"OP" refers to the opening credits sequence. Sometimes the term is used to refer to the music, and sometimes to the whole thing.

I've noticed that there's little correlation between whether the OP for a series is good and whether the series itself is good. The situation is complicated further by series where they change the OP once or twice during the run.

So what makes a good OP? (My opinions! Mine! Mine!)

First, it's OK if the music is an earbug, but it has to be interesting music that's appropriate to the show. The lyrics should be relevant, and possibly be explicative.
Second, the OP should be a bit of an intro to the show itself. Certainly we don't want it giving away any spoilers, but it should be representative of the series art, and it ought to show us many or most of the main characters, and give us a brief idea of what they're like.
Third, it ought to give us a look at typical background art.
Finally, it ought to intrigue us.

In otherwords, if the OP was distributed separately, it ought to make a pretty good advertisement for the series, conveying to us a decent idea of what the series is going to be like if we watch it.

So some examples:

UFO Princess Valkyrie 3: show is mediocre, OP is good. Music is nice and fun. It shows Valkyrie's transformation. It gives us a look at Akina and Hydra together, and Chorus and Raine together. It shows us the town with the two crashed spaceships. There's a look at the three remaining princesses who make their first appearances in this series. And the three little guys show up at the end.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: show is very good, OP is mixed. The music is really good; very interesting. (And a special treat for hardcore fans, because it's sung by Hayashibara Megumi.) The images are clips from the first show, which show us all the characters, especially different scenes of the two kids. But it's nearly all placed in Tokyo, in the shopping arcade -- and the series doesn't spend much time there. So the OP doesn't show us backgrounds or art style from the majority of the show. It doesn't really show us any of the weirdness. As such it isn't a good advertisement because it isn't representative. (And the biggest drawback: Munemune isn't in the OP at all.)

Ninja Nonsense: show is OK, OP is excellent. The music isn't the most inspired but it's decent, and the lyrics are both funny and quite relevant. The video shows us a lot of things from the show -- but also a lot of things that never occur in the show. But that's part of the joke, and it's legit. From the OP we can tell that Shinobu is perky, bouncy, shapely, and absurdly enthusiastic -- and gullible, and innocent. We can tell that Kaede is cute and has a temper. We can tell that they're friends. We are shown that Onsokumaru is obnoxious, and that Kaede tends to abuse him. We get to see the girls from the competing academy, and the other students (all guys) at Shinobu's own school. We also see Miyabi using her magic. It's a very good advertisement for the series, and though some of it is deceptive, it isn't a fraud.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (careful, Steve, you're treading on hallowed ground here): show is massively overrated among fanboys, the OP is good but flawed. A substantial flaw in the music is that the vocalist sings flat. (This may bother some people less than it does me.) Most of the important characters in the cast are shown but there's not really any indication of what they're like. The one thing it does convey, which is important, is that Haruhi is the most important character in the series and that she's manic. The OP doesn't show us much of the setting, but since the setting is prosaic that's not really a drawback. As an advertisement the main thing the OP sells is Haruhi and Mikuru as fan-service attractions, which isn't really what the show is about.

Ichigo Mashimaro: show is good, OP is excellent. The music is bouncy J-pop, and the lyrics get right to the point with the very first words: "You mustn't call us cute." Which is impossible because they are, which is the point. In the first ten seconds we see all five major characters plus the ferret. Through-out the entire OP, Miu stands out as an oddball. And Matsuri's nearly-unbearable cuteness is also well established. It gives you a good idea of what to expect from the series.

Kamichu: Show is very uneven, OP is outstanding. The music isn't particularly noteworthy but the visuals do everything they need to. All the major characters are shown, as well as numerous locations critical to the series, and throughout the OP we see various kami in places we wouldn't ordinarily expect, making clear that this otherwise unremarkable town is very different from our own reality. We see enough of Yurie to learn that she's a bit lazy and a rather unremarkable little girl, as indeed she was before she became a kami.

Shakugan no Shana: show is decent, OP is OK but really could have been better. I don't think the music is very good, but I thought all the series music was substandard. The visuals show us all the important characters from the series, and primarily emphasize Shana. We see magic being used, and see torches, but it doesn't actually tell us anything. This is a case where it was a mistake to pack in every single character from the series, because it didn't leave any time for anything else like giving us an indication of what the primary characters are like. In particular, the OP neglects Yuji, who is the protagonist. I think that this could have been a lot better.

Ah! My Goddess! TV: Show is very good, OP is outstanding. The music is magnificent, though it doesn't really have much to do with the show. The lyrics get across that it's a love story, which is the main point. The visuals spend the majority of the time on Keiichi, Beldandy, and Urd, as does the show itself. Beldandy, Urd, and Skuld are all shown with wings, so we know they're not human. Keiichi's motorcycle is featured, and Keiichi and Beldandy are clearly a couple who are deeply in love. Urd is shown to be a meddler. Secondary characters are shown but not dwelt on. There is one CGI shot of the temple and town that is utterly shitty looking, almost like it was a test render, but after watching the OP you'll have a pretty good idea of what's coming.

Hanaukyo Maid Team La Verite: show is decent (and better than it seems), the OP is very good. The big flaw is that Tanaka Rie is a great seiyuu but not so good as a vocalist, and she sings the OP. But the visuals are everything they should be. It concentrates primarily on Mariel and Taro and shows us that there's something going on between them. It shows us the mansion. It also lets us see that Ikuyo is nuts, that Yashima has the hots for Konoe, and that the triplets are sexy and seductive. We see Grace with her computer, and we see Ryuka's airship. There are enough quick images of other maids to make clear that there's really quite a lot of them. It doesn't tell us about Cynthia, or show that Ryuka is a gun freak, but that's OK.

Bottle Fairy: Show is good but with a strange ending (that ruined it for me). The OP is excellent. The music is good and the lyrics nicely summarize the show concept. The fairies are shown wearing lots of different costumes, and we see them with Sensei-san so that we can tell how small they are. Kururu and Hororo's characters come out a bit, and Chiriri always wears a hat. We also get to see Oborochan and Tamachan, the other major characters in the series.

Azumanga Daioh (Careful, Steve, more hallowed ground): The show is uneven and something of an acquired taste. The OP is legendary. The music for it is unusual but works well, especially since the visuals coordinate particularly well with the music. The visuals take something of a stylistic cue from the music, and are rather abstract. No scenery from the show is shown, but that's not a problem because the setting is a normal one. The characters are all given time to show what they're like. There's even time spent cueing the audience in to certain running gags (e.g. Yukari-sensei's mad driving). There may not be a better or more memorable OP in anime.

Divergence Eve: Show is excellent, the OP is serviceable. I like the music, and the OP shows us all the characters and gives us a good view of Watcher's Nest and the equipment used there. While not the best ever, it does the job.

Misaki Chronicles: show is excellent, the OP is not good at all. The problem with it is that it's totally deceptive. Once you've seen the series, the OP does make sense -- but as an advertisement for the series it completely misrepresents what you're going to see. It's not the worst OP ever but it's down near the bottom.

Vandread: The show is good, the OP is excellent. I like the music a lot. The visuals show us the ship, and the vandreads, and all the major characters in ways which give us an idea of what they're like. Each episode's OP is different; there's a spot in the middle in which they include scenes from that episode. I don't think that was really needed but it doesn't hurt anything because they were careful not to include spoilers.

Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars: the show is outstanding, and the OP is simply dreadful. I can't think of a worse one. The music is dull and the visuals are worse. If you were shown the OP as an advertisement for the series, you'd instantly write it off. How can a series which is otherwise so good have an OP which sucks so badly?

That's the mystery for me. That's what got me thinking about this. How did they botch up the Shingu OP so badly?

It spends its first 20 seconds showing us clouds drifting in a blue sky. Then we get ten seconds for two leisurely shots of Muryou, and then 45 seconds of badly animated images of kids walking around the town and the school. They're not drawn in the art style of the series. None of them are recognizable characters from the series. Then we see Hajime standing next to Muryou for five seconds or so, and then a long shot of the town and the ocean. And that's it. None of the other characters from the series are shown at all, nor any indication of alien activity, nor the white giant, and from what we see of Muryou and Hajime we can't tell a damned thing about what either of them are like. It's appallingly inept. What were they thinking?

A good OP is a good advertisement for the show. With Shingu they had 90 seconds to sell us on the series, and used it to do everything possible to convince us it wasn't worth our while.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Engineer's Disease at 10:16 PM | Comments (34) | Add Comment
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