Tag: OP

Hanebado! OP

Hanebado! OP

Introduction

Hanebado! is a badminton anime currently airing during the Summer 2018 anime season, but today’s post isn’t a review of the series as a whole, but rather a breakdown of the anime’s opening animation (OP). So far, this is the best OP of 2018, and may have even broken into my top 5 of all time.

The OP features the song “Futari no Hane” by YURiKA, which on its own is already a reason for this to be considered a good OP. However, this song combined with the unique art style and smooth animation is what really sets this OP above the rest.

LIDENFILMS is the animation studio behind the series as well as the OP (as far as I can find). The only other anime I’ve seen by them is Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, which was pretty good, but they’re also one of the producing studio’s for the recent Berserk adaptations so take that as you will.

Hanebado! anime title card from the OP (opening)
Hanebado! Title Card

Breakdown

The OP begins with some crisp, smooth, splash animations which bring in the credits. At this point, the art style already has me hooked. I’m a sucker for anything high contrast and simplified like this, but the OP just gets better from here.

We then move on to some quick shots of what appears to be Ayano Hanesaki and Nagisa Aragaki doing some spikes in silhouette. From there, a shuttlecock is hit away from the screen and splashes into the background to bring up the anime’s title card (pictured above).

The next sequence is one of my two favorite parts of the OP, and serves to set up my other favorite part of the OP. Here we get a bunch of quick, high contrast, animations of the various characters playing badminton.

In this sequence, each short scene ends at the point of motion with the maximum amount of potential energy (for all you physics-lovers out there). This is going to be key later on in the OP. One example of a scene like this is the shuttlecock making contact with the racket pictured below.

Badminton Racket (racquet) and Shuttlecock (birdie) from the OP of the anime Hanebado!
Badminton Racket and Shuttlecock

Before moving on to the next sequence, we get a grey-scale scene of what appears to be Uchika Hanesaki, Ayano’s mother and primary antagonist of the series. The next sequence simply shows some stills of various characters before panning towards the sky and moving on to the “middle” of the OP.

At this point, we’re no longer in high contrast, and instead the art style is straight out of the rest of the anime, so you might expect there’s not much going on here. Well, you’d be wrong as even the credit text for this sequence has the same breathtaking animation we saw at the start of the OP.

In the top half of the screen we get both stills and animated scenes quickly being wiped away as new ones are wiped into place. The background color also changes with each scene. On the bottom of the screen, the credits have the same splash animations they did from the start.

Although this is probably the most “standard” part of the OP, as I mentioned, it still looks amazing compared to most of the anime I see. An example of one of these scenes is pictured below.

Hanebado! anime OP (opening) scene featuring Ayano Hanesaki
Hanebado! OP Scene Featuring Ayano Hanesaki

After being quickly introduced to a variety of characters in the previous sequence, we move on to the slow point of the OP where things get a little more dark and serious. To further this feeling, the song slows down as well.

This point of the OP is symbolizing Ayano’s initial distaste for the sport of badminton due to her troubled past with it. We then see Nagisa, the first “antagonist” of the series who turns out to be the one who gets Ayano back into the sport, looking at her with a worried expression.

When Ayano picks up her racket and looks at Nagisa, we see her cold, dead eyes as she reaches toward the screen (and Nagisa). From here we switch over to Ayano’s perspective and Nagisa is replaced by an ever-changing composite of other badminton players and rivals of Ayano (pictured below).

Composite of Ayano Hanesaki's rivals from the Hanebado! anime OP (opening)
Composite of Ayano Hanesaki’s Rivals

Before moving on to the “end” of the OP, we see the darkness get cleared away and Ayano and Nagisa stand facing each other as teammates instead of enemies. Then, the scene changes to once again show Ayano’s mother, Uchika, the primary antagonist.

And now, it’s time for my favorite part of the OP, the continuation of the “beginning.” We go back to the high contrast art style from the start of the OP and pick up the sequence of potential energy scenes exactly where they left off before.

However, now the potential energy of these scenes is released in explosive fashion, showing just how exciting this anime, and the sport of badminton, can be. I really wouldn’t have minded if the entire OP was in this art/animation style simply because it’s so aesthetically pleasing.

High contrast sneaker frame from a kinetic shot in the Hanebado! anime OP (opening)
High Contrast Sneaker

To finish off the OP, we end with some basically-line-art animation of both Ayano and Nagisa simply enjoying the sport of badminton as they each get swept away to make room for each other. From there, a shuttlecock is hit into the sky and turns into a white bird which flies overhead as Ayano watches.

While the animation for this scene isn’t really any different from the rest of the OP, the lack of most of the color seems to emphasize the animation itself, making it look just that much more impressive.

Animated line art of Ayano Hanesaki from the Hanebado! anime OP (opening)
Ayano Hanesaki

I’d like to see a better OP than this one later in the year, but I think the chances of that are extremely low. It’s a good thing this series didn’t premier during the Winter season, because then every other OP for the rest of the year would have looked bland and boring by comparison.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts on the Hanebado! OP? Is it your favorite of 2018 or is there an even better one I somehow missed out on? Let me know in the comments, and while you’re down there, give the little heart button a click if you liked this post.

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Attack on Titan OP 4

Attack on Titan OP 4

Introduction

Attack on Titan is an anime known for its explosive OPs (both animation and music wise), but the fourth OP, which plays during the first cour of season three, doesn’t really fit in. While anyone who has watched the series probably knows the first three OPs, I’ll still talk about them briefly for newcomers.

Guren no Yumiya by Linked Horizon is the first OP of the series. For those who aren’t aware, we generally refer to OPs either numbered by their airing order, or simply with the name of the song which they feature.

Since this is the first OP, we get shots of the various main characters as a way to introduce them to the viewer, but there are also plenty of the titular titans, and action scenes depicting battles between the titans and the military. Finally, the “primary” antagonist of this cour, the Colossal Titan, is shown.

Jiyū no Tsubasa, again by Linked Horizon, is the second OP of the series, as well as the OP for the second cour of season one. While the first cour of the series mainly focused on the fall of the walls and the attack of the titans, the second cour focuses on taking the fight back to the titans.

A large portion of this cour takes place on horseback outside the inner walls, in what has become titan territory. Because of this, we see a lot of scenes depicting expeditions and battles on horseback. We also get a glimpse of the primary antagonist of the cour, the Female Titan.

Shinzō o Sasageyo!, also by Linked Horizon, is the third OP of the series, and only OP of the second season. The first season primarily focused on our three main characters, but the second season shifts a large amount of screen time to the supporting cast, and this OP reflects that.

We also see plenty of titans, and both of the primary antagonists of the season. The Armored titan, although present briefly in season one, truly makes its entry into the series during this season, but the Beast Titan is the true main antagonist of the season.

Red Swan

Then, after these three action packed OPs, we get OP 4, the first OP from season three, Red Swan by Yoshiki featuring HYDE. (*Disclaimer: the video of this OP featured below may be removed since the one originally uploaded by Funimation was removed.)

To start with, the song is no longer an anthem about rising up and fighting back against the titans, but rather a mellow song most likely about someone dying (hopefully Armin). This song alone, other than the fact that it’s not by Linked Horizon, is a drastic break from the other OPs.

Another major change is the lack of any action scenes and titans. That’s right, there are no titans shown in the fourth OP of Attack on Titan. That’s almost like if Naruto had an OP that didn’t show ninjas. However, we do still get to see the primary antagonist of this cour, Kenny the Ripper.

As previously mentioned, the first season focuses on the three main characters, and the second focuses more on the supporting cast, but this third season is going to shift the focus to Captain Levi, which makes sense since Kenny is someone from his past.

So although we don’t see any titans, that may simply be because the titans won’t be the main focus of this cour. It’s quite possible there won’t be any real interaction with the titans during this cour, and the scout regiment will focus on fighting Kenny and his group, but as someone who doesn’t read the manga, I have no idea.

However, the manga appears to be the only thing saving this OP. I, for one, hate this OP and can’t wait for the cour to be over just so I can hopefully go back to not skipping Attack on Titan OPs, but manga readers insist that this OP is great and that we’ll all understand in the end.

I’m not convinced.

I’m not saying that this is a bad OP in general, I’m saying it’s a bad OP for this particular series. Attack on Titan is an action anime, and this OP replaced all the action scenes with scenes of the characters looking forlornly at the sky, or scenes of the characters as children.

It’s an anime known for its explosive, anthem OPs, and yet it no longer has that either.

Conclusion

Maybe I’m just pessimistic, but I don’t really see any redeeming qualities of this new OP and I can’t see any way I’ll change my opinion of it by the end of the cour.

What are your thoughts on the new OP compared to the previous three? Do you like it? Hate it? What do you think it says about the direction the story is likely to take? Leave a comment below to let me know.

Top 5 Anime OPs

Top 5 Anime OPs

Introduction

After writing about my top 5 anime OSTs I figured doing posts about my favorite OPs and EDs as well would be a good idea. However, these are much harder to pick between because there are so many more options.

While each anime only has one OST, they can have many OPs; Naruto: Shippuden alone has 20 different OPs. So with so many OPs to choose from since I’ve seen a decent amount of anime, there were some criteria I set up before I started.

First, I decided I’ll only be picking one OP per series. This is important because otherwise there would be multiple Monogatari series OPs since that anime just knows how to crank out high quality ones.

The second criteria is that the music and animation of the OP have to both work together well or just be good enough individually for me not to care. There are plenty of OP songs or animations which I love on their own, but put together they just didn’t make the cut.

The third and final criteria is that the OP must be memorable in some way. Although the second criteria is pretty biased, I think this is where most of the bias comes in.

There are probably many amazing OPs that I’ve seen, but am simply forgetting about because nothing happened when I was watching them to make them stick. I’ll explain this a bit more throughout the rest of the post.

As one final note before we begin, remember that a good OP is often a sign of a good anime, so it’s no coincidence that some of these anime may be familiar to you from my top 10 anime post.

5. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Winry Rockbell from the first OP of the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime
Fullmetal Alchemist OP 1 – Winry Rockbell

In position #5 on the list is the first OP from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (FMA:B) which can be viewed here. While I actually prefer FMA over FMA:B, I can’t deny that FMA:B is still good, and one of the parts I like the most is this first OP.

To start, I just really like the singer’s voice. Besides that, this OP is actually pretty standard; it shows some ominous shots, some action shots, the usual, so why did it make it into the top 5?

Well, the song is good and I really like how they have it sung by Winry. That’s basically it. I just really like Winry as a character and I thought having the song sung by her was a good touch even though it’s not sung by her voice actress like it would be if it was the Monogatari series.

Just something as simple as showing a character singing the OP song was enough to make this OP stand out to me which is why it made it onto my list. There are other great OPs which didn’t make the cut, but they didn’t do something special like this.

4. Owarimonogatari II

Ougi Oshino from the third anime OP of Owarimonogatari season 2
Owarimonogatari Season 2 OP 3 – Ougi Oshino

So before I start with this one let me just explain that while I chose the third OP from Owarimonogatari season 2, this spot really belongs to literally any Monogatari series OP. I just chose one which I happen to like the song for the most currently.

Objectively the fourth OP of Bakemonogatari is probably the best, but this is my list so I’ll do what I want. This is a newer Monogatari series OP which means I haven’t listened to it on repeat as much as the older ones yet which is why I picked it.

This OP can be viewed here.

If we’re considering the OP I chose from FMA:B to be standard, which it is, then from here on out the list has less standard OPs. Owarimonogatari season 2‘s third OP includes much more abstract animation.

In this OP we see Ougi Oshino confronting a shadow version of herself which is also a reflection of herself, hinting at her true nature. The visuals are also in high contrast with Ougi frequently being portrayed as a black shadow against bright white lights.

This artistic choice is undoubtedly referring to both the arc name (Ougi Dark) as well as Ougi’s character being considered an imitation of an entity known as “the darkness.” The animation also features some of Ougi’s sick BMX skills.

We also can’t forget that the song is an absolute “banger” as I think the kids would say, as is just about every Monogatari series OP song.

3. Samurai Champloo

Mugen from the Samurai Champloo anime OP
Samurai Champloo OP – Mugen

Samurai Champloo‘s OP is one that I probably wouldn’t have added onto the list if not for the last time I watched the series.

The OP can be viewed here. *This video has been removed.

It’s a series I love, but I probably wouldn’t have even thought of the OP for this list if not for the memories I have from when I rewatched the series with my roommate in college. While we often skipped OPs, this was one that we always got hyped up for and watched.

Although it’s an anime about samurai, the hip hop music just works with the art style of the show and the OP is no exception.

I think one of my favorite parts of this OP, besides the song, is how it compares the main characters to different things. Mugen is compared to a rooster because he’s wild when he attacks, while Jin is compared to fish because he’s calm and elegant.

Fuu is compared to vegetables.

Honestly I don’t know what else to say other than: you should go watch this OP right now so you can see how beautiful it is.

2. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood

Dio Brando from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood anime OP
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood OP – Dio Brando

I love the first OP of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure so much that it was actually difficult to choose between this one and my #1 OP. The Phantom Blood arc OP is available here.

Let’s start off by saying that the song for this OP perfectly fits the beginning of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It’s an epic song to fit an epic centuries-long fight between good and evil that all started with two adopted brothers.

However, as much as I like the song and think it fit the anime and OP animation, the OP animation is really what puts this one so high on my list. The OP actually doesn’t even use the same art style as the rest of the series, but that’s typical of JoJo’s until we get to the fourth arc.

Instead, this OP seamlessly switches between 3D animation (I promise it’s works in this OP) and manga-style flip book animation. While you normally wouldn’t think these two styles would pair well together, somehow they did it and the result is a masterpiece of an OP.

No matter what you think of JoJo’s as a series I think if you’re a fan of good animation style this is a must-watch OP. I only rated this series a 7/10 and yet it still has one of the best OPs I’ve ever seen; definitely the best style-wise.

1. Re:ZERO

Subaru Natsuki from the first Re:ZERO anime OP
Re:ZERO OP 1 – Subaru Natsuki

So I know I said that FMA:B was the only standard OP on this list, but honestly, the Re:ZERO OP is pretty close to standard as well. However, this OP leaves out the action scenes and goes all in on the ominous foreshadowing.

The OP can be found here.

But enough about that for now, let’s first talk about the music. I think this may be my favorite anime OP song ever. And apparently the singer is younger than me so I think she’ll be around for a long time to come and will hopefully continue to produce amazing songs like this one.

She’s also the singer of the No Game No Life OP if you’re familiar with that one, as well as a variety of other anime OPs and EDs.

So the art and animation for this OP aren’t as special as JoJo’s was, but there can be more to a good OP than just music, art style, or animation. In this case, the OP tells a story which fits perfectly with the rest of the series.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “But how can this OP be telling a story? It’s just flickering versions of the characters and Subaru suffering.”

Well you’re right, but we have to remember that Subaru suffering is a major plot point for the series so technically that still works into my storytelling explanation. However, it’s really the beginning and ending of the OP which are the important parts.

So the key thing to remember about this anime is that Subaru can essentially respawn after he dies. This is what’s symbolized by the beginning of the OP where his blood goes back into his body and he stands back up unharmed.

This is actually a reversed version of the ending scene of the OP and together they form a loop of Subaru dying and starting over just like in the series.

Further, as the hand of the witch grabs Subaru’s heart at the end of the OP just before the scene of him dying like we saw in the beginning, the background plays the entire OP backwards. This further symbolizes how everything loops for Subaru as he dies and restarts.

Throughout the middle of the OP we also see various stages of Subaru throughout the series. We see him happy, sad, lost, confident, but in the end he still dies and starts over.

The amazing song paired with an animation that tells a story about the nature of the series and the protagonist within it is the reason this is my #1 OP.

Conclusion

And there you have it. Those are my top 5 anime OPs.

Do you think something I picked is a bad OP? Do you think I missed an obvious OP choice? What are some of your favorite OPs? Let me know so I can form an opinion about you and your choice in OPs.