Anime openings are an essential part of the anime watching experience. It usually gives us a glimpse of the overall mood, tone and introduces the main characters of the anime that you’ll be watching. In fact, anime openings often change with each season, to fit perfectly with the overall tone of what viewers will be expecting. It’s hard to come up with an absolute list of anime openings since each anime resonates differently to an individual.
Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop brings an interesting premise of bounty hunters hunting scumbags around the galaxy. It’s about space, guns, and cowboys. And let’s not forget about the jazz style of music used throughout the show, setting up the pacing and the mood. And who can forget the absolutely upbeat opening team for Cowboy Bebop? The opening theme, “Tank”, perfectly sets the tone for the entire series and features stylish animation that captures the show’s space-western vibe. The trumpets, followed by an upbeat bass line, and finally the bongo drums. And let’s not forget the visuals used to accompany the jazz piece. It really feels like a show of film noir with a jazzy twist. See you, space cowboy!
Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan is intense. The premise, the characters and the action are all turned up a notch. And when you’re fighting against unknown giant entities who’ve kept you behind a huge wall your entire wall, you got to have an equally strong anime opening to the show. The intense, rock-heavy opening theme “Guren no Yumiya” (also known as “Feuerroter Pfeil und Bogen”) is paired with stunning, high-energy animation that showcases the show’s epic battles. There’s a sense of patriotism that you start developing listening to the song as you watch the characters survive each encounter with the giant horde. With each episode, the Scouts Regiments makes a new discovery or survives a particularly difficult encounter, you can’t stop yourself getting pumped up. 9 out of 10 times will not skip the opening.
One Punch Man
One Punch Man came into the scene without a peep. No big marketing budget globally, or perhaps it didn’t reach my country. But nevertheless, watching the first few minutes of the show was nothing compared to the opening for One Punch Man. The catchy, upbeat opening theme “The Hero!!” is paired with fast-paced and action-packed animation that perfectly captures the show’s comedic and over-the-top superhero antics. While some anime openings can be misleading as to the actual animation quality in the overall show, One Punch Man delivered the same high quality animation that we’ve seen in the opening. Sure, there’s more comedy than expected, but it works well as it builds up to everybody fighting to an inch of their lives while the unknown godlike superhero stumbles his way into the situation, resolving it with a single punch.
Naruto
Naruto has brought to us various artists that were probably unknown outside of Japan. . But with each season, Naruto features a new song by a new band or single artist to pair it with its opening credits. And what’s more, Naruto’s opening 2 might be the reason most of us are hooked into watching anime. The opening theme “Haruka Kanata” by Asian Kung-Fu Generation perfectly captures the energy and excitement of the series, while the colorful and dynamic animation showcases the show’s ninja battles and character relationships. The anime opening feels like a step up from its previous opening as it showcases the progression of the anime that is in its exciting arc of the show: the Chunnin exams.
Haikyuu!!
Nobody hypes up a sport like anime. From Captain Tsubasa to Eyeshield 21, Japan has found a way to take a sport and put its own twist into making it an exhilarating experience for anyone who watches them. Imagination, performed by Spyair is the song used in the opening of season 1 Haikyuu!!. This uplifting and energetic opening features a catchy pop-rock song that perfectly captures the excitement and camaraderie of the sports team at the center of the show, with stunning animation of volleyball matches and character interactions. Seriously, if this song doesn’t pump you up to just go start working out or throwing a ball around, we don’t know what will.
Mob Psycho 100
Mob Psycho 100 is a unique show that has a unique art style and animation to go along with it. And for a unique show, you can’t use the usual anime openers.”99″ by MOB CHOIR is specifically made for the show, where the name of the main character is featured in the song, as well as the countdown that represents how his power reaches a certain threshold before he goes balistic. This catchy and funky opening captures the offbeat and irreverent spirit of the show, with dynamic animation that showcases the unique art style and psychic powers of the main character. And let’s not forget the colorful characters surrounding Mob in his adventure to have a normal high school experience without using his powerful psychic powers.
My Hero Academia
In a world filled with people born with abilities called Quirks, it doesn’t take long for society to form a superhero community that are formed into agencies to uphold justice and peace for the rest of society. However, our main character is one of the rare ones that was not blessed with an ability, making him black sheep. To accompany his rise in the hero world, we get a strong and inspirational opening to tell us the great sacrifice and lengths he’ll go through in order to become just like his idol hero, All Might. The opening features all the main characters as well as explosive fight scenes that’ll take place within the show.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Arc
When Bleach first hit our TV screens, it was considered one of the freshest anime to hit at the time. While the anime has been considered one of the greats, fans around the world were saddened that Bleach anime ended in the “Lost Substitute Shinigami” arc. Now, Bleach is back in the final arc, the finale of the entirety of the Bleach universe, with the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. And the opening it came up with is a stunning, goosebump-inducing experience. A strong guitar starts to bring up the nostalgia of how electric guitars are heavily used within the anime. The strong color contrasts and visuals showcasing many characters over the previous seasons are a sight for sore eyes. The Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War opening is a dose of nostalgia hit, with an extreme makeover and upgrade that every Bleach fan expects from this final season.
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