OPENING PROJECT - In-Depth Analysis (PART 1)
Added 2025-03-21 21:26:08 +0000 UTCThis breakdown is a companion piece meant to be viewed after watching our Top 100 list in "The Search For the Best Anime Opening" video. We recommend checking that out first if you haven't seen it yet!
This footage was originally streamed to a small group of Patrons on April 1st, 2024. This version has been edited down with additional visuals and on-screen notes for clarification.
The first section of the list covers many of our runner-ups from #124 to #94. The rest of the list can be seen here:
PART 2 - #92-41 ($5 Patrons only)
PART 3 - #40-#1 ($15 Patrons only)
Feel free to use the timestamps below to skip to specific openings you are interested in seeing. If we talk about SPOILERS for the show in question, there is a * after the show's name.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
4:22 - In-Depth Overview (A slightly more detailed version of our rubric for VMCTJ)
36:00 - #109 Kakushigoto
40:02 - #110 Ergo Proxy
45:10 - Honorable Mentions/Runner-Ups
46:56 - #124 Noragami
50:12 - #123 Hell's Paradise
53:40 - #122 Those Snow White Notes
56:42 - #121 Hunter x Hunter (2011)
58:36 - #120 Pokémon: Advanced Battle
59:42 - #119 Mononoke
1:01:22 - #118 GANGSTA
1:02:42 - #117 Your Lie In April
1:04:13 - #116 Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun
1:07:17 - #115 Tsuritama
1:08:32 - #114 Sword Art Online: Alicization
1:10:09 - #113 My Hero Academia OP7
1:12:33 - #112 Tamako Market
1:13:46 - #111 Digimon Adventure
1:17:01 - #108 Toradora
1:18:47 - #107 Shield Hero S3 (Link to Amy's Shield Hero review for those interested)
1:23:23 - #106 City Hunter + #105 Bomberman Jetters
1:24:31 - #104 The Promised Neverland
1:27:03 - #103 Garo the Animation
1:29:32 - #102 How Heavy are the Dumbbells That You Lift?
1:31:43 - #101 Gintama OP16
1:35:09 - #100 Code Geass
1:36:42 - #99 Noir
1:38:25 - BONUS Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works OP2
1:43:47 - #98 Cardcaptor Sakura
1:45:21 - #97 One Piece
1:49:37 - #96 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable OP3*
1:56:52 - #95 World Trigger S2*
2:02:50 - #94 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 6 Stone Ocean*
Comments
About the JoJo Part 6 opening... I'm so sorry, Jello... There's a third version. And it's got the 3D text that's integrated w/ the visuals. They even fixed the D.S.C. https://youtu.be/3zYthGo6_KE?si=r8uCZacqP4wzWXhZ
Wraif E. P.
2025-05-08 06:34:35 +0000 UTCBut the primary goal of the anime IS working on their bodies, so your notes about the OP still holds true. And the show does a *pretty* good job of actually encouraging healthy habits like focusing on how you feel rather than the numbers on a scale, and eating well to fuel your workout instead of skipping meals or going on fad diets.
Candaru Driemor
2025-04-19 01:36:09 +0000 UTCVery happy you went back in and talked about How Heavy Are The Dumbbells That You Lift? since that was my primary workout anime and one of my favorites! The show itself DOES have a lot of fanservice, but it's very self-aware and uses it for comedy in a way I actually like (though I don't know if you'd share the same opinion). For instance, there's a scene where a character is demonstrating proper form for a lift, and another girl breaks the fourth wall and comments, "since when did we become and edutainment anime?" followed by a shot of the lifter all sweaty and in a sexy pose, and the second girl comments again, "now it's a fanservice anime?!"
Candaru Driemor
2025-04-19 01:34:00 +0000 UTC1:51:08 David Production has 8 openings on here. Mappa and Madhouse also have 8. Bones is the clear winner though—they have 15. (Pretends to be shocked.)
BedknobsandBookshelves
2025-04-05 23:04:51 +0000 UTCMissed some stuff on the Ergo Proxy opening by assuming that the words have no meaning. I find it similar to Cowboy Bebop, except for using languages other than English. 1) The Cyrillic is thematic: one of the key cities in the show is called "Mosk" as in a futuristic post-post-apocalyptic "Moscow". Hard to look up on the fly, but the other instance that stood out is easier to identify: 2) This sentence fragment is scattered through the OP: "gran ventura; però non mi destar, deh, parla basso." They are from the last lines of a poem by Michelangelo (you know the one - sculptor of La Pietà, David, the Sistine Chapel, etc). Translated the full poem "Dear to me is sleep: still more, being made of stone, // While pain and guilt still linger here below, // Blindness and numbness--these please me alone; // Then do not wake me, keep your voices low." Also thematically relevant. I am team Yam on this one :D
MiiRshroom
2025-03-28 06:02:09 +0000 UTCOvertime will you add the other parts of the video analysis to lower tiers?
Noah Ackerman
2025-03-27 22:17:34 +0000 UTCjfc the cooking master boy opening is egregious. It would not surprise me if there are worse epilepsy trigger anime openings, but yeah that's bad
FeyHaeven
2025-03-26 15:53:55 +0000 UTCWhat wound up ditching something like the Hellsing, ghost in the shell, or cromartie high school openings?
Leon Duvall
2025-03-26 13:22:20 +0000 UTCOh, thanks for letting me know! It might be because my comment is in a thread that started with your comment originally, so I'll wait a bit to avoid accidentally spamming Jello
Somme_One
2025-03-25 17:04:26 +0000 UTCHi sorry you seem to have replied to my post instead of Jello's? I got an email notification for this. Maybe try sending it again to make sure he gets it?
Bunni89
2025-03-25 15:43:19 +0000 UTCIf you don't mind me asking, is that why none of the K-on OPs made it into the list? The first two have plenty of obvious issues, but Utauyo!!MIRACLE felt like it was really good aside from the inclusion of lyrics. (Okay, to be fair, the credits placement was also not great, but it feels like worse credits made it into the top 100) Edit to clarify one thing: while I was initially surprised that none of the K-on openings were on the list, after re-watching them I quickly realized that it was actually the EDs that were good, and that Utauyo!!MIRACLE is the only good OP in my opinion. I'm really just wondering if the lyrics are what killed that one.
Somme_One
2025-03-25 15:41:06 +0000 UTCThank you for the confirmation! This is what I suspected since the Blu-Ray rips do this as well, but it was so weird I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt that the blu-ray presentation was a mistake somehow.
JelloApocalypse
2025-03-25 08:00:51 +0000 UTCHello! Certified JoJo Part 6 blu ray owner here! Don't know if this was answered in DM's yet but figured I'd put this here so there was public proof of this being answered. So, the blu rays still have the bad, blocky text for the first 12 episodes, but then SUDDENLY on the third disk starting with episode 13 it switches to the stringy, good text.
Subject 53
2025-03-25 00:09:16 +0000 UTCUnderstandable, I'm sorry for misunderstanding what you meant! Maybe uhh.. shouldn't say "everyone over 13 can hear lyrics fine" if what you really meant was "accessibility options should stay as an optional menu instead of being baked in"? I'm not sure how I coulda predicted that's what you really meant, sorry. But I'm glad it's cleared up, that's a totes reasonable opinion. I also agree that I wish they'd do more with lyrics actually moving place or having similar typographic flourish to the rest of the credits.
Bunni89
2025-03-23 16:34:19 +0000 UTCI also have audio processing issues! I watch a lot of shows with the captions on. And that's where I think lyrics should stay. In the US to upload your show to any streaming service you need to have captions included or they're not supposed to onboard it. If someone genuinely has issues tracking the lyrics, there's supposed to be a button they can click to put them onscreen. While I think subtitles are a really nice accessibility feature, I also don't think they should be animated onscreen by default in every single scene of a show when characters are talking. For me, openings are no different. The availability of the lyrics isn't the animation team's job. And I'm saying that as someone who had to do all his own captions for Epithet! It's not highlighted in any of these videos because these openings are the cream of the crop, but truly so, SO many shows lost massive points for the lyrics. It killed like 95% of all shonen openings by itself. I don't think lyrics are *uglier* than an average credit, they're just *more* type onscreen. And when most openings already have bad credits, having another 10% of the screen occupied by the unsightly typography just make an opening that much worse worse. Many openings create false rules for themselves about where they are and aren't "allowed" to put credits and they stick to those rules to their own detriment. The FMA:B openings and Drifters are great examples of this issue. Lyrics have the same problem, but much worse. The standard is keeping them on the bottom of the screen and centered, no matter what. This means no matter what the animation team did there's very little room to adjust if you're sticking to the standard formatting, which 99.99% of openings do, and that can result in lots of ugly type placement. There's a reason Amy and I take the time to praise Boruto's first OP for its on-screen lyrics. It is, to my memory, the *only* opening we found that has its lyrics move to a new location every single shot to make room for the animation and even the other credits. They're always on the bottom, but they're alignment changes. This is such a basic quality of life improvement that I look at it and say "Wow. Why isn't everyone doing this? Why has nobody else thought of this?" And I think the ten thousand OPs that don't do this are a bit of a failure of design. Plus, the Boruto lyrics are color-coded in a way that match the entire opening's color scheme and even unify the one red shot of Naruto with the rest of the OP. It looks weirder and out of place without the lyrics onscreen, so that's a rare example of the lyrical text being a unifying feature rather than a detrimental one. Some of the more modern shows like Komi, Zom, and Chainsaw Man have started doing this fake-widescreen thing where they put the lyrics on top of the letterboxing so they're not interfering with anything, which is a pretty elegant solution, but it's also kind of an easy one. I think it works especially well in CSM where they're *supposed* to look like subtitles at the bottom of a movie. I dunno, I think lyrics are an untapped wing of typographic design in this medium and right now most of them don't do more than basic closed captions would do. And I think that sucks! I think most lyrics are bad.
JelloApocalypse
2025-03-23 16:24:42 +0000 UTCIdk it's literally not an age thing, some people just have more trouble with auditory processing. I have this issue myself, and it's more difficult with lyrics than plain dialogue. So if a show doesn't already have lyrics onscreen I'll look for the subtitles to turn them on. It might seem easy to you but it's not for everyone. Just like it's easy for you to spot editing mistakes that others might miss. I also absolutely do not understand why it's any uglier than any other credit? It has none of the problems you talked about disliking. It's always at the bottom, not covering any of the animation. To me I feel exactly the opposite way: "it has so little negative impact, but can be so useful. So why WOULDN'T you include such a basic thing?"
Bunni89
2025-03-23 02:45:07 +0000 UTCUnless you're doing something fun with the lyrics like Kamisama Kiss or Call of the Night, I just think it's so much ugly extra typography to deal with for so little return value. I think shows should trust an audience over the age of 13 to be able to hear 90 seconds of a song a few times and just learn the words if they want to sing along. It's not like the English/Japanese swaps are super clear anyways. The words are written in their respective languages so if you have trouble with English as a Japanese speaker or vice versa, that's still not going to help you more than just looking it up on your phone. Plus, if the audience collectively gets it wrong, that's a cultural bonding moment at the expense of the band. It's like how the lyrics to the Drake and Josh opening are "It's gonna take some time to realign" and not "take some time to realize", and everyone's like "What? Really? Huh, I swore it was realize." Learning to sing along with TV openings has never been an issue for me and I'm from a culture where openings never have lyrics onscreen. I guess I just don't see the benefit.
JelloApocalypse
2025-03-23 02:32:51 +0000 UTCVery happy you included the part where you found the better stone ocean opening
Arjun MK
2025-03-22 23:31:01 +0000 UTCNot sure what the beef is about openings showing the song lyrics. It's not a kids show Vs adult show thing, sometimes people just wanna sing along? Definitely they should put more thought into when and where to use it though. I think it's logical for more fast paced songs, rapping, stuff blending English and Japanese etc where it might not be immediately intuitive what they're saying.
Bunni89
2025-03-22 23:06:06 +0000 UTCKinda insane how all the earliest Pokémon songs are complete bangers and then it dropped off such a sudden cliff to mid and outright shit. It can win an honorary award for worst franchise dropoff
Bunni89
2025-03-22 19:01:57 +0000 UTCPokémon!!! Advanced battle!! I'm so glad it got 120 at least. Honestly in terms of Jennies that's one of my biggest. It's just so poppy, uplifting, the visuals sync to the music so well MOST of the time. It's really only held back by natural limitations of being an English dub at the time. Chopping up the visuals in ways that don't match as perfectly as they do to the Japanese song (even if the English one is BETTER 😩) And the old cursed "just throw in clips from the show" syndrome. I feel this really coulda ranked higher if it has some hypothetical reanimation project to match the song better. But of course, that's not the criteria for a good opening, oh well! I'm just happy it got complimented so much 💕
Bunni89
2025-03-22 19:00:37 +0000 UTCI was very surprised to see Stone Ocean's first ending over DiU's 4th one (or even being there instead of the second one which I prefer) so it's nice to see why + the whole shenanigans around it. Great behind the scenes, will definitely watch part 2 and maybe even pay for part 3
Yellow Ladybug
2025-03-22 15:33:12 +0000 UTCSo Gintama ends on 5 back-to-back "serious" arcs, the second of which is represented by OP17. The first 8 episodes that use OP16 are the last "normal" episodes of the show before it pivots towards ending the series, thus the relaxed/goofy tone of the "proper" version of that opening. BUT FOR SOME FUCKING REASON rather than have the first of these final arcs get its own opening, or perhaps even just share OP17 as the "beginning of the end", they made the absurd decision to have this 8 episode arc use both OP16 *AND* OP17! So there are OBJECTIVELY worse versions of both openings used for only 4 episodes apiece that are meant to represent this single arc, and it SUCKSSSSS!! OP16 made it out of this slightly better than OP17, actually, as the worse version of OP17 is mostly comprised of both reused animation from the episodes themselves AND EVEN THE BAD VERSION OF OP 16!!! I've been mad about this for so fucking long, lol. But aside from all that, I love that you chose OP16 as the best Gintama opening! In my limited exposure to the Gintama fandom, it feels like hardly anybody gives it the respect it deserves, and not even because of this "worse version" kerfuffle. It just seems to get overlooked for the openings that have "cooler" songs, I guess.
Rebecca Bieth
2025-03-22 10:17:59 +0000 UTCDamn, was kinda hoping Pop Team Epic was an honorable mention. Love those OPs. Ah well.
George Blanchard
2025-03-22 07:07:11 +0000 UTCYour one of the chatters who i remember the names off. Ive mixed up you and clottedscream a few times
nightstar6
2025-03-22 06:24:06 +0000 UTCThe Noir opening is one of many openings I found through this project that I went on to listen to a lot, and its kind of my pet fave of the list. I think its where it should be on the top hundo tho and i couldnt really justify putting it much higher than 99 with the repetitive song and bad credits. That said, i will go to bat for those 2 black frames. Its a really stylistic way of doing the jarred zoom in that fits the black-borders-and-searchlights aesthetic of spy stuff, it keeps the stressed panicking energy of running away, this OP already plays with things being in shadow so much and it’s a mirror to the earlier scene of the same character running towards the camera going in and out of shadows. Plus this OP already has the black borders for those bullseye shots, so covering large amounts of the screen in black isnt that jarring or unexpected, heck that red highlighted gun shot you love has it blinking in and out if existence in a fairly similar way. Idk i think it works! And its only in that one shot so it feels intentional. also hehehe my message got faded on screen. i was actually pretty upset at my past self when i saw that one before it got edited in the centre cus i think i have a tendency to guess what jello’s gonna say in a way that spoils things and ruins the energy that i wanna tamp down on. but it got me a focal shot so maybe past me was onto something :3 thats a joke i hate that shit
PurpleIsDebeste
2025-03-22 04:11:36 +0000 UTCYeah, I can agree with that. The visuals for opening one are just kind of lackluster. Opening two is definitely more intriguing in that way
Daniel
2025-03-22 01:34:10 +0000 UTCSince you mentioned bad openings, the worst I've seen is Psychic Princess/Toni Ling Fei on crunchyroll. Bad music, bad visuals, has nothing to do with the show or characters. The show itself is ok but if you arent susceptible to flashing lights for a full 90 seconds the op is hilariously bad. It's subtitled in chinese but the song has english rap(?) In the background which is also subtitled in english making the subs useless unless you can read both quickly!. All the font is bold white when it's not rgb cycling completely off the beat
dollqueen
2025-03-22 01:14:09 +0000 UTCwowww I'm up there with flare, nice to see i'm appreciated! totally worth staying up from midnight to 6am with an overheating phone that died twice on a really hot leather couch! i promise my sleep schedule has improved since then lmao
PurpleIsDebeste
2025-03-22 01:12:58 +0000 UTC2:30 Ah, my comment about the second half of death note is immortalized forever as the chat example. Good thing it's right.
Act One
2025-03-22 00:36:35 +0000 UTCboy purpleisdebeste and clottedscream sure make every stream that is physically possible, i respect the dedication
Violet DB
2025-03-22 00:07:20 +0000 UTCI think the first OP has a really high Jennies rating while the second OP has a much higher Theming rating.
JelloApocalypse
2025-03-22 00:06:01 +0000 UTCNozaki has enough going for it that I do like it, but not enough that I expected to see it in your list. And then I didn't
Flaming Olive
2025-03-21 23:23:05 +0000 UTCDamn that stream was almost a year ago? How time flies
PrettiestBeardedLady
2025-03-21 22:48:09 +0000 UTCThat's really interesting cause the second op for me is like, completely forgettable in comparison It helps that Sapphire has a cover of the first op that made me cry as a child and still makes me feel today
Daniel
2025-03-21 22:46:58 +0000 UTCI don't remember exactly why neither Spice and Wolf OP made it but both of them were considered like ~3 times which is actually way above average for this project. I remember the second one more than the first because Amy *loved* the vibes but I remember thinking a lot of the technical aspects were too clumsy to overlook.
JelloApocalypse
2025-03-21 22:19:18 +0000 UTCAs a brave shine stan i get it. But man, I really like the shot of Caster with her hand reaching towards the sun and Archer and Shiro at the hill of swords. The tragedy of those characters works so well for me. Also, damn Spice and Wolf couldnt even hit the honorable mentions makes me sad. I know its a little boring, but the song is so folksy and hummable, perfect for travelling journies. And the shots comminicate that feeling of empty loneliness that permeates the lives of both of the leads prior to meeting. And the cuts from the purse string, the rolling coin, and the cart feel so good to me. I get its probably cause its a bit boring and the credits arent awesome, but i really love that op
Daniel
2025-03-21 22:11:39 +0000 UTCLiterally just finished watching the video just in time for this lmfao
T1ggles
2025-03-21 22:04:18 +0000 UTC
![Kem Alkemest [Assetto Corsa Mod]](https://saketami.com/istorage/14088.jpg)
