What's Your Favorite Anime Opening or Closing Theme Song?

Mainstream anime was a staple of my childhood so the ones that immediately came to my mind are pretty unoriginal.

Of course, you have Dragon Ball Z's "Chara Hetchara", an absolute classic. Evangelion's opening "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" also doesn't need an introduction. Other equally good ones imo are Yu Yu Hakusho's "Smile Bomb" and Rurouni Kenshin's "Sobakasu." I thought Sobakasu was so good I even got into the band that sung it, Judy and Mary. As a total Pokemon kid, the original Japanese opening theme "Mezase Pokemon Masuta" remains dear to me. Last but not least, Two Mix's Gundam Wing themes "Just Communication" and "Rhythm Emotion." are also top notch.

Speaking of Two Mix, my all top favorite show for theme songs and one of my favorite anime in general is Detective Conan. Two Mix had a fantastic track called "Truth - A Great Detective of Love" as the show's 5th opening theme. A fun fact is the singer of Two Mix, Minami Takayama does the voice of the titular character as well as many other super famous anime characters.

Anyway, Detective Conan's had some of my favorite opening themes including what I'll say for now as my all time favorite. It's call "Mysterious Eyes" by Garnet Crow and it was the show's 7th theme song.

Ai Wo Torimodose AKA You wa Shock!!!

Opening 1 of Fist of the North Star.

All of Kill la Kill's openings and endings as well, now that I think about it.

Not exactly my all time favorite but it's a really fun intro that lets you know what you are getting into.

The one intro that stuck with me though is from the anime "Please Save My Earth"

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Terrible adaptation from the manga but the theme to the Junji Ito Collection is pretty bitching.

Haven't actually watched any of this, but the power of the intro makes me want to....... for about 8 or more years now.

My jam...OP to A Certain Scientific Railgun

all the opening and closing themes are bangers, but I'd pick this one as my favorite

severely underrated anime too

Most of the OPs and EDs for Gintama are pretty rippin', my favorites specifically paired with the video are probably OPs 5 and 10. As a fan of the One Piece anime the only openings I think I truly like are 1 and 13, the first ending song is probably the best one. I also love both opening and ending for Berserk(the original one) and Saint Seiya.

One of the hypest OPs is undoubtedly the one for Shin Mazinger Z. Can't forget about the intro to Akagi and that one for the original Hunter X Hunter. EDs are weird because I often associate them with stopping my playback and/or skipping to the next episode. I'll say I loved the most recent ED for Haikyuu! but that might be colored by my love of the show itself. Though I don't particularly like the show in retrospect, the credits song for Fushigi Yuugi is so damn catchy and foooonky that I can't not mention it.

OP: Fushigi Yuugi

Part of this is pure nostalgia, sure, but goddamn if the beginning of this isn't the best kind of eerie and mysterious.

ED: Trigun

Song's got a real great "fuck it" vibe that always made me feel very relaxed and chill.

Others That Weren't Mentioned:

Sailor Moon OP

Cowboy Bebop ED

The Woman Called Fujiko Mine OP (probably nsfw, so search for this at your own discretion; it's fuckin great though (partial to the English dub version))

Death Note

Oooh man, you stroke a chord with me here. I'm not considering myself any kind of anime specialist but I do love them from time to time. And they have been an important part of my childhood, all right.

So: openings first. A part of me wants to go with the classics: Trigun, Gundam Wing, Escaflowne, DBZ. The biggest impact on my life had listening to the Cowboy Bebop's intro though. It literally introduced me to jazz. And jazz is more than 50% of the music I listen to these days. So yeah, that was huge. And will forever remain so, I suppose.

But let's not dwell on the past for too long. If we're considering newer titles then I'm deeply in love with the sheer power (and absurdity) of the intro to Food Wars. Like, for real. It's something else, guys.

I wish I had more time now so I would also remember some cool endings I've liked throughout the years but I have to scatter now so maybe later. Great thread tho!

Honorable mentions for OP: Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate Zero, Violet Evergarden, Your Lie in April, and, of course, DATABASE DATABASE (Log Horizon).

Best OP: Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX - Glorious Break by Nana Mizuki

Honorable mentions for ED: Persona 5 ED1, Persona 5 ED2, Gintama ED3.

Best ED: Steins:Gate Zero - The Last Game by Zwei

My choice for the "best" intro and outtro probably changes on a daily basis though.

Lots of great ones mentioned here! Shin Mazinger Z is really good, but the original Great Mazinger edges it out for me.

A more recent favorite of mine is the first opening for Cardcaptor Sakura:

Last, but not least, the under-appreciated Tokyo Tribe 2 opening:

The Monogatari series has some pretty jammin' anime intros in general, but I think the best one is still this delightful piece of meme bait

Also a pretty big fan of the first Nichijou opening, which I feel like nails the show's eccentric tone perfectly.

EDIT: It doesn't fit the tone of the show AT ALL, especially as it gets further along. I really like this jaunty opening from FMA 2003.

obviously biased but here you go:

The first thing that comes to mind is the opening to Escaflowne which was one of the earliest anime I ever saw and the first series I ever watched with subtitles.

And a fairly recent favorite in terms of closing animations is the amazing credits to Blood Blockade Battlefront:

Edit: Also how could I have forgotten the opening to Star Blazers. Never finished the whole series but that English opening is a real earworm.

Edit again: Crap, now I'm just remembering a bunch of cool openings so I'll just dump them here:

Okay, I have to stop...

Well, thanks for the relatively long loading times and the great wall of videos where I can't tell who is posting what when scrolling.

Anyway. The OP and ED to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya come to mind as quint essential anime-ass-opening-and-ending-songs, "Don't Say Lazy" from K-ON!, and "Endless Soul" from Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor.

An easy favorite that I haven't seen in the thread yet is the opening to "Your Lie in April". Adore this song.

Second song I'm posting is a show I'm largely indifferent about, but the opening is just faaaaantastic: "Fafner in the Azure"

And honestly, for best of all time. It is very, very hard to beat the EVA opening. But it's already been posted. That song is just perfect.

@facelessvixen: Sorry.

Basically Dororo Season 1 intro and outro.
Both songs helped process the emotions I was feeling as the intense story unfolded.

I didn't like EVA all that much but I never skipped the opening. Such a great melody.

Cowboy Bebop, of course.

I really like the song for Serial Experiments Lain, too.

I've seen the openings and closings for both Full Metal Alchemist shows a ridiculous number of times over the years for a good reason. They're great! Mostly. There's a slower one with a female rapper and I think it's garbage.

All of My Hero Academia's have been pretty addictive so far.

Blood Blockade Battlefront's first ending was a lot of fun but I wasn't a fan of the show.

Baccano's opening is wonderful as well.

My favourite anime opening song is Unravel by TK from Ling tosite sigure (Tokyo Ghoul Opening Theme Song)

And, my favourite anime ending song is Alumina by Nightmare(Death Note Ending 1)

Seen a number of my favorites already listed so I'll just add

"You Get to Burning" from Martian Successor Nadesico

Also the openings and endings to various Gundams(even the bad Gundams) are usually great.

I've got a few to add, mostly older, since I don't watch much anime anymore. The first one is super catchy, and I really just love the second Ranma 1/2 ending. I could listen to that song on loop for hours.

Another catchy one, but I couldn't find a video of the actual opening animation, which is very fun as well. Many random references.

Probably my favorite opening ever. There is a certain sadness or wistfulness in the song which matches the show very well.

This last one isn't an OP or ED, but is probably my favorite Anime song, period. This was the show which sold me on this anime thing all together when I was in high school.

I quite like the opening to Log Horizon.

Also the Black Lagoon Opening is pretty great too.

I like the Trigun Ending quite a bit.

JoJo's bizarre adventure has the best outro of any anime ever simply for the fact that they just play Jodeci's " freakin you" at the end

TANK! Cowboy Bebop Opening always gets me pumped.

Dagashi Kashi is nice as well as Gintama,

Seven Deadly Sins has a different opening/close for each season (like other shows), I'll just post 1 & 2 here:

Season 1 Open, Close

Season 2 Open, Close

One Piece is also good.

Can't forget about Dragon Ball Z,

Super ain't so bad either,

Samurai Pizza Cats isn't technically anime, but it's fun, okay!

And obviously Sonic X is just dope.

Samurai Jack.

I like all of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure but I'll share my favorite opening and ending themes.

Jojo Season 5 opening.

Jojo Season 1 ending.

ID: Invaded has really grown on me so here's the opening and ending.

Love is War Intro and Chika Credits

Nisekoi season 2 Intro

One Piece Intro 11

Shield Hero season 1 Intro

That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Intro 1

Dragon Ball Super Intro 2

Goblin Slayer Intro

There are a lot more beyond these and those already listed that I love, but I won't monopolize an entire page.

It's from the Death Note..

Both of the Mob Psycho 100 intros (Season 1 and Season 2) are INSANELY good. Not only are the songs themselves great and catchy, the animation is completely bonkers.

I think most of My Hero's music is middling generic rock (why do all Japanese bands use the same guitar these days?), but the girls' ending is really good.

I'm not really a fan of anime, but I loved that series as a kid and there is something about the look of old 80's anime that I really like.

The ED that launched a thousand memes

Very snappy!

@sombre: if anything the memes got me to watch the show, and the show got me to love the music, so I'm glad they used it.

personally I like the Pyscho pass opening, probably also because its one of my favourite shows, and this is when the show got really good.

but for ending I liked the Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood #4

Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood have a ton of amazing ops and endings. Op 4 from Brotherhood is probably my favorite op of all time! Ending 4 is probably the best ending in either show.

Naruto has some great ops with op 2 and 3 being my choices for best.

Toradora op 1 is hot garbage, but op 2 is so damn good it makes up for it. Luckily both endings are great.

I don't like Fairy Tail, but op 16 is phenomenal!

I haven't even watched Code Geass yet, but I've watched the op so many times.

I recently discovered Tales of Zestiria the X's op and holy crap it is insanely good! I have no desire to watch the show but I will watch that op all day!

Pretty much any op performed by Flow is guaranteed to be a banger. They're the only Japanese band I can name and that is purely because they do so many great ops.

Huh, the thread has been going for 1½ years and nobody has mentioned Yuki Kajiura's Noir soundtrack yet?

Its closing theme is kinda boring, but these are two other recurring songs from the soundtrack that are quite exceptional: https://youtu.be/bDs_PZaSkFohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqGeT4PiJko

Someone mentioned CCS OP1 above, but IMHO almost all the CCS songs are choice. Well I'll just link this one:

I'm also a huge fan of Eureka Seven's OST. OP1 really did a good job matching the tone of the show.

The Revolutionary Girl Utena Intro and Outro both rip.

I also like this Danger Zone ass opener for Gundam 0083 sung by the late Miki Matsubara.

It's hardly a controversial take, but when I think of "classic anime themes", it's hard to do better than Serial Experiments Lain's opening.

The first time I watched Death Note, back around when it came out, I thought the second set of themes were a major downgrade, it wasn't until I re-watched it about a year ago that I realized how invigorating the second ending is, it could've easily taken the place of the second opening, IMO.

And finally, it's a series I personally didn't end up finishing, but I've always had a soft spot for the mellow vibes of Michiko to Hatchin's ending theme.

Densetsu Kyojin Ideon - Fukkatsu no Ideon

Slayers TRY - Breeze, gotta love that intro

Slam Dunk - Kimi ga Suki Dato Sakebitai

Sailor Moon - Moonlight Desetsu

Does Roundabout from Yes count?

Also this comes to mind as one of my favorite childhood memories:

I'm gonna be that guy and say Pokemon Season 1, the song is just too iconic.

Outlaw Star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LucBfR1w6Y

Original Pokemon intro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuYeHPFR3f0

Attack on Titan Series one, the rest pale in comparison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4O2VS4511Y

Lots of good picks in here already

Panty and Stocking is a real dumb show, but that ED is a jam.

The fact that nobody has mentioned this one yet from Gintama is a crime. A CRIME I SAY!

Favorite OP

Favorite Ed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfh4JuzYNpM

Def my favourite!