Best Anime Openings

[idunnosomename]

love love love tro-op-pi-ca-ah-naaa (2001)

Enjoy the Deluxe! (first, 2002) OVA too which is basically a musical pastiche of it where they just change a few things about

I did rewatch all of Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu (as it was rendered in the fansub days because the title is a weirdly ambiguous weather-based pun you can't really translate to make any sense) recently after 20 years, very funny at first how weird and sarcastic it is, but diminishing returns towards the end especially in the sequel OVAs, as it just repeats the same gags but bigger. The "Final" (2003) ends on a cliffhanger which is never resolved (it completed the stories from the manga 1996-2003, which continued under the new title Hare-Guu but that was never adapted, despite FINAL winning best OVA at Animation Kobe in 2004). Also I find the female paedophile teacher from those last episodes incredibly unfunny. But Guu herself is always good value for what a tormenting cunt she is

[buzby]

A recent favourite - Skip and Loafer. PA Works did an absolutely perfect job of capturing Misaki Takamatsu's artstyle, and then they go and throw in a rotoscoped dance sequence for good measure.

[Consignia]

I absolutely love this one. Does the show live up to it?

I think it does. It's light satire of modern Japanese working life (you can probably guess that from the intro). Basic premise is a salary man is working a hellish job , a zombie apocalypse happens and now he is free and can enjoy life. It's a bit silly places, the aquarium part in particularly.

The only thing is, it appears to be produced under the same working conditions it's satirising. Which can be painful to watch knowing that.

[Kenkun]

I know it's an ending not an opening, but surely...

[Consignia]

I know it's an ending not an opening, but surely...

Only used once as well. I think the animation used makes it look quite different. I believe it was motion captured by the director.

[bgmnts]

[Marbles]

My beloved Revolutionary Girl Utena "Let's live our lives heroically. let's live them with style."

Michiko & Hatchin - dare I say better op than Cowboy Bebop?

Fog Hill of Five Elements - not strictly anime (as it's Chinese I guess?). Still counts though to me.

[madhair60]

i started watching Utena the other day

[Kankurette]

Naruto has a fuckton of opening songs I like. Especially in the older seasons.

[Marbles]

i started watching Utena the other day

Hope you enjoy - don't blame you if you don't though, as it's a bit of a 'marmite' show I reckon. All the mad Nanami stuff means something I swear..!

[buzby]

Only used once as well. I think the animation used makes it look quite different. I believe it was motion captured by the director.

It wasn't motion captured, it was rotoscoped from reference video footage of choreographer Nagisa Sugao peforming wearing Chika's dress and wig by Ex-KyoAni animation director Naoya Nakayama to produce the key frames by hand. Here is his key frame version, before cleanup and tweening:

[Consignia]

It wasn't motion captured, it was rotoscoped

Yeah, I kind of meant that, sorry.

[superthunderstingcar]

Hope you enjoy - don't blame you if you don't though, as it's a bit of a 'marmite' show I reckon. All the mad Nanami stuff means something I swear..!

I fucking love Revolutionary Girl Utena. Dat ending.

[Spiteface]

Not strictly anime, but it's an opening exclusive to the Japanese version of the 90s X-Men cartoon, so I'm counting it:

CRYYYYYY FOR THE MOOOOON!

[samadriel]

Ha, I love that moment near the end where Cable sails past the camera stock still, both guns blazing. That's Cable alright.

[idunnosomename]

thank you for alerting me to "Asobi Asobase", this is what they call tres madhair

ive been watching this because of the surprising metalcore ED but also because the OP is insanely addictive.

the core characters are basically all thoroughly unlikeable but somehow that's a bonus along with how fucking weird it is. good art direction but it's annoying how overexposed a lot of it seems to be (why's it so bright!! I cant see shit!!!)

weird trans-panic in one episode though. and a ganguro guest character which is a bit problematic in western fandom

Spoiler alert

they do Hanako up as the Heath Ledger Joker in response

[close]

[Zero Gravitas]

I also really enjoy Haruhi

Production quality leaves a lot to be desired.

[Mister Six]

Ah yes, the one with Professor Pimp.

"What does the guy in the wheelchair do?"

"He's psychic."

"Like, he can lift stuff with his mind? I thought that was the woman in yellow's thing."

*No, that's telekinesis. He can read people's minds."

"Shit, hard to make that dynamic. Crap, just find the two hottest women and put them on either side of him, that's the best we can do."

Not my words - the words of two Japanese men I just made up.

[Thursday]

Dorohedoro, because it gives very little insight into what it's about

[Consignia]

Dorohedoro, because it gives very little insight into what it's about

But also very much gives the vibes the show actually feels like. It's a wonderfully chaotic show .

[oggyraiding]

Jojo Part 4 second opening is fun.

The remixed Bites The Dust version (contains spoilers for latter part of Part 4) where it's in reverse is also cool.

I like when they change their OP to fit the story. Like once it's revealed what DIO's stand can do in Stardust Crusaders, it has him freeze time in the OP.

[buzby]

ive been watching this because of the surprising metalcore ED but also because the OP is insanely addictive.

the core characters are basically all thoroughly unlikeable but somehow that's a bonus along with how fucking weird it is. good art direction but it's annoying how overexposed a lot of it seems to be (why's it so bright!! I cant see shit!!!)

weird trans-panic in one episode though. and a ganguro guest character which is a bit problematic in western fandom

Spoiler alert

they do Hanako up as the Heath Ledger Joker in response

[close]

I'm glad my post got at least a vouple more people watching Asobi Asobase. The metal scream in the ED is actually Honoka's VA, Hina Kino (by the end of the series it's a wonder any of the mhad any vocal chods left). On thr subject of the show's cast, Fujiwara's VA, Shu Uchida, is a Japanese-Australian fluent on both languages, which is how she got the part.

The 'trans panic' thing around Aozora is the manga/anime playing with the 'trap' trope (the character's name 'Tsugumi Aozora' is also also usually considered masculine). In the penultimate chapter of the manga, it was revealed that Aozora is actually 

Spoiler alert

a genderless artificial lifeform, created to protect Kasumi from harm after her archaeologist sister makes a deal with an Egyptian god after inadvertently killing all other instances of Kasumi in ecry other parallel universe

[close]

(the mangaka really lost the plot in the last third of it's run).

[Sebastian Cobb]

Hard pressed to beat Cowboy Bebop, the coolest thing I had ever seen when I was 15.

Yeah I loved this.

If the thread were extended to all animated series I'd also suggest Sealab 2021 because I love the intro song. Apparently Julie Stepanek/Calamine recorded it on a 4-track just for the pilot but they ended up keeping it.

[Spiteface]

Jojo Part 4 second opening is fun.

The remixed Bites The Dust version (contains spoilers for latter part of Part 4) where it's in reverse is also cool.

I like when they change their OP to fit the story. Like once it's revealed what DIO's stand can do in Stardust Crusaders, it has him freeze time in the OP.

I was going to mention the Jojo openings where they mess with the opening.

I love the most recent one, actually. Where they play a bit with that even more:

57 seconds in, Jotaro and Star Platinum pops up, tries to use ZA WARUDO~! and it's instantly nullified by Pucci and Made in Heaven, and we are sent back to the Joestar house from Part one with Jolyne taking on Pucci and a montage of Manga panels from parts 1-6.

Kinda perfect as a send-off to the original JJBA continuity, really. Even better that they brought back "Roundabout" for the end credits, too.

[Papa Wheelie]

Production quality leaves a lot to be desired.

Very good. Haruhi was such a good show about shows.

Bebop also undoubtedly great, spectacular style, and a tone I'd never seen or expected before in anime.

Just watching some Eva again, though, and had to come back to the thread. I should really have put the video in the OP. It's an absolute masterpiece of music and editing.

The theme song itself is essentially perfect with the massive chorus melody introduced as a stirring intro, like being awakened, before it drops into the slightly melancholic but cheerfully resilient, everyday troubles kind of lyric and melody. The bridge to the chorus brings a beautifully balanced tension, and the harmonies get wider and thicker and then suddenly BANG you're in cathartic, euphoric, rampaging Eva mode. The black and white stills get me fucking buzzing for some reason TEST TYPE, ABSOLUTE TERROR FIELD and TOKYO-3. The kaleidoscopic cuts and juxtapositions are incredible, a dizzying mixture of friendship, fear and fury, plus wankbank snapshots. And just when you hope it loops one more time, it's gone. Become legend, young boy.

[letsgobrian]

The kaleidoscopic cuts and juxtapositions are incredible, a dizzying mixture of friendship, fear and fury, plus wankbank snapshots.

All in service of emulating

Mid nineties was peak-UFO homage era with both Louis Balfour from the Jazz Club sketches in The Fast Show and Gendo Ikari from Evangelion visually referencing Commander Ed Straker.

[Papa Wheelie]

All in service of emulating

Cheers, that's fantastic. The rhythmic editing, flashes of text, dynamism are all there. Never seen that show but I recognise the influence from lots of stuff.

[wobinidan]

I'm rewatching Welcome to the NHK, and since I think it's such a great show, I am also fond of the intro. On this second viewing I started to wonder if the jigsaw piece in the intro is a reference to autism, since it's about a hikikomori.

[madhair60]

[buzby]

I'm rewatching Welcome to the NHK, and since I think it's such a great show, I am also fond of the intro. On this second viewing I started to wonder if the jigsaw piece in the intro is a reference to autism, since it's about a hikikomori.

I did mention the NHK OP upthread as an example of an opening that is a tonal 180 to the show it's for (like the Asobi Asobase OP). The jigsaw piece imagery is a reference to the lyrics of the chorus of the song that was used, Pazuru (Puzzle) by Round Table featuring Nino:

Reaching out with both hands, a puzzle making no progress
It gets left behind until us two meet by chance
Something's gone missing; we need to get back that final piece

The shot of Misaki holding up the jigsaw piece coincides with these lyrics.

I don't think there is any inference made in the novel or anime about Satō or the other hikikomori character (Megumi's brother) being autistic. The author of the original novel, Tatsuhiko Takimoto, who based the story on his own experiences as a hikikomori, is not autistic either (one important detail that was censored from the anime is that in the novel, Satō's paranoia and delusions are brought on by drug abuse, rather than symptoms of mental illness). At the end of the story,

Spoiler alert

both the hikikomori characters end up on the path of being integrated back into society and working in menial jobs, which unfortunately did not happen to the author in real life, despite the book's success

[close]

.