It’s been a long year. but now it’s time to sit back and reflect on what amazing anime we enjoyed! Of course, I have always had a soft spot for anime openings and endings, so I decided to gather the gang together to reflect on our top openings of the year! Please note, these are not in any order.
Ace: I love stupid, catchy openings, and with the great feeling one gets after watching Himouto’s opening, I knew this would be one of my top openings of this year. The feeling behind this opening creates the feeling of pure bliss, similarly to how Working!!’s opening set the mood for a fun, wacky series. In addition, Himouto’s opening stresses the double lifestyle Umaru lives, using a change in voice to reference her ‘perfect’ life, as well as her ‘otaku’ life. This contrast leads to a wonderful opening with fuzzy feelings all around.
Mark: I chose Gakkou Gurashi for many reasons actually. The show itself was just fantastic and I felt it was an undiscovered gem of the summer season. The song itself is really catchy, but what really got me the most was the fact that the OP itself was so dynamic. After a huge plot point was revealed, the opening for the next episode would reflect on that.
Danny: Shimoneta’s opening gives me a super sentai like vibe, which is surely what they were going for. It has the usual character reveal showing their distinctive traits such as Ayame preforming lewd acts or Hyouka creeply watching her flies and then shows their alter-egos fighting the technical final boss of the series which cuts short before the climax. I enjoy when it shows scenes from the current episode as a sort of foreshadowing of what is about to take place in the next twenty minutes, and in general the song is catchy and difficult to leave one’s mind.