My Top 5 Anime OPs
Musically speaking, that is. This list is subject to change at a later point when I suddenly realize I completely forgot something.
#5 – Honey and Clover
The strange thing about this choice is that I think that I would have found this song irritating if I had heard it out of context. Yet with Honey and Clover as a backdrop, everything about it seems to be a perfect fit, even Yuki’s slightly neurotic high pitched singing. One of the nice things about this piece is how the vocals build up to a climactic instrumental (the moment with the soaring strings) instead of the other way, which is more typical in vocal music.
#4 – Haibane Renmei
Haibane Renmei’s OP, “Free Bird”, stands out pretty well in the crowd of uninspired pop openings of most anime series. Here is an OP that not only isn’t pop, it isn’t vocal music at all. It’s a short, Celtic influenced instrumental arrangement for guitar, violin, and a few other instruments. And personally, I think that was a great choice for a show like Haibane Renmei. Too bad no trend has appeared – I think a show like Seirei no Moribito could have used an instrumental opening instead of the vocal music….I just feel it would have matched the tone of the series a little bit better. Musically, “Free Bird” can be just a tad repetitive due to the repeated use of the I-v chord change, but the use of it is really one of the things I like best about it, so I’m not complaining.
#3 – Planetes
Everything about this OP is well-done. The song itself has a great feel to it – very motivational and inspiring, and it’s paired well with images on screen – the characters, astronomy-related images from history, and of course, space itself. It all comes together perfectly. It also reminds me of the intro theme to “Star Trek Enterprise”. Now, I’ve actually never watched a single episode of any Star Trek series, but I do remember the opening theme to Enterprise quite well. It did a somewhat similar – mixing a very uplifting song with shots of human achievement in astronomy. I thought it was a good idea, but I believe fans of the show disliked it and preferred an instrumental opening like the other Star Trek series. Well, I can’t blame them.
#2 – Maison Ikkoku
Obviously I’m not completely free of bias since Maison Ikkoku is one of my favourite series. But what I really enjoy about the song is the combination of the somewhat sad lyrics with the music, which ends up giving the song something of a bittersweet tone. It’s also a song which relates directly to the series it opens, instead of just being random pop music like a lot of anime. The main chord progression of the chorus is a favourite: IV, V, iii, vi, ii, V, I. The Japanese seem to love it too, since I can name quite a few other anime songs I’ve heard it used in. The most current one is the OP from Kimi ni Todoke.
#1 – Elfen Lied
I don’t know if I’d call myself a fan of “Elfen Lied”. There were certainly moments that really moved me but it had it’s share of elements I disliked. But disregarding that, I don’t think I have ever heard an anime OP as well done as “Lilium”. This is beautiful music. My favourite moments are the first major chord in the chorus as well as the C section at 1:30. Haunting.
A little bit of trivia – back when I was first getting into my digital music hobby, one of my first projects was to do a (mediocre) recreation of the music box version of Lilium. I posted it on my Soundclick, had about four or five people ever listen to it, then forget about it. During the course of looking up Lilium for this article, I noticed that someone actually uploaded my arrangement onto youtube (giving no credit to me) and that it has over half a million views. Wow. Of course, it sounds a bit amateurish to my ears now, but I won’t pretend I’m not a little bit peeved that someone did that without ever telling me and didn’t give any credit to me at all. Regardless, I’m glad that people enjoyed it, however amateurish it was (listen to those strings at the end. Ugh.)
Honourable Mentions:
6 responses so far
Oh wow. It’s been so long since I heard Lilium. I didn’t really like the gore that much, but the music sure was beautiful. I liked a song on the OST called “Amataseru” or something like that.
Lillium makes this list acceptable. I’ve actually never heard most of these OPs. God lillium is beautiful. I wonder where I put it on my top OPs post back a while ago. Probably too far down the list, although I LOVE OPs.
If I were to pick this based on musicality, my list would definitely change a lot from all the catchy pop-ish stuff that sits on my current list.
Though I haven’t seen the series (and I really should), I do recall Twelve Kingdoms having a pretty intense OP that is purely all instrumentals and carries that war-like flavor as it matches the series’ overarching theme.
Victorian Romance Emma might also score fairly high since I do like Silhouette of a Breeze quite a bit. Something about the music that captures both sides of Victorian England and the split between the aristocracy and the plebes. That said, I do like the Second Season’s OP much more because it incorporates a Celtic flavor.
Odd that just with that, I’ve named two pieces both composed by Ryo Kunihiko. Guess his music has been on my mind as of late.
I hope that youtuber gives you credit! x)
Oh yes zzeroparticle, the TKs OP is truly epic, it’s piano arranged version is in my top 5 anime songs and will stay there for sure. You should try and find a skilled Dizi player and make a recording of it, TheOwne.
And zzeroparticles, I am sure that for a hypothetical Top 5 ED the name Ryo Kunihiko would come up too, guess with which song…
Ooh, I forgot about Twelve Kingdoms. I remember being impressed by it very much, and thinking they should have done something similar for Seirei no Moribito. Though I haven’t gotten around to watching Twelve Kingdoms yet….