It’s time for the seasonal OP/ED roundup! I want to hear about your favorite OPs and EDs for the season (alternatively, your least favorites!). If you are looking for a collection of them all for this season, you can find almost all of them at the link below:
Just a note that you can absolutely use this thread like you would any other general discussion thread. So, feel free to post questions/comments/recommendations like any other week.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Meta
May we please have a tag for community discussion posts like those from @molave@reddthat.com? Perhaps have one for episode discussions and one for news too. It would help with filtering of posts on Photon.
Can we also have a tag to indicate that there are spoilers in the tagged post? Sometimes, people want to talk about the content of anime they have watched freely, outside of episode discussions. Spoiler-tagging a post allows people to be warned before seeing the comments.
Past Seasons
I completed Haikyuu!! season 1 over the past week. Instant 10 / 10.
Only this anime can get me as hyped up as Umamusume: Cinderella Gray.
Writing-wise, Haikyuu is basically the volleyball version of
meta spoiler; another anime + Haikyuu
Kageyama Tobio is essentially Kousaka Reina, except that he learnt his lesson of actually working together with his teammates.
Reina got off easy because she had Kumiko doing all the EQ-required work behind the scenes.
Both anime also ran the plotline of having a talented junior taking away a senior’s spot.
Based on how similar their stories are, I can make a fairly confident bet that Hinata Shouyou would become the captain of the volleyball team by his third year.
On a more meta note, I think sports anime are the best suited to the shounen demographic. Other forms of shounen anime have tropes that I find annoying, but these tropes actually make sense in the context of sports.
For example, in many battle shounen, the hero tend to let the villain walk away instead of finishing them off when they had the chance. The villain would then live to fight another day. It’s so stupid because the villain would cause so much preventable suffering later. I’m sure it’s because they want to reuse the same character instead of coming up with a new one, but that’s just an excuse to justify subpar work.
This is not a problem in sports anime because even if the stakes are high, it would almost never be a life-or-death situation. There is no real villain. Even if the protagonist lost to their opponent because they failed to end the match decisively, it is alright - they can get their revenge in a subsequent match. Nobody is really getting hurt.
Another genre that I dislike when targeted at young boys is romance. I read somewhere that young boys don’t have much experience being in romantic relationships, so they relate to “the chase” better. I wholeheartedly agree.
My watching experience tells me that the protagonists of such anime take multiple seasons to get together and once they get together, the story ends. Personally, I find it too frustrating.
This is not a problem in sports anime at all. The focus of relationships is on friendship and camaraderie, something that shounen are more than familiar with.
My favorite this season is Dandadan S2 OP. I also liked its ED.
Besides those, Call of the Night S2 has a cool OP, and My Dress Up Darling S2 and There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… have fun OPs too.
Recently started My Dress Up Darling S2. I find the ED-style OP in episode 1 to be wild. I don’t know if it’s unique to that episode, but that is fun.
I’m so out of the loop this season. I’ve only just caught up with Dandadan S2 and My Dress-Up Darling S2 and started with Dr Stone.
I like the opening song of Dandadan S2. Not sure which one between S1 and S2 is better, but both are bangers.
I also like the intro part of The Summer Hikaru Died opening song, but only until the vocals come in. lol
I finished Samurai Champloo this week and started Mononoke (the series).
It sounds sacrilegious, but I enjoyed Samurai Champloo more than Cowboy Bebop. The characters and stories are more interesting.
I’m currently on ep 3 of Mononoke. My eyes are still getting used to the animation style as I sometimes miss some details while watching with subs, but I’m getting there. The stories are great so far.
My roundup is still pending…I have been busy and haven’t yet finished listening to all of them yet. Stay tuned!
Started Mononoke has a good plot, I like this one very much
