Favorite anime opening theme songs

Welcome to day 5!! 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!!

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Day 5 Favorite anime opening theme songs

Now, I am going, to be honest with you. 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.

So this list was a lot more challenging to think of than the previous days. I went back and relistened to every anime opening I had seen, and put the anime openings 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 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 anime openings. There are some anime openings I have seen that are absolutely stunning and almost make the anime they are opening look bad. I wanted this to also be a factor because if I watch an anime with 26 episodes with even a 2-minute opening that is almost 2 full episodes of just openings. I wanted 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 opening 26 episodes of an anime.

With those reasons in mind here are my top 5 favorite anime openings 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.

Demon Slayer opening 1

Storyline: Bloodthirsty demons lurk in the woods, and nobody dares to venture out at night, save for the demon slayer of legend. Surviving in this harsh world, young Tanjirou takes it upon himself to protect his family–until the day that everything is taken from him in a vicious slaughter. Now, all he has left is his sister, and she’s not even human anymore. Tanjiro sets out to become a demon slayer to avenge his family and cure his sister.

I think almost everyone can agree demon slayer slayed their first opening. I loved that it was short but extremely catchy. The biggest reason this opening made its way onto my list was the animation. I talked more about demon slayer's animation in my full review, but the creators really let the animators have fun with the opening. I enjoy watching it and this was one of the few openings I didn't skip once while watching the show.

Full Review Link

The Future Diary

Storyline: Yukiteru Amano is a 14-year-old loner who spends much of his time dispassionately recording events around him in his cell phone "diary." His only friends are imaginary ones: Dues ex Machina, the "god of time and space," and Murmur, Dues' impish helper. Yukiteru's life takes a turn for the strange when his diary starts recording events before they happen and Dues announces that he's not so imaginary after all, and a turn for the sinister when his diary announces his impending death. It turns out Yukiteru has become part of a survival game to determine who will succeed Dues as the god of time and space, competing with 11 others who also possess diaries that predict the future in various ways, But Yukiteru does have at least one strong ally: Yuno Gasai, a classmate who despite being a Future Diary holder herself is determined to protect Yukiteru at all costs. She's also an obsessive and possibly crazy stalker whose own Future Diary records Yukiteru's every move in ten-minute intervals.

This opening was insane the first time I watched it. The music is creepy and fast pace just like the show. But the biggest thing that I loved about this opening is they basically spoil the whole show for you in the opening but you don't know until you rewatch it after finishing the show. The whole thing is foreshadowing and is one big spoiler and yet we are clueless about the flashing images appearing in front of our screens. I like to believe the animators doing this opening were giggling the whole time they were animating it. The future diary is a creepy and intense show and I believe they did it justice in the opening. Again another short but very catchy opening.

Deadman Wonderland

Storyline: Ganta, the sole survivor of the brutal murder of his entire class, is framed and ends up falsely convicted for it. During the massacre, the real killer embeds a red crystal in him. Ganta is sent to a privately owned prison which has a rather different and perverted take on incarceration, entertaining the masses by performing dangerous games in exchange for privileges. Every inmate he encounters has their own goals, survival being the main one, and it is now up to him to survive this and maybe even prove his innocence.

This is a perfect example of an opening that hit all three marks for me. The music is epic and I even listen to the full version. I am sure the animators had a blast animating the opening. For this anime to be released over 10 years ago and for the opening animation is still this epic is very impressive.

Death Note

Storyline: After an intelligent yet cynical high school student begins to cleanse the world from evil with the help of a magical notebook that can kill anyone whose name is written on it, international authorities call upon a mysterious detective known as "L" to thwart his efforts.

Both death note openings are epic! This is another classic anime that is 15 years old and still has an opening that puts others to shame. The animation is insanely epic and the music is catchy and fits the show perfectly. I couldn't skip the intro when I first watched death note and even when I re-watched it last year I couldn't skip the intro.

Durarara!!

Storyline: Looking for a change, Mikado moves from the countryside to bustling Ikebukuro to attend the same high school as his best friend, Masaomi. Though navigating a new school and friendships can prove tough by itself, Mikado also finds an overwhelming number of new delights and dangers in the district he now calls home. From a friendly Russian sushi bar to the violent color gangs, to even an urban legend in the form of a black motorcycle rider, each resident of Ikebukuro is unique and frightening. But the town is smaller than it seems at first, and these strange events appear to be connected. Will the growing storm sweep up the transplanted country boy and his friends or will Mikado find himself at the center of a dramatic change for Tokyo?

If I only had to pick one anime opening to listen to for the rest of my life this would be it. I watched this anime over 10 years ago and I recorded the opening on my iPod to listen to it whenever I wanted. That in itself speaks for how incredibly catchy the opening is. I also put Durarara!! in the most underrated anime because I believe this is one of the most underrated anime ever. The theme song shows how absolutely incredible this show is. Catchy song, a fun way to show all the characters, and transitions that would put TikTok trends to shame. If you like this opening listen to the full version and then put it on repeat.

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

I am excited about tomorrow and figuring out the best anime ending songs.

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

I'd love to hear in the comments below

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