Favorite anime ending theme songs

Welcome to day 6!! If you missed the first few days here is the idea behind the 30-day anime challenge. I saw this post on Pinterest and thought it was a fun little challenge to do for the first month of the New Year. I did a challenge similar to this back in 2013 so I am curious to see if my tastes have changed much in the past 10 years.

I think the purpose of this challenge is to just post a picture but me being the extra person that I am, I will write a blog about each topic.

This is different from what I am used to blogging, which makes me excited to test my creativity and go back to find the answers to these writing prompts. On day one I found that I couldn't just pick one anime so I decided for each of these questions I will be doing 5 for every topic.

Feel free to join me in the comments below! I'd love to hear your answers too!!

Subscribe to not miss a day of anime content

Day 6 Favorite anime ending theme songs

If you didn't read yesterday's blog, here is the deal. I am a person who skips the theme songs. I know shame on me for missing out on such beautiful animation accompanied by an incredible song. Trust me I know how shameful that is but I do always give the theme song a listen to on the first episode, but then just skip after. With ending songs, however, I just skip them together.

So this list was a lot more challenging to think of than the previous days. I went back and relistened to every anime ending I had seen, and put the anime endings on this list for these 3 reasons.

#1 The Music

I am a musician so of course, I am going to judge a song based on the instruments, melody, and creativity. This did cut out a lot of slice-of-life anime I had seen which only had catchy beats but relied heavily on the lyrics and making it as cute as possible. I was surprised, following the lead of the anime openings, that most of the anime from this list are in the horror or thriller genre, as they are not afraid to go all out in their songs in making them as epic as possible.

#2 The Animation

I feel as if animators can really let loose creating theme songs. There are some anime openings I have seen that are absolutely stunning and almost make the anime they are opening look bad. With anime closing themes they have to be better than the anime. What I mean by that is if the episode left you on a cliffhanger are you willing to hold off clicking the next episode to watch a 2-3 minute song? I wanted this to also be a factor, to make sure that it was worth watching that many times on repeat.

#3 Would I listen to this without watching the anime

I wanted to see if while driving or on a walk would I naturally want to listen to these anime openings as songs. This was the biggest factor for me. If I wasn't going to listen to it while doing day-to-day tasks I wasn't going to watch it ending 26 episodes of an anime.

With those reasons in mind here are my top 5 favorite anime ending songs and why. I will also link youtube videos to the openings for you to check out as well as the storyline of the anime if you were interested in watching after seeing the opening.

Erased

Storyline: Satoru Fujinuma is a reclusive part-timer with no plans for the future. What sets him apart from the other slackers in his town is his involuntary time travel ability that allows him to jump back several seconds in time in order to prevent accidents and even deaths. As incidents around town begin reminding Satoru of a childhood trauma he'd sooner forget, he finally begins to question what caused his ability to surface and whether or not it's powerful enough to change the past.

This show is full of mystery, and I thought the ending did the show justice. It isn't the most flashy ending theme but it has a creepy and pure tone throughout the song that I believe after watching a crazy episode would have you thinking what on earth did I just watch? It also has absolutely stunning animation for being an ending theme. I might not listen to it on a daily basis but I believe the creators of this ending theme really connected it with the storyline and theme of erased.

Beyond the Boundary

Storyline: In a world where supernatural beings known as youmu are hunted by Spirit World Warriors, Akihito lives an eventful life. He’s a half-breed from a human mother and a youmu father, and is immortal - a fact that saves his life on a regular basis, for his bespectacled classmate Mirai can’t seem to stop stabbing him in the chest. She’s a Spirit World Warrior with the power to control her blood, which she manifests into a sword; and with low self-esteem about her abilities to hunt youmu, Mirai constantly uses Akihito as target practice. In hopes of being left alone, Akihito must now help Mirai gain confidence to take down sinister youmu.

This is a beautiful ending song. Not only is the music peaceful and calming, but the animation is stunning. It isn't crazy out there ending, but I believe it deserves to be on this list because of the fact it is telling a deeper side of the show. Mirai struggles with her loneliness and finding friendship in a dark world. I loved this ending and even listened to it a few times after making this list.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Storyline: Yuji Itadori, a kind-hearted teenager, joins his school's Occult Club for fun, but discovers that its members are actual sorcerers who can manipulate the energy between beings for their own use. He hears about a cursed talisman - the finger of Sukuna, a demon - and it's being targeted by other cursed beings. Yuji eats the finger to protect his friends and ends up becoming Sukuna's host. However, Yuji discovers that he has inherited magic and is able to control this power without interference from Sukuna. He joins the Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College to consume all of Sukuna's fingers, which will enable a full exorcism to take place that will free him.

Episode 1 leaves us in a dark suspenseful moment and then this starts to play. I almost thought another anime started to play. For this anime to be as thrilling as it is and then end with this cracked me up. It is a stupidly catchy song and I loved the hand-drawn animation look. Plus Gojo is dancing how could I not add this ending to the list? Even if you haven't seen the anime ending I'd watch this just to put yourself in a good mood.

Full Review Link

Chainsaw man

Storyline: When his father died, Denji was stuck with a huge debt and no way to pay it back. Thanks to a Devil dog he saved named Pochita, he's able to survive through odd jobs and killing Devils for the Yakuza. Pochita's chainsaw powers come in handy against these powerful demons. When the Yakuza betrays him and he's killed by the Zombie Devil, Pochita sacrifices himself to save his former master. Now Denji has been reborn as some kind of weird Devil-Human hybrid. He is now a Chainsaw Man!

Chainsaw man had to make it onto this list. They were very creative with their ending themes. I believe they know most people don't take the time to watch them which means the creators of the show don't get a little bit of credit with their names on the screen. Chainsaw man decided for each episode there would be a completely different ending. Different music, different animation, and different styles for every ending. This actually made me watch every ending song because I was curious to see what direction they were going to do. My personal favorite ending was ending 3, which was done by the same creators as the second death note opening. It really shows the insanity of this show and is wild to watch.

What is your favorite chainsaw man ending?

Click the link to read more about Chainsaw man

Free! Iwatobi Swim Club

Storyline: When Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa, and Rin were in elementary school, they swam together in a relay race and won the match. As Rin was on his way to Australia to train to become an Olympic champion, the gang decided to bury their trophy in a time capsule and retrieve it when they all had grown up. Now, Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa have reunited in high school and decide to dig up the prize. But on the way there, they run into none other than Rin, and he's determined to show Haru who's the best! As a result of this fateful meeting, the three friends decide to start a swim club, along with fellow classmate Rei, and their rival's little sister Gou as the team manager. Can the gang hold their own against Rin and prove their skills at the Prefectural Tournament?

When creating this list of course this was the first ending to come to mind. I remember watching free and this song came on and I started to giggle uncontrollably. There are a lot of anime openings I remember but this ending almost burned its way into my memory. I don't remember ever listening to the free opening song but you better believe I watched the ending after every episode. The song is extremely catchy, the storyline in the ending song is hilarious, and the characters all dancing is just the icing on the cake. I am honestly surprised this ending dance hasn't become a TikTok trend. Anyways, I still can't watch this without laughing and singing along so I would say they accomplished their mission in making this a great ending theme.

This was way more challenging and fun than I thought it was going to be. I genuinely enjoyed going back and watching all the anime endings. I know I would skip them but this brought an appreciation for the work and talent that goes into these endings.

I am excited about tomorrow and figuring out the best animation studios!

What is your favorite anime ending? Do you normally watch the ending or skip them?

I'd love to hear in the comments below

Thanks for Reading!!

Check out Day 5: Best anime openings

Byeee!!!