The History of the 'Anime Canon' Chord Progression

Let's talk about the "Anime Canon" chord progression and how it has evolved over the centuries. MUSIC THEORY.

Special thanks to:
-Everyone who helped me with my research in the past few months, including but not limited to: my roommates, Jen, my parents, KiAme and my grandmother.
-soramylove for the Kingdom Hearts AMV lol

Tunes used:

Tunes which got claimed:

[cakemanLHK]

I can't accurately explain the bamboozlement I felt by clicking on a video about anime music theory and immediately being met with a google streetview of my hometown

[Pkmn]

this whole vid was just a buildup to that megamind reveal

[soramizu]

I am a Japanese who studies chord progressions. This chord progression is called "Anime Song Progression(アニソン進行)", "Hare Hare Progression(ハレ晴レ進行)", or "Konfame Progression(コンファメ進行)" in Japan. I think the original is "There Will Never Be Another You". I am glad that this chord progression is being talked about abroad. Translated by DeepL.

[xaviercampospalma]

I think it is because of City Pop, like Tomo Fujita said, back then jazz musicians needs to pay their bills, so they play pop at bars and stuff, but they made pop with their Jazzy knowlege, so time passes, and here we are, jpop with weird chord structures.

Very nice video btw, very interesting analysis

[kidsea]

Shoutout to Beethoven-appreciating grandmothers

[willnathman]

That 2 5 to IV is ubiquitous in Japanese music - at least what I've listened to. And it hits every single time

[kokodi]

I did not expect Old Great Britian, Genshin Impact and Megamind to appear in one single video

[BigPapaMitchell]

I've been thinking about this concept for years, how some of the tools used in japanese pop have a very distinct sound with the progressions they choose, and you can tell when some music is inspired by j-pop by whether they use these devices. Thanks for putting some theory to this, I'm not crazy after all.

[zeroflowne]

4:15 or so : I can't believe you've done this

[LinMaK]

I just got to 3:50 and I can already hear "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" and then I went and searched for it. Great analysis Hira, amazing stuff. It's really interesting stuff! :D Keep it up and I want to read more about this kind of historical analysis on the internet!

[spekkio]

29:25 the fusion of my two absolute favourite things

[fjbz]

I think that the reason this type of chord progression sees more popularity in Japan is cultural. Japan’s cultural attitude is geared toward a relentless striving for systematic efficiency, even more so than in the United States, and I think it shows in their art. A society like theirs where individualistic emotional expression is outwardly inhibited only intensifies an inner longing for it under the surface, especially for those select few already predisposed to artistic tendencies. Anime and Japanese music are so much more emotionally vivid because they are an outlet for those feelings as the only exception to an otherwise stifling way of life.

In the United States we take this kind of expression for granted and so it just doesn’t seem urgent for us to search within ourselves for the most emotionally resonant chord progressions, at least not as much as in Japan. I personally think we should adopt their artistic approach too though over our current musical complacency.

[bangryak]

For Korean RnB, there are many songs that follow the same chord progression as Zion.T's "May." To name a few, "입장정리" by Primary, "Story of someone I know" by San E, "Some" by Soyou+Junggigo. I originally thought that Korean RnB drew from American RnB, and that these songs specifically drew from "Officially Missing You" by Tamia (just my speculation); in fact there was a straight up cover of this song by a Korean group called Geeks that was quite popular. I think these kind of chord progressions are common in American RnB in the 90s/2000s(?) and still exist today to some extent, but they are extremely popular in Korean RnB recently (and K-pop more generally), and of course in Japanese media as you point out.

This was a really enjoyable video. Seeing you shout out specific songs I listened to when I was younger (the examples by MCR, Khalil Fong, Super Junior, Zion.T) was kind of nostalgic because at the time I really gravitated to these more "colorful" chord progressions without understanding why. Now that I have more music theory knowledge I can better explain my younger self's tastes.

[Doomacam]

Awesome Video!! I got so hyped when you mentioned Official Hige Dandism! They are my favourite band for the reasons you mentioned. "Crybaby" wowed me even before I knew it modulated 12 times! It was a quick descent into absolutely living and breathing Higedan. They have been so innovative for the J-pop scene since they got popular with "Pretender". And now, Since the release of this video, their song "Subtitle" which is another subversive "Royal road extension" song has just past Gen Hoshino's "Koi" for longest at no.1 on billboard.

[Nnwt]

Holy shit, I love this video! I've always thought about this progression as having a strong link to jazz and the simplified I vi IV V progression found in pop but never thought of the older sources. It's mind-blowing how you can trace musical ideas really far back.

It gets more fun: Wikipedia says that "Confirmation" is actually a contrafact of a tune called "Twilight Time" which was first recorded by Les Brown in 1944 and released in Jan of 1945, the same year that Parker supposedly wrote his tune. If you take a listen to "Twilight Time" you'll hear that the A section is almost identical to "Confirmation"'s A section bar the missing related ii of the V/vi and it instead has a backdoor cadence of VI I V/ii after the IV chord. Who knows if Parker was inspired by this earlier record, but it's somewhat likely considering that the practice of writing contrafacts was so rampant during his time (the B section of "Confirmation" is not like "Twilight Time" though).

It gets even more fun: there is another tune that originated a couple years earlier in 1942, "There Will Never Be Another You, " that has the same progression of "Confirmation" up to the IV chord where it does a backdoor to the I and then does vi V/V ii V (which is actually what "Twilight Time" does!). All along I've been associating the Anime Canon progression with "There Will Never Be Another You" since that's one of my favorite tunes, and now thanks to you I see more links in the chain. You might find another step of the evolution of this progression if you do more digging. This stuff really goes deep!

[WhitePaintbrush]

Just coming back to say thank you for introducing me to Higedan. They’re like my favourite band now

[kashmoney]

Great video! Shout out to grandma! Here for the maps guessing and the drawing of smol cadence!

[HikariKrome]

Reminds me of "어땠을까" by PSY and Lena Park:

Eb - [Dm7(b5) G7] - Cm7 - [Bbm7 Eb7] - Ab - Eb/G - Fm7 - [Bbsus4 Bb7]
(I - [viiø7 V7/vi] - vi7 - [v7 V7/IV] - IV - I6 - ii7 - [Vsus4 V7])

Also - you should have included some examples from "Love Live! School Idol Project".

[johnnytorres]

LITERALLY LAST NIGHT I BINGED LIKE 5 VIDS THEN A NEW ONE TODAY LESS

[gavinleepermusic]

I really like your video essays, Cadence-san! They’re like overflowing with passion for the subject matter, and the numbers you’re hitting also speak for themselves in demonstrating that folks are enjoying the topics you’re picking and the way you’re covering them.

One thing that this video could have used, and that I hope your future video essays have, is a bit more conciseness and the kind of “tell us where we’re going, take us there, tell us where we’ve been” structure that’s generally taught regarding the essay format. Like this topic, while super interesting, could have probably been well covered with about 10 minutes or so.

Also, I think Roman numerals below the staff would help clarify the points you’re making.

I know I’m commenting on this a couple years after publishing, so maybe you’ve already seen to this.

Anyway, take that with a pinch of salt because, like I said, what you’re doing is clearly working from an algo standpoint, but if you want to present these findings in a more formal academic context later on, I think tightly edited videos will make for more helpful academic resources.

This is awesome stuff though! Can’t wait to watch the next one!