It’s time for the seasonal OP/ED roundup! I want to hear about your favorite OPs and EDs for the season (alternatively, your least favorites!). If you are looking for a collection of them all for this season, you can find almost all of them at the link below:
Just a note that you can absolutely use this thread like you would any other general discussion thread. So, feel free to post questions/comments/recommendations like any other week.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
I am not actually watching too many shows this season, so that portion of my list is pretty short. However, I feel like this season has, overall, a lot of good OP/EDs to choose from. I cut down my initial version of this list a lot and included some kind of silly awards at the end.
Shows I am watching:
- City OP - Hello by Furui Riho - such a perfect fit for the show
- Dan Da Dan OP - Kakumei Douichuu by AiNA THE END - another banger of an OP
Shows I am not watching:
- 9: Ruler’s Crown OP - ResoNAnce by Araki - I have no idea what this show is about, but I liked the OP.
- Bad Girl ED - Bad Surprise by Tenrou-gun - the OP is a lot of fun too
- Bullet/Bullet OP - Work Hard by Chanmina - an embodiment of an aesthetic that works
- Fragrant Flower ED - Hare no Hi ni by Reira Ushio - beautiful vocals and great crochet animation
Other Notables:
- Putting the Dark back in Dark Fanstasy - Clevatess OP - Ruler by Mayu Maeshima - great visuals that have piqued my interest in the show
- Now That’s What I Call Edge - Gachiakuta OP - HUGs by Paledusk - This OP (literally) screams one of those edgy revenge stories that we get from time to time.
- You’re Too Good For This - Rent-A-Girlfriend OP - Umitsuki by ClariS and Rent-A-Girlfriend ED - Boku no Vega by Regal Lily - I like both these songs and artists, and the animation in the OP is great…but my enjoyment is definitely tempered having read through this portion of the manga.
- HanaKana can Rap?! - Detectives These Days are Crazy ED - GORI☆GORI Feez e-Girl!! - It’s fun, and not what I am used to from HanaKana.
For general depravity, you guys gotta watch Grand Blue Dreaming. It’s a drinking anime with a diving sub-plot, absolutely hilarious. I’m thrilled it’s back after 5 years. Though it’s gonna be tough for it to live up to S1, it’s doing pretty well so far.
Bad Girl ED and Watari-kun OP are both bangers.
Meta
May we please have a tag for community discussion posts like those from @molave@reddthat.com? Perhaps have one for episode discussions and one for news too. It would help with filtering of posts on Photon.
Can we also have a tag to indicate that there are spoilers in the tagged post? Sometimes, people want to talk about the content of anime they have watched freely, outside of episode discussions. Spoiler-tagging a post allows people to be warned before seeing the comments.
Past Seasons
I completed Haikyuu!! season 1 over the past week. Instant 10 / 10.
Only this anime can get me as hyped up as Umamusume: Cinderella Gray.
Writing-wise, Haikyuu is basically the volleyball version of
meta spoiler; another anime + Haikyuu
Kageyama Tobio is essentially Kousaka Reina, except that he learnt his lesson of actually working together with his teammates.
Reina got off easy because she had Kumiko doing all the EQ-required work behind the scenes.
Both anime also ran the plotline of having a talented junior taking away a senior’s spot.
Based on how similar their stories are, I can make a fairly confident bet that Hinata Shouyou would become the captain of the volleyball team by his third year.
On a more meta note, I think sports anime are the best suited to the shounen demographic. Other forms of shounen anime have tropes that I find annoying, but these tropes actually make sense in the context of sports.
For example, in many battle shounen, the hero tend to let the villain walk away instead of finishing them off when they had the chance. The villain would then live to fight another day. It’s so stupid because the villain would cause so much preventable suffering later. I’m sure it’s because they want to reuse the same character instead of coming up with a new one, but that’s just an excuse to justify subpar work.
This is not a problem in sports anime because even if the stakes are high, it would almost never be a life-or-death situation. There is no real villain. Even if the protagonist lost to their opponent because they failed to end the match decisively, it is alright - they can get their revenge in a subsequent match. Nobody is really getting hurt.
Another genre that I dislike when targeted at young boys is romance. I read somewhere that young boys don’t have much experience being in romantic relationships, so they relate to “the chase” better. I wholeheartedly agree.
My watching experience tells me that the protagonists of such anime take multiple seasons to get together and once they get together, the story ends. Personally, I find it too frustrating.
This is not a problem in sports anime at all. The focus of relationships is on friendship and camaraderie, something that shounen are more than familiar with.
Writing-wise, Haikyuu is basically the volleyball version of
You’re not wrong. From my POV, the connection is made for a different reason. Pasting my recommendation reason in MAL:
spoiler
“Haikyu” is like a very detailed version of “Sound Euphonium” S3. There is an untold story of how the captain Sawamura Daichi helped develop a flightless Karasuno High School volleyball team to a national contender in his final year of high school. Sound Euphonium explores Kumiko’s entire school journey as a member of the concert band to her life as their captain.
Or maybe, “Sound Euphonium” S3 is like a condensed version of the entirety of “Haikyu”, including the yet-unadapted parts. One can analogize Mayu with either Kageyama or Hinata, the genius newcomers who are the crucial pieces of a powerhouse team. Mayu’s story isn’t told much in Sound Euphonium, but Kageyama and Hinata’s is a central plot of Haikyu.
Have you watched or read Blue Box? It’s about 1/3 sports anime 2/3 romance but I think the romance is better handled in Blue Box than in any other Shounen I’ve seen, other than maybe Dan Da Dan. That said you’ll likely want to wait for Season 2 since Season 1 left off in such an awkward spot. Season 2 has been announced but as far as I know there’s no release date.
My favorite sports anime is still a seinen though; Medalist is a hard one to beat.
Chihayafuru, meanwhile is 2/3 sports anime and 1/3 romance. Will recommend that as well
Oh yeah, just watched an episode over dinner. It’s been fun.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Post tags are kind of an unofficial thing that (afaik) only photon supports. So, posters should feel free to use tags as they wish. I can add some recommendations to the sidebar/rules though, like in !manga@ani.social. When lemmy 1.0 comes out, or if this community ever ends up needing to move to a piefed instance, there will proper post flair that can be used instead.
As for the episode discussion threads, I can modify the bot’s template to include a tag. The manga community-style tag would be [DISC] or [Discussion], but the anime subreddit uses the [Episode] flair. I don’t have a strong preference and would be open to feedback on which way to have rikka go.
Afaik it’ll only work if Lemmy has native support for post flairs
Official flair support is coming for lemmy 1.0…sometime later this year. In the meantime, the photon frontend will parse parts of a post title in brackets as a tag. Take a look at the manga community in the photon frontend for an example. It removes things like
[]or[]from the post titles and puts a little tag in the upper right of the post to act as a flair of sorts.
Recently started My Dress Up Darling S2. I find the ED-style OP in episode 1 to be wild. I don’t know if it’s unique to that episode, but that is fun.
My favorite this season is Dandadan S2 OP. I also liked its ED.
Besides those, Call of the Night S2 has a cool OP, and My Dress Up Darling S2 and There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… have fun OPs too.
I like the opening song of Dandadan S2. Not sure which one between S1 and S2 is better, but both are bangers.
I also like the intro part of The Summer Hikaru Died opening song, but only until the vocals come in. lol
I finished Samurai Champloo this week and started Mononoke (the series).
It sounds sacrilegious, but I enjoyed Samurai Champloo more than Cowboy Bebop. The characters and stories are more interesting.
I’m currently on ep 3 of Mononoke. My eyes are still getting used to the animation style as I sometimes miss some details while watching with subs, but I’m getting there. The stories are great so far.
I’m so out of the loop this season. I’ve only just caught up with Dandadan S2 and My Dress-Up Darling S2 and started with Dr Stone.
Started Mononoke has a good plot, I like this one very much
My roundup is still pending…I have been busy and haven’t yet finished listening to all of them yet. Stay tuned!
