Thanks to everyone who showed up for Great Anime Openings at Otakon 2012! If you liked what you saw, please post your feedback to this thread on the Otakon message boards (EDIT: actually, fill out this survey instead. No registration required.) so the folks in charge know how we did. We had far more openings than we had time, but here is the list of openings we showed in the order they were played in along with links to purchase the shows. If you want to hear what we personally think of the titles, please click on the podcast review links where applicable:
(PRE SHOW) One Piece (4Kids Rap BY POPULAR DEMAND…okay, not really)
(PRE SHOW) Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (omitted from the otherwise superior remastered edition) (review)
(PRE SHOW) Dragon Ball Z OP1 (Cha La Head Cha La)
(PRE SHOW) City Hunter 2 OP1 (Sara)
(PRE SHOW) Death Note OP1 (review)
Future Diary
Sailor Moon S
Monster (review)
Saint Seiya (original) (review)
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Aim for the Ace
Hajime no Ippo New Challenger
Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team
Death Note OP2 (review)
Angel Beats!
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Mawaru Penguindrum OP2
The Vision of Escaflowne
Kaiji (Season 1) (review)
Dragon Ball Z OP2 (We Gotta Power)
Mazinkaiser SKL
Full Moon Wo Sagashite
City Hunter 2 OP2
Cowboy Bebop (review)
Lupin III – 2nd Series OP2
Black Lagoon (review)
Dirty Pair Movie – Project EDEN (review)
Tsuritama
Gunsmith Cats
Michiko to Hatchin
Ring ni Kakero
Mobile Fighter G Gundam OP2
Detroit Metal City (review)
One Piece (Italian)
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
Baccano!
Rose of Versailles
Space Adventure Cobra TV
Cromartie High School (review)
Paranoia Agent
Soul Eater (Resonance)
Fist of the North Star OP1 (Ai no Torimodose) (review)
Azumanga Daioh
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (review)
Kimagure Orange Road OP3 (Actress in the Mirror)
Sengoku Basara Season 1 (review)
Space Battleship Yamato (review)
Air Master (review)
The Big O (review)
Card Captor Sakura OP1 (Catch You, Catch Me)
Future Police Urashiman (review)
Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix (review)
Got any anime opening credits sequences you’d like for us to show? Chances are good that we already have it and just didn’t run it, but tell us which ones you’d like to see in the comments as well as why you like it. DON’T just list the show and leave it at that, because that’s no fun!
I would put Dangaioh OVA on that list! That awesome opening just makes up for everything that the actual show (great as it was) didn’t have time to do.
Also, can Kekko Kamen’s theme song count as an opening?
I have to laugh at using the One Piece rap. Mostly because that’s how I learned about the actual plot of One Piece.
I love Big O, but I don’t really care for the OP. It doesn’t mesh well with the feel of the show, in my opinion. The first time I saw the OP was when I looked it up on Youtube (never saw it on Cartoon Network) and when I saw it, I literally thought it was just a fan-made parody of another show but using the Big O characters and mecha instead. That’s how cheaply done I thought it was. Maybe I’m just missing the point of it, but it’s definitely one of the few OPs from a show I like that I’d rather skip over anytime.
[The first season opening credits of The Big O are visually reminiscent of the opening credits to Ultra Seven, with a song akin to Queen’s opening to Flash Gordon. This is thematically appropriate given that the series itself is a hybrid of Japanese and American SF/heroic conventions. –Daryl]
I’ll just list a few OPs I love:
SDF Macross(Just a classic, has cool animation and a real epic old war movie feeling)
Urusei Yatsura OP1 (It’s got a cute girl in a tiger bikini and knee high boots dancing)
GaoGaiGar (You could probably pick any of them, but the music from the final series OP with the chorus and orchestra just makes it feel classier)
Eureka Seven OP1 (It’s got sky surfing robots and probably the best OP of the series, even though the third is the best song)
Licensed by Royalty (The song really fits the style of the show well, and its cool to see Western music with a more Western style show in anime)
Nerima Daikon Brothers (I like the Blues Brothers, and this is also probably one of the only OPs that’s been adapted into English well)
Princess Jellyfish (An OP you’ll watch and laugh at while trying to figure out all the references on your second and third viewings)
Honey and Clover OP1 (While admittedly not my favorite OP from the series, I feel like its one of the most interesting anime OPs visually and might go over well with audiences)
This may be a somewhat pedestrian choice, but I think Samurai Champloo has one of the greatest OPs of all time (animated by REDLINE’s Takeshi Koike). It evokes centuries-old tradition, yet manages to be surrealistic and also on point–the last being extra important for an anime that evokes the spirit of hip-hop. When you think of how iconic Cowboy Bebop’s opening is, that’s what makes Samurai Champloo’s all the more impressive, for it manages to improve on it.
OPs are known for often being the best-animated thing in the series, but they also differ in how much they reflect what the rest of the series is actually like. For example, whereas Champloo really manages to get the concept of the series across, the more famous Evangelion OP is ultimately somewhat misleading; I remember as the series got darker, with every episode that upbeat intro seemed a little more jarring.
Hey guys and gal of the AWO, I would like to thank you for this great panel to go to at my first convention, though I probably should not have sat in the front row).
If anyone is wondering about the name I chose to post this comment with, I chose it because after the panel my older brother went up and talked to you guys (well, at least one of you) and apparently told you how I read Berserk when I was 9. Anyway, thank you guys for the great panel, and great podcast.
P.S.: I was really happy when you guys played Resonance, from Soul Eater. I think it really fits that show and is one of my favorites.
Heavy Metal L-Gaim OP1 (Time for L-Gaim by Mio)-the end of that song gives me goosebumps, it’s so epic.
Hidamari Sketchx 365 OP (Hatena de Wasshoi)-Ultimate earworm song.
Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko OP (Os-Uchuujin) -Another earworm.
Well, it’s really two separate things, the OP titles for a film (which are meant to set the mood and flow into the story) and the OP credit sequence for a TV series (which is meant to grab your attention before you can switch channels).
Saying that, the pre-credit scenes for both Dirty Pair (aka Project Eden) and Cagliostro Castle are just brilliant setpieces.
So, you need suggestions for OPs?
You know I gotta go to Xabungle. Prime Sunrise work, kickass song, it sucks you right in and won’t let go. The ED theme/animation is pretty good too, and a little bit ‘in-jokey’ about the use of a ‘cycle’ of cels, which of course Sunrise did CONSTANTLY during the ’80s.
You know, it’s funny, I never liked the first series City Hunter OP and thought the ED credits were much better.
I like the OP to Layzner but it gets complicated, because there is no standard credit. Each episode is customized, with a flurry of clips and dialog from that specific episode right before the refrain. Were this being broadcast in the U.S. we’d get Peter Cullen doing a voiceover: “On Today’s thrilling SPT Layzner!” and the clips under. They’d probably change the ‘all yelling all slapping episode’ one however. 🙂
I’d nominate StarzanS, but we don’t want the kiddies to start a new internet meme about “show me your space Hoo hoo” 😉
I’ll think of more later.
Thank you again for playing the 1st SenBASA opening at the Otakon panel. Ashigaru Dance for the win!
Have you considered playing the Italian version of the Dragon Ball Z opening? (“What’s My Destiny Dragon Ball”) The song is just as infectious as the Italian One Piece opening.
Wow you guys are getting lazy at this 2 months of this non podcast crap. I’m trying to stay with you guys but you are making really hard. [We’ll be sure to give you a full refund. New episode should be out this weekend. –Daryl]
I LOVE the OP to Berserk. That show is already a masterpiece, but having some guy sing in broken English is just so GODDAMN UNIQUE. You don’t hear that kind of song these days, and it was so catchy. “Put your gwasses on, let me wail your wong!” is what it sound like he’s saying, and the ED of that show is EQUALLY amazing. But I’m biased as it’s one of my favorite anime ever.
Samurai Champloo, with its English-spoken Japanese flavored rap to that amazing character intro, is just amazing. Bleach’s Asterisk, with all that multicolored back ground and neat clothing, is all very stylistic and contemporary. Naruto’s Namikaze Satellite had that perfect feel like everyone fighting for a dream to that cool scene of everyone star gazing. I like most of Naruto’s OPs and EDs, but one more show that stands out is Blood-C (say what you will of the show, but I love it) with that pin drop electric sound as the camera spins around Saya. Damn sick.
Oh, and Another’s OP of course but really, just watch it, the badassness needs no words.
Last Exile has a great opening. So do both of the Ghost in the Shell series.
A friend and I recently made a nerdy list of our favorite OPs. Mine included:
While I’m up and down about the show, I find the opening to Last Exile extremely captivating. The music and visuals just sell the atmosphere of the show.
Zetman is really recent and the opening is really stylish.
Xam’d is another pretty meh anime but the opening not only has great animation, but is also again very stylish.
Wolf’s Rain OP is another great one. It doesn’t feel like constant-cut “here is the cast” like a lot of OPs. It kind of does it in a natural way as it follows our lead as the camera passes by the cast. The song is great and the visuals somewhat haunting.
I also really like Eureka 7’s 1st OP mostly because the visuals are so exciting. Escaflowne because I just love Escaflowne. And lastly, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig’s OP because it’s cool and has some crazy camera angles.
Hello, long-time listener (6 years?) with a question out-of-the blue.
Not sure if I qualify as an otaku, but I’m definitely nearing my expiration date, and one thing that I really keep asking myself when I attend cons nowadays is, “Where were these people when I was in high school?” I suppose the answer is, “you had to be weirder back then.”
Do you see anime as being more legitimized today? What does that mean for the old-timers? Anime seems more popular than ever before, but the otaku seem more and more out of place, like cowboys in a growing town trying to shake off its frontier roots. Is this just a generation gap, or is there something else going on?
Sorry to be OT here but did you see what they did to the BD release of Macross DYRL? They censored the gore (like when Miria is stepping on the Zentradi soldier) so that now it’s really blurry.
I can’t believe you didn’t use the Narutaru opening, but I think you should. I won’t say just why I like it because that would give too much away (in fact even saying this is giving away more than I’d like to), but the opening is key to much of the greatness of the show itself.
I will say this though: I doubt an opening has ever been more important to an anime show, maybe any show at all.
I’m glad the panel turned out to be so successful!
One OP that I really can’t get enough of is the one from “Overman King Gainer”! Lots of people remember it for featuring the entire cast dancing The Monkey, but it also had ice skating in space and a really catchy Yoshiki Fukuyama anthem. It’s so cool that just watching it once motivated me to go find the show!
Another favorite is the intro to “Majokko Megu-chan”– super colorful, charming and fun stuff. Both the visuals and the music are awesome! It gets paid homage in the opening to the more recent “Sugar Sugar Rune”, which is a great OP in its own right.
Finally, I’m a big fan of “Kodomo no Omocha”‘s first OP– the one that wasn’t included on the DVDs because of music licensing issues. However, its visuals are beyond dynamic; it does a perfect job of expressing the tone of the show and introducing its characters. It’s so good!