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What Makes a Good Tie-in Song? Learning From SBR's Fumble

What Makes a Good Tie-in Song? Learning From SBR's Fumble

Stephanie Liu
October 02, 2026

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Image via David Production

Last week was the beginning of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run 2nd Stage. The first episode didn’t have an opening or an ending, meaning that the (technically) second episode last week was when we finally heard both. If you didn’t watch the episode but saw Tweets about it, you’d be forgiven for thinking that, why, no episode aired at all. Barely anyone was talking about it on social media, because the ending song bogarted so much discussion about it.

And trust me, it was not for a good reason.

The ending song, “Dead or Alive” is performed by Japanese rapper and singer, Yuki Chiba. Chiba is already a fairly divisive personality, what with his songs being seriously hit or miss even among fans of the genre. On almost every level, “Dead or Alive” does not fit with Steel Ball Run.

It breaks the tradition of the endings being English songs, which is especially egregious for Steel Ball Run when it takes place entirely in the States.
Chiba’s low-energy style of singing does not match with how high-energy JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure usually is. I think Diamond Is Unbreakable’s outros are all peak and shouldn’t be changed, but if Chiba had to perform a song for a part, Diamond Is Unbreakable’s more episodic and slice-of-life vibe could have fit. He really does not suit Steel Ball Run.
Dr. Luke produced the song. This has little to do with whether the song fits the show and more to do with the idea that Dr. Luke shouldn’t be involved, period. The English fandom’s ire seems to center here. For those unaware or who forgot, pop singer Kesha sued Dr. Luke in 2014, claiming that he had abused her “sexually, physically, verbally, and emotionally.”
The lyrics are terrible and do not match Steel Ball Run at all. This is what the Japanese fandom’s ire seems to focus on. Examples include “mounted on a horse with high horsepower” (a childish turn of phrase, and Slow Dancer being an older, less powerful horse is established early on) and “Which way is the destination?” (Uh, New York… That’s also established right at the beginning…)

This then raised an interesting question: what makes for a good tie-in song for an anime or video game?

Generally speaking, there are two camps for tie-in songs: songs that are written very specifically for a show and pretty much cannot exist without it, and songs that are written for a show but can exist on their own. For the first category, think of “JoJo,” which was the first opening for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Like “Dead or Alive,” “JoJo” drops the name of the show in the lyrics, but people generally accept “JoJo” because the energy and lyrics match the show. For the second category, think of “Karma” by BUMP of CHICKEN. “Karma” was used as the opening song for both the original game and the anime adaptation of Tales of the Abyss. Though someone unaware of its origin could listen and enjoy it, it’s unequivocally a Tales of the Abyss song due to how the lyrics tie into the game’s themes and story.

There is technically another category, which are songs that are used in a work, but have absolutely zippo to do with anything. An example of this might be “Sobakasu” for Rurouni Kenshin. This song genuinely has nothing to do with the plot or the vibe of the series, but it’s so separate that it’s easy to just move on and enjoy the song as it is.

“Dead or Alive” fails in all categories. It includes “Steel Ball Run!” in its lyrics in a rather crude way, so it has to exist with the show, but the lyrics otherwise make no sense with the story. Whether the song is good is a subjective thing… For the most part, people seem to really dislike it, but that also ties into Chiba already being a hit-or-miss type of performer.

These days, we often see performers like Yoasobi or Kenshi Yonezu creating tie-in songs for media, and there are usually some interviews that explain how a song connects to the work in question. These interviews are a cool way to get more insight into the lyrics or melody, and it offers an “official” way to interpret the song that might not have been obvious for listeners. I really enjoyed reading the short story for Witch From Mercury, for example, and listening to the song with the knowledge that Yoasobi wrote it through Aerial’s perspective. It’s hard to know if Chiba even read Steel Ball Run considering he only got the gig through his connections and Warner Music Japan’s involvement, but the lyrics point to the negative.

Honestly, as someone who skips intros and outros unless they’re exceptionally good after watching them once, Steel Ball Run’s outro being garbage isn’t a huge deal for me. But it indicates some worrisome executive meddling behind the scenes. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fans were already disillusioned with how Netflix handled Stone Ocean, and just when we were celebrating the return of JoJo Fridays over a batch release, there’s this. It feels like two steps forward, one step back.

Hopefully, though, now that the shock of the terrible outro has worn off, we’ll see more discussion of the episodes themselves from now on.

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