Anime OP/ED's and You

[YuyoDrift 1540]

With the influence of the Polls of the Week in mind, I figured I'd talk about stuff this morning.

 

How much of an impact has listening to an OP/ED to an anime you've watched made to you?

 

Do you feel that the OP/ED is somewhat important in conveying a theme to the anime you are watching?
 

How about the bands that have their music promoted in the anime? Do you feel it's a great way for them to get noticed?

 

I stumbled across People in the Box - 机上の空軍 while listening to a playlist on one of my online streaming sites today, and upon searching, found/remembered that they had an ED for Tokyo Ghoul as well.

 

I had a flashback to my noobie days when the Adult Swim Network (USA) first aired in 2001 and I had watched FLCL/Cowboy Bebop/Inuyasha for the first time, and remembered that I used to find music this way.

 

The music played in the opening/during/ending of FLCL blew my mind away. I became obsessed with Japanese music for the first time, even though I was exposed to it earlier (Sailor Moon era), but it never made an impact like FLCL did. From then on, my music interests grew and became vast that it's become a definition of who I am now.

 

I always wonder what would have happened had I not watched the Anime aired back then, and had not stumbled upon the music in it. Would I eventually have listened to japanese music and have a liking to it as I do now?

 

Tell me Monochrome, did you have the same experiences as I did? If so, what Anime, and what OP/ED did you listen to that enamored you to keep listening up to this point? 

[Chi 2624]

i only watch OP/EDs on the first episode but i will watch it again if i think its exceptionally good and suits the anime

example:

buck-tick's dress used for trinity blood's OP

monoral's kiri used for ergo proxy

or elfen lied's op 

 

i think trinity blood's OP was the song that first introduced me to buck tick

i already knew VK when the anime was released but i had never checked them out LOL i had no idea it was them

 

almost forgot to mention it was one of my all-time favorite anime - darker than black - that introduced me to abingdon boys school

 

so yeah it does have an impact on me but im still picky about it 

 

i think having your song featured in an anime is great for promo but of course if the anime is crap/unpopular it's not gonna do anything.

[Pretsy 1343]

To be frank, I discovered contemporary artists in the vein of Susumu Hirasawa (examples below) through anime at first (not through P-MODEL, unfortunately):

 

Other themes that brought me to certain artists or even scenes:

 

Chobits

NHK ni Youkoso!

 

Both of these got me into Round Table and shibuya kei scene consequently

 

I still low-key enjoy Seatbelts to this day

[JukaForever 758]

marathoned Initial D and went to youtube to look for similar electronic dance music for riding...ended up watching Versailles and getting my mind blown that Hizaki was a guy. And there goes my intro into visual kei. 

 

I think the earliest song that got me wanting to follow-up as to who the band was was from Dragonball Z during the goku-vegeta fight/screamfest. The transition to a screamy Linkin Park song was excellent and I ended being a fan of the band. Other than that, I haven't found or got interested in any other bands that came from anime OP/ED though, most them just tends to be bland and PG AF. But I do follow-up on really good OSTs especially for a character's theme that just stuck with me. Example: That one girl's theme during her romance with the main character of Parasyte.

 

[Kaye 296]

I've been listening to so much Sawano Hiroyuki OSTs lately that I can hardly think of anything but his stuff right now. That said, I'm still in love with aLIEz which was an ending theme to Aldnoah Zero's first season.

 

 

Or Sawano's X.U for Owari no Seraph. That one's great too (despite the terrible anime itself)

 

 

 

Oh, Can't forget about Zankyou no Terror's opening and ending. Incredible songs which got me to check the whole discography of Aimer. Ozaki Yuuki's Trigger, as well as Aimer's "Dareka Umi wo". Still sending chills through my body whenever I hear them. Tokyo Ghoul on the other hand brought me to check out amazarashi's music.

 

 

 

They're definitely not the reason I ever got into Japanese music, though I guess if you'd pull it through then in one way or another it would be. It all started way back when this precious thing came out after all.

 

[colorful人生 2777]

Talk about flashbacks... 

 

I remember watching the Tagalog dub/re-airing of Slam Dunk and somehow Ojamajo Doremi XD (I was 6 at the time)
While my cousins were invested into Slam Dunk, I liked the whimsical nature of Doremi and this ED really stuck with me.
 

 

I did a bit of research and realized I must have been watching the TV Asahi Japanese ver. because I vaguely remember the screen
shrinking after a show ended and a bunch of Japanese at the bottom and right sides of the screen. 

 

Other than Toonami which would air shows like DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho, my second and more permanent push into anime 
and Japanese music wouldn't come until 2006 when Toonami Jetstream launched. I became addicted to Hikaru no Go once 
I watched the first OP. God, that series had a brilliant set of OPs and EDs (ending made me tear up too T_T)

 

 

...

 

Since then, I've watched a ton of anime series eventually getting invested into the whole seasonal schedule.

Here are a couple of my favorite OPs and EDs that I felt really fit the theme of their respective shows:

There's a million more I could post, but I don't want one post to take up a whole page XD. 

[Ito 2438]

On 11/1/2015 at 8:47 AM, YuyoDrift said:

The music played in the opening/during/ending of FLCL blew my mind away. I became obsessed with Japanese music for the first time, even though I was exposed to it earlier (Sailor Moon era), but it never made an impact like FLCL did. From then on, my music interests grew and became vast that it's become a definition of who I am now.

 

It might be a bit of hyperbole, but honestly, The Pillows music in FLCL is a huge reason why I fell in love with Jrock, and eventually why this placed ended up existing XD

[peffy 3568]

^ Same for me. I had heard/downloaded a few anime themes casually, but the FLCL soundtrack was so amazing. It got me to investigate the pillows, which led me to some random people's websites that talked about their favourite Japanese bands, which spiraled into the all-consuming Japanese music obsession I have had since then.

 

Other anime music that influenced me ..

Noir OP - ALI PROJECT - Coppelia no hitsugi

Noir ED - Arai Akino - Kirei na kanjou

Cowboy Bebop soundtrack by The Seatbelts

Samurai Champloo soundtrack by Nujabes, Fat Jon, FORCE OF NATURE, tsutchie

Hellsing soundtrack by Ishii Yasushi, especially the OP Logos naki world

Rurouni Kenshin - T.M.Revolution - HEART OF SWORD

Rurouni Kenshin - SIAM SHADE - 1/3 no junjou na kanjou

Inuyasha - Hamasaki Ayumi, Do As Infinity, BoA, Amuro Namie

Nana - some songs by Anna Tsuchiya & OLIVIA

 

... I haven't watched any anime in the last 8 years or so. 

 

But yeah, of course, having your song featured in an anime (or game, or movie) is great promotion. It gets your name out there and, if people like it, inspires them to check out your other music. 

[Ikki 807]

While I was actually started to get into VK around the same time, Gundam Wing's "Just Communication" was my first love of Japanese music that wasn't sung in English.  This caused me to have a period of time I was super crazy about Two-Mix for a couple of years and had downloaded most of their discography.

 

However, what really got me to listen outside of the VK box of Japanese rock was actually the Sorcerous Stabber Orphen opening, "Ai Just On My Love" by Sharam Q.  When I first watched the Orphen anime, I was super into Morning Musume and I didn't realize that Tsunku from Sharam Q wrote (at the time) all of their songs.  Orphen has remain one of my personal favorites in terms of anime, partly due to the OPs and EDs used in the first series.  

 

I did get into one of my favorite visual kei bands, Aura, after I heard their song "Smile & Smile" being used as the last ending song for the City Hunter anime.  

 

Since I've began my diet to lose 100 pounds, I've been listening to a lot of anime openings when I do my work outs.  I noticed mecha and shonen animes, especially the ones from the '80s, are really good for pumping me up and keeping my energy levels high.  These are some of my favorite songs to listen while I'm working out.

 

Super Dimension Century Orguss

 

Blue Comet SPT Layzner

 

Hokuto no Ken

 

Metal Armor Dragonar

 

Aura Battler Dunbine