24 replies to this topic

[kirant]

So, yeah. I've been working and theorizing how to do this for a while.

What I'm trying to do is compile my own personal "top 10 anime opening" list. I'm currently trying to acquire a list of openings that people really, really like as my own knowledge only covers a small quadrant of anime and want to give anime from shows I am not familiar with a decent chance at being ranked.

Anyways, all I ask of anybody reading this is to submit any openings they like. Just fire away with anything that has left a positive impression. I'll do all the sorting myself.

Thanks in advance to anybody who posts.

(For the curious, I'm doing ranking on musical quality, artistic quality, suitability to the anime itself, and synergy of all these working parts).

[Seraphinox]

Gurren Lagann: 3rd Opening (All use the same song - Sorairo Days) - Click Here

I like this opening because it highlights an understated part of Gurren Lagann as an anime, that it's a love letter to the different eras of Mech anime. The third opening being contextualised through mech animes of the late 90's and early 00's which was all about politicis and space travel as opposed to mad cap robot fights or character angst.


Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Season 1: Inner Universe - Origa: Click Here

Puella Magi Madoka Magicka Opening: Connect - ClariS: Click Here

Shingeki no Kyojin: Guren no Yumiya - Linked Horizon Click Here

Gundam 00 1st Opening: Daybreaks Bell - L'arc en Ciel: Click Here




[b]Shinichiro Watanabe Anime Section:

Every anime he's done, the opening has been fantastic.

Cowboy Bebop Opening: Tank - The Seatbelts: Click Here

Iconic. How to open a show.

Samurai Champloo: Battlecry - Nujabes ft. Fat Jon: Click Here |Full Song

Sakamichi no Apollon: Sakamichi no Melody - Yuki:


These are the ones that immediately spring to mind. I will return soon to write a piece on why I like each one and their relevance to the anime.

[Elwood]

The second One Piece opening is my absolute favorite. HERE Yes I'm a dub guy.

[Fire Blazer]

Only top 10? oh gosh lol

*mandatory One Piece fanboy remark* One Piece has a lot of great openings but I feel like it's almost too popular and eh I dunno if I could pick one lol (Kokoro no Chizu, Brand New World, We Are [which is pretty iconic], Jungle P, Fight Together, and Wake Up! are some of the best IMO though... still like almost all of them though)

one of the things with the long-standing anime is that they usually have similar patterns/themes/etc. and don't stand out a ton but it doesn't mean they're necessarily bad (the latest One Piece opening is great and pretty long at that)

I'd like to strongly suggest Sword Art Online's first opening though. Fate/Zero's as well. I dunno if I could find them online, you might have to just watch the 2nd/3rd episodes of the anime (I think SAO doesn't show the opening until the end of the first episode or something idr exactly).

unfortunately Seraph got like 4 of the openings I would've suggested lol (Ghost, Shingeki, Cowboy, Samurai FYI)

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood - Period (can't find the animation again but this one - )

Log Horizon opening 1. It slowly grew on me until I really liked it. Can't find it online though... *sigh* figures

as much as I like Code Geass I just... can't suggest the openings for some reason. They're just a little too generic, maybe? I wanted to suggest the first one, but yeah, I dunno, I can't. The 4th one is pretty awesome though, if you wanna give it a listen anyhow.

ugh, I feel like once you put me on the spot I can't actually remember the good openings I've listened to. Maybe I haven't actually lol. It takes a lot to impress me and make me not want to skip the opening I guess (unless it's OP because I'm just way too biased).

*shrug* I think I'm just gonna give up trying haha

[Fire Blazer]

bump because I wanted to suggest this one:



I like it a lot now, including the presentation of it

[SmashedFish]

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei- Second Opening (NSFW)
For the sake of my own shame in being the one to link this, I'll mention that the anime isn't much like the anime, being instead being something like a satirical dark comedy. To be fair, it has its fair share of fanservice, but it's not a quarter as bad as the opening.

Paranoia Agent
I've never even watched this anime and I won't be able to forget this opening. It's incredibly abstract and somewhat disturbing. I originally saw it years ago as a kid when staying up really late, and it still hasn't left me.

Persona 4 the Animation- First Opening
Another moderately abstract one, but I believe it more or less speaks for itself. As much as I like the show's second opening, it feels too repetitive, and the first is eyecandy enough.

[Fire Blazer]

QUOTE

I'll mention that the anime isn't much like the anime

*the opening ?

guilty pleasures lol, they kinda suck

[kirant]

QUOTE (SmashedFish @ Mar 21 2014, 05:36 PM)

I'll mention that the anime isn't much like the anime, being instead being something like a satirical dark comedy. To be fair, it has its fair share of fanservice, but it's not half as bad as the opening.

You had me sold until "fanservice"

[SmashedFish]

QUOTE (kirant @ Mar 23 2014, 04:34 PM)

QUOTE (SmashedFish @ Mar 21 2014, 05:36 PM) I'll mention that the anime isn't much like the anime, being instead being something like a satirical dark comedy. To be fair, it has its fair share of fanservice, but it's not half as bad as the opening. You had me sold until "fanservice"

I mean, it's a dark comedy satire of anime. In ripping apart anime, it does touch on fanservice. For example, it's been a while, but the only episode I remember off the top of my head featured a transfer student who constantly ended up in compromising situations. However, the main character (a depressed teacher who constantly tries to off himself, to no avail) is hell-bent on avoiding seeing any of it, afraid that she'll sue. The twist at the end of the episode is that in saving her from falling off a roof, he accidentally holds her upside down and her skirt does what skirts do when you're holding the wearer upside down, and despite saving her life, she sues him for it.

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 23 2014, 04:32 PM)

QUOTE I'll mention that the anime isn't much like the anime *the opening ?

Exactly, thanks. I'll fix that.

[Fire Blazer]

QUOTE

You had me sold until "fanservice"

trying to find shows without fanservice is getting harder and harder

I instead just put up a limit of like 5% of the show being fan service, anymore and it's too much and I either can't watch the show or won't enjoy it nearly as much and yet I somehow put up with Fairy Tail's bullshit aaaaagh no

[kirant]

QUOTE (SmashedFish @ Mar 24 2014, 06:28 AM)

featured a transfer student who constantly ended up in compromising situations.

I think right about there I'd stop watching. I have a pretty low tolerance and even the one shower sequence in Psycho-Pass is kinda tedious at best despite only lasting 2(?) minutes and being basically one of the few really fanservice-y moments in the show.

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 26 2014, 04:49 PM)

trying to find shows without fanservice is getting harder and harder I instead just put up a limit of like 5% of the show being fan service, anymore and it's too much and I either can't watch the show or won't enjoy it nearly as much and yet I somehow put up with Fairy Tail's bullshit aaaaagh no

My basic rule is if I roll my eyes more than once an episode it's right out. And eye-rolling is pretty much defined as any level of fanservice.

[Fire Blazer]

Ahaha I see, well everyone has their own tolerances for these things. Some shows have some great elements not related to fanservice and it's kind of a shame to miss out on it just because of some suckier less quality elements (not that I don't like girls but it's not what I look for/value in a show)... that's what I tell myself to get through it, but ultimately if it detracts a ton it can't be helped and the creator should have thought more about hurting the overall make-up of a show by adding such elements if they didn't want people to turn away because of it though I think most people probably like fanservice--I mean, it's called that for a reason, so I'd assume so....

idk if that made sense my brain isn't thinking very hard so eh *shrug*

EDIT: also I find it funny that i'm not the only one who rolls my eyes lol, I also have this bad habit of skipping scenes that feel dumb or too slow even though I should probably watch shows as they're intended to be >_>;

but yeah your rule is solid enough that I could probably follow it without much problem (the only exception that comes to mind is The Pet Girl of Sakurasou which was pretty freaking deep and emotional for me, well-written and well-done enough that I didn't mind the other bullshit which honestly seemed to decrease as the show went on)

[SmashedFish]

I have to agree that there is altogether too much fanservice in many shows, but I'm able to tolerate it somewhat if the rest is good enough to justify. To be fair, I found SZS acceptable, but certainly questionable, and definitely not for everyone.

[Fire Blazer]

Honestly I tend to forget most fanservice by the time I'm done with the show so meh

still takes away from the individual moments but w/e

[kirant]

Last call. I'm finally down to about 12 openings left to sift through.

The top count for this list has stayed fairly consistent for some time. I KNOW someone is going to complain that it's half cyberpunk/cyberpunk-esc though. That and their favourite isn't my favourite. And that my list isn't standardized.

You know what? There's going to be complaints about everything when it comes to something personal like this.

[kirant]

Finally done. Damn you YouTube though for massively long upload times.

[Fire Blazer]

???

where is it?!

[kirant]

List is on blog (as well as an explanation and some other trivial stuff). I've pasted the YouTube link to only the list below.

It actually took overnight to upload hence why I posted nothing.



Fun thought - It took me much less time to type the insane rant for that image than it did to upload the video.
Extra fun thought - I'm already dealing with copyright problems. This should be fun.

[Fire Blazer]

*facepalm*

sorry to hear that man

youtube's pretty lame sometimes... and by sometimes I mean a lot of the time

[kirant]

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ May 24 2014, 12:25 PM)

*facepalm* sorry to hear that man youtube's pretty lame sometimes... and by sometimes I mean a lot of the time

At least so far it's just that I'm not in control of ads for the video. But it also means that if the Evangelion gods decide to pull the rights to my video (very common - there are very few Evangelion opening videos out there), I'll have to re-upload elsewhere.

Also, yes, that does mean Evangelion is on that list.

EDIT - Nope. Turns out it is globally blocked. Time to appeal.