Forum - View topicBest anime closing credits of all time?
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4547 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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Since there's a thread about best openings, I'll do one about best closings. I'll name 4 out of my top 5, in no particular order, since if I name 5, I'm sure I'll think of one that should be on the list an hour later.
Dragon Half "Watashi no Tamagoyaki"/"My Omlette": Kotono "Sailor Moon" Mitsuishi as a super-superdeformed Mink singing a nonsense song about lunch at hyperspeed to the tune of the 4th movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. If you remember just one thing about Dragon Half, it will be this, I guarantee. (My brother even once encountered two Japanese girls at a bus terminus singing this to eachother, presumably thinking that no one around them would get it. They thought wrongly.) Kimagure Orange Road "Kanashii Heart wa Moeteiru Wa"/"My Sad Heart is Burning": The song is one of my all-time favourite anime songs (reminds me a bit of the Eurythmics; very 80s), but the animation itself is also very distinctive. I think it's a mixture of sand animation (the silhouettes) and chalk animation (the pictures of Madoka; or Akemi Takada used colours to give the impression of chalk). Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory "Magic"/"Evergreen" (same animation): Just a shadowy arc that is revealed to be the blue Earth as the sun slowly rises. Very simple yet very elegant. Tenchi Muyo "Ren'ai no Sainou"/"Talent of Love": A superdeformed version of Ryo-Ohki waits an entire year for his carrot to grow, oblivious to the weather conditions around him, while the Masaki temple bends and sways in the background. I love the little teruterubozu when it's raining. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I must say that Rain by Bonnie Pink is my favorite Kenshin song which is set to some nice visuals. After hearing the Gantz Ed song (which always gets me emotional) I bought her double CD greatest hits from CDJapan. The ED sequence for Gantz spoiler[always makes me sad, especially knowing how Kei ends up all alone in the end of the series to the vanishing image of his friends and Bonnie Pink singing singing out wasurenai during last kiss] These two songs are so different, but are both amazing. I will agree that I am a huge fan of all three Orange Road endings but will have to side with Natsu no Mirage for my favorite. Something about Orange Road in general is very nostalgic to me. I used to listen to this song (I bought the audio cassette) constantly throughout the late 80s. I know I'm also not alone when I say I love all of the ED that have Angela with them. One thing I really enjoy about the Stellvia ED is how they played the cheerful Kirei na Yozora (Atsuko sounds so cheerful) after the happy episodes and epic sounding The End of the World (I love the strings arrangements on this one) during the intense episodes. Both songs are very traditional Angela songs but sound so different from each other. I also like how they played the acoustic version of the Fafner ED song by Angela which surprised me. |
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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Easily Episode 16 of Gurren Lagann which was a recap episode, the ending song was the insert song "happily ever after" by Nakagawa Shouko which had been used twice up to that point. Throughout the credits they showed some amazing hand drawn pictures of events and characters that had occurred up to the point. It's a travesty that Episode 16's ending theme/animation wasn't used for the rest of the series.
Also lol @ people bringing up Evangelion, I thought this was a best closing credits thread not a thread for the best example of butchering a classic song in as many ways as you can. |
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undeadben
 Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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I was thinking maybe one of the NANA endings, any of them really, but I believe the "Starless Night" closing is probably my favorite. The animation is basically just different pans and angles of just one image but the music really expresses the feelings of both Nanas in the shot well.
A close second, not from NANA, for me is the "Kesenai Tsumi" closing from Fullmetal Alchemist. Again mostly because of the music. This is another closing where the ending theme starts up before the episode ends in segue to the credits, I guess I like the idea. And also I think all of the FA closings are pretty darned good. And I also like the "It's Gonna Rain" ending from Rurouni Kenshin that's already been mentioned, but if it's a 'pop' ending then I think the "Be Your Girl" ending from Elfen Lied is right up there too. I like the Bonnie Pink song better on it's own and the "Rain" ending does have a variety of nice images, but as an overall ending I think the "Be Your Girl"ending is a tiny bit better because of the sharp contrast to the ridiculously bloody images EL often ends on, even if the entire credit sequence is all a single image. (Although it helps that the image is naked Lucy.  )
I always liked the FLCL ending too. The live action shots of the scooter set to "Ride on Shooting Star" is always interesting to watch and great to listen to. Then again FLCL has my favorite overall anime soundtrack anyway. And from the Cowboy Bebop movie, my second favorite anime soundtrack, "Gotta Knock a Little Harder" is also a great ending. I love the music and the entire closing sequence is also pretty darned neat to watch. |
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The Human Spider
Posts: 334 |
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POPOTAN: Nothing special about the animation, but the song, I think it's called "S.U.K.I." by Funta, is just so addictive--if I had my own copy of that song I'd need intervention to get me to stop listening to it.
GIRLS HIGH: I love OPs/EDs that have characters dancing and I think this ED has the best--there's something weird, unique, and awkward about the dance moves that I really like. I don't remember the song at all though. The repititive and cartoony dancing in the DearS ED comes in a close second. MAGIC USERS CLUB OVA: One of my favorite ED animation sequences. Sae and her teddy bear on a floating table, watching a giant version of her duck-headed magic stick(that looks like its in a drunken coma)vomit up random objects-- very surreal, disturbing and cute at the same time. The song is pretty nice too. |
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bonbonsrus
 Posts: 1537 Location: Michigan, USA |
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I agree about The Real Folk Blues from Cowboy Bebop, and I would have forgot to mention if I hadn't seen it listed, but I did enjoy Eva's ED, Fly Me to the Moon, it was slightly different from each singer every time and I listened to it much more often than not.
I also have to say the closing to Shakugan No Shana. I think the animation is fine, but I love the song...so much so that I did listen everytime and was upset when it changed. I would buy this series only for the song frankly, because I found the anime itself fairly average (despite how cute Shana herself is.) Another I liked more than I should have any reason to is from Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok. I do like the imagery and the song, but I can't quite tell you why I like it so much. Last edited by bonbonsrus on Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:53 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18460 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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If you're including the visuals in the equation, one of the best I've ever seen is Gankutusou: The Count of Monte Cristo's "You Won't See Me Coming," with its psychedelic visuals complementing a great and thoroughly appropriate song.
Based just on the song, Saikano's "Sayonara" (an absolutely lovely melancholy tune) and Le Portrait de Petite Cossette's "Jewel," with its rare example of rich and deep female Japanese vocals, are both favorites. |
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ace52387
 Posts: 61 |
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This would have been my first choice. I don't think it's spitting out random stuff though. I think the whole ending is her little daydream before she sleeps. The wand spits out a bunch of seasonal stuff that Sae would surely obsess about (donuts, dumplings, riceballs, etc). I always thought the cutest part was that every season, one of the items would have a face with glasses on it spoiler[ Clearly referencing her crush, Takakura ] I just watched the Dragon Half closing, and that was seriously one of the strangest things... I also like the Vision of Escaflowne closing. The song isn't all that great, but I can't help but chuckle at some of the english stuck in there. In the middle of a sentence, he'll stick in "Mystic eyes" or "Breakin Down" or "eye" (yes just straight up "eye"). It's also nice because it seems to reflect Van, while the opening is pretty much Hitomi.[/b] |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Agreed. The ED in Haibane Renmei was somewhat similar to that in Evangelion (water refractions, spinning body in the right of the screen), but Blue Flow felt a much better ending theme than the covers of Fly Me To The Moon. (I wanted them to use one of the classic recordings for authenticity) |
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I completely agree the Gankutsuou ending really is amazingly synced up. It is funny how the ED song sounds like a traditional OP and the OP sounds like an ED. I also love how the song continues into the preview for the next episode.
Wolf's Rain ending also works well for the series. Since I usually skip the OP and ED credits it took my a few episodes before I noticed that the images change for the ED! The run cycle is simple but really sums up the mood of the series as does the sound and lyrics of Gravity. |
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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One ED I've always really liked is Lithium Flower from the first season of GitS: SAC. Not only is the song groovy, but the still images showing the members of Section 9 enjoying some down time are great, especially since the series is usually so serious. I love the one picture of Batou sitting on the shell-less tachikoma.
I also have a soft spot for Dotabata*Angel Loop from Galaxy Angel AA. It's another case of a good song (in my opinion, anyway; I love the Galaxy Angel themes) coupled with cool character designs. And of course, I must mention the mighty Hare Hare Yukai from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya; it's the dance that swept the internet! |
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Olliff
 Posts: 550 |
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Lucky Star's ED for the second half of the series is one of my favorites. Although it is very blatantly trying to be http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoBadItsGood, it really worked for me.
Who can ever get too much of that crazy guy trying to dance and sing and other randomness? I also thought it was a much better ending than the karokee ending used in the first half of the series. I also found it very fitting since there are so many references to other shows in this anime. I also liked it because it was never the same twice. Because of this, I think this is one of the few ED's that I have never skipped. My favorite is the one where the guy alternates between singing 3-4 different anime songs; he is not a good singer but it's hilarious. Just curious, is anyone else a fan of tvtropes.org? I almost always find myself visiting that site after I finish a series. They have excellent coverage of anime as well as western animation, movies and literature. The site is definitely guilty of "What do you mean it is not symbolic?" syndrome, but it is very interesting and addictive nonetheless. My personal favorite trope is Lampshade Hanging. However, after becoming addicted to this site, I have found certain series more predictable than before. Be warned and use it at your own risk. |
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Animastryfe
 Posts: 152 Location: Vancouver |
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I have not watched many of the anime that have been mentioned here, such as FLCL, Vision of Escaflowne, etc.
So from my relatively limited repertoire of seen anime, I would say Lucky Star (Both endings), The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Welcome to the NHK. Lucky Star: The endings seem to fit with the anime really well, and many of them are hilarious as well. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: I don't think I need to explain this one, but it's the rules. The song is one of my favorite anime songs, the choreography is great and watching Yuki dance is strangely satisfying. Welcome to the NHK: I have only watched up to episode 12 or so, so the ending I'm talking about is the one for those episodes (I'm not sure if there is another ending later on). The opening piano solo is awesome and it just turns hilariously insane later on. I like insane things. I would buy the opening piano section if it was expanded. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I could not agree with you more. Even though "Stray" (which I enjoyed) is disliked by a large portion of Wolf's Rain fans (so it seems), I have never met anyone who has anything bad to say about "Gravity". Hauntingly beautiful, with simple but meaningful lyrics (in English), it has to be one of the best ED songs I have ever heard. In fact, one of the best songs, period. Visuals are nice, too. Even though it is just a looped run cycle, it matches the tone well. I take it to symbolise an endless road. Besides, anything fancy might detract from the song. |
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Mobius Archer
 Posts: 26 Location: Michigan, USA |
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The Two that i like the most would be Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 and Avenger
I like Bubblegum Crisis's song but the real reason its my favorite is because i LOVE to watch dancing animated. im not a big fan of it normally but a big part of why i like anime is the animation and dancing really seems to show of the animators skill. they dont get more skillfull then AIC. Avenger's ending is cool because how its synced to the music, and i very much like the music. that show has one of my favorite sound tracks. Also its animated and not just still pictures. |
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