Anisong Chart Watch: How YOASOBI, LiSA, and King Gnu Are Redefining Anime Openings

Article

Anisong has had a genuinely record-breaking few months — three separate milestones, each worth knowing about on its own.

YOASOBI's Billion-Stream Milestone

"Idol," YOASOBI's opening theme for Oshi no Ko's first season, has become the fastest anime opening theme ever to surpass 1 billion combined streams, having topped Billboard Japan Hot 100 for an extended run and charted internationally on Spotify's global charts.

LiSA's 15 Years in Anisong

2026 marks 15 years since LiSA's solo debut, celebrated with an anniversary vinyl release (August 26) and a September European tour, "LiVE is Smile Always ～15～," across Milan, Düsseldorf, Paris, and London — a career built almost entirely around anime theme song work.

King Gnu's New Opening

King Gnu released "GO GHOST" as the opening theme for the new anime THE GHOST IN THE SHELL on July 30, 2026 — notably, the ending theme comes from millennium parade, another project led by King Gnu's own Daiki Tsuneta, marking the first time both of his projects have scored the same series.

What To Know

Seeing three separate, genuinely major music milestones happen within the anisong space in close succession is a strong sign that anime theme songs have moved well past a niche category — they're competing and winning on the same terms as any other part of the Japanese music industry.

Major mainstream Japanese artists (King Gnu, and Daiki Tsuneta's parallel project millennium parade) actively competing for and winning anime theme song placements — rather than treating them as a lesser side gig — is a concrete sign of how much commercial and cultural weight anisong placements now carry in Japan.

What Fans Are Saying

• "Anisong having its own billion-stream moment feels like a real turning point."
• "King Gnu and millennium parade both scoring the same anime is such a nice bit of trivia."

Original Japanese

• 「アニソンが10億回再生を達成するなんて、時代を感じる」
• 「King Gnuとmillennium paradeが同じアニメを担当しているのが面白い」

Easy Japanese

YOASOBI「アイドル」の10億回再生、LiSAのソロ15周年、King Gnuの新曲など、今アニソンで話題になっている動きをまとめて紹介します。