I know I’m not the only one who enjoys anime ops and eds. This isn’t a cutesy way to start the post, I’m actually sure as in I know it. People constantly post about their favourites.
I recently came across a YouTube video that quizzes you with a series of OP clips. I really had fun with that video despite being devastatingly bad at it. Honestly, about halfway through I started to wonder if there was something wrong with me. Maybe I don’t actually watch anime…oh I got AoT as well! I have watched ONE anime!
I tried to give myself an excuse by saying that I often skip over OPs when I binge watch shows and I binge most shows. Also I appreciate both OPs and EDs on visuals and narrative integration as much as (if not more than) music. So I might not be as prone to memorize the song without the images. I’d like to say all these things. They’re true. But they don’t excuse my dismal performance. I have often seen the majority of anime featured in those quizzes. Some are very dear to my heart. Yet, the OP didn’t even spark faint recognition. It’s sad.
Not only that but I have an anime music playlist. I listen to it regularly… And that’s when I noticed something weird. Something that’s always been the case but I oddly didn’t connect with the present situation. As a rule, I prefer EDs. I really do. It doesn’t seem that common though. I’m sure I could explain it logically in some way. My brain, having just finished an episode is in a better place to take and appreciate music. Something like that…maybe…. But I honestly don’t know why.
I noticed it years ago when reading posts about bloggers favourite OPs (love those by the way. Great job to all of you who put them together) and when I tried to come up with one, I could only name EDs. That has changed since but I still have a preference.
I’m sure there are plenty of anime fans who enjoy EDs and that everyone has a favourite or 23, it’s just that in my experience, posts, videos and top lists are more often about OPs. Not saying that no one talks about EDs just that you’ll usually get two OP posts for every ED one. Or at least that’s been my experience. Maybe people just skip outros more. Also, why do we even separate the two?
I tried to dig around a bit. I asked Google if people were more likely to enjoy or remember openings of tv shows rather than endings. I got a bunch of studies on psychopaths… I’m a bit worried about Google, guys. This seems like a cry for help. Eventually I found an irrelevant article about Netflix and how binge watching shows gives you a dopamine reward and that’s why you end up watching an entire season of something you find boring in a day or two. I decided to just wildly speculate on that and assume that most English speaking viewers of anime will watch it on a streaming platform and in order to get that sweet sweet dopamine quicker will in fact skip to the next episode\show as soon as the story seems to be at a natural stop point.
Whether we actually “like” the EDs less or more than OPs is less important to whether we remember them. Since I skip OPs as well, it evens out the impact they make on me. Huzzah!
This may be pure bs. (I’m generous, it certainly is) I gave up on researching the topic embarrassingly quickly and just started on the guesswork. Not even particularly educated guesswork. But it *sounds* like it *could* be sort of right. Maybe.
Or maybe it’s just because anime music quiz videos are all 95% OPs! How unfair! I want to fix that. But I’m lazy. I’m not going to make a video. What I can do is a playlist. I’ve actually had a playlist of Japanese music for a very long time. I added some stuff and more importantly I tried to make sure to find original artist performances of the songs.
Basically the playlist below are all anime EDs or OPs. Whenever possible I’ve tried to pick videos that will give you no sign of what anime they belong to. I could have made the playlist on a purely audio platform and saved myself some trouble but I like seeing the videos and I thought maybe some of you would as well.
If you want to play along, you can go through it and see how many you guess. These are 29 full songs so the full playlist is way longer than a normal guessing game and of course you could cheat and Google each song individually. Although Google seems to be going through some stuff right now…. Or you could just read the comments, first one is usually the name of the show. Some of them have the show in the title but I just liked the song too much to leave it out…
I’ve put the answer key on a separate page which I hope will not show up in people’s reader app… If you play along let me know how many you get right! The winner gets EPIC BRAGGING RIGHTS. I have no way of knowing if you lie…
Enjoy!
Between knowing what the Japanese text says and memorising who’s done what for OPs/EDs, I was already able to get quite a few without Googling. After that, I took a closer look at the ones I was missing and so, without looking at the answer key, here’s my answers:
– Noragami Aragoto OP
– 91 Days (OP?, via vid desc)
– Durarara ED (a previous commenter here gave it away)
– Kiznaiver OP
– Fullmetal Alchemist (ED?, via vid desc)
– Naruto (OP?, previous commenter here gave it away)
– Fire Force OP
– Bungou Stray Dogs s3 OP
– Zankyou no Terror (OP?, it says “Zankyou no Terror” right on the preview image, how could I not get the series???)
– ?? (I recently learnt Judy and Mary is a duo from the 70s or 80s, so…uh…I don’t know what that says about the series it’s attached to)
– Free! (I have no idea if that’s an OP/ED/insert song, but it says “Free!” in English in the vid title so I’ll leave it at that)
– Given OP
– ??
– Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens ED (in vid desc)
– Uchoten Kazoku 2 OP
– Makai Ouji OP
– SGRS s2 OP
– KHR OP (I forget which number it is, but I only ever watched half of KHR’s anime years ago so I wouldn’t remember, from vid desc)
– Dantalian no Shoka (OP?)
– Gankutsuou (OP?, via vid desc)
– Kekkai Sensen s1 ED
– ??
– ??
– ??
– BSD s3 ED
– Sarazanmai ED
– Sarazanmai OP
– Haikyuu s3 ED (one of the related vids gave it away)
– ??
– Given ED
…which is actually really good, seeing as I normally associate the song way too much to the anime’s visuals. There is a notably recency bias here, though – had it been OPs and EDs from 5 – 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have gotten as much.
Normally I’ll skip OPs and EDs after maybe one listen through, but for things I can only watch via DVD I’ll have a higher chance of listening to them. I have a much higher chance of remembering a song if I can get it via Spotify or if it’s catchy (e.g. Tsuritama’s OP, Tsuredure Monochrome). OPs are normally the catchier out of the OP and the ED which is why I generally favour OPs, while EDs you can skip to the next ep from like Marth says.
Like I said in the post I also figure that’s why EDs make less of an impression. It’s too bad though.
OP’s are a moodsetter for me. For example I liked Death Note significantly less during that shouty metal opening. Yet on my playlists i prefer endings. OP”s are often so full of energy I get sick of them sooner. I find myself remembering We Are! from one piece vividly but I hum “Wind” from Naruto. I love Hacking trough the Gate as Stein’s Gate opening, but I sway my head more at the Meldoy of Konosuba’s ending.
I feel like openings are a good way to get pumped for an episode, but I do not always need to get pumped, a nice more mellow ending is like a palet cleanser, like when you switch from white wine to red wine..or drink another glass of the same. It’s always nice.
People just tend to remember the high energy stuff a lot better, like Fireworks in the sky.
I get tired from that after like 20 minutes or so but if I was playing cute music before bed.. I still end up remembering the fireworks a bit better.
I see your point. Bangers vs Ballads and all
That is a good way to describe it yes! Of course there are some Banger ED’s as well but I prefer the softer ones.
I think it also helps that OP’s are visually more pleasing. It is more memorable to see some antagonist and protagonist duke it out.. in potentially non canon fights, rather than see a chibi running home, or a curtain billowing in the wind.
I think EDs are not as popular as OPs because most of them don’t have as much animation as most OPs. Some personal fav ED include Durarara’s Trust me and that’s just a still image though an iconic one. I also love EDs that are integrated in the episode themselves. Examples are how Beyond the Boundaries tie every end of the episode with the music of the ED just like JoJo’s Roundabout. Or how Occultic;Nine shows preview for the next episode in the ED. Kekkai Sensen have a funky ED and like my point earlier, it’s just the characters dancing but it’s particularly interesting because it’s really well animated instead of characters just running through a wall of patterns.
That’s actually a great observation. I hadn’t thought of it but now that you mention it, EDs do tend to be less visually impressive. I loved how episode 8 (I think) of No Game No Life where Sora disappears, he’s also scrubbed out of the ED. That was cool!
Some of my favorite OP’s/ED’s (in no particular order):
Aozora no Rhapsody (Dragon Maid),
Heikousen (Scum’s Wish),
Super Driver (Haruhi Suzumiya),
Pre-Parade (Toradora),
Hit in the USA (Beck),
Love Dramatic (Kaguya-sama),
the chika dance (also Kaguya-sama),
Nirvana (Inu X Boku),
Hectopascal (Blooming into You),
Haruka Kanata (Naruto),
Butterfly (Digimon Adventure 1),
anything from FLCL.
OK, I haven’t watched most of those (except FLCL – the original really did have amazing music! and DragonMaid) I’m gonna go look them up
Most of those I wasn’t familiar with at all. I recognized Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin instantly, and I got Kiznaiver and Gankutsuou after some thinking (and props for the latter, I never expected that one to show up), but that was about it. Everything else I either didn’t recognize until I looked it up or had never watched the series.
I only sampled the songs quickly to see what I recognized, but I’m looking forward to listening to the whole list at some point. You had a lot of bands on there like Kana Boon, Sora Tob Sakana, and The Peggies that I’m already familiar with from other anime, just not those particular songs, and some of them I liked the parts I listened to.
As for openings vs. endings, put me in the camp that generally favors OPs (I keep a written list whenever I run across an OP or ED that I like, and my OP list is about twice as long), but it seems like whenever I run across an ED that I like, it’s one that I REALLY like, as in the “can’t stop humming it” kind of like.
Interesting!
I also fail these quizzes embarrassingly whenever I do them. I’ve failed to recognize songs on my own playlist…
I wouldn’t even admit to some of the scores I’ve ended up with when I try to do anime quizzes on Sporcle!
If you’re interested in listening to them, my current top five favorite anime ending songs (in any order) are:
Kirei na Kanjo (Noir)
Kioku (Rideback)
Houkago Distraction (Hi Score Girl)
Koko Kara, Kanata Kara (Wish Upon the Pleiades)
a-gain (Aokana)
I am, I only now noir
That’s an awesome version of the Noir-ending. I like it much better than the version the original.
I definitely tend to skip ED’s after watching them once or twice unless I really, really like them. OP’s I only skip if I actually hate them. I normally find the OP is a good way for me to slip into the mood of the show and by and large I enjoy watching them. The exception for ED’s are the ones where they do something different each week or if I know there’s more show afterward and then I’ll watch them. Inu X Boku did a great job with a new character focused song each week for the ED.
I was just thinking of Inu X Boku! Roromiya’s candy ED was so adorable, and the sadist guy’s ED makes me laugh every time.
I love Roromiya’s and you are right that the sadist’s ED is just ridiculously funny. It was so much fun sticking around to see which character was going to be in the ED each episode and each song definitely had its own charm.
15/30
Where’s my cookie
Damn 50% – you deserve a cake 🎂
The quiz didn’t show up for me. :(. I only see the noragami opening.
Here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWo8At95kUkZAMRHLYgw0jH2MZ8AH4Y-O
Thank you so much.
:(( Mine’s the same…
Did ramon’s link help?
Unfortunately not :(.
Oh sorry, I feel stupid. That’s a playlist thing. Gah, this has been a hard weekend….
🙂
No worries!
to be fair, EDs are much easier to skip because they generally happen at the point where you can close the episode entirely. there’s definitely a decent number that i like, but i would probably do worse on an ED quiz than id do on an OP quiz
Sounds reasonable
I got the following:
Fire Force OP (catchy and current)
1/2 Terror in Resonance (I knew the show but couldn’t remember whether it was the OP or the ED – and guessed wrong)
Eccentric Family 2 OP (I fear you will never believe this…)
Rakugo 2 OP (I almost didn’t get it – the shame!)
Dantalian no Shouka ED (who can ever forget that weird thing?)
Given ED (Doggy!)
A lot of those I should have gotten but didn’t. I almost had Another. I didn’t get a single Sarazanmai. Really? (Really.) Should have gotten Given OP and Blood Blockade Battlefront and Kiznaiver and..
At least I didn’t get any wrong this time. (The most embarrassing situation is when you think you almost have it, only to realise that you’ve never actually heard that opening. Happens to me often – not this time, though.)
That Rakugo OP is amazing! Love it
So I’ve often found that Ed’s tend to be slower and more reflective as well.
I prefer OPs, but I have a few EDs I like, but strangely they’re songs that are popular outside of the show like Fly Me To The Moon or Paranoid Android.
It makes sense, OPs are suppose to pump you up for the episode you’re about to see while EDs calm you down…
So honestly I think the videos of these are almost as interesting as the song. I mean the first one has a guy swallowing a battery. Then there’s Freckles, which I recognized, and it’s like glam rock meets pop. So weird.
I know! seeing freckles is so weird