Satoru has a jazzy piano chord progression and rhythm that sounds like Paul Desmond and the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Take Five There's also Hyouri, which sounds quite a bit like Tubular Bells, of The Exorcist fame.
• The song "HARDBOILED" off of the The Girl Who Leapt Through Space soundtrack sounds like it could have been an outtake from David Gilmour's solo album On An Island.
• Momiji's song in the Fruits Basket anime is just a few notes off from "Momiji" (a folk song). Given the name, it's doubtful that it was a coincidence.
• The Anger of Crimson Lotus from Fairy Tail sounds as if composer took Grass Theme from Heroes of Might and Magic IV, cut it in pieces, sew them randomly together, and added rock-style accompaniment over all of it.
  • A little breakdown: first listen to this, then to this, then this, and for last one go to the first part.
  • And this is far from being the only song in the soundtrack.
  • The theme used for Lucy's summoning is eerily similar to a bit from The Little Mermaid (1989) (the track called "Fireworks" to be specific).
  • The intro to Eternal Fellows sounds very similar to Cagayake! GIRLS
  • The Main Theme is similar to the beginning of Dragonforce's "Operation Ground and Pound".
• Toradora! has very short song that's suspiciously similar to Vangelis' "Chariots of Fire" in episode 8, when Taiga is practicing swimming for the competition.
• There's a series of Youtube videos from a Japanese cartoon that are suspiciously similar to various western rock songs. NOT "Separate Ways" By JOURNEY, NOT "Don't Look Back" By BOSTON NOT "All You Need Is Love" by BEATLES, NOT "Europa" by SANTANA, and many others. They can be found on this Youtube channel.
• The Ginga Densetsu Weed song "Dash!" sounds almost identical to the Digimon Adventure 02 opening theme.
• Yoroiden Samurai Troopers' first opening theme, "Stardust Eyes", borrows heavily from "It's A Sin" by The Pet Shop Boys.
• The Kodomo No Jikan ending "Hana Maru Sensation" sounds almost exactly like the chorus from The Offspring's One Fine Day, which in turn sounds like the chorus of the Kiteretsu Daihykka theme song "Suimin Bosukou".
• The final battle theme of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Pushing the Sky, sounds very similar to the Lunatic Calm song Leave You Far Behind.
  • "Bad Dog No Biscuits" from the second episode is basically a slightly more bombastic version of Tom Waits' "Midtown".
  • And, of course, "Go Go Cactus Man" sounds like it was scored by Ennio Morricone for use in For a Few Dollars More. This one was, at least, probably fully intentional given whose leitmotif it is.
• In Zoids: Chaotic Century, the theme that plays when the Ultrasaurus awakens sounds an awful lot like the Jurassic Park theme. They sound almost identical when both themes climax. Also consider how similar the scenes with the Ultrasaurus first moving and Dr. Grant seeing the living Brachiosaur are, especially since the aforementioned themes start playing in both instances.
• Skip Beat! is an interesting example in that it's a plot point when some random band comes out of nowhere and plagiarizes Fuwa Sho's released work and make it big. No one in the industry comments, and Sho ends up getting only more and more pissed. Then Kyouko enters the picture.
• When listening to A Ke Mi Ya Ma Sa Ki from Sasameki Koto anime do you feel like roaming among blasted town ruins covered by lush vegetation on a calm sunny day with occassional feelings of tension or threat? Medal of Honor: Allied Assault The Nebelwerfer Hunt anyone?
• Pretty Cure:
  • Smile Pretty Cure!'s first ending theme, "Yay! Yay! Yay!", happens to be in the same tempo and key as Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend", thus the two songs sound shockingly similar. Of course, it didn't take long for a fan to combine the two.
    • Don't Give Up on Dreams sounds like a fluffed up version of the main theme from Pirates of the Caribbean.
  • The CureLine ringtone in HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! seems to take a cue from the Family Mart entrance chimes.
    • Episode 2 features a song that sounds like "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera that's used as Background Music.
    • Aiming to Win is practically a Gender Flipped version of Gonna Fly Now from Rocky.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪'s "Kimi Ga Iru" sounds like a gender flipped version of Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)", a song from another popular 80's movie, The Breakfast Club.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode's second ending theme, "Shabadoobie Sweets Time", has a very similar sound to "Bills" by Lunchmoney Lewis.
• The chorus of the theme song to Prism Generations: Prism Magical sounds a lot like the chorus to the theme song to Takashi Murakami's Six Hearts Princess.
• The beginning part of Yliaster Battle Mode from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds sounds similar to the first part of Sword of Promised Victory from Fate/stay night.
• Elsewhere in the Nasuverse franchise, all of Carnival Phantasm's BGM track "Event Taikai" except the bridge is a ripoff of "76 Trombones" from The Music Man.
• "Oi, Oi" from Haruhi Suzumiya has a timpani rhythm that sounds exactly like the timpani rhythm in Fatboy Slim's "Everybody Loves a Carnival", just a half-step lower.
  • "Itsumo no Fuukei" is incredibly similar to the game over song from Mega Man 3.
• The theme "The Original Sin" from the Hellsing RAID OST has a lot in common with the famous track "Ave Satani" from The Omen (1976).
• Gundam AGE-FX, the theme used by the eponymous mobile suit from the third generation of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is very similar in tune in tune and atmosphere, albeit faster, as Into Anger and Fears, used when Annelotte uses her Superpowered Evil Side in Queen's Blade Rebellion.
• Merry Go Round of Life from Howl's Moving Castle is quite similar to the opening phrases of Memories of Fanelia from The Vision of Escaflowne. Joe Hisaishi (composer for Howl), the composer for Studio Ghibli, was the one to discover Yoko Kanno and lead her into anime music composition. However, Escaflowne actually came first, meaning the teacher referenced the student.
• The chorus of the Getbackers' song, "Namida no Hurricane", sounds an awful lot like "Hey Mickey."
• The opening theme to Ouran High School Host Club has an underlying guitar melody taken note-for-note from the bridge synth of "Kiss Me Deadly" by Lita Ford, and "Sk8ter Boi" by Avril Lavigne.
• There is a particular BGM track in YuYu Hakusho in which the bassline interpolates the opening riff in The Four Tops' "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch". Another one is a soundalike of "Thriller".
  • Yet another piece of BGM is a pastiche of "Time of the Season" by The Zombies.
• The chorus of the first Super Sonico opening, "Beat Goes On!" sounds like the chorus of "Hot Patootie" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• The last part of Brynhildr in the Darkness's first opening is reminiscent of the X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon's theme.
• "Scatterbrain" from the original Sailor Moon OST sounds like the original Sesame Street theme.
  • "Fire Soul Love'', one of the Sailor Mars image songs, is a few notes off from being "Rhythm Nation" by Janet Jackson.
  • The battle theme "Ai no Senshi" is pretty close to much of the music used in Ys Book I & II, while sounding much like a sped-up version of the Palace theme.
  • "Moonlight Densetsu", the original theme song, sounds like a mash-up of Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name and Van Halen's Jump. Its melody was also inadvertently borrowed from the 1965 J-Pop song, "Sayonara wa Dansu no Ato ni (Goodbye after the End of the Dance)", which was performed by Chieko Baisho. This actually led to an arbitration case between the songs' respective composers, Daria Kawashima (aka Tetsuya Komoro) and Hirooki Ogawa, when the series first aired; as a result, Ogawa obtained a percentage of the "Moonlight Legend" royalties.
  • The guitar solo in "Usagi vs. Jadeite", a piece of Background Music for the first season, is very similar to the solo in "Young Lust" by Pink Floyd.
  • "Determination" another piece of Background Music in the show, sounds similar to both "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor and "Rock 'n' Roll Children" by Dio.
• "Kirby!", the second opening of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, sounds oddly similar to the opening theme for Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, with certain portions of both songs sounding oddly alike and the two sharing identical musical structures.
• Both Baki the Grappler 's opening "All Alone" and Parappa The Rapper 's ending "Yellow Balloon" sound similar to Cathy Dennis' "Too Many Walls".
• A background track heard in episode 8 of Paranoia Agent resembles "Linus and Lucy" by Vince Guaraldi.
• Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! has the title character's battle theme "Nyarko, Sanjou!", which is intentionally modeled on "Ore, Sanjou!", Momotaros' battle theme from Kamen Rider Den-O, even opening with the exact same riff. It helps that the show is Reference Overdosed and Kamen Rider is one of its favorite works to homage; Nyarko even performs Momotaros' signature pose and Catchphrase a few times^note Though she changes the "ore" to the feminine "watashi".
• The main riff of GUN×SWORD's opening theme (also heard in the eyecatch) sounds a lot like a sped up version of the Super Dimension Fortress Macross battle theme, which is also used in its show's eyecatch.
• Attack on Titan:
  • The opening to Black Bullet sounds similar to Jiyuu no Tsubasa.
  • Its first opening theme resembles in some parts the opening guitar riff in "I'm Yours" by the late, great Prince.
  • It even resembles Dimension Tripper! from Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation in some parts.
  • "VS Female Titan" in the soundtrack borrows the tempo, rhythmic percussion, and bass from Inception's "Mombasa". All that's missing is the guitar on top.
  • The climactic, patriotic section of the third ending theme, Requiem der Morgenröte, resembles the Russian National Anthem.
• Beast Fighter has an instrumental tune that sounds mainly in moments where Shinichi decides that it's time to turn badass and beat the crap out of the bad guys. It sounds a lot like Queen's "We Will Rock You". Check it out here at 4:08.
• The opening theme to Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, "Treat or Goblins", sounds like a stripped-down version of Alexander O'Neal's "(What Can I Say) To Make You Love Me".
  • The anime itself features occasional soundalikes of themes from other media, such as "The Beast" from Neon Genesis Evangelion and The Imperial March and Main Theme from Star Wars, all of which support the parody-happy nature of the show.
• Samurai Flamenco has "Usankusai", which sounds a lot like Henry Mancini's Pink Panther Theme.
• The second PriPara opening, Miracle ☆Paradise!, sounds very similar to Music S.T.A.R.T! from Love Live!! It is unknown if this was intentional or not.
• The third opening to Owarimonogatari, Mein Schatz, sounds similar to Umineko: When They Cry's main theme.
• In My Love Story!!, during Takeo's Training Montage in episode 7 an offbeat version of "The Final Countdown" by Europe plays.
• The ending theme of Macross Delta performed by Walkure, "Rune ga Pikatto Hikattara", sounds similar to "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire. Which leads to this mashup. The song "Giraffe Blues" sounds similar to "Un-break My Heart" by Toni Braxton. Which leads to this mashup.
• The Aikatsu! theme song "Do Wa Do Wa DO IT!" sounds like ROCO's "Colorful Parade".
• Parts of "Kataware Doki" from Your Name sound enough like Yiruma's "River Flows In You" that covers have seamlessly incorporated the latter.
• The first 40 or so seconds of "Let the Games Begin!!" from Haikyuu!! sound somewhat similar to the opening of "The Launch" from Apollo 13 by James Horner.
• The opening of "Welcome to the World", Joseph's theme from the Animated Adaptation of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency, sounds like the iconic pickup from "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes. Since JoJo is well known for referencing Western music and musicians (including of course Yes), this may well have been an intentional homage.
  • Also happens in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: a song that sounds a lot like Prince's "P. Control" plays during the infamous dance scene on the boat.
• In the Love Live! movie, when the group first catches sight of New York City, the BGM takes cues from Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".
  • The song "Guilty Night, Guilty Kiss" from Love Live! Sunshine!! sounds a lot like Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream". Taken to its logical by SiIvaGunner here.
  • The intro of "Guilty Eyes Fever" sounds a lot like the intro of Usher's "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love".
    • The song "Awaken the power", also from Love Live! Sunshine!!, sounds very similar to My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade".
• In High School D×D, the track "Ano Hi no Omoi" is similar to the main theme from the Love Story soundtrack by Francis Lai.
• The Recurring Riffs from Voices of a Distant Star call to mind Starman Leaves from Starman.
• When Digimon Adventure tri. was dubbed into English by Toei and Eleven Arts rather than Saban, rights issues led to the lack of the original English theme song, "Digimon are the Champions". Therefore, a new song with a similar feel to the original called "Digimon are Back Again" was recorded and used.
  • The riff of the original Saban theme itself shares similarities with the guitar riff in the beginning of the song "Rocka Rolla" by Judas Priest.
• Rurouni Kenshin's first opening theme, "Sobakasu (Freckles)", especially the first half, is suspiciously similar to Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky".
• In episode 7 of Massugu ni Ikou there is an Imagine Spot where Mametarou imagines Jack boxing him for Hanako's heart. An off-beat version of "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky can be heard in the background during this sequence.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica 's Decretum can easily be rendered as a Dark Reprise of Greensleeves. With this in mind, a version combining the two is made, requiring some knowledge about both melody lines in order to distinguish the two.
• The song "Ai wo Shitta Yajuu no You ni" from the Anime/Dancougar soundtrack has the same opening and middle 8 as Stan Bush's "Dare" from "The Transformers: The Movie
• Sonic X: The opening riff to the second Japanese ending theme bares a striking resemblance to the Meat Loaf song Bat Out Of Hell.
• Parts of the opening theme song to the Red Baron mecha anime sound similar to "Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes", a disco hit from 1979.
• "Nee", the theme song for Chi's Sweet Adventure, sounds very similar to "Koi wo Surutabini Tsuzutukiyasuku", the theme song for the magical girl anime Nurse Angel Ririka SOS.
• The song "Failure" in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War sounds a lot like "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive.
  • The track "Positive", ironically enough, sounds eerily similar to the infamous track "Sayonara" from Doki Doki Literature Club!.
• The Song "Never Get Away" in Fushigi Yuugi shares similarities with the Song "Runaway" by Bon Jovi in the first verse, especially the piano.
• The main theme from the anime adaptation of Case Closed sounds remarkably close to the theme tune of old-school Japanese cop show Taiyo Ni Hoero. No surprise, since the same composer (Katsuo Ohno) was hired for both series and Conan was a golden opportunity to pay homage to his previous work.
• Zombie Land Saga: Saki's image song from episode 9, "Tokkou Dance", clearly draws a lot of inspiration from "One Night Carnival" by Kishidan, a J-rock group that got its start in 1997, around the time Saki died.
• The theme song of Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, "Binary Star", sounds an awful lot like Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now".
• Slam Dunk's opening theme, Kimi ga suki da to sakebitai sounds similar to Van Halen's Panama.
• Minmay's titular song in Macross: Do You Remember Love? sounds similar to Air Supply's "Even the Nights Are Better".
• The intro to "All In Good Time", the closing theme from the Shakugan no Shana S OVA series, sounds very similar to the chorus of "Listen To Your Heart" by Roxette.
• "Swordland" from Sword Art Online has similarities to "Invasion of Gracemeria" from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, as noted for example here.
• In episode 3 of the anime Free!, the Background Music in the scene where Rei Ryugazaki is dragged to train on the swimming block, more specifically the "bassline"; sounds eerily similar to a song called "I'm Free" by The Soup Dragons. A song that happens to have a close title to the anime itself.
• "Where Does This Ocean Go" from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex sounds very similar to the song, "Hyperballad," by Björk.
• "The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye)" from Pokémon sounds like "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper.
• Fly to Dark from Wata Mote sounds very similar to "God Knows..." from Haruhi Suzumiya.