Well, another year of anime is over and it’s time to look back on it. Or at least it was a month or two ago when the year actually turned over. Complain all you want; I just like to take my time to reminisce. I spent basically all year complaining about how much worse of a year it was in general for anime compared to 2023 but now that it’s done, I’m leaving behind all my gripes. It was a good year. Even if the quality shows weren’t as plentiful as the past year the stand outs were so good I might never forget them. Continuing with the positivity, my favorite thing to look back on for the year are the OPs. I know it seems like I’m about to explain why that is and why I’m replacing an actual year review with a glorified top ten list but that’s simply not the case. My motives remain unknown and my reasons I will be keeping to myself.
It is important to remind you how I judge an OP though. The music is obviously important, and my personal tastes are even more obviously the most contributing factor but what I really care about is the creativity of it all. I want a good song backing up visuals that hype up the show and really sell me on the style of it all. Half these damn shows just give me a slideshow of all the characters I’m about to see, and I want more than that. As part of my positivity in this post I’m willing to let the slideshow OPs slide this time, I guess. It is always nice to see all the characters and some of that type will even be appearing in the closely following honorable mentions section. No way are they making the linked playlist though lol. Oh yeah, this is also super limited to the shows I actually watched and remembered soooo tough luck if I missed something. Maybe you can recommend it to me? Lastly, this is going to be slightly awkward as I did not post reviews to this website for the first two seasons of this year in addition to not quite getting a post out for all the shows I watched after that so, uh, I guess you should just be patient and wait for me to eventually get around to backfilling those.
Honorable Mentions
As promised long ago, it’s time for the section for shows that had pretty good OPs but didn’t quite make the cut. The honor of being mentioned should be bringing them to their knees already so I’m going keep it to a nice, bulleted list here.
- Tsukiumichi -Moonlit Fantasy- Season 2 Both OPs were pretty good
- Solo Leveling (I’m willing to look past the edginess this time)
- Unnamed Memory
- Wistoria: Wand and Sword
- The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human
- The Ossan Newbie Adventurer (for pure comedic value)
- Shangri-La Frontier Season 2
My 10 Favorites, Ranked in Order
Totally not a top 10, it just happens to look like one I swear. I am going to take some time to talk about why I liked each of them but to a certain extent they speak for themselves. So here is a nicely organized playlist for you to enjoy while I blabber on.
10. Let This Grieving Soul Retire
OK, this one is kind of hard to explain properly since the video in the playlist doesn’t quite show the best part. In addition to the good and fun fantasy vibes of it all, it did that thing where the opening gets weaved into the start of the episode. There are a few natural breaks when the music dies down a bit where, if you were watching an episode, the characters talk a bit about what’s coming up. With that and the different cuts the opening got to fit all the weaving; it was just unique enough to make the list. I’m willing to admit it had a few qualities that matched things I said I didn’t want in an OP but I always say that a good show has a good OP and I’m manifesting that hard here.
9. My Deer Friend Nokotan
Look, the show may not have lived up to my expectations, but I still have to appreciate the OP. Its unbelievably silly and goofy and it undeniably fits the vibe of the show. It couldn’t quite carry hard enough to get me through the last few episodes of the show but I sure as hell chuckled at the fucking deer dark souls joke in it every time I got to it. The song is also pretty catchy, so it earns some points there.
8. The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic
Adding to my list of contradictions, we find ourselves now at the first one carried hard by the song. The music just always got me really pumped to watch. Thats not to say that the visuals weren’t doing any work though. They used a lot of cool effects that really added to the style and made it a bit more than just the different characters’ standard artwork flashing by on screen. Throw in some flashy fantasy stuff timed well to the tunes and that good enough for me.
7. Konosuba Season 3
Putting aside how much I like this show and would have had it on here no matter what, it was a genuinely fun OP for me. It was great to see a whole little mini adventure play out before each episode and, as fan of the show, seeing reminders of all their old jokes and antics made me smile a good bit. Out of respect for those who have poor taste and are not as desperate to talk this show up, I’ll cut myself off here. Just keep in mind that if you ever try to challenge me on this opinion, I’ll tear you apart.
6. Dungeon Meshi (OP 1)
Dammit. I can’t believe I have to give it up for this show here. It’s already so popular and so constantly glazed online that I can’t stand it but if you throw a solid Bump of Chicken song behind some really good visuals my hand is forced. Seriously, why is the whole giant characters sitting around in random fantastical settings thing so cool? Agh I can’t resist it, shut up and take 6th place. Side note: while I do like to keep the rule of one OP from one show per list, I did not actually like the second OP as much.
5. Train to the End of the World
Number 5 on the list goes to the OP of possibly the weirdest show of the year which had an equally weird OP to go with it. Everything from the music to the visuals pushed the cheerful, upbeat but unnerving and unsettling nature of the show and it just set the scene so well for the following episode. I know I said I was just talking about OPs in this post, but I think this show takes the prize for least popular, highest-ranking show for me so if you’re interested by the OP at all I’m thinking you’ll probably have a good time watching the full show.
4. Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines
As far as I’m aware, this one takes the 1st place prize for a certain someone named Nick who may also post on this website occasionally. Or so I’m told. It’s well deserving of that spot too. The way the characters are all interacting with the credits in various ways makes it fun to watch and it’s got that exact oozing style thing going that I’ve come to expect in anything that can crack the top 5. If you want to hear more about it maybe I can convince Nick to write a whole post about why he likes it.
3. Metallic Rouge
Ugh deciding on the order for these last 3 is hard work. I was really tempted to put this one at number one, matching the placement of this show for me (at least for this past year anyways) but the two above it just go way too hard. Still, I love the song for this OP and the crazy sci-fi visuals are always appreciated. I find it especially hard to resist the part where they’re just walking through a field with a black hole in the background.
2. Kaiju No. 8
Fuck this OP is soooooo cool. I don’t think I could actually ever get enough of watching it. It’s definitely super weird but, in its own weird way, it manages to tell a story with its visuals and get you ready for the episode. It absolutely sells the whole experience. Most importantly though, the way the song, which is great, syncs up perfectly with title splash at the end is beyond cool. Like I said, I can’t get enough of it. Apparently that title splash also mimics the cover of the first volume of the mange which I found to be a very fun fact.
1. Dandadan
You know, I really do loathe rating popular things highly sometimes. Nothing would make me happier than to pin some lesser-known OP to some lesser-known anime at the top of my list here but I just can’t do it this time. Dandadan’s OP is just too fucking perfect. The visuals ooze style, it sets up the show perfectly, it’s got every positive I could think of going for it. And, despite a non-insignificant portion of the song involving the literal title being chanted I’m still sitting here like “damn that’s good”. So sure, it’s the most popular OP for maybe the most popular show this past year but this time I’m thinking that it’s earned it.
Finishing Off
Well now that that’s all done I suppose we can pass on to the new year in peace. I guess I can give you some other high points of the year but in exchange I’m sparing myself the trouble of writing a decent outro for this post.
My favorite ED of the year was from Konosuba season 3. Mostly because it’s the only one I remember. Much like the OP I enjoy the mini story it tells and the laid-back folk songs at the end of every episode are awesome.
My favorite anime was Metallic Rouge but Train to the End of the World and Konosuba season 3 were not far behind it. Maybe Let this Grieving Soul Retire too but I have to let it stew a bit longer in my brain before I put up there with the other 3 which I absolutely loved.
Annnnd that’s it. Time to get on with our lives I guess, can only hope that 2025 is as least as good for anime as 2024. Though this first season isn’t getting my hopes up…