The anime insert song “Hunting Soul” has been accused of copyright infringement.
Just a few days ago, X Japan’s Yoshiki took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to raise concerns about the Dandadan anime’s latest insert song “Hunting Soul”. He expressed his shock at the song which seems to be a reference to X Japan. He also disclosed that he didn’t know anything about it and tagged several parties including the anime’s X accounts on his post. It seems that his concerns may have some ground as the “Hunting Soul” song has been removed from several Japanese streaming platforms despite garnering a lot of attention.
Dandadan may be facing copyright infringement charges
Unfortunately, Yoshiki has already deleted his initial posts about the matter. However, the rockstar had already pointed out that lawyers have contacted him regarding the matter. It seems the concerns may have taken the form of a legal issue as the song has vanished overnight from several platforms in Japan. However, no party has confirmed anything as of yet. The Indonesian fan account of X Japan pointed out that the band has been featured in several anime over the ages. Yoshiki shared the post and wrote that in the previous instances, the management and label were contacted beforehand, which doesn’t seem to be the case with Dandadan.
The song “Hunting Soul” was featured in Season 2 Episode 6 (overall Episode 18) of the Dandadan anime. The scene followed the original manga by Yukinobu Tatsu. The song was performed by the fictional band called HAYASii. It was sung by Toshiro. After the episode was released, many fans noticed a resemblance between “Hunting Soul” and X Japan’s 1988 song “Kurenai”. Marty Friedman, who handled the guitar arrangement for “Hunting Soul” also said that the song is a homage to the legendary band X Japan.
When fans first pointed out the similarities, Yoshiki said he laughed it off. However, he was shocked when he was later contacted by lawyers. Although Sony Music Publishing holds the rights for “Kurenai” and Sony Music Entertainment’s Milan Records has exclusive license for “Hunting Soul”, it seems the artists were not made aware if a copyright agreement did take place. It is still unclear whether any copyright violations actually occurred.
However, the song has been removed from several music platforms including Spotify (the site’s API no longer returns Japan as an available country), Apple Music, AWA, Sony Music Solution’s Mora platform, Recochoku, and KKBOX. The song is, however, still available on YouTube internationally (including Japan). Despite the controversy, the song has performed really well globally and has garnered more than 10 million views across several official versions on YouTube. Dandadan streams globally on Netflix.
