Great answer
I haven’t watched this show but the song sounds nostalgic already, if that makes sense.
Lain is a classic. Highly influential piece of pop culture. And even though its story is metaphorical it accurately predicted our incredibly online age, with its strange cultural and psychological problems.
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Tank! from Bebop and H.T. from Trigun still give me happy chills when I hear them. Both shows have such great music.
Those would be my choices too. Amazing stuff
Lain is a great anime with a great opening, but cowboy bebebop/tank not being on top makes zero sense.
We’re off to outer space
We’re leaving mother earth
To save the human race
Our Star Blazers
Cowboy Bebop, obviously
The first season intro of Dr. Stone.
Drifters! Gospel of the Throttle goes so hard.
I have many, but the ones I can remember are:
OPs:
- Oregairu S1-3
- Elfen Lied
- Umineko (both VN and TV)
- Violet Evergarden
- Nichijou
EDs:
- Erased
- White Album 2
- Golden Time
- Clannad (Dango Daikazoku)
The best part about the Nichijou OP is that Hyadain sang all the parts himself. He just pitched his voice up for the parts that sound like female backing vocals. Lends an extra touch of Nichijou-type humor to the whole thing.
I will paste what I answered in a similar thread from !anime@ani.social a little while back that might be of interest to you:
I usually watch an OP once for a show and then skip it each time afterwards. That being said, there are a handful that I remember making the choice to always watch each episode. In no particular order:
- (NSFW) B Chiku Sentai SOX - “SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist” - I always laughed at the visuals of this more than anything. This show was wild.
- Onegai Muscle - “How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift?”
- Idol - “Oshi no Ko”
- Zeitaku na Saji - “Campfire Cooking in Another World with my Absurd Skill”
- GO!!! - “Naruto”
“How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift?” just jumped up a few places in my watchlist. Looks fun to watch
I wrote a little bit about it a while back when I posted a clip for Thanksgiving. Overall, it is a piece of lighthearted fun that was perfect for watching an episode before bed. It also tried to be educational about how to properly work out, while at the same time using those educational segments as an excuse to include a bit of ecchi.
+1 for how heavy are the dumbbells you lift
Cowboy Bebop - Tank
Trigun - HT
Neon Genesis Evangelion - Cruel Angel’s Thesis
Lupin III Part 2 - Opening 1 bad video but best i could find sadly…
City Hunter - Love, Don’t Leave Me
Ping Pong the Animation - Tada Hitori
The Tatami Galaxy - Maigoinu to Ame no Beat
Gunbuster - OP
Samurai Champloo - Battlecry
Re: Cutie Honey - Cutie Honey Theme
Paranoia Agent - OP
Macross - OP
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Sorairo Days
Detective Conan - OP1 or OP3
Nadia the Secret of Blue Water - Blue Water
Dragon Ball Z - Cha La Head Cha La
Death Note - OP1
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 2 - OPI could probably do more…
Now, endings are another story…
Somehow I forgot about Ping Pong the Animation! Such a touching sports anime and the OP is great too.
I think it’s really easy to overlook Ping Ping.
I didn’t know or care about the sport at all going in, but the show presented it in such a way that you can’t help get invested in the characters. On top of that it’s just a excellently told story with a lot of good drama, and I think it says a lot about people and their relationship to sports/hobbies/art/etc. I hope other people will give it a try. :)
Might be cheating with an end credits sequence, but I would say Psycho Pass’ first ending sequence
Honorable mentions:
Chill Category
High Energy Category
One I have doubts anyone else might mention is Lupin the Third.
Some that come to mind:
Ghost in the Shell—hands down one of the best movie openings across the board.
For series:
Cowboy Bebop
Space Dandy
Chainsawman
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
I liked how they did it with Naruto, changing it up every so often and using some pretty good songs.
