One important component to anime is the music, which helps bring us fully into the world created by the animators, allowing us to form close emotional bonds with the work and its characters. All of us have an internal list of anime songs that we’ll always bring with us through life, and whenever we hear them we stop what we’re doing and sing along…or burst into tears as past memories come flooding back. What anime song deeply affects you even after many years? Let’s take a look at a few suggested by J-List’s excellent Twitter followers.
Let’s kick things off with the No Game No Life opening, a great series that gave us many wonderful figures, though no second season.
One of my jobs as an anime blogger is to watch a bunch of anime and recommend the best series to J-List customers, hopefully allowing them to find a quality show they might have missed. One show you might have missed was Kokkoku: Moment by Moment, an outstanding anime about a supernatural battle between two groups, which also has this epic OP. Read my post about Kokkoku here.
Psycho-Pass, created by genius Nitroplus writer Urobuchi Gen, who also made Madoka and Saya no Uta), has a lot of fans in part because of its great music.
The anime that really tied music and anime together forever was the original Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. Here’s the Seventh Moon duet version from Macross 7, which rocked pretty hard.
What anime song from Macross makes you stop what you’re doing and sing along? One of my favorites is the Lynn Minmei version of the original ending, Runner, which I just love.
You want the most 80s thing ever? Here’s the OP from Genesis Climber Mospeda, which was folded into the Robotech universe back in the day. The ED — as a middle-aged guy I’m just not a fan of that word — is equally cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=86&v=lQrDASSYKmw&feature=emb_logo
You never forget your first Gundam, and mine was Zeta Gundam. Here’s the first OP from the series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEcIsaPZjCw
ZZ Gundam is a strange animal. It was often not loved by fans for its less-serious approach to the U.C. universe compared to previous works, yet it was the most gorgeous technically of any Gundam before it. The songs were also great, starting with Silent Voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCAxdjgYXJ4
Chobits was a wonderful 90s anime about a world where PCs — “persocoms” – have evolved into beautiful robotic girls. Created by CLAMP, a group of amateur manga artists making doujinshi for sale at the Comiket, who were so good they were able to go pro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfb2sC5KF4c
I can’t talk about CLAMP without posting the Magical Knights Rayearth OP, which I have many fond memories of. I’m thankful to this anime because I used it to raise my kids to be bilingual.
Another beloved anime is Inuyasha, the first Rumiko Takahashi anime to achieve much-deserved widespread popularity thanks to being shown on television.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhUjD5cfWPo
Who can forget the first time they encountered the joy that was Ranma 1/2. So many fun memories!
Another anime we can never forget is Ah! My Goddess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-peGk-_dtqw
There are many anime that deeply affect fans, but the show that really invented “weaponized feels” was Clannad After Story. But that’s okay because life is like a roller coaster: the highs are meaningless, but for the lows.
(I still tear up whenever I hear, “The chilly days continue, even though it’s already Spring/On a morning when I woke up before the alarm clock/You, making breakfast for three/Are standing there.”)
As an anime retailer, I know that single-cour series (with 12- or 13-episodes) have a hard time remaining in the minds and hearts of fans after the final episode airs. For some reason, they’re forgotten much more quickly compared to series with 24+ episodes. The exception is shows that can manage to make fans cry and otherwise deeply affect them emotionally. Just like Angel Beats!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEGlmde3_kM
Finally, there’s yet another anime song none of us will ever forget, the ending theme to AnoHana: The Flower We Saw On That Day, the story of a girl who died as a child then comes back to be with her friends as a ghost years later. It’s a wonderful anime that you’ll never forget once you watch it. I’ve been increasingly fascinated by AnoHana writer Mari Okada, who brought us such other deliciously complex anime as A Whisker Away, O Maidens in Your Savage Season, The Pet Girl of Sakura-sou, Rozen Maiden, Lupin the Third, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine and…Kodomo no Jikan. Damn.
Thanks for reading this post! Did you get through it with dry eyes? If we missed an anime song that affected you deeply, post it below or let us know on Twitter!
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