Killer7 SINdicate

[Cat]

Sometimes an OP or ED is interesting enough to stand on it's own, sometimes they're lousy even if the show is good.
I would like to share and discuss those that were memorable for whatever reason.
I'm going to start with some personal favourites.


Perfection.
If you've seen this series you might remember that this ED alternates between the English and Japanese versions of the song and that details change.


The 3DCG Series II OP is also great but the only one on Youtube cuts off prematurely. ED is excellent as well.


Lovely palette and gradients. The editing reminds me of visual novel openings.


Speaking of which.


Having Shinbo do these too was smart. The first is my favourite, but they're all good.
I also like this music-video-length one.


I don't know why this one evokes such strong anemoia in me. It has a certain magic.

I think I overdid it a bit so that's all for now.
I'm interested to see everybody's picks.

[Rake]

Hellsing was the first anime I ever pirated (on LimeWire, before I knew how to torrent) so it's already memorable to me for that reason, more so because I was surprised it didn't sound like What's Up People? by Maximum the Hormone that they used for the 2nd Death Note opening (although that was later, but that's the kind of sound I was imagining). I liked Zetsubou Billy more, but I prefer their music video for it to the Death Note 2nd ED.



Cool saturated colors and gradients, OP that sounds like an ED. Wish the anime looked as nice as the OP did, but I still enjoyed watching it on Anime Unleashed over 9,001 years ago.



Rock & Roll, tattered cowl on top of a duster coat billowing menacingly in the wind, crossed black and silver Mateba revolvers. Has a lot going for it.



The Betterman OP and ED were switched when I watched it, so I don't fucking remember if this is the OP or the ED. Another one I really liked from Anime Unleashed.



The G.O.A.T. that tricked everyone into caring about Bleach. Blood+: One Night Kiss is closer to realizing how this opening feels, but there's still aspects of my initial impression of Bleach that I'll never forget (Urahara feeling like a more complex/detailed Suda character, the incredibly stylish and also GhM-like graphic design for the title cards).



I used to watch Bleach and read /x/ around the same time (when both were new) so it's even more nostalgic for me.



I had mixed feelings on Eureka 7, but it had a banging soundtrack. Whoever the fuck owns Bivattchee's recording rights does NOT want To the Center of the Sun on JewTube LOL. They've been taking down uploads of just OP 3 for years. I always thought this song stood out against the other J hip-hop and J-pop songs (though I liked all of those too, Home Made Kazoku were getting decent plays on Adult Swim 'cause they had Thank You!! as Bleach's 2nd ED too and I liked Tip Taps Tip by HALCALI).



Jigger hip-hop set to anime versions of WW2 tragedy photography. Yeah, we didn't know how good we had it back then.



I loved Ergo Proxy, but I wish the show was more like the opening which reminded me a lot of Devil May Cry 2.



I remember liking the 3rd OP to Blood+ a lot because it had a scratchy experimental animation style similar to Masaaki Yuasa's Kemonozume (which is one of the most Suda51 animes I've ever seen, I recommend it to everyone) or the anime part from Kill Bill.



Wonderful westaboo, anime rendition of Route 66 rendered in '00s grey-green (also helps it sounds like they're singing "I WAS MADE TO HIT AN AMERICAN!"). Beat Crusaders had Tonight, Tonight, Tonight as the 4th ending of Bleach too.




Both Read or Die (OVA) and R.O.D The TV have great openings (I watched The TV on Anime Unleashed too), but I like the TV more (despite it not being animated quite as nicely as the OVA OP) and the song better.



I have to link this on fucking DailyMotion because nobody gives a fuck about Basquash! (it wasn't very good, but the mechs were cool).



Non-anime anime OP (also one of those weird, rare instances where they dubbed the ED and OP songs for the English release), one of those things that would've been really fun to make:





I liked Destiny of the Desert and How to Draw a Sunabouzu too.

[Cat]

Top-notch choices.
I'll never get sick of the Bleach OP. I could see it being as attractive to teenagers now as it was then.
Read or Die had such nice presentation, I just wish the show itself wasn't about "having powers" etc.
I like the illegal Eureka Seven song. Reminds me of Eastern Youth a bit.

Edit: I realise that it's because it is literally the case, but Trigun sure looks old.

[Cat]

So obvious I forgot it.

[Rake]

I'll never get sick of the Bleach OP. I could see it being as attractive to teenagers now as it was then.

I periodically rewatch the first 17 episodes of Bleach (everything before they introduce the Soul Society world after Byakuya abducts Rukia, and it degenerates into samurai DBZ for thirdies-- although far aesthetically superior even then) to refresh my initial misconception of the series which I still find deeply inspiring.

Read or Die had such nice presentation, I just wish the show itself wasn't about "having powers" etc.

Agreed, I'd have preferred Read or Die to have been less "action" oriented. Although in terms of "powers" the Papermasters were far more interesting relative to similar anime (and much funnier in the manga that they literally fuck books to tell if they're haunted or otherwise contain hidden knowledge, but I think the anime might be better without the vulgarity in this instance).

I like the illegal Eureka Seven song. Reminds me of Eastern Youth a bit.

Bivattchee is good, though I think that's their standout track. The original music video has more extreme '00s imagery which I prefer to the use of it in the Eureka 7 OP.

Edit: I realise that it's because it is literally the case, but Trigun sure looks old.

Prolly 'cause all my other examples (except for Betterman where it's obscured by the cels being overlayed on top of footage) are full digital blacks, so Trigun looks washed out by comparison.

So obvious I forgot it.

Same, ED to cap it off:



I wanted to post the opening to Xam'd but apparently, I'm Mr. Fucking Obscure and the only person in the English-speaking world that remembers it, so I had to go to fucking Nico Nico Douga (It's prolly 'cause it's an ONA made for the PSN video service launch in '08):

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4004730

I found out about it years ago when I watched King Gainer and looking into Kenichi Yoshida (Shangri-La) for more things that looked like his work on Eureka 7. Xam'd was my favorite because it was the most surreal and violent:

[Cat]

#16 is 1:1 ONK. Overwhelming video.


It may be impossible to get across what a shock Haruhi was. Things just hadn't really looked or felt like it before.
Kyoto Animation's masterpiece was so influential that this richness is now basically taken for granted.
I believe the eruption of energy present in just the OP is a big part of what swept the whole phenomenon along.
The maximalist sequence running through the stars is still breathtaking to me.
A little touch I like is the sound novel style "posterized" photographs in the multicolour collages.
And who could forget that dance sequence from the highly avant-garde ED? A favourite at anime conventions and video-sharing websites on both sides of the pond.


The same month that Haruhi finished it's first run came this classic.
Notice the similarity of the late-Pizzicato Five-esque music in both this and Haruhi. Something was definitely in the air.
Same goes for the graphic style. This post-Shibuya kei, Jason Brooks meets Hisashi Eguchi thing. Some of those Bleach eyecatches and Sonic Team's Feel The Magic XY/XX (both Bleach and XY/XX are from '04, the latter getting a prequel a year after) and more recently Yoot's Aero Porter fit this. Does this have a name?
I'm not big on lyrics but the Kenji Ohtsuki track from the ED turned out to be quite prophetic too.


Flawed anime with a flawless OP.
Another that should have been in the first post. Has my favourite piece of music from any anime.
Now, I haven't read the manga (27/40) but there are some details that make me rate this fairly highly as a work of westabooism. Enough research was done to not fuck up things like geography or gastarbeiter ethnicity.
It should be obvious where artistic license was applied.
Visually things are very nice indeed and it's sad the bleakness of the OP wasn't retained non-stop in the episodes.
I have a distinct memory of wanting to see the part where that desolate landscape makes it's appearance.
I have no memory of whether that actually happens or not.

[media]https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm35331039[/media]
Proof that doing it "AMV-style" can be more than adequate.
Carefully chosen and unassuming clips taken from the show itself show the ordinary lives of Japanese children across classes.
It's immediately melancholic, and as the show progresses this works with a detail in the eyecatches to bring out a mournful sense.
I don't think the anime was a smash-success but the song "Uninstall" appears to be popular on Youtube both for instrumental covers and karaoke.

[chubby meringue]

[Cat]

Splendid!

[Rake]

This post-Shibuya kei, Jason Brooks meets Hisashi Eguchi thing. Some of those Bleach eyecatches and Sonic Team's Feel The Magic XY/XX (both Bleach and XY/XX are from '04, the latter getting a prequel a year after) and more recently Yoot's Aero Porter fit this. Does this have a name?

The 10th opening of Bleach (2008) comes to mind.

Every time someone brings up this (still unnamed) aesthetic, they either fuck up the timeline (as you pointed out, this started in the early-mid '00s):



Or they just start making shit up:

McBling is an aesthetic that was popular from roughly 2002 to 2008, succeeding the Y2K aesthetic. It was coined through a Facebook page in 2016 made by Evan Collins of the Y2K Aesthetics Institute.

It's amazing what can be accomplished by declaring things online and attaching your name to them.

The Hakkenden OP (both the music and general tone) reminds me of the initial cultural impact "anime" had on people, how much it created a mirror to see yourself (particularly the best and brightest) in a more serious world.

I particularly like the use and contrast of the Ukiyo-e art inlaid against '90s anime cels (especially within the context of it being a modern rendition of the Edo period) and since "mixed media" has come up in a few examples here I remembered the ED to 2×2 = Shinobuden:



Which couldn't be further away from Hakkenden, but "ninjas" and "mixed media" reminded me to reply here.
I remember it being funny, so I recommend it.

[player1]

There's actually nothing magical in Gundam 79 ed. Yet still, for some reason I'm just charmed with how soothing it is and how blue colours are dominant there and also add that calming effect.

At first, I didn't really like OP in Cosmo Warrior Zero. After some time, though, I started to dig it. I think the most charming part in it is how unique theme is. Also, I guess, visuals kinda fitting to the op itself.

Another example of simplicity in early anime - og Space Battleship Yamato series. The calmness of that ending also is hypnotising in a way.

These examples aren't really something special. I don't think that majority of people could find any appeal in them. However, for some strange reason, I feel at home while watching and listening to them.