Watch Anime Openings Before Every Episode
The work of art you’ll learn to truly appreciate and enjoy.
It’s very understandable for many to skip on watching the openings to anime whether they want to avoid spoilers and/or they just want to immediately jump into an episode uninterrupted. However, you’ll end up missing out on a lot of good music, unique interactions with your favorite characters, and a lot of neat, little details that truly display a very impressive work of art!
What is an Anime Opening?
An anime opening is a minute and a half credits sequence often played at the beginning of an episode that highlights characters, shows hints of plot arc developments, and displays the names of the studio staff behind the project.
During the opening, there is a song played by an artist or band from a wide range of different genres. Anime openings are often simply referred to as OPs.
There are also anime-ending songs played at the end of episodes, too. Those also highlight the staff and show characters, but usually don’t show anything regarding the show’s plot too much. These are referred to as EDs.
I like anime endings as well, but for this article, I will focus solely on anime openings.
How good is the music?
It’s really good!
Of course, a lot of it comes down to personal opinion, but I think, on average, I at least enjoyed most of the songs I’ve listened to in anime openings. Many of them have quickly become some of my favorite songs of all time and I listen to them very frequently. Some of my personal favorite artists I originally discovered from watching anime openings include Aimer, SPYAIR, Hiroyuki Sawano, GARNiDELiA, and many more.
If you’re interested in J-pop or J-rock at all, you’re missing out if you’re skipping openings. It’s easy to find a song you like and then start digging through the artist’s entire discography. A lot of the Japanese artists that perform these openings also have full studio albums and other singles for you to explore.
Despite not being a Japanese speaker at all, I’ve come to really enjoy J-pop. I understand to many others it’s not easy to get into music if you don’t understand the lyrics, but if you give it an honest shot you can learn to appreciate some of these Japanese artists. I think people can definitely recognize powerful and beautiful vocal talent when they hear it.
I don’t want to get spoiled. Why should I watch the opening?
I think what people constitute as a spoiler really varies here.
For me, a spoiler would involve the opening sequence to practically show something extremely significant in the latter half of the show such as the death of a major character. There is a certain Naruto opening that is infamous for this.
But for sequences that show good guys and bad guys, hints of the different settings, and demonstrations of the different magic and powers present in the show are all perfectly fine details to see before they actually happen in the show. Some of the details people often see as spoilers are only considered that after watching the show and realizing what the opening was trying to do. More often than not, you won’t have any idea beforehand. There are some openings that I love where they are changed slightly after a few episodes to highlight character deaths or betrayals. Always be on the lookout for those!
A good way to look at an anime opening is to see it as a trailer or a hype video. It’s meant to show you characters, abilities, visuals, and animation to pique your interest. They act in the same way as movie trailers and video game trailers.
Depending on how much you enjoy the song in an opening, you might get sick of it after a while and that’s totally understandable. Personally, I like sticking it out through every opening as it gives me a little time to absorb everything happening in a story before the next episode; especially if I’m binge-watching.
The anime opening sequence really varies depending on the show, series, studio, etc. For studios with a smaller budget, they will probably not have a very impressive-looking opening. Bigger studios will on average produce higher quality and more interesting openings. Check out Ufotable’s first opening for Fate/Zero below, one of my favorite openings.
Wrapping things up
For me, anime openings are really part of the overall experience of watching an anime show. I believe that you (the reader) can learn to understand that as well if you like watching anime and want to fully appreciate everything the show offers and enjoy some really hot jams.
Thanks for reading!
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