-off the top, here goes. this post is about anime. DON’T SKIP ENDINGS OR YOU WILL EARN MY WRATH-
If you haven’t heard, history was made the other night when the 16 seeded UMBC Retrievers blew out the OVERALL 1 SEED Virginia Cavaliers by over 20 points. I tuned in with 5 minutes left because, let’s be honest, you weren’t watching that game from the start either. If you were you are either lying to yourself or you are the type of person who watches paint dry to make sure everything goes according to plan. I figured, no way, right? 136-0, right?
*Arnold voice* Wrong. Five shocking and honest-to-goodness unbelievable minutes later, it was in the books. I had a pizza fresh out of the oven and episode 2 of Love Hina queued, but I had to put everything on hold and sit down for a bit. When something like that happens you have to take a step back and just process it all.
Anime – big shocker – is no different. Endings have the most potential in making a show great. Still, openings steal all the limelight. Check Youtube – your Agains and your Guren no Yumiyas get all the views, while Let It Out (I LITERALLY JUST CRIED AGAIN WATCHING THIS) and This Beautiful, Cruel World are thrown to the wayside. Which is a damn fucking shame, if you ask me.
What’s that, you say? No one asked me? No one reads this blog? I’m all alone, screaming my weeaboo opinions into the void?
Aside from the standalone quality or catchiness of a given ED, though, people tend to underestimate how integral a good opening and ending can be to a show. The opening is your chance to ease back into a narrative – the proverbial dipping of feet. A good ending is like a fine wine. It gives you a break from the overbearing oiliness of your main dish, allowing you to catch your breath after 22 minutes of things happening (or in the case of many adaptations, 2 minutes of things happening and 20 minutes of fluff). The ability to sit back and spend 90 seconds emotionally digesting is a deciding factor in whether or not a show worms its way into my heart. Just look at some of my favorites. Every single Monogatari ED is in a league of its own. Community doesn’t have musical endings (with the exception of the Christmas episode in season 3), but the end cards are funny and often iconic, and put a neatly tied ribbon on each episode. Both Gamers! endings are absolutely sublime. 3-gatsu, Hidamari Sketch, Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann, Rakugo Shinjuu – all damn good ending themes. There are a couple notable exceptions, the first Shirobako ED being the most glaring, but I’m not a machine. Art is weird, and if I could directly link my enjoyment of art to whether or not the ED is catchy, my taste would be pretty damn simple and I probably wouldn’t have to inhale all these chinese cartoons to fill the gaping hole in my heart.
(By the way, while the song is probably 70%, the visuals are important too. Great ending visuals, a la Monogatari, really bring everything home.)
The effect is probably more pronounced outside of my top 10: the 6-9 range. Shokugeki’s OPs and EDs are historically pretty lackluster compared to how great the show itself is, but it’s no coincidence that season 3 had a legitimately fantastic ED and is scored a point higher than seasons 1 and 2. A Place Further than the Universe is shaping up as a strong 6 light 7, but without Koko Kara, Koko Kara, it probably comes in around a 5. A good ending will push an anime from average to good, and good to great. Similarly, if a show is bad, it’s often because the ending is subpar. Excepting AssWar and Jojo, every show I scored below a 5 has a mediocre or worse ED.
At the end of the day, its about feeling things. I can have scene after melodramatic scene thrown at me and not flinch, but put our main cast in front of some cool sunset, draw flowers on their heads, and set it to some feelsy J-Pop and we have a recipe for success.
Comments