Opening A Day Suggestions Please
After more than 130 unique or interesting overlooked, little known, or forgotten anime opening sequences, I’m starting to run out of candidates. Any suggestions? So far every opening I’ve posted has been from a series that I’ve actually watched, but that doesn’t have to be a requirement. I’m only seeking suggestions for opening animation sequences that have some interesting, unusual, or unique aspect and aren’t from common, well-known, currently widely available shows.
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I always liked the Key: The Metal Idol opening. Weird but lush opening animation for a weird OAV series http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y7KrcfuxAw
Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran (or “Carried by the Wind”) had a great opening if you can find it somewhere… awesome battle animation by Takeshi Koike (of soon-to-be Redline fame) and very unconventional theme music. Not anime pop… imagine that
The Original First of the North Star. I remember this guy with a deep deep voice giving a commentary about how the show in the English version. I honestly don’t know if this was an ad or the actual intro as I cannot for the life of me find a digital copy of it. If it was an ad, the actual English intro is all action scenes from the series with no audio in stark contrast the Japanese version. I recall the Japanese version being very bad.
I personally would like to see some more of the Ranm 1/2 openings as they have a wide variety ranging from pop to electric rock. The first one in particular sounded like it was made by 1 guy on his keyboard in his mom’s basement, but was still kinda awesome.
The English Intro to Record of Lodoss Wars. That song is just haunting and awesome. I prefer the English version, but the Japanese version is just as haunting and awesome.
Others I personal think are unique or come from an anime that is not well known or fairly rare: Mushi-Shi, Panty & Stocking, Adventures of Kotetsu, Beck, Nana, Blade of the Immortal (anime audio tuned?), Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Strange goodness that will stick in your head for life), Saiyuki, Godannar (Intro you hate to be addicted to), Wings of Honneamise, xxxHolic, MariaHolic, and Sakura Wars (I don’t think this did very well in America, but the intro seems to use a live band or orchestra).
ASTRO BOY (1963); pretty much the first opening sequence with a song, right? The original/first version was the English-language version, if I recall.
IGPX (2003); I’m unsure if folks realize that it exists… but what do I know? It’s nice, I think.
MARIA+HOLIC (2008); Aggressive and delirious, subversive and hilarious, and some other stuff, too.
STELLVIA OF THE STARS (2003); Kind of a favorite song of mine – that’s all.
SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN (1998); I could’ve sworn it was profiled before, but couldn’t find it.
R.O.D. THE TV (2003); One of my favorite anime soundtracks, but a cool and clever intro as well.
LAST EXILE (2003); Another great soundtrack, great atmosphere.
009-1 (2006); Gotta dig “Destiny Girl”
AGENT AIKA (1997); Just because.
Honey & Clover http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBGg9yZKGxE
Baccano’s stylish opening saved my life by reminding me who’s who in its large cast every episode. Durarara continued in that vein but it wasn’t as necessary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msg8ypnLqaw
I never watched more than 2 eps of Blood+, but it had this kind of neat (3rd) opening with reinterpreted character designs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jslXPe3jsw
Ah My Goddess (OAV) opening, full of characters who never actually appear in the series, with a theme song by Final Fantasy guy Uematsu, IIRC. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPAyosq8wHU
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (OAV)… and goddammit this 2-episode series had some nice music interludes too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3vLGIpYSqE
“…Even mother will show ‘nother way. So put your grasses on, nosing wirr be wong. […] The first words should be finded…” And on top of the sports montage-like attitude, you get the worst and/or most inappropriate opening ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48BxbRyorK8
Ef: A Tale of Memories, solid pastel colors and silhouettes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DXTk9gtOHY
Gosenzosama Banbanzai… abstract 2D effect animation on simulated TV static, with Kenji Kawai pop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxnwTg2lKQc
Slightly off-topic, but some endings & other stuff:
xxxHolic (end credits) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEP0imLkBl4
Soredemo Machi’s ending comes to mind as well
Dragon Half’s nostalgic rather hilarious end theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhqfUdwhHws
Di Gi Charat “Party Night” episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcgDIUvLL6c#t=0m5s
this post was caught by the spam filter, so here it is again with the YouTube URLs removed, with only the video IDs (the URL string to be appended after watch?v= in YouTube videos) included instead
Honey & Clover — LBGg9yZKGxE
Baccano’s stylish opening saved my life by reminding me who’s who in its large cast every episode. Durarara continued in that vein but it wasn’t as necessary. — Msg8ypnLqaw
I never watched more than 2 eps of Blood+, but it had this kind of neat (3rd) opening with reinterpreted character designs: — 5jslXPe3jsw
Ah My Goddess (OAV) opening, full of characters who never actually appear in the series, with a theme song by Final Fantasy guy Uematsu, IIRC. — FPAyosq8wHU
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (OAV)… and goddammit this 2-episode series had some nice music interludes too. — g3vLGIpYSqE
“…Even mother will show ‘nother way. So put your grasses on, nosing wirr be wong. […] The first words should be finded…” And on top of the sports montage-like attitude, you get the worst and/or most inappropriate opening ever: — 48BxbRyorK8
Ef: A Tale of Memories, solid pastel colors and silhouettes. — 9DXTk9gtOHY
Gosenzosama Banbanzai… abstract 2D effect animation on simulated TV static, with Kenji Kawai pop — TxnwTg2lKQc
Slightly off-topic, but some endings & other stuff:
xxxHolic (end credits) — WEP0imLkBl4
Soredemo Machi’s ending comes to mind as well
Dragon Half’s nostalgic rather hilarious end theme: — BhqfUdwhHws
Di Gi Charat “Party Night” episode: — jcgDIUvLL6c#t=0m5s
BACCANO is certainly a good idea. Perhaps from one of the later episodes, where they intermix episode clips with the character introductions.
Another one I just remembered, COYOTE RAGTIME SHOW (2006), has a rather catchy opening sequence.
I don’t know if you used this one already or not, but I like the opening to Rose of Versailles.
An inadvertently hilarious opening from an inadvertently hilarious show– absurdly retro superviolent shounen action w/ talking dogs & evil bears. Watched the whole series with a friend and laughed all the way through it — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4_mrdCI6Rw
the maybe too-well-known Dokuro-chan opening — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ELRZ08hNaU
An inadvertently hilarious opening from an inadvertently hilarious show– absurdly retro superviolent shounen action w/ talking dogs & evil bears. Watched the whole series with a friend and laughed all the way through it — Q4_mrdCI6Rw
the maybe too-well-known Dokuro-chan opening — 9ELRZ08hNaU
the currently on-air Kimi ni Todoke 2 has a nice opening — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxrP6N5fwC8&hd=1
Most of my favorite openings are from shows I wouldn’t consider “overlooked, little known, or forgotten”, but here are my suggestions:
Eat-Man (1997 series) – almost entirely devoid of animation or even illustrations, but very striking, with a kick-ass theme song.
Nightwalker – really puts in the mood to watch something sinister. All anime series about vampires should have a mandatory Buck Tick theme.
Skullman – very stylish, with a cool song by Tokio that unfortunately couldn’t be licensed for the US release.
seanny beat me to the Key OP, because I too was held up by the “overlooked, little known, forgotten”. It’s a treat for both the eyes and ears, and I consider the English version (sung by Saffron Henderson IIRC) to be good as well.
How about the OPs to Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, Martian Successor Nadesico, Sorcerer Hunters, and Master of Mosquiton OVA?
For an older one that was licensed but didn’t make it to DVD: Adventures of Kotetsu.
I also heartily agree with the opening theme to Key the Metal Idol, and not just because I use the title character for my forum identity. It really is a great song paired with some interesting series-related visuals, and I also agree that the English version loses nothing compared to the Japanese version.
Otogi Zoshi is another series you might want to look at. The opener for its first half mixes traditional Japanese instrumentation into an intense rock song and couples it with some beautiful imagery. The opener for the second half is a more low-key song which has cast members lip-synching part of it.
The opener for Maze: The Mega-Burst Space might deserve consideration for delivering a theme which apes overblown ’80s hair bands and uses comically nonsensical Engrish (“Die Hard Life! Beam Up!”). That series probably deserves more recognition for its closer “Junky Boy,” though.
And while it was hardly an obscure title at the time, BGC: 2040 isn’t as well-known today and did have a strong hard rock theme well-synched to its visuals.
By any chance had you published any of the openings or endings of Utena? The second ending is my all time favorite.
You could also move onto “Ending A Day” and totally reset your options.
Thanks for the suggestions, folks. The Maze TV, Bubblegum Crisis 2040, and Utena first openings have already been featured.
The online distribution of the Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran has been blocked/banned by Bandai.
I’ve consciously avoided featuring openings from shows including Mushishi, Beck, Nana, Blade of the Immortal, xxxHolic, MariaHolic, LAST EXILE, 009-1, AIKA, R.O.D., Honey & Clover, Baccano, Durarara, Blood+, COYOTE RAGTIME SHOW, and Dokuro-chan because they’re all currently widely available on official domestic releases. After all, my goal was to introduce little known or forgotten animation sequences. Shows currently widely available on DVD aren’t really obscure or forgotten.
The Eat-man opening may be unique, but it’s not interesting to watch.
I’ve featured one Zetsubou-sensei opening, but most of them are a bit too risqué for this blog.
May I suggest the opening or ending for Crest of the Stars or Banner of the Stars which is one of my favorite anime series.