I was talking to CCY earlier today (I guess yesterday, technically), and we both mentioned that we meant to do a post about our favorite openings and endings of the year — it’s the end of the year, that sort of stuff happens. He’s already finished, and really he’s done a better job than I will? Why? Well, just to give you one reason, I’m not sure which themes are actually 2008 and which I simply heard in 2008. We will do our best, however.
Best Action Music to Rock Your Shounen Action to:
Soul Eater’s third ED, “Bakusou Yumeuta”
Some of my favorite music comes from the openings and closings of shounen — I love most of the music from Bleach, for example. You’re almost always guaranteed at least one nice, rocking tune per episode, and sometimes two. Soul Eater has all its music as 2008 entries, so I had several to pick from — I think I may just be avoiding the first OP because it’s what I would expect of me. The second OP is a little too relaxed, the first ED takes a while to get started, and the second ED is, uh, this. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like “Style,” but it’s not really rock, now is it?
Best Use of Cheesy Pop:
Toradora’s ED, “Vanilla Salt”
We could sit up all night talking about Toradora! the show, so let’s not, it’s late. Both the OP and the ED are good on their own, and pretty great when combined with the context of the show, the animations, so on. ”Pre-Parade,” the OP, is actually, in my opinion, slightly the better song, but it’s just sexy enough to not qualify as cheese-pop, and not sexy enough to qualify as sexy-sexy. ”Vanilla Salt,” on the other hand, has a bad (great?) case of Suspiciously Apropos Music and could serve as a kind of musical explication of tsundere, all while being lovably cheesy. If you’re not dead inside, you’ll smile whenever you hear that “Ba-ni-la. Sa-ru-to de. Ba-ni-la.”
Most Boring:
Kannagi ED, I can’t be bothered to remember what it’s crappy name is
Ugh. Look, I love this show. But this ED is terrible. How does it make sense to end a high energy comedy with a slow song and the worst visuals ever? I exaggerate, but you take my meaning. Tree, tree, still the tree, and finally some slow pans across still images. Oh boy, if I get enough bile it’s exactly the same as a terrible History Channel special.
Best Lucky Star rip-off of 2008:
Kannagi OP, “Motto Hade ni ne”
It’s not necessarily bad to be ripping it off. The Aeneid, by the same definitions, is just a rip-off of The Iliad, and that’s okay. And of course, in turn Lucky Star was ripping off any number of other things; The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s ED springs to mind. But anyway. Kannagi is the latest slightly metafictional show to come out, and the OP is great. Coming out the same season as Skip Beat, the whole training to become an idol montage is extra delicious, but this appears to be a red herring — yes, for a bit I thought it might actually turn into the show the OP seems to promise. Boy, I’m glad it didn’t.
Best Wasshoi:
Hidamari Sketch x365’s OP, “Hatena de WASSHOI”
What other OP or ED could possibly compare to the sheer amount of wasshoi present here?
Best Balls to the Wall:
Xam’d OP, “Shut Up and Explode”
Holy shit, did you see that? I think my testicles just fell off. Yes, there they are, clinging to the wall. It must be the sheer rock power pouring out of my speakers. ”Shut Up and Explode” wins another award as well: Best OP that Makes Me Forget about the Fucking Show. This has nothing to do with the quality, good or bad, of the show. The most famous past award-winner is “Inner Universe,” Yoko Kanno’s OP for the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. This award signifies an OP so good I keep watching it and forget to watch the show it’s attached to. Boom Boom Satellites and the guy who had the bright idea of putting the badass meganekko with the bazooka in this OP — I salute you.
The “badass meganekko” is Ishu, and she has yet to fire that bazooka.
I forget how many “wasshoi”s the Macademi WASSHOI OP contained, but it would seem that a title that has WASSHOI in the series name might challenge Hidamari Sketch x365, no matter how much more awesome Hidamari Sketch x365 is.
@OGT: curses. Foiled again. Once again you destroy everything with your facts and your logic.
[...] December 31, 2008 at 12:24 am | In anime, music | I am totally stealing from CCY and cuchlann, and doubtless countless others, to bring you this post, a window into the mysterious workings of [...]
Best Lucky Star rip-off of 2008:
Kannagi OP, “Motto Hade ni ne”
well..if i’m not mistaken, the director for those three ops you mentioned is one and the same
it’s not technically a ripoff, just the same style from the same director 
Well, save that they do exist in a linear system, one preceding another, and are autonomous from the author once created. An author can have the same style, but usually would be excoriated for repeating the same thing in the same style, over and over. ; )
But your point is taken anyway, as I didn’t know they were by the same director.
[...] with all the other fans? Two reasons. One, I loathed the original OP and its variations. As I made clear once already, I really like upbeat tunes to go with my anime. [...]