The greatness of Anime openings and endings
I find that when I did my Let’s Watch articles and some Anime Wednesday reviews I feel I left out the anime’s openings and endings. Now some of you might be wondering well why that matters, it’s ok to leave those out, they’re just songs anyway.
Not true.
See you’re thinking small Anime OP and ED (herby abbreviated as such) are important to me especially since living in America we don’t usually get something that hits so well. See I was spoiled, in the nineties there was a time in America where all the cartoons and kids shows had cool op and sometimes even cool ed, though most were just instrumentals of the op.
You had things like the power rangers op which were catchy and repetitive; to this day I catch myself singing a few in my head when I’m bored at work.
Freekazoid’s op that caught the zaniness of the show.
These where in one word, great!
 They served two purposes:
1. They got you pumped for what you’re about to watch. Every episode  when you heard the first note you knew it was time for Garfield to go hate Mondays or the digimon to do there thing.
2. They left you with something after the show. They were innocent songs kids could listen to and annoy the shit out of their parents. Â
In Japan the op and endings are actually songs. In a way there are what got me into watching anime. They seemed more invested and apart of what was going on, and they didn’t stay the same either. After a certain point in an anime they change an op from one song to another, you never get tired of it.
They treat it more important than we do. Think about it in any anime you watch there are singles of an op and ed closing songs and insert songs and they even release the original soundtrack. It’s not a secondary thing to them it’s just as important.
You see here in America, and I might be wrong about this but it’s how I feel, we don’t care.
Take the show spectacular spider man. It had and awesome op.
I knew people who actually enjoyed singing it then, unfortunately, it got canceled. Replaced by the far inferior Ultimate Spider-man show. And for all of two episodes I was ready to let the problems it had slide but by the third I had enough.
Why? It had no opening.
Here take a second and go listen to it on youtube for yourself. Oh can't find it? That’s because there’s nothing to find!
In Japan it’s consistent, if you release 12 saint seiya series no matter if they’re made by different companies or not they’re going have an op of some sort. You may not like it, it may not be catchy but it happens.
Here nuh uh from 1967-2008 every spider-man show had a catchy op. in 2012 Ultimate spider-man broke that.
I don’t know it just seems like we’re losing a bit of what made shows great here in America, while in Japan they’re just getting better, although yes some show’s suck (lookin at you samurai gun) they’re op and ed can make up for it…rarely.
Anyway I’ve ranted enough let’s change tacts. Just to show you I’ll make a list of some of my favorite anime op and some ed. Stuff that really got me into a show.
Sengoku Basara’s op 1: it’s not only an awesome song that fits how hot blooded the series is but it has something outrageous like dancing samurai. It’s the very definition of getting you pumped.
One piece ed 18:  It’s and ending, and I didn’t really talk about those much because most of the time they’re slow and don’t really feel as inviting or “Come on back” ish as the opening is and I don’t really like that, but there’s always exception to the rule and this ending is that exception. It’s upbeat and says hey this episodes over but come on back because next week we have a brand new one for you.
Yu Yu Hakusho op 1: This is an opening that had me just feeling good inside and it even sounded good in English thanks to Funimation (those guys really get us). It doesn’t really fit the tone of the show but it still just feels good to listen to.
Saint Seiya Omega op 1: I’m also a big Saint Seiya fan, and when I prepared myself to watch this new series I was shocked to find the original theme remixed in to this awesome new age rock version. It was like a hug from your mom saying welcome home.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012) op 2: This op is just a good example of a great op. It’s out there and captures the feel of the whole arc that’s about to be laid on your face. The art and animation are just awesome and pop out of the screen at you and might be better than the animation of the series.
These are just my examples, they’re fun inviting and hold a place in my heart.
What about you?
You have some anime op or ed that are special to you reblog with some and let us know and do forget…
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