Olio CafeWhat Anime have good Openings/Endings?
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鳳凰院 凶真 (Hououin Kyouma)I mean, I like Death Note for example, but the opening is so… “Meh”, IMO. I want something that not only has a good story but also has an Opening that is epic. Like Steins;Gate, for example.
I haven’t watched anime in years, I’m gonna bet Cowboy Bebop still has the best opening ever.
Ok. 3-2-1, let’s jam!
The whole Cowboy Bebop OST kinda beats every other anime
bada-bada-bada-bada-badow! fill basline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL-D9LrFJd4
I watch an anime reviewer that pointed out that the opening is so good that Netflix couldn’t even get it right while copying and pasting.
I’m not sure about that, Baccano! really gives it a run for its money
That one was good too. From that time another opening that I never skipped was Michiko to Hachin.
Also check out Lazarus!
Most recently I think the [Dan Da Dan Season 1 OP] (https://youtu.be/A1dnxXrpN-o) was something special! To be honest, any Creepy Nuts song as an OP goes hard. For example, I am also a big fan of the Call of The Night Season 2 OP. Those are the best two I’ve seen recently anyway!
Totally support Dan Da Dan S1. I honestly was quite disappointed that S2 did not keep up.
I would add Attack on Titan S3 (I think? The one with the war themed opening) that send chills down my spine.
Lol why do some part of them sound like Rap Music 🤣
(Wait, is there actually Japanese Rap Music? 🤔)
Absolutely.
Rap is a worldwide phenomenon by now so probably.
Music genres usually aren’t limited to specific countries
Yup.
Man, hard to narrow down favorites. Just a few picks that come to mind:
This guy animes. Haven’t heard of a single one of these.
You haven’t heard of the songs or the anime? Almost all of them are pretty main stream.
I forgot how much the animation for Spy X Family improved in season 2 for the opening and ending. They’re super beautiful
Haven’t heard of the animes. But I don’t watch much anime. Only the most popular, Death Note, Attack on Titan, the likes of them.
CITY soundtrack is fire! Like, all of them!
Cowboy Bebop for sure. That jazz tune is fuckin’ killer, and the graphics are great to boot.
No mention of Evangelion? Weird.
So obligatory that no one wanted to be that guy…
Haha fair. Evangelion would fit the great opening.
Dan Da Dan
Some of my personal favorite openings:
And Endings:
- Inuyasha (Every Heart by BoA): like Pokémon, I think a good reason I like this song so much is the nostalgia. But even taking that out, the ending is a great example of jpop from the early 2000s. Fun fact, the singer is actually a kpop star and has also released this song in English and Korean. Growing up only hearing the Japanese version, it’s super weird to hear it in any other language especially from the same voice.
- Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1: the chill hip hop vibes and cool animation are such a fun way to palate cleanse all the gore and seriousness of each episode
- Asobi Asobase: everything about this ending is great. The psychotic visuals, the cute anime girl vocals, the heavy metal backdrop. What makes it even better is just how much it contrasts with the show’s opening. Many of the comments for both videos point out this hilarious disparity.
dude I love elfen lied it’s like a corner stone for my anime history. it sucks that the anime was only like a third of the Manga. and that the artist is a fucking creep with a piss kink I’m p sure but doesn’t stop me from loving elfen lied
I did not know that about the artist. To each his own but maybe don’t put weird fetish stuff into regular anime.
Nobody’s mentioned the opening to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann? Nobody? Come on.
Runner up mention to Kuusou Rumba from the second season opening of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, especially for any players of Katawa Crash! back in the day who will probably never get it out of their heads.
It’s not epic (maybe epically sad) but the Dango Song intro from Clannad slaps!
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood had a lot of nice intro songs imho with “Again” being the best one.
That’s the first one right? I think I see a pattern across Anime, the Opening-1 almost always seem like the better one.
FLCL
The ending guitar riff was the message sound on my phone for years.
It got recognized a few times, too!
Ergo Proxy
Mostly a cheat, though, because the music is Radiohead.
The opening is Kiri by Monoral
Space Battleship Yamato 2199
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei had banger after banger for its openings.
One Piece OP1 is a classic
Gintama’s early openings and endings are also really good. Pray and Mr. Raindrop are great.
Would be remiss if I didn’t honorable mention Eden of the East just straight up using Falling Down by the band Oasis (the guys who wrote Wonderwall).
serial experiments lain op is based af
I can’t really tell if you’re looking for recommendations of good anime with good OPs, but this is my playlist of good OPs and EDs. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTRuZiBzA6WtS5z2G0hadW7O9ceWD0N-0
The 2nd opening of Death Note is great!
Also the last opening of Attack on Titan.
Heavenly Delusion OP
The second Ending of Jujustu Kaisen is probably my all time favorite anime Ending. The animation is fantastic, and the song is gorgeous.
Eureka Seven🤌✨
- op 1 & 2
The first one has Code Geass vibes. I kinda like it, I’d say… I’d probably rank it right after Code Geass Op1.
ODDTAXI is an excellent short decent anime and the opening is legendary. With just the right riff to end it.
You should also watch the anime don’t think it’s a cutesy animal story. It’s about a walrus who drives a taxi in present day Tokyo, and has some of the best dialogue I’ve read in any anime. Highly recommend subtitles not the dub.
How about some weird ancient ones?
They’re as much not to everyone’s taste as the shows themselves but I love all of the HaréGuu openings. The original’s a bop, Deluxe continues this while adding a spoken-word section the singer can barely keep up with, and Final is the best of the bunch. HaréGuu Deluxe also has a neat showtune-y ending.
I also think that Nerima Daikon Brothers has a great opening; it very much fits with the main characters being dollar store Blues Brothers.
If you want something that oozes cool, I can recommend the original Hellsing. A World Without Logos is an extremely stylish song as long as you don’t mind completely incomprehensible lyrics. (The song sounds as if it’s in English but is really just onomatopoeia. Basically Prisencolinensinainciusol in menacing.)
Yu yu Hakusho
https://youtu.be/AZ9lHrRrmG4
Bunny Girl Senpai’s ED is hands down the most beautiful anime song I’ve heard.
Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s a really deep anime with no sexualization of characters. Highly recommend watching.
I’m also personally of the opinion that both of Nichijou’s OP (OP1, OP2) are good, as long as you’re into frantic, chaotic mid-song genre switching. Well, at least it’s pretty on par with the rest of the show
I absolutely love Dungeon Meshi both openings get me in a cheerful mood. Ranking of Kings also has a beautiful story and the intro gets better the more you know about the story. Both are not particularly ‘epic’ though.
The intros of Chainsawman, Heavenly Delusion and Dandadan (both of them) are also some of my favorites. Mob Psycho 100 intros (I think all of them) are absolute bangers.
Here is my anime intro playlist
Slayers Next. Irresponsible Captain Tylor.
Yes, I know I’m old.
Pretty much any opening by Megumi Hayashibara…
Outlaw Star has a good one too!
Eromanga Sensei ED
Bad Girl ED
Watari-kun’s ** Is about to Collapse OP
Aharen-san OP
Gotta throw this into the ring: Mononoke’s OP is kickass OP. It’s ED is also gorgeous. It’s a beautiful anime - definitely a strong horror aspect, but it’s just beautiful through and through.
I don’t remember the ending, I think it was good, but the opening of CSM was the main reason why I watched it lol
Seems that there’s no mention of this yet! TYPE:MOON stuff that are done by Ufotable will not let you down! In particular:
Log Horizon had an unbelievable opening and ending duo.
Tokyo Ghoul’s OP is a banger. So is the first AoT OP.
The opener for the first season of Pokemon is on most top-ten best lists and for good reason; that song slaps.
Clown on 4Kids all you want, they messed up more than enough Western localizations to justify it, but they killed it for the soundtrack for the early Pokemon seasons.
If you like some music you heard in an anime, look up the artist and do some snowballing. That way you can easily find more music that you like.
If you want to find animes where the music is good, and not only find music to listen to, maybe (just some examples, definitely not complete):
* Hunter x Hunter (2011): Awesome endings (ed 2 for example), as well as ost. (Old pre-2011 hxh adaptation also has good music afaik.)
* Call of the Night: The op (or ed?) inspired the manga, and then in the adaptation they took the song. And the other op/ed music was then also made by creepy nuts.
* Yamato: Op goes hard, and fits great to the space fights.
* Terror in Tokyo: More sad than epic, ed/op and ost fit well.
Inuyasha
Just every opening and ending theme
Hikaru No Go half of the reason why an anime about go is so epic is the amazing music.
Gachiakuta or Dan da Dan.
Both have incredible openings and story.
I disagree, “What’s up, people?” By Maximum the Hormone (Death Note OP 2) is great. The intro with all the manically laughing Light heads in the fires of hell, while MtH growls metal vocals over it? Chef’s kiss.
High School of the Dead has a great opening as well - Kishida Kyoudan & the Akeboshi Rockets. It’s also a really fun anime.
Call of the Night’s entire anime was written around the song in their season 1 opening. It’s pretty good as well.
Someone already mentioned Cowboy Bebop, and that entire soundtrack is perfect. They wrote many episodes to fit the music they made first.
Tokyo Ghoul had that meme of the opening for a while, because that one part sounds really nice when it hits.
I’m sure there’s others, but that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
I’ve noticed when a couple things happen, you get consistency. One, one of the Japanese dub voice actors is in the band (or is the singer). Two, when an anime reuses artists/bands who work well with their brand and the message they’re trying to convey.
Two that do both of these things are Sword Art Online, and Bungo Stray Dogs. I’m less sure who from the Japanese cast is in which bands, but it’s mostly Granrodeo, Screen Mode, and Luck Life doing the openings and endings. And they’re all bangers, though the first ending is a bit weak, comparatively. In a vacuum it’s good. In most series it would stand out, but in Bungo, it feels less special, just because the others are so great. Bungo has ran for five seasons, so you have ten songs, plus the theme sfrom the movie Dead Apple as well (which also wasn’t quite as good — the themes, I mean, not the movie — all of Bungo is excellent).
I can speak more authoritatively about SAO — the Japanese actor for Asuna (the main girl/love interest) is Haruka Tomatsu, and she does a few of the themes. She does the first ending (Yume Sekai, lit. “dream world"), she does the fourth season first opener (Resolution), and she does the second season’s second opening (Courage, the Japanese word being yuuki, which is also the name of the main character in that arc). LiSA did the first opening, and she also opened the third season, and a few others. Eir Aoi and Luna Haruna did the openings/endings in the second half of the first season, and the first half of the second season. The third season brought ASCA and ReoNa into the mix, and the quality has always been top-notch.
As far as quality of the anime, Bungo is like My Hero Academia for (and with) adults. I don’t mean it’s pornographic; it’s not. I mean the characters are mostly adults, and they aren’t high school students (well, aside from a couple of them). SAO is popular with gamers, but women/feminists don’t like its portrayal of women and their use as leverage against the main guy. Others criticise the harem element while not realising the main guy only has eyes for the main girl. Another girl is his sister. Another girl is his girlfriend’s/fiance’s best friend. Another one is his best friend, a woman he considers his equal in combat. Then, invariably, there’s the loli — a middle school girl he used as bait one time and tags along, she’s kind of the group’s little sister. So it’s not a harem, it’s just a friend group that leans heavily toward female.
For something that is more universally loved and has outstanding themes, you want Your Lie in April. And it’s going to do exactly what you think it’s going to do, but you’re going to enjoy the ride, and it’s still gonna break you when it’s over. When we talk about TV shows and “the best ending” comes up, it almost always comes up Six Feet Under. Live-action show that aired on HBO 25 years ago with a rather unique ending that still has people talking. But when anime enters the chat, a lot of people point to Your Lie in April. Because what you know is gonna happen, definitely does happen, but that’s not what breaks you. It’s when the meaning behind the title is explained. And it’s worth it to get to that point.
BSD songs are so good =]
I love the one piece trails (not quite sure about each season)
Also Mashle and Gachiakuta
I really enjoyed Btoooms OP
Bacxano! has the best opening in my opinion. I highly recommend looking it up on Youtube
The original Macross opening theme is epic. (As in what the word used to mean)
The theme by Anri from the first season of Cat’s Eye (the original, not the remake releasing now) absolutely slaps. Second season theme (Derringer by Mariko Tome) isn’t too bad either. The ending themes are pretty corny but they grew on me.
Evangelion opening and ending (Fly Me to the Moon, not the Rei themes on the Netflix version)
I can’t remember which season it was in but Seize the Day from Laidback Camp is one of the happiest songs I’ve heard.
Samurai Champloo might have the best music of any anime. The gateway to Nujabes who would become my favourite artist.
Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho-to (sp?), all op/ed performed by ACID I believe.
The first Death Note opening is kinda terrible but the second one wasn’t too bad iirc. I like the first Dandadan theme, especially together with the video.
Problem is I don’t remember but im reading through as yeah steins gate was cool.