Anime OP/ED Analysis Twitter Threads
I did a short series of Twitter threads where I posted anime opening and ending theme analyses. I’ve decided to put them all into a post like this as opposed to them having their own tab on the site.
"Rightfully" by Mili from Goblin Slayer
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Goblin Slayer
Despite my somewhat negative feelings of the show, Goblin Slayer’s OP left a lasting impression on me. The song by Mili with the high strings is a nice background to the haunting lyrics and a fitting tone setter to instill a sense of fear of the goblins.
Visually the OP distinguishes itself through its use of framing, as well as imagery and movement. Fight scenes and a character roll call are rather standard in an action anime OP, but this OP keeps me from being bored watching it despite maintaining this standard.
The lighting throughout aids its tone, the contrast of the bright and dark giving everything an eerie tone as the colors get washed out.
The use of the die is likely a reference to the show’s origins in DnD, something that feels a bit tacky but at least gives the OP a visual flare as we see Goblin Slayer striking down goblins in the OP’s fights.
The main party’s introductions are framed through weaponry. First we get Goblin Slayer and Priestess through the helmet and staff respectively, then High Elf Archer, Dwarf, and Lizard Priest get shots of their eyes through the strings and bones of their weapons.
We get these 4 reintroduced on the rotating shield of Goblin Slayer in another shot, this time full bodied and then it zooms out, and then it zooms out again to Goblin Slayer framed through his helmet, and then the sword thrust to a zoom out of the party looking over a cliff.
This sense of movement synced with the song is really effective in maintaining tone and flow of the OP, and allows it to come off very slickly.
“Prayer X” by King Gnu from Banana Fish
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the ED for Banana Fish
Funny how, in an exercise meant to remind me of things I like, the first 2 themes I get are from shows I wasn’t fond of in the 2018 anime awards. At least the themes themselves are good.
First off, I quite enjoy the song. I’m not very good at analyzing music really, and that’s gonna bite me as we go along because a lot of these are on here because I like a song, but I’d say this song is pretty fitting with the show and just a nice song to listen to.
This ED is also pretty interesting visually. We start looking just at a blue spot on a blue background, but quickly get to rough, thick outlined bubbles rising over this background as the blue fades. Pretty great tone setter for the ED, and the rough lines just look really nice.
The bubbles form a helix which condenses into intertwined lines of red and blue, and this crumples like string into a red and blue beating heart. Obviously contrasts the black and white so far, and overall just a very callous feel so far.
Shots of Ash walking barefoot, gripping his chest to tear away the shirt and reveal the blue and red heart, and then fall into a pool with that blue background from the start. He sinks, bubbles rising from him, until finally he opens his eyes, a blue similar to the background.
This ED stuck with me from the series because it felt like it did a great job at portraying the emotional state Ash is in at the beginning of the show. It’s very callous and somewhat depressing, with the song slow, the rough outlines, and very few colors.
“DREAM SOLISTER” by TRUE from Hibike! Euphonium
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Hibike! Euphonium
Finally, a theme from a favorite show! I feel like this theme conveys the perfect mix of effort and fun which is involved in these characters’ band life. Many of the first shots mixed in with the title card are of equipment and practice, signalling to me a lot goes into this.
We see the characters next, the main 4 for a bit longer against a background of their primary instrument as the characters give their sort of emotive intros. The senpai are shown under stormy skies, a contrast to the bright colors of the incoming Freshmen.
But the skies clear as Kumiko comes running, smiling, and suddenly we see them under the spotlight at concert, sweating and determined, together. Huge cast shot as the camera circles around the practice room, we zoom into Kumiko’s eye, and a full cast lineup.
Really great at prepping the viewer for the show. The song is lively, the imagery properly conveying what the series is about. Some nice character moments, especially considering the history the senpai have with the club and showing the incoming freshmen as a bright light.
“Gomen ne, Iiko ja Irarenai.” by Miku Sawai from Kill la Kill
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the ED for Kill la Kill
The primary thing I love about this ED is the reimagining of the imagery of the show in an everyday modern context. The show is kind of obsessed with clothing imagery, and this extending into the ED in several ways feels fitting.
Other key images like the cube of interconnected men as an art piece or Ryuuko’s transformed form as a tattered poster on a wall are really neat spatterings.
Ryuuko walking around town, looking at styles and fashion, while in a typical sailor fuku is a pretty good contrast to how she is portrayed in the show.
Everyone else in the ED is also a mannequin, whether they’re supposed classmates in the same uniform as her or in display cases, promotes this idea that she’s alone as well as going with the clothes motif.
She seems fairly indifferent throughout, until the final shot after she sees the shooting star on the rooftop, when she stares defiantly at the camera, facing opposite the crowd walking past her on the crosswalk.
Just some all around solid imagery usage here, utilizing motifs from the series and giving a different context to them. A pretty good song as well.
“Fighter” by BUMP OF CHICKEN from 3-gatsu no Lion
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the ED for 3-gatsu no Lion
Our first of many 3-gatsu themes, and probably my least favorite from the bunch, but still quite good. You’re gonna be hard pressed to find a show with this many standout themes.
It’s not got the same distinctive visual flare many of the series other EDs have, but that definitely doesn’t stop it from still carrying its fair share of nice imagery.
The main crux of the ED is Rei sort of wading through the water building up around him, and pushing forward. Lots of images or bridges, in particular bridges from the series he travels over to reach people he cares about.
Rei is stationary at first, but begins to push forward through the rising water, images of the Kawamotos shown to us on bridges between shots of Rei struggling.
Images pop onto screen in these nice ripple effects, adding layers and coloring to fill the screen with really pretty imagery as the world comes into being.
Rei flies up, and suddenly the images are clear, no more ripples, as he approaches a younger version of himself, shakes off his dower expression, and smiles, looking at his younger self.
This feels pretty self explanatory as far as symbolism. The series is about Rei’s escape from depression, and so he fights to escape those waters which slow him down, motivated by those who care about him as he pushes through and is able to confront his past.
“Checkmate” by MICHI from Dagashi Kashi
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Dagashi Kashi
This is definitely a style over substance OP mostly here because it’s kinda pretty. The show is very fluff, and this OP definitely also fits that description. That said, it’s still a pretty good OP.
It properly sets up the series, with a display of the characters and their dynamics as well as the primary subject matter of the series, jokes centered around the snacks being sold at a rural dagashi.
I enjoy that they chose to show this in a few different and interesting ways. There are shots where they peel away the image on screen like a candy wrapper. In these, the coloring is interesting, off from the usual monotony of the show which the OP promptly returns to.
Hotaru under the candied umbrella, Hotaru standing as shelves of snacks zoom by like trains, and the various mascots lines up as Hotaru approaches are all decent images which stand out to me.
Sadly the rest of the OP is kinda lackluster, more focused on showing off the other characters. The movie references near the end of the OP just don’t make sense to me really, they’re pretty meh.
The song is catchy and nice. Not much to really say about it, but I thought I would bring it up because I do feel like it adds to this OP. Honestly this is one of the lowest on this list of 365.
“Catch You Catch Me” by Gumi from Cardcaptor Sakura
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Cardcaptor Sakura
I didn’t end up watching a ton of Cardcaptor before instead reading the manga for the sake of saving time (I had to catch up for the 2018 r/anime Awards), but when I did watch, this particular OP stood out to me as just a really perfect way to open up this kind of show.
The song is a fun, poppy, catchy tune which really gets me upbeat and ready for a good time with the show, and made me excited for each episode.
The image of the sakura petal falling against a black background before landing as light ripples out, Sakura’s foot touching the ripple where the pedal landed, and then the music picks up and we get the costume shots, it’s a nice visual setup for this OP.
We kind of watch Sakura progress through the day from her roller skates daydreaming to her in her uniform with the wand to her in costume skipping across the sky, shots of her interacting with others interspersed throughout.
The cast roll is rather standard, but nicely timed and quickly passes to give way to more Sakura flying through the sky and giving us some nice characterization as the petals of this flower form.
“Kawaki wo Ameku” by Minami from Domestic na Kanojo
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Domestic na Kanojo
One of the most talked about OPs of the season when DomeKano aired, the mix of a really good song and some pretty good visuals made for quite a good OP.
The song definitely serves as a good intro as we prepare to dive into the dramatic and messy narrative that is DomeKano. And it’s just a really enjoyable song to listen to, god what a bop.
Water imagery in anime OPs is kinda everywhere I’m realizing as I do more and more analysis, either that or I just really like OPs with water imagery. Anyway it’s a neat aesthetic used throughout this OP quite nicely and ties everything together.
Starting with the single ripples moving out on a black screen, we then move on to the woman singing/playing piano in this OP who...isn’t from the show but still she’s monochrome aside from the reds of her nails like the backgrounds, which is different at least.
Her hand plunges into the water as the piano goes off, and we move to shots of our main 2 heroines. This is followed by a quick shot of our MC drowning before cutting to the lady now on piano, her nails now monochrome as well.
Shots of the main 2 girls staring at their phones now. The main flaw of this OP is it’s almost entirely either this piano girl who has no presence in the show or girls kind of just...standing around looking glum. It’s fine, but overall doesn’t offer much.
The rain dripping down Hina’s phone as she sits as it starts to rain is a nice touch. Momo runs under a structure to look at her phone while we look through her shirt at her detailed bra. She looks distressed.
Then we see Miu on a bridge in a park, the only one who expected rain on this cloudy day and thought to bring an umbrella. She also looks kinda sad. You see why I called looking at girls standing around a flaw now, gonna stop with the play by play.
The OP has some really nice visual style to it in the monochrome scenes, and everything else kind of going through this grey filter.
The visual of Natsuo under the water which the piano girl stands on is pretty neat, the images of the girls in harsh single colors to contrast the monochrome of the piano girl and Natsuo are also pretty striking.
Seeing Momo and Miu’s reflections stop as they keep charging towards Natsuo while Rui and Hina just go, no reflections to stop in their tracks, the music picking up so much that the singer is running out of breath, it’s a really heavy moment in the OP.
Rui and Hina cross into the monochrome where piano lady is and where Natsuo is drowning and kind of just have a stare down across the piano, before piano lady disappears and finally someone helps Natsuo from drowning, unclear who.
This OP is one I like but feel is a great example of how some neat images and a great song do not always make a GREAT OP. There’s meaning in things like the reflections stopping, but most of it is just style with the monochrome and then standard shots of the girls.
It’s got visual style (which you’ll notice I bring up a lot as something I appreciate) for parts, a running motif throughout, a good song, sets the viewer up for the show pretty well, but for all its style, it definitely comes off as more grandiose than it actually is.
I dunno, I’ve definitely complained less and heaped more praise onto themes which have offered less than this OP does, but it does feel like the minute and a half of runtime for this one spins its wheels for way more time than any other I’ve looked at.
“D.D.D.D” by (K)NoW_NAME from Dorohedoro
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the ED for Dorohedoro
Another ED which is primarily here because it presents a pretty unique style and has a nice catchy song, but overall doesn’t have much going on besides that.
I really appreciate the old video game DOOM aesthetic going on here. It’s a neat idea to go with, and the music matches it quite nicely. The changes of many of the different assets to match Dorohedoro is also a nice touch.
And..honestly...that’s about all I have to say about this ED. I quite like the Dorohedoro EDs on the whole, but when doing this I was surprised how few of them I really wanted to include in this. This one is kind of just a nice little nod to DOOM to end off on.
“marshmallow justice” by Eri Kitamura from Nisemonogatari
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Nisemonogatari
And here we have our first of many, many Monogatari themes which I’ll be posting about. Pretty much every Monogatari theme is pretty fantastic, and I’ve basically included every one for every season of the show I have seen.
The intro to the arc titled “Karen Bee”, we of course follow Karen in this OP sung by her voice actress. This is an OP which I definitely recommend you watch, because in motion it is far more impressive.
First shot we see Karen framed transparently in front of a honeycomb pattern, setting the bee imagery and color scheme of the OP. We’ve got grays, blacks, yellows, reds all displayed, and the OP is gonna kinda stick with this.
The buzz of trumpets plays over shots of Karen smiling as we get the title, leading into shots of...pretty much just Karen’s body.
The egg hairpin she wears spins on screen as we zoom into the yolk, which transforms into this tunnel of yellow, dark yellowish-green, and black, which is a sort of weird psychodelic image as it becomes two tunnels and then becomes one again as it zooms back out to 2 Karens leaning backwards and then coming together in a burst of flames onto the tunnel which has become a bee. Weird imagery, yeah.
We then get Koyomi, monochrome, emerging from the flames, tiny on screen compared to Karen here.
The next sequence is the main reason this OP is here, Karen jumping around in flames (fitting for one of the Fire Sisters) in really pretty visuals bursts, transforming into a bee and generally having bee imagery throughout.
Honestly, it’s been a really long time since I watched Nisemonogatari (or any Monogatari), and so I don’t feel too confident delving into any sort of deep meaning having to do with Karen’s adolescence or transformation in this arc of the show.
So for now, I just wanna point out how pretty this OP is. I’ll probably revisit Monogatari OPs down the line, planning to finish the series somewhat soon, and at that time probably rewatch the parts I’ve already seen.
"JoJo - Sono Chi no Kioku: end of THE WORLD” by JO☆STARS～TOMMY, Coda, JIN from JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 3: Stardust Crusaders 2nd Season
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 3: Stardust Crusaders 2nd Season
I’m gonna preface this with the fact that this short Twitter thread is not gonna encompass every little detail like the Mother’s Basement videos on JoJo OPs do, and everything covered here has already been covered by him, so go watch his video. Anyway, since this OP has already been covered extensively by someone else, I’m mostly just gonna give my own sort of brief thoughts on it.
This OP has a really nice mix of style and substance to it. The 3D models which these JoJo OPs use are some of the few instances of 3D in anime which stand out in a good way to me, and lend the OPs a unique feel.
The characters have strong presence in the 3D with heavy shading, and this shading also helps keep the OP feeling like the part of the show, which similarly uses these sort of block colors.
The song being sung by the singers for past JoJo OPs definitely is a great decision for this final part of the adventure leading up to the return of Dio, a conflict spanning several seasons and generations of the Joestar family.
They included many little visual easter eggs throughout, which make coming back to this OP every episode more and more rewarding, especially at the end of the show when things really start going.
Very fitting OP to tie together everything preceding it and end the longest arc in the TV anime franchise, generally solid visually and also good at weaving meaning throughout.
“believe” by Kalafina from Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the ED for Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
Fate and Kalafina, name a more iconic duo. I know some of you might be groaning at me including a slideshow ED, I’m not too hot on slideshows myself, but I do have reasons to include this beyond just being a Kalafina song.
So, for those of you who know me, or have seen my favorite characters list, you probably know I’m a huge fan of Rin Tohsaka, the main heroine of the Unlimeted Blade Works route. And well...this ED kind of focuses on her.
The ED is primarily focused on giving the audience a glimpse into how Shirou and Rin have grown up after the events of Fate/Zero. I really like that they gave us something that does this. Also spoilers for Fate/Zero for those who wanna start the series there.
Shirou pretty much just gets a shot hanging out with Kiritsugu, and while I don’t like Shirou very much, it’s pretty nice getting to see Kiritsugu happy and just generally getting a feel for how Shirou’s life was up to this point.
Back to our main focus though, Rin. We get such a nice sampling of what made Rin such a strong character up to this point, and also further evidence that she should have just been the main character of this arc on her own.
First shot is of a very young Rin at the grave of her parents, which is followed by her on her way to school, through a crowd of adults, but the way it’s framed makes it seem she’s as tall as them.
She’s been left alone as a child to fend for herself for the most part in a world of adults, but she also has the maturity and ability to make it on her own in this environment.
This pretty well explains on its own how Rin has become such a self-sufficient person, but also isolates her, and so we can fully understand how her character developed into who she is for the main series.
Next we get her staring off in the shoe locker room, standing out in her red coat amongst the students dressed in brown. She looks on to Sakura talking to the Archery Club President, Rin no longer a part of the archery club or Sakura’s life, but she still looks on.
We then get Rin walking through the halls, followed by her 3 sort-of-friends, Shirou and Issei in the background. This shot mostly establishes Rin as popular, but she also doesn’t involve herself with others very easily due to her status as a mage.
Skipping Saber and Shirou just chilling, our final set of shots is of Rin on a beach, looking out over the waves and walking the shoreline close to the waves, before looking back at Archer.
Basically this ED exists to tell a story, the story of Rin leading up to the events of UBW, and seeing as I really like Rin, I think that’s a really admirable goal for it.
“happy bite” by Emiri Kato from Monogatari Series: Second Season
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Monogatari Series: Second Season
Another Monogatari OP, yay. I’ll be honest, the Hachikuji OPs are the weakest in the series for me, but they still have enough going on for me to include them in this list.
The music for Hachikuji OPs is generally pretty upbeat and fun, matching her childish portrayal. Not much more to say about that really.
The visuals of this OP are mostly reliant on these blocks and how the camera moves around them. They clutter the screen and make it so the viewer has an altered perspective as the camera moves around, not giving much point of reference besides blocks.
They display several traffic symbols on them, signage you’d see on the street. This most likely is simply a reference to Hachikuji’s status as a constant wanderer.
There are some neat visual gags, like Hachikuji traveling up the blocks as they rotate to return her bag to her, or her leg swings timed with the descent of another block.
Finally perspective is given as we are freed from this maze by a falling snail shell, the blocks breaking way to a blue sky, Hachikuji falling down onto an Araragi built from blocks.
It’s a pretty good, cohesive OP, but it definitely doesn’t feel as appealing to me as many other Monogatari OPs.
"Gospel Of The Throttle 狂奔REMIX ver." by Minutes Til Midnight from Drifters
This is a copy of my Twitter Post about the OP for Drifters
Firstly, love this song. It’s not really your typical anime OP, and while I dunno if it’s really fitting for the show, it definitely helps sell that “rule of cool” that I think the show is going for.
Visually this OP has really nice color designs for the rougher action and singing segments which appear throughout. I really love the super rough lines and sticking to these single colors as we see the world of this show.
This rough artwork is juxtaposed by the polished, clean character shots of our displaced heroes out of time. It definitely makes these character intros stand out, and is of course more in line with the actual style of the show.
These factors combined just make this OP cool, and I don’t think it wanted to be much more than a cool way to open up the show. Not much more to say about this, hard to read too much meaning into general character intros and action shots.
