Redemptive Readings for Everything

This moment is so legendary, it’s been featured multiple times on TV and DVDs by people picking their favorite H!P moments

For potential link rot purposes, it's obviously Fukuchan running back to Sayu for Suki da na Kimi ga during Sayugrad

People were complaining how Bond themes seem to have stagnated, with the only recent one breaking the mold being Casino Royale’s You Know My Name. I’ve noticed, however, that anime has quite a few openings that would fit the bill, with creative visuals set to catchy songs. The next time the topic of Bond themes comes up, I want to share the anime examples. Please send me suggestions! Mawaru Penguindrum second OP Kaguya-sama Love is War OP Noir OP (Yeah I know, on the nose) Kakegurui OP (OP 2 is close, but generally the Bond theme doesn’t have a singer on screen so much) Mob Psycho 100 first OP The Laughing Salesman (2019) OP Remember, what we’re looking for are very stylized visuals, avoiding any “real” backgrounds in lieu of spinning symbols, pairing sensuality and danger. Cowboy Bebop and Michiko to Hatchin come very close, but not quite. Lupin openings don’t quite hit the mark, either. Honorable mentions goes to the second opening of Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Imawa no Shinigami, because while its visuals aren’t that Bond-themey, the song is an excellent take on the classic Bond theme. It’s by Hayashibara Megumi, too!

I previously decided not to put the ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. OP on this list, since it features too many actual characters, but I’m coming back to it as excellent proof that Bond Themes can successfully use more modern genres of music to convey its themes. Just because Madonna failed at her turn doesn’t mean that every Bond Theme going forward should be pastiche. The connecting tissue on a lot of these, of course, is that the Bond Theme is often just a hop, skip, and step away from film noir. So anime OPs that are noir-ish easily fulfill the need to evoke “martinis, girls and guns, murder on our love affair” per a Bond Theme. This is what we see with the ACCA OP, whose lyrics are a perfect match, as well as having the requisite tantalising gestures by ladies capturing our fascination. (In light of that, might as well link Kakegurui XX OP as well, even though it was similarly discarded from the post above.) Of course, if we’re talking noir, then ODDTAXI has to be mentioned. Now, the OP doesn’t fit the visual tropes of a Bond theme because the types of characters involved don’t fit at all. The ODDTAXI OP is about normal schmucks and their hangups. Their flaws are put front and center, which is utterly against the “rule of cool” escape that a James Bond joint is meant to offer. You will never see a Bond theme where James tries and fails to wipe bird poop off of the windshield. But the shear surreality and variety of art styles in this opening can’t be denied, and could be adapted. A total chill bop of a song, and then very oblique symbolic representations of the plot to come, lensed through the characters, which would then require that the characters all have vivid personalities? Why not aim high? Make James cool again. (One might notice that Kaguya Sama S2 has since come out, with a similar song by the same artist as S1, but its OP doesn’t do Bond-theme style visuals. Song isn’t quite good enough for honorable mentions, either.)

Not an OP, but does the Gankutsuou ED maybe have the right vibes?

Oh man, that’s like Live and Let Die on steroids and speed, mixed with Doctor Who’s OP. That’s great.

Reblogging for the evening crowd…

@arbitrarygreay, any recommendation? For my own part, I found PoI to be pretty straightforwardly procedural, even until the very end, as per network request.

Starting from ep 4 on, I recommend for S1: 1x6 The Fix 1x7 Witness 1x9 Get Carter 1x10 Number Crunch 1x15 Blue Code 1x17 Baby Blue 1x19 Flesh and Blood 1x22 No Good Deed 1x23 Firewall (I also like 1x11, 1x12, 1x16, 1x18, and 1x20, but they’re much more YMMV) For a minimum of more S1, I’d say 1x6, 1x9, 1x15, 1x19, and 1x23. Absolute worst case skip straight to 1x23, but be sure to come back and rewatch S1 once you get through 2x13.

@mimeparadox what selection did you end up going with, with your friend? (Given, that this was a “guided” watch, where one of the viewing parties was a PoI fan, so not an audience of all PoI initiates.)

My write-ups for PoI S5 rewatch have been very very negative, to put it mildly. It’s been pretty illuminating to see how much I forgave S5 for, or wasn’t even bothered by on the first time around. It does bear the question, why am I so harsh on the same content now? One big answer is the ways in which PoI’s content has aged badly in light of events in the real world, but my biggest frustrations with PoI S5 are all about the writing, with the dated content only a cherry on top. My reblog of my own take of PoI Appreciation Week Day 1 answers that question: when I watched PoI S5 for the first time, I was submerged in fandom, and my glee with canon was contrasted against the fandom content, especially fanfiction. Right now, I do not spend time consuming PoI fandom content very much. So instead, PoI canon has to compete not only with itself, but with the best other canons TV has to offer.

#did PoI live up to the promise of the AI War? No. did any PoI fanfic offer a more interesting take? Also no.