Anime Openings Debate
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
After 3 votes and with the same amount of points on both sides...
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 4
- Time for argument
- Two days
- Max argument characters
- 10,000
- Voting period
- One month
- Point system
- Winner selection
- Voting system
- Open
Rules
3 Openings Per Round
Brief Description of the Opening (50-100 words)
No opening can be used twice!
Judges should base on music + animation
(This opening screams hype. The old guitar strums with the rock style that is so fascinating to listen to. The intro itself is bizarre, unique, and extremely well done. The crazy fights and clean animation cleanly combine this series. The deep scam on the faces show how the series highlights the relationship of characters and how they progress. It’s also flashy and epic, like, it’s using legos spinning.)
(Another song by the queen of anime OP’s, this song uses strong emotions with an enticing piano that builds up. It uses a combination of great build up and magnificent vocals to deliver. And what can I say about the intro itself? It’s another ufotable masterpiece where it’s cleanly animated. The fight scenes feel impactful, you feel that the intro itself is telling a great series. I know whiteflame is also an avid fan of Fate/Zero series, so hope he appreciates this.)
(This opening is a musical masterpiece. A catchy opening that combines rock rhythms and pop catchiness, this song makes you bob your a little bit, as it should. The arc is themed around making a good rock concert, and the animation also exemplifies it. An arc centered around Jiro using her musical abilities for leisure, this arc is a fun arc that develops the characters' relationships by having them work together, while isolating the main characters as they go through their own struggle. It’s a fun intro for a fun arc.)
Onto the final 3! These are the three that are the most evocativeand dramatic. Like R2, this is a category with a lot of personal favorites, andI’ll probably end up posting two honorable mentions in the comments for thosewho are interested. However, also like R2, I am solid on this group.
Colors by FLOW - Code Geass
This doesn’t show much in the way of action scenes, but immediatelyblasts you with an incredible instrumental to throw you into a series that willhave you on the edge of your seat throughout. The music transitions betweenhigh intensity for dynamic scenes to quieter, more serene moments perfectly. Mostlyfocused on the character roster, it’s fascinating to watch the leads transitionbetween environments and roles as the OP proceeds, never losing sight of themind games inherent to the conflict at the center of the series, symbolized bythe fallen chess piece at the end.
Aoi Shiori by Galileo Galilei – Anohana: The Flower We Saw ThatDay
It’s incredible just how much this OP balances, includingjarring but effective color shifts and character transformations that showcasethe characters both as children and as teenagers, often showing the twotogether to show rather than tell how these characters are still affected bythose younger years. The soft rock sometimes rises in volume, but alwayslow-key to accompany the various slice of life moments and present a sombertone for a series that will have you in tears by the end.
OP/ED by See-Saw - .hack//SIGN
This right here is the OG of isekai, a classic with a strong OP. Starting with that amazing guitar chordand launching into some of the best singing/beat combination in any OP (YukiKajiura is personal favorite), it gives you a little bit to chew on from eachcharacter in this digital world, giving very little away aside from who is atthe center of the plot. While many series have tried to replicate this type ofvisual design, it still remains a personal favorite in design and execution, theincredible dancing of the avatar being the stand out for animation.
I'm rating these rather arbitrarily out of 10 based on my personal preferences and will tally up the points to decide the winner. Soooooo if we're good with that I'll just proceed!
R1:
Supa-
ReZero- 7/10 (OK song, great visuals with some metaphorical meaning)
SAO- 9/10 (Fantastic song, but the visual downgrade from ReZero keeps it from being a 10/10)
Fire Force- 8/10 (Better song than ReZero but not as good as SAO with visuals on par with ReZero. The fight scenes make me want to see this anime.)
Whiteflame-
Cowboy Bebop- 8/10 (Such a cool vibe with the olde style music and visuals. Unusual for anime)
Bleach- 9/10 (Again a really cool vibe and I love the grungy music. Bleach has a special place in my heart)
Eizouken- 6/10 (Undeniably creative but not my kinda thing)
R2:
Supa-
Mob Psycho- 10/10 (Goddamn, this made me add Mob Psycho to my "must watch" list. Great song and visuals are hype. Like one commenter said: "This is basically crack for your eyes.")
SAO Aliciwhateverization- 9/10 (Music has clear influences from the metal genre while not fully diving into it, visuals are great but not as unique as Mob Psycho)
Fate/Zero- 7/10 (Music is eh for me but visuals of course are a highlight in anything Fate/Zero related)
Whiteflame-
Demon Slayer- 9/10 (Visuals are slow to begin with but the fight scenes near the end are godly with the rock influenced music.)
FMA:B- 8/10 (Visuals aren't as impressive but a highlight here is actually the lyrics. I liked this song a lot)
Tengen Toppa Woppa Something or another - 6/10 (Solid but it's one that doesn't stand out from the rest for me)
R3:
Supa-
My Hero - 6/10 (OK music and the visual style is cool but again doesn't really stand out for me)
Steins Gate- 7/10 (This is like the ReZero one for me, I really like the visual style and creativity but the music is just OK)
Kakait Kitan or however it's spelled - 7/10 (I will admit this really got me interested in the anime but the visual editing isn't really on par with some of the other selections here)
Whiteflame-
The Wolf Thing - 10/10 (Rating this as a perfect 10 for sheer creativity. Haven't seen this style of animation in an anime before and I loved the mini storyline of it turning from night to day and the wolf guy changing personalities along with it, which I imagine symbolically plays off of something in the show.)
Dorohedroioio - 9/10 (Since when was cooking so hype?)
Inner Universe - 10/10 (Fascinating all around. Music had a crazy cool vibe with the production effects and visuals were unique af)
R4:
Supa-
AoT - 9/10 (Visually fantastic)
Naruto Shippuden - 10/10 (Ugh... Sorry I know I'm biased but the scene with Naruto chasing after Sasuke as he grows older and more powerful gives me chills.)
Hikaru Nara - 6/10 (Cool visuals but not at the same caliber as the others in my view)
Whiteflame-
Code Geass - 7/10 (Solid all around just not extremely noteworthy)
Anohananananananana - 7/10 (This may be more impactful if you've seen the anime and know whatever these characters have been through, and it's clear there is metaphorical meaning in a lot of these visuals. Still, for me it falls in the middle of the pack)
Hack//////////////////////////////Sign - 6/10 (Nice retro vibe but another middle of the pack kinda deal.)
TOTALS:
Supa - 95
Whiteflame - 95
HOLY.... I SWEAR THIS WASN'T ON PURPOSE. THIS WAS A TIE ON PURE COINCIDENCE. I CHECKED THE NUMBERS TWICE.
Good job to both parties. Great selections all around.
Thank you all for the votes
Appreciate the vote! Just FYI, the Dorohedoro characters often look like that (though she is rather masculine), and the main character is actually the guy with the mask who is walking through the scene as multiples of himself before his head turns into gyoza. It's an odd one, for sure.
Round 1 from Whiteflame had 3 brilliant choices. While the third one was a bit ridiculous for my liking and not at all the style of Anime I enjoy (visually speaking) all three had brilliant transitions and matching of characters, colours etc to the music. The songs were the only drawback because other than Bleach's early-season opening, I didn't super love the other 2 songs but I definitely don't dislike them.
For Supa's Round 1, the first one had a decent song and I can respect the animation kind of... That flashy psychedelic style works if it's subtle but that is way too in-your-face, it actually could trigger epileptic fits if one has photosensitive triggers. It is just so eye-aching, I was not a fan of the effects since they were done too in-your-face and it didn't even make sense because the music was soothing, not rough (so why was the animation rough?). The SAO, second link, was already irritating me because of the unbelievably long and boring intro both music-wise and animation wise (too slow). Everything about this anime screamed 'why are we not moving onto the next scene?!' it was a wonderful song though and her voice is sexy, ngl. The third one from Supadudz was again very epileptic-threatening with its strobe light effects and I did have to physically skip through the video because of this (not saying I have that, I'm saying it still annoys my eyes). On the other hand, unlike his first link the strobe effects and intensity properly matched the pumping-vibe of the song. Thus, I would say his third is a good piece for sure and the anime style itself is extremely brilliant, very realistic even (which isn't always good in manga/anime but all these characters and fighting effects in the opening seem believably real to my brain as it tries to picture it as a real life 3D thing).
So, overall Whiteflame is winning now for sure.
Round 2
Supadudz's SAO (second link) is amazing. Everything about it I liked, there was nothing to dislike in it as an opening song and animation, however one thing I would say is odd is how passive it is for a sword art show. His other 2 were equally 'meh' with the first being an art style I don't like (but brilliant transitioning and okay song) and the third being boring to watch, it was like a photo-reel.
I loved all of Whiteflame's Round 2, the first link is potentially my favourite style of Anime animation ever, on part with Naruto. The way it depicts the troll goblin face, wild boar-head, cat-masks, butterflies and just the general eye concept is so fantastic. I loved this opening a lot, in ALL ways, soothing to watch indeed. The thid link was nice too, though a bit childish art-wise, it had brilliant transitions and decent music. FMA wasn't my style, why do they all look so Caucasian first of all? It's like a Danish or German local cartoon more than Anime in any shape or form and it felt boring to watch for me, as was the song. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it at all.
Round 3
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Supadudz slayed this. All three, so fucking good in all ways, especially the latter two. The first is very good indeed but the latter 2 are AMAZING even the songs. I liked it a lot. Transitions, animation-style, song-vibe all of it, spot on.
Idk what this Round was from Whiteflame... It's like cheating? Two of them weren't Anime openings regardless of them being openings for Anime. That wolf one I just straight up disqualify, it's cheating. The third link is a very nice opening, sure, and it has animation as opposed to puppets (unlike the first link) but again it feels extremely cheating because of course CGI looks better than Anime, that's a given. CGI will always display realistic objects superior to Anime due to how CGI can shade and feign 'depth' in ways Anime can't. The second link was essentially (and I say this with no transphobia intended at all) an extremely masculine female character, who is what I assume is the main character and a bunch of colour squirts in the scenes where she's not there. It was also very poor art, not becasue it was a masculine woman but just the entire way it depicts characters disproportionately. Her chin and jaw were as big as her forehead and just the whole thing was like 'eh... idk about this'. Weakest Round from whiteflame by far but the music was good.
Round 4
Supadudz only was poor/meh in the first link. The latter 2 are just on point in every way, I LOVE Naruto artistically, it is the style of Anime that always will be in my top 3 no matter what other styles are come up with, I predict (whiteflame showed a style that could compete though, which I mentioned earlier in this RFD). I loved the songs of the latter 2 as well, nice and smooth to watch.
Whiteflame comes in soft... Firstly, that first link's opening is just not an opening at all at the start. What am I watching? Then out of nowhere boomboomboom flashing this character into that character bombarding my eyes and brain with too much visual stimuli at once. That's a thumbs down from me. The second is going for a mild vibe, I get it and respect it for what it is. It's a great soft-vibe opening, not the most spectactular thing ever but it wasn't supposed to be. It was great for what it was, made me feel calm. That final, third opening made me laugh actually, I don't know if they were intentionally being over the top strange and unpredictable with their transitions and animations but it put a smirk/smile on my face so I liked it even though it was very 'out there' let's say. The song oddly did match the opening even though they're paced differently.
For me, Whiteflame is the overall winner because of consistency. Supadudz had extreme highs and many more lows than Whiteflame did. Whiteflame's worst Round involved him trying too hard to be creative, I feel, which is an understandable reason. Supadudz's worst Rounds were the ones he was opening with, which are not the Rounds you want to 'meh' your audience or annoy them with. I have my opinion and I don't need to put some 'score' to justify this. If I did a score, I guarantee you, Supadudz falls short due to the inconsistency earlier on.
Thanks for voting! Appreciate your taking the time to go through these.
Final Judgement
Supadudz had 974 points
Whiteflame had 956 points
Supadudz wins by a slim margin. Pretty close call but Supadudz was saved by Hikaru Nara and I didn't like Whiteflame's Breezy song. I could give +5~10 points to Gurenge for animation but that's not enough to win.
Starmaker: 76/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/kana-boon-starmaker/)
Steins;Gate: 87/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/steinsgate-hacking-the-gate/)
Eve: 70/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/eve-kaikai-kitan/)
Total: 233
Wild Side: 93/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2020/09/29/beastars/ [+5 points for unique animation here]
Chaos: 78/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/welcome-to-chaos-by-know_name-dorohedoro/)
Ghost: 76/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/ghost-in-the-shell-inner-universe/)
Total: 247
_________________________________________________________________
My War: 69/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/my-war-by-shinsei-kamattechan/
Naruto: 65/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/kana-boon-silhouette/
Hikaru Nara: 92/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2018/08/10/hikaru-nara-your-lie-in-april
total: 226
Colors: 76/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/colors-flow/
anohana: 79/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/aoi-shiori-by-galileo-galilei/
Dot hack: 88/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/dot-hack-sign-opening/
total: 243
Total Supa: 459
Total Whiteflame: 490
As this is a music debate, I trust that no in-depth analysis is required. Nevertheless, I've linked my song review blog posts in case someone wants to see why a song got its rating
Redo: 86/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/rezero-redo/)
SAO: 85/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/lisa-crossing-field/)
Fire Force: 90/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/fire-force-inferno/)
Total R1: 261
Bebop: 86/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/cowboy-bebop-tank/)
Asterick: 74/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/orange-range-asterick/)
Breezy: 60/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/chelmico-easy-breezy/)
Total R1: 220
______________________________________________________________
99.9: 88/100 https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/mob-choir-99-9/
Alicization: 89/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/adamas-lisa/)
Fate/Zero: 77/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/fate-zero-op-1/)
total R2: 254
Gurenge: 89/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/『gurenge』by-lisa/)
Again: 87/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/again-by-yui-fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood/)
Sorairo days: 75/100 (https://favesongs.wordpress.com/2021/03/01/tengen-toppa-gurren-lagann-sorairo-days/)
Total R2: 246
Supa so far: 515
Whiteflame so far: 466
To be continued
Hey, still hoping to get a vote or two on this if you get a chance.
A couple of honorable mentions:
The Outlaw Star OP, Through the Night by Masahiko Arimatsu, is a 90s classic that is so good, I could barely stand to leave it out of my R2. It's an incredible series and an action-packed OP full of great character moments with a catchy rock song that leans heavily on the drums in the best of ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3gI-E_vqVA
The second season of Re:Zero starts with one of my all-time favorites, Realize by Konomi Suzuki. This would absolutely have made the list (R4) if Supa hadn't already hit the series in the first round, and I still considered doing it, if not for my promise to make these rounds as diverse as possible. While it may be more difficult to grasp just how great this OP is without seeing the first season, you can feel the weight of it throughout. This OP is practically dripping with sentiment, mostly of the dark variety the series is known for, but always with an eye towards moving past the worst and, hopefully, achieving something great on the other side. It's practically a self-contained summary of both the first season and of the main character's mindset in the first half of S2, which I've never seen any other OP do so well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-RUTZBbGwM