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The Anime Credits Thread - The OP-ED Section

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)


I LOVE this intro. As a big fan of sports anime, this feels like its of a very different tenor than most. Most are energetic and optimistic. I don't know if this is the era or because of this specific manga writer who wrote many very manly and melodramatic sports series, including "Star of the Giants", which inspired an entire trope of table-flipping, and Tiger Mask which is a superhero wrestling series that actually has sort of a bittersweet ending (the hero beats the final villain but his masked is removed in the ring. He runs from his heroic victory into the night, never to be seen again!) but boy is this not Hajime no Ippo (though Ippo has a great character directly inspired by Joe, clearly just so Ippo can non-canonically fight Joe).

See, this is... sad. Its sad and angry, The music is also wistful. Our hero is looking toward tomorrow and fighting for it but today is fucking rough. In many ways, its standard hero stuff: no matter how many times this mother fucker gets knocked down, he will stand up. But it feels more melancholy than triumphant. Like even if he wins this fight, he's not going to be showered with glory but into some stinky locker room to lick his wounds, heal up and train for the next fight where he's punched into gristle until he wins.

Got I wish this manga got an official translation.
 

Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator

Some of my faves.


I don't know if this is the era or because of this specific manga writer

Joe is certainly channeling of lot of frustrations felt by working-class youths in postwar Japan, to which it at least partly owes solidifying its place in the culture. (Dezaki also helped.)


Anyhow, You're Under Arrest (1994 OVA) OP - "Courage at 100 MPH"



I had a book on the glory of anime that pointed out that shot with the plane as an example of shots that are only feasible with the imaginary "camera" of animation. It still gets me right here, coming in with the climax of the song like it does.
 

Daikaiju

Rated Ages 6+
(He, Him)
You're Under Arrest! is in a weird spot. It predates Oh! My Goddess! which is TECHNICALLY* a spinoff of YUA. The main reason it got animated was due to OMG's popularity and the character designs are more in line with the artist's more refined style he was using in the OMG manga.

*Belldandy's first appearance was in a YUA short comic, done for a contest to win a YUA t-shirt.
 
I had a book on the glory of anime that pointed out that shot with the plane as an example of shots that are only feasible with the imaginary "camera" of animation. It still gets me right here, coming in with the climax of the song like it does.
I'd say like half of the shots in that OP are impossible with a conventional live camera. Every time a car/train drives towards the camera, if such a scene was filmed IRL the car would smash into the camera. The swivel shot coming from above to settle right into the face of the cop driving - not impossible but the careful stunt coordination would make that so incredibly risky as to be impossible. The scenes where the camera would have had to have gone *through* the windshield. The dynamic camera swiveling around and between two stationary characters standing shoulder-length apart form each other - you couldn't have gotten a cameraman or a camera crane to pull that tight manuver off. Anime/cartoons in general is really good at doing things you just couldn't feasibly do IRL without, well, animating with a bunch of expensive 3DCGI making up the difference.

...the character designs are more in line with the artist's more refined style he was using in the OMG manga.
Atsuko Nakajima is one of the good ones for character design. She's shown a lot of range in her designs, being able to adapt her style to fit whatever is being adapted. You guys probably best know her work on Ranma 1/2.
 
ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. was some of this decades better comfort food anime. Most of y'all know this. (Those who don't should look into it!) But a big part of the experience was the banger OP, which by itself without context is probably the perfect way to sell this show:

OP: "Shadow and Truth" by ONE III NOTES


A lot of times, anime OPs are like short little music videos, but they don't necessarily do much to reflect the show you're about to watch. But a good OP sets the tone and guides viewers expectations. And ACCA is a masterclass at that. Because it is dripping with the kinds of cool, effortless sexy that ACCA lives and breathes. And it tells you almost everything you need to know about the characters just by visual inference. Oh and the song rules, I could listen to it on loop forever. And that's before you get to:

ED2: "Our Place" by ONE III NOTES


I'm not really sure why this wasn't just the show's regular ED, but it's a fantastic way to go out on the last episode and to basically be the theme of the OVA. As an aside, I really like this school of ED - where you get a montage of images that appear nowhere in the actual show but are just little vignettes that help inform the characters and fill in the lives they lead off-camera via faux candid photographs. It's a lot more interesting than a lot of alternatives, and it really helps make the show feel like a lived-in place. That their lives continue beyond what we've gotten to see, and helps stoke the imagination as to what's going on in this world and in these characters lives. I could/would watch an entire episode of ACCA based around fully exploring every single still image in that ED because it's a world I liked and want to be in/explore and didn't feel like I saw enough of.
 

Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
Yūgen Gaisha (Phantom Quest Corp.) (1994 OVA) OP - "That's Yūgen Gaisha"


The plot of Phantom Quest Corp. revolves around Ayaka Kisaragi, the proprietor of a Shinjuku, Tokyo company dedicated to helping those in need of paranormal aid. The title is a play on words: Yūgen Gaisha (often written as You-Gen-Kai-Sya) means "limited liability company" in Japanese; but when written with different characters, the word yūgen can also mean "the occult." The kanji 怪 means mysterious, but can also be read as Kai. Kaisha is typically written "会社." This further adds to the pun.
 

Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
NieA_7 (Niea Under 7) (2000 TV) OP - "Koko Made Oide" ("Come Here")

 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
I don't actually like the series very much, but as everything in this thread, don't read the mention of a particularly good opening or ending as synonymous to an endorsement of the show they're attached to. That might get especially relevant as I dig through some more stuff, but people can apply their own assumptions about what falls into that category or doesn't.
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
I'm going to count Project X Zone as this, even if it's a game rather than a TV show:


I was actually made aware of this OP via the Rockman Gigamix fan tribute, but even the original is quite fantastic. The animation is fluid and has excellent choreography (the bit where all the fighting game punchers and kickers line up is my favorite), it matches the music very nicely, and I love how the pulsing, concentric-shape motif is actually revealed to be heartbeats. I have no idea what kind of game it even IS, but I never tire of watching either it or the Mega Man version, which I like even more.
 
A new season is upon us, and that means new shows with new OPs and EDs. I'm behind and will get around to watching more, but here's the OP and ED for Yashahime - the Inuyasha sequel:

OP1 "NEW ERA" by SixTONES:


ED1 "Break" by Uru:


I really like the ending
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I don't know if it's my favourite of the season (it's probably not), but I love the Gymnastics Samurai intro simply because it's using a song that I remember from the original Ouendan 15 years ago:
I am both amazed and delighted that I was able to recall where I recognized it from. I would have been very frustrated if I hadn't been able to place it!
 

Kishi

Little Waves
(They/Them)
Staff member
Moderator
Hell Teacher Nube (1996 TV) OP - "Bari Bari Greatest No. 1"

 
Osomatsu-san always has ending songs that I find really endearing. They're always sung by the cast, and they're filled with jokes. I also really like how each one is made with borderline-creepy stop motion animation. This new one for Season 3 is no different.


Anime openings and endings thoroughly became music-industry cross-promotional vehicles long ago. And I wouldn't change a thing with how that's gone. But I just really appreciate it very once in a while when the openings/endings are goofy like this, are sung by production staff, and are specifically written about the show they're on instead of being generic pop songs that at best are vaguely linked to their shows thematically. It's just kinda nostalgic. It reminds me of better times.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
I have yet to see the show but that is a killer looking outro even without proper context. Again, killer season for intros and outros.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Thought I'd do a top 10 for my favourite EDs and OPs of the year. Going to go counter intuitive and start at the end with my top EDs.

10. Noblesse

The Crunchy Roll original production have been an odd bunch. Only In/Spectre is the only out and out good one and it is also a weirdly structured one for both better and worse and I appreciate the boldness to create an arc in which there is a war of effective mythmaking. The other series have been hot messes with increasingly uninteresting stories. God of High School started as a very promising fight comedy and basically collapsed in on its own impenetrable mythos. The series all have really strong animation (save for the Crunchy Roll acquisition Gibrate. I don’t even think I spelled it right and I don’t care). BUT despite the good animation, I don’t really care for most of the OPs and Eds. In/Spectre, again, is the exception and the other is a really incredible looking ending to Noblesse, a show that seemed to jump the shark into deeply confounding from moment one. But this looks incredible. The pop song is standard but I love the use of set design instead of animation, a series of places the lead sits down at to study, work and eat that reflect his high status, ancientness, quirkiness and desire to make friends. I feel if the show was more focused it could have drawn me in but I won’t lie, this is a stellar looking send off.

9. Drifting Dragons

Drifting Dragons is a show I really enjoyed and while it wasn’t even in contention for my 10 shows of the year, I liked this weird little show that… romanticizes whaling and replaces whales with dragons. Look, its not without a questionable core. But it has a decent cast and a good mix of adventure and slice of life storytelling. The ending is great, too. We begin with vague shapes and discordant sounds that become something clearer for the lead character. We see her navigating the crew who seem to not notice she exists because they are busy with their own thing. She’s apart from them, almost in another dimension. Then she connects with the loner crew member in a brief moment of grabbing his shoulder. Then, DANCE PARTY! He opens up and everyone comes to her. It’s a joyous dance party ending but also a nice little story of the character who is trying to fit in and finds her groove.

8. The Millionaire Detective

Millionaire Detective is a really fun mid-tier show that got COVID delayed but it was worth the wait. I don’t think it will make my top ten but it definitely was a fun and funny little ride with a satisfying finale. Though it starts with a pop song, both the OP and ED feature imagery of excess you might expect from a rap track. The ED does feature hip hop and its perfect for the title character’s obscene wealth and smug sense of superiority. The song itself is one I can listen to a lot but I also love some of the imagery, with the Millionaire detective moving at his own pace or not at all while his lower middle class partner is scrambling for every crook and lead he can get his hands on. But with the conspiracy they face, we also see that are stuck together, both in the image of them trapped in a box together as well as them both being handcuffed. There’s a confidant and slightly sinister showman quality to the song, which is perfect for a show about a billionaire who brute forces his way through everything with money.

7. Dorohedoro ED 1


Dorohedoro was probably the surprise of the year for me. It’s a show that’s murky and dark as I assumed but its also wild, funny and heartfelt. Tonally, it feels like a cross between Sam Raimi-style splatstick and Venture Bros. character and humour dynamics. It also comes with a buttload of endings, all of which are very good and all with music by K(no)w Name. I think in theory I should go with “D.D.D.D.” which imagines the villain as a Doomguy or “Second(s) Fly” which is all the previous EDs all crashing into each other but I went with the first one, “Who Am I?” just because… I think it’s the best song of all the ED songs. The visuals are simple but it is evocative and eerie as we travel through a series of doors until we run into Ebisu on the run… then we see who she is running from. This only aired three times, but I love it. Chills when I hear it.

6. Talentless Nana
Without context, the ED won’t spoil TOO much but only read the following if you plan on never watching this or if you already have watched the first episode at least

OK, this is one that has a pretty straightforward pop song finale but when you get the context it actually adds a lair of sadness that isn’t actually in the show. The show is about an island of superhumans where they are ostensibly there to learn to fight monsters called “the enemies of humanity” but are in fact there to be killed one by one by a human with the belief that uncheck they will all be mass murderers. The main character is the murderer, who must use her wits to kill seemingly superhumans. Really, the series is just a fun series of “game” of figuring out how this person can kill these people and not get caught. It’s a sort of less-edgy and slightly more cartoon-y Death Note. But the character has a literal “save the cat” moment and it is implied that there is one other character she has a fondness for. Still, despite that, she never wavers in her mission. But this ED is where all the emotion and tragedy is kept, implying that when our antiheroine’s mission is done, she isn’t going to feel relief at killing would-be mass murderers but for murdering other kids. We start with the desolation she survived that ties in to her desire to kill the “talented” but we move into desolation of the school she’s turned into her killing grounds, looking despondent. She sees a vision of her peers alive and well, only for it to turn into another disaster site and she walks off. These kids might have the potential to be killers but considering she is a killer, she can’t say she’s better. I like the show a lot as it is as following a villain using her wits (more than the perfectly OKish Moriarty the Patriot) but I really hope the show proper lets to lower some emotional boom the way this ED does.

5. BNA

BNA was a fun show that felt very Saturday morning in all the best ways and in particular reminds me of certain Western animated shows, so it feels right that western animation studio did this slick looking ending. Though the show is generally set in the daytime, the neon light-style coloring looks perfect for the girl in the big city feel and I do always like it when things change based on plot point revelations. I feel it doesn’t tell as much about the story as some o the things that appear lower on my list but my eyes were glued each time (plus, I really do like that song)

4. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken

We’ve been fortunate to get three Masaaki Yuasa projects within one years time, though I never checked out his Crayon Shin-Chan project. Eizoken has an ED that feels rather modest in terms of animation for a show about animation but I still find it very effective, in part because of the epic song. But we see the heroine become more animated in all senses of the word as they run forward and we get to see the world they are running across in the background. Beyond that, I’m not sure why I found this ending so effective to me but it is a really good one.

3. Great Pretender

Look, obviously you’ve got a great head start on having a great ED when your starting point is Freddie Mercury. But beyond that is a sweet, special, funny little send off each week to a cheeky, fun and surprisingly sweet show. Taking a cover from the classic song that the show is named after, we hear Mercury singing about the heart ache he feels as he pretends that everything is fine. Obviously, Great Pretender is about liar’s but while a lot of the lies are to criminal ends, the lead character’s plans are even more benevolent than bankrupting criminal creeps and along the way they use their tricks to make people’s lives better. They might pretend they are too cool for school and that they’ll just abandon each other when it makes sense, but there’s no mistaking that this is a secretly sentimental bunch. I haven’t seen the last nine episodes but its pretty obvious that the last scene is a promise that Laurent’s past is going to be the emotional bow to tie the rest of the series together and we have an end that perfectly sweet and hopeful for our send off to the series as a whole.

2. Olympia Kyklos

I feel like a lot of anime this season had multiple endings a season but this one had the MOST. But this isn’t quantity over quality because they are all really funny and educational. Kyklos has a humourous vibe I love and the way it uses live action actors is great. Some of them I am unsure if they are just brilliantly using stock video or if they managed to make some very funny videos that look like stock graphics (though there are definitely a lot of stock video for sure). Highlights include LADY Discrimination which hilariously points out the unfair living standards for women in ancient Greece, Cheater about Nero’s relationship to the Olympics with lots of whiny babies and Market of Dreams, a commercial for the ancient Olympic market.

1. Jujutsu Kaisen

A lot of these endings are telling or are alluding to the emotional heart of its story. Jujutsu Kaisen is much more interested in having fun. And that’s why I love it. It comes out of the gate music video style with a burst of funky joy as the lead comes in dancing. And it basically is just the characters dancing and having fun in their downtime. This one works because the song is a banger and its fun watching the characters dance around in a very effervescent ED that is very watchable. Definitely shot to number one the moment I saw it. Oh, and someone made a mostly good Jojo fan version but they also made Jolyene have a smile larger than a smirk and THAT IS WRONG!!!!
 
3. Great Pretender

...I haven’t seen the last nine episodes but its pretty obvious that the last scene is a promise that Laurent’s past is going to be the emotional bow to tie the rest of the series together and we have an end that perfectly sweet and hopeful for our send off to the series as a whole.
The rest should be up on Netflix by now! Wring JBear's arm and get watchin!🤩

I won't speak to any spoilers, but I assume that the calico cat in the ending is Laurent. And that the other three cats in the chorus are Abby, Cynthia, and Edamame. But I can't really figure which one is supposed to be which and I'm obsessed with figuring that out.

"They might pretend they are too cool for school and that they’ll just abandon each other when it makes sense, but there’s no mistaking that this is a secretly sentimental bunch." -- this is why the motif of cats is just so good for this show and the ED. Because it's very much like a cat to pretend to not care and be aloof/independent, but they're secretly very needy and social and fiercely loyal animals. I love this ED, definitely #1 in the year for me. Good list in general though Johnny, I always appreciate reading your writeups.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
10. Millionaire Detective – Balance: Unlimited

Number 10 slot is always tough because I feel like there are a 10 I could have easily slotted in as being near equal to this. As much as I like the more traditionally heroic theme of the old Adventures of Dai cartoon, the new theme gets me pumped for fantasy action and adventure. Talentless Nana basically show quick shots from each beat of the story but without context so there are no actual spoilers until after the fact. Appare-Ranman was a really strong contender, as the song stuck with me for a while. And the latest Golden Kamuy intro looks real slick (both it and the ED almost made those respective lists for me). But I went with Millionaire detective, beating a lot of these series by a hair. The song feels like a dance beat with an underscore of hip hop and the imagery is a mix of pulp detective series, James Bond and braggadocio rap videos oozing with financial excess. We have our lead smoking a big cigar like the greatest asshole in the world. It’s a mix of cool and, on the title character’s end, crass that mirrors his abilities to fight crime with his excess. Millionaire Detective was a fun mid-tier show with some genuine surprises and this is a great way to open up each episode.

9. Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Another one that got by on the slimmest of margins as there were a lot of good traditional pop intros this season I liked. This one mostly got by with two specific elements of visual flair I loved: the very start where the castle begins to fold and we see its in a pop up book and the moments after the title reveal where we do some transitioning though the lead character's head (literally) with a short visual journey that looks fierce. Even in comedy shows, I feel like we have fewer series where the characters sing the intro and this one has the title character, a kidnapped princess who is actually a royal terror in the vein of “The Ransom of Red Chief” and here we see her lamenting her fate but with hints that the monsters she lives with have it far worse thanks to her even before we get going. Then we see her, as usual, unhappy with her sleeping arrangements and causing havoc around the castle for her goal. The show isn’t always laugh out loud funny (EDIT: I wrote this before the last episode, which very much WAS. Man, that was a good one.) but it is always enjoyable and I like the character dynamics between the lead character and her “captors” and this pop musical number style intro reflects that.

8. Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen is a show I’m losing a bit of faith in. Its not bad but while it is very slick looking, I’m becoming a little less interested in the mythology and I feel like we haven’t been able to dig into the main character for a while in a way I’m interested it. Nonetheless, the intro has some very gorgeous animation. I like that it is bookended by the lead character falling asleep on a flooded train (whether this is a metaphor or a thing that will literally happen remains to be scene). This doesn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of shonen action openings. There’s some cool looking fights where the character use their powers. We see characters on their own doing their thing then preparing for battle. Images of villains and significant events. The duality as this is another main character with a darker, more powerful force hidden inside of him. It just does everything very well with pretty animation, good transition and a strong energy-packed pop song.

7. Gal & Dino

Meanwhile, Gal & Dino is one I fell out of love with relatively quick. Not that I hate it but I just feel while I liked the very chill, sweet pace of the first few episodes, I felt I didn’t have the desire to stick with it and I really don’t care for the back half of the episodes with live action that seems to depend on my knowledge of the Japanese celebrities who are cameo-ing that mean nothing to me. But I do like the relationship between the two title characters: a sweet, stylish Gal and a slow-witted by kind dinosaur. And I like this intro, very poppy and mixing the aesthetics of Sanrio-style mascot characters and gal culture. Particularly, I love Dino traversing the screen is a series of still images based on chocolates, clothing, jewelry and other trendsetting stuff aimed at girls in their late teens/early twenties. It’s a really eye-popping opening and as much as I like something that tells a mini-story or does something to reflect the deeper aspects of the show, there’s something to be said about an intro that just grabs your eyes’ attention.

6. The Gymnastics Samurai

The Gymnastics Samurai (I’m not sure why Funimation doesn’t just call it Taiso Samurai. It says it in Romanji in the intro) is a fun show set in 2002-2003 for reasons I’m not certain but it makes sense to go with a song from a band that hit big around then, Orange Range. And did they pick a good one: Shanghai Honey is hip and bouncy and I am immediately into it. It’s a new performance of the song apparently (or maybe a new mix) and fits perfectly for this musical video style introduction to our fun cast of characters. It centers around three major characters, including the title character but the show is closer to an ensemble that is gravitating around the lead but has lives outside of him. Still, they are in solidarity with him so it makes sense they are all working together in this fun, music video style intro, including one of Jotaro’s main rivals. Mostly, its just that it’s a visual delight and the song is incredibly catchy.

5. Kaguya-sama: Love is War

I’m going to confess this one disappointed me a bit on first watch but it grew on me pretty quick. I was super enamored of the first opening with its song and visual and while “Daddy! Daddy! Do!” slaps just as much as “Love Dramatic” (Masayuki Suzuki is such a great choice compared to a more conventional/timely pop singer), I wasn’t as into it visually on first watch. I did like the most of it tells a little episode in and of itself but for some reason the strength of it took a while to take traction in my mind, mostly because I think I expected more obvious visual beats to the music beats (you have heavily punctuated “1-2-3” you expect similar visual punctuation) and while they are there, I guess there weren’t in the way I wanted. But they are there and they are great and I love that while the first intro shows the war metaphor under the surface, here we simply are obvious metaphor free (save for the very start) and it’s the two kids preparing for a war and we watch it play out minus the usual inner monologue. At this point, we know the characters so well, we understand the beat of this story without them: one has a romantic plan, Chiyuki and fate kind of ruin it, something more sweeter and genuinely romantic happens based on spontaneity and the character’s good points, they get under each other’s skin but don’t realize it. Its sweet and funny and I love these characters and want the two knuckleheads to finally work things out.

4. Great Pretender

If you have a caper show, you NEED a stylish opening. Though Great Pretender often slows things down in favour of deepening character relations to heighten the emotional stakes of each caper, it is a show that wants to emulate the fun caper, con man and heist movies of film’s like Ocean’s Eleven and The Sting. And to that end, it is clearly inspired by the opening to Catch Me If You Can (which in turn was inspired by the great graphic design of Saul Bass), a movie about a con man that also has fun with the cons but also has a very sad human element to it. With a pop art style, it begins taking us through the first arc of the series with quick shots of the stories to follow. We see our hero tries to keep cool like everyone else but really he’s being dragged into the crazy ride that is this series. I also feel, aside from Catch Me If You Can and Saul Bass, it also reflects general 20th century pop art, including an auction that calls to mind Piet Mondrian. The jazzy music also calls to mind caper movies and I feel like we are also intended to be put in mind of more stylish anime (that also used jazz) such as Lupin the Third and Cowboy Bebop. So, yeah, the show accomplished its style cred with this one.

3. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

No surprised that a Masaaki Yuasa show is getting on this list. We were very lucky to get two very good ones this year. And seeing as he makes very gorgeous looking shows, its no surprise he has incredible looking intros. This one is deceptive in that for a show about animation there are a lot of images that only move a little or not at all. But this is a show about both the joy of animation and the acknowledgement that it takes a lot of time to do very little. Here, we have repeated shots of the lead characters voguing. Over and over. Faster and faster. This is the work of animation and animation editing, having to do the same things over and over and faster and faster. We see the leads dancing in silhouette. Animators need to get the specifics of movement right. The intro is very well edited but it is also ABOUT editing, which is the heart of all moving visual mediums. The intro ends its incredibly frantic poppy funtime song with a swirl of repeated images. Each only has two frames of animation but even in that there’s a big scope of what needs to be done even for that simple imagery. And its done as a dizzying swirl. And then it is done again. Because for the world of animation and film in general, when it comes to making it, things need to be done again and again. In the words of Devo “We Must Repeat.”

2. Dorohedoro

Dorohedoro is definitely an atypical manga so it needed an atypical, off-center intro to go along with it. And boy does it. Starting with psychedelic colors and vaguely world music-esque warbling, we are tossed into a truly foreign world of wizards and murder. And our lead doesn’t appear in a glorious moment but as a parade of soldiers falling to their doom. This isn’t going to be a basic “heroes beat villains” story. But rather than keeping going with conventionally trippy imagery, we cut to Nikaido in her dingy restaurant turning fresh ingredients into yummy gyoza as En’s cat chases that one cockroach. The latter element reflects the wizards tormenting the lower realm and using it as essentially their magic experiment toilet. But when Nikaido gets to the meat… OH SHIT. They film her chopping the meat into mince first with a somewhat happy expression and then with a positively manic one (and it is filmed as such, with bleeding extra colors). Clearly, even without showing us the violence, this is a series of extreme, wild violence. As Nikaido happily and gentle makes her gyoza, a parade of Caimans wonders past the background, still on their single minded and suicidal mission… but if symbolism is to be believed, he can’t be entirely singleminded. Because he carries a piece of her with him. As… some gyoza head guy. I love this intro and the intense, yet somehow fun music by K(no)w Name completes the package.

1. Japan Sinks 2020

My #1 favourite is tonally the most different than any of the others, I’d say. I do tend to get drawn to the more dynamic opens and sometimes yawn past the quieter ones (I pretty much turn to my phone any time the DS9 theme starts). But like the show, Japan Sinks is something special. The show can get dark and even extremely violent in parts, but like Masaaki Yuasa’s work in general, there’s empathy, humanity and a sense that there is real goodness and hope to be found in young people. The show is about a disaster but it is also about a family and their enduring love for each other, the kind of thing that makes a country beyond a literal place. The intro is “A Life”, sung by Taeko Onuki with a composition and piano work by film legend Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also did the series soundtrack). It’s a song about remembering someone who is gone now. Its in heavy, almost heavenly whites. We are given images of the lead characters in safer times. I guess its definitely happier times but this isn’t about scenes of joy, but scenes of comfort and love. All the conveniences are there. This isn’t treated as ironic complacency, its just a safe world. There are chores to be done, not the annoying kind but the ones you might take small pleasures in. A place almost like a dream that is gone forever in the physical but lives forever in the mind. Japan Sinks’ intro works because not of extremely clever foreshadowing, though there are subtle elements, but rather a gentle moment in time reminding us what is valuable as our heroes fight to survive in an increasingly unsafe and disappearing world.
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)

Fuck yeah, I think I said this before in another thread but the City Hunter 91 OP is real good too. Honestly pretty much every OP/ED is good, but Sara is probably my favorite. I'm gonna throw out the .357 Magnum opening too because it cracks me up (it's supposed to make Ryo look super cool and sexy and it's, like, that guy is a fuckin' dork, man...anyway here's some skin tight leather for some reason). The endings are all pretty good too.


ALSO!!!

TOUGH BOY


I forget who but someone in the Old TT said that there's no proof but it's vital that you think that Kenshiro and Bat fist bump when they pass by each other, and I agree.

Edit: Oh and this is pushing the limits of "opening" a bit, but the first Bubblegum Crisis opening sequence rules. Not an "OP" but I worked 12 hours in a hospital and I'm tired and anime OPS are good so I don't care about your "rules" at this moment


Edit 2: Fudge, I forgot ZETA GUNDAM

 
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JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
8. Jujutsu Kaisen

Jujutsu Kaisen is a show I’m losing a bit of faith in. Its not bad but while it is very slick looking, I’m becoming a little less interested in the mythology and I feel like we haven’t been able to dig into the main character for a while in a way I’m interested it. Nonetheless, the intro has some very gorgeous animation. I like that it is bookended by the lead character falling asleep on a flooded train (whether this is a metaphor or a thing that will literally happen remains to be scene). This doesn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of shonen action openings. There’s some cool looking fights where the character use their powers. We see characters on their own doing their thing then preparing for battle. Images of villains and significant events. The duality as this is another main character with a darker, more powerful force hidden inside of him. It just does everything very well with pretty animation, good transition and a strong energy-packed pop song.
This OP has risen a lot in my estimation over the course of the season for two reasons. One, it keeps subtly updating over time, which I love (newest ep has the MC crying in the final shot), and, more importantly (big spoilers for episode 12): it looks like it has a spoiler in that it shows one of the young villains befriending the hero and joining the main cast, and then the show starts to indeed head towards that resolution, except lol, the show straight up fucking mercs him and it was an intentional idealized mislead all along.
 
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