Hey all! It’s that time of year where Dowase comes around and showcases their favorite anime openings of the year! I know I keep trying to make Dowase better every year, but this year was extremely busy in other means as well. But, it’s all coming to a close, so let’s discuss our favorite OPs of the year and prepare for Taiyou in early January!
Ace: My first pick is from the winter 2018 season, and it’s Sora yori mo Tooi Basho. A more common name would be A Place Further than the Universe! The anime tells the story of a girl and her quest to journey to Antarctica with her friends, and the opening tells this story of friendship, adventure, and the journey inside fantastically! The amount of fun you feel during this opening just brings about the feeling you’re going to go on this fun filled adventure with them! Honestly though, the way the OP is presented astounds me. It begins with Mari flipping the screen upside down to present how she’s literally flipping her world, and thus ours, upside down by starting a journey that differs from everyday life. After this, we see parallels between her old daily life at school, and her adventure with her newfound friends in Antartica. It also then shows the silly shenanigans they get into, as they are all high school girls on a rather unusual trip to Antartica. It’s an overall fun OP, with great music and animation, and that makes it my third best OP of 2018!
Mark: Hey Hey! Its Yuusha here! The year has been pretty good for anime and from what Ace has told me, its about that time we did our yearly favorite anime openings. My first choice is from a show that I don’t think too many people watched and its pretty understandable why. What’s that show? Why it’s Last Period: Owarinaki Rasen no Monogatari. There are a bunch of things that really stand out to me personally about this one too. I have the unpopular opinion of thinking OPs sung by the seiyuu cast are great, and this one does it really well. I don’t know who did the audio editing for it, but they deserve an award. Throughout the song you can actually pick out each character’s voice fairly well.. ESPECIALLY Choco. (The always hungry apathetic girl of mystery) The song really goes well with the animation too, and even showcases the running joke of the main cast seemingly going through the same type of adventure day after day. At first failing and then slowly succeeding after every repeat.) We even get small hints of Campenella’s true identity…albeit it really isn’t much of a secret and the cast is just a bunch of lovable idiots. BUT! TLDR. THE OPENING IS CUTE. THE CHARACTERS ARE CUTE and the song is REALLY CATCHY. SO IS THE ENDING SONG. DONE BY THE 3 BEST CHARACTERS OF THAT SHOW. WISEMAAAAAAAN. But, thats not what this blog is about. YET!!. please watch this show! See ya next week!
Mickey: Here we are again with the end-of-year reviews, and this time we’re back in black with Black Clover! Their third opening, “Black Rover” by Vickeblanka, is my third favorite to start our countdown, which is fitting because this is where this series begins its ascent in quality. We’ve gotten through getting to know the core cast and the basic premise, now we get a killer track as we dig into the meat of all of shounen series: the fight scenes! Of course, the key to a truly amazing battle is getting your audience invested, and this was the arc that earned it for me. Up to this point Black Clover only flashed potential amidst a fair share of flaws, but then, what seemed like another introductory arc quickly became a clash of titans! The opening itself is your standard shounen fare of characters and their powers on display, possibly veering into spoiler territory, but with some misdirection thrown in as well. How it starts and ends is worth noting, as the beginning has Nero the bird land on the Wizard King statue atop the skull of the monster he defeated, and the final shot has the bird now landing on Asta, looking out at the skull from a distance, showing he’s got a long way to go, but he’s on his way to fulfill his dream! A great opening for a show on its way to being great!
