Anime EDs are the new OPs

0:00 it's summer [Music] and with a whole new season that means a whole new batch of anime themes to go along with it now i'm not gonna lie the summer 2021 season has been a bit lackluster especially if you compare it to the spring 2021 and winter 2021 season and that kind of goes for the opening and pending themes as well but there are still a bunch of really good tracks in there that i think are still worth talking about and for whatever reason this season just has a ton of really really great endings that are basically just putting all the openings to shame so while i did pick out about the same number of opening and ending themes as i did last season there are definitely more endings this time around and at the end of the video i'll also be

0:46 picking out which ones are my favorites so stick around if you want to see that so first up we've got the opening for higurashi sotsu analogy by ayane some cool stuff going on here [Music] higurashi openings and endings are always just super super good songs [Music] there's some really cool little like synth effects in the back they're kind of echoing a good chromatic melody line there

1:32 [Music] oh okay i've never heard this part of the song i've only heard the 90-second version oh it's really short-lived but there was almost a kind of um dubstep breakdown right after the chorus there it was really cool [Music] oh just it's just such a good melody line like such a good hook and i can't really explain why i guess i'd have to actually do a full-on transcription or analysis to really get into why it sounds so good but it's just like all right here's the bridge yeah doing that dubstep thing again i love it [Music]

2:19 just some really really cool stuff there it's pretty simplistic actually there's not a ton going on in the actual arrangement itself higurashi music is always just amazing the openings and endings are always so great also this lady ionae i've never heard of her she's sung so much music for higurashi it's insane next up we have the opening for kageki shojo hoshino orchestra by saji this show is getting slept on i understand why it's not as popular as i think it should be this whole thing is based off of this theater production called takarazuka i had the luxury of actually getting to go see a production so i've seen the stage and everything that's in the show i think i have a picture i'll put it up somewhere up here

3:06 i wish this show were getting more attention than it is but i understand why it isn't [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'll be honest i didn't really care about the opening the first time i heard it it's just kind of generic but it's definitely grown on me over time [Music] oh i really love this chorus i love how it's got blast beats in the background too this isn't the kind of music you would associate a blast beat going on in the background but it it works super well and i don't know how they pulled that off but good on you saji [Music]

3:51 they kept the kick in really interesting that for that breakdown they kept the kick drum in there because usually in the breakdown you really want to slow things down make it a lot calmer but they kept the kick [Music] what is this ending this very ending section i guess it kind of opened like that but that was a super weird way to close out the song i really love when a song that i didn't initially care about draws me in over time it's interesting how much it grew on me and then just hearing the arrangement now because i've never paid that much attention to it but having the strings with the blast beats i don't really know how to explain it it's a weird arrangement that shouldn't work but it does next up we have the

4:38 opening for remain forget me not by and hyping [Music] oh it's so catchy and it's uh like it's really good it has that sort of kpop vibe to it too the modern boy band vibe here we go oh it's so catchy like so so catchy compositionally i can't really tell if there's anything that interesting in it but like that hook is just it's so singable it's so easy to follow [Music] okay interesting breakdown i don't

5:24 really know what's happening here this could go in any number of directions [Music] pretty short song like not a lot i don't have a lot to say about it i don't think there's a lot of really interesting compositional aspects it sounded pretty plain production wise like i don't think there was a lot of cool stuff going on with the mix or the synth lines or anything like that but super super catchy like i can't get that out of my head who knows maybe if i actually sit down and break down the melody line and some of the harmonies there might be a lot more there next up we've got shinigami botsanto the opening mangetstosiruetto

6:12 you for the show [Music] see the previous one was super kpop this is super japanese like anime j-pop style which makes a lot of sense given that it's being sung by the seiyuu as if they're playing their characters so the characters are singing themselves [Music] i love the piano in the background it's such a clean mix [Music] and a really fun baseline too i really love the fact that hanai natsuki isn't

6:58 the best singer the fact that he's not that great makes it feel more like it's actually singing and not himself i don't know if that's intentional i don't think it is but like it works super well it's so cute what a cute song i really like that they harmonize too it's not just singing the same line as each other oh this chorus is so good though it's kind of cheesy but it's the old good kind of cheesy so i can look past that completely and just fall into the catchiness of it here we go here's the bridge again piano coming to the forefront just an instrumental breakdown okay

7:46 what a fun little song it's super cute kind of cheesy in a good way just the way that their voices are working together in the song makes it feel very real the arrangement is super tight the composition is amazing i love the way that they use the piano i don't always love when the songs are sung by the seiyu because sometimes it feels a bit campy but the campiness in this one it's perfect and i i think it's genuinely an amazing song next up we've got the opening for banitas anomaly [Music]

8:32 oh the piano line is so good the opening and ending for this show they just they go so hard and they're so good oh [Music] this is just a feel-good track [Music] nice little accordion or not accordion it's uh i think that was a melodica not an accordion either way nice addition to fit the sort of victorian vibe i'm not a huge fan of how chuni the show is kajyoda's soundtrack it just kind of sounds like a watered down madoka so it's not anything that we haven't heard from her before but the opening and

9:19 ending like my god so good the backing arrangement is definitely what's giving life to this track ooh the bridge wasn't super exciting but that build up to get back into the chorus ooh what a cool effect such a cool song it makes me think of walking down the street just snapping my finger i mean as if i actually do that in real life it has a really clean beat it's not super heavy super cool song i love it a lot next up we have the opening for dragon maid s i know supreme by fana and if you like the opening for season one i

10:05 just did a video on it you can check it out up here [Music] oh it's so fun so much fun and it's such a japanese style of wrap but it works so well like this hawaii wrap oh i love fana so much [Music] that transition there is not good like it's such a good song except for that one switch i love how they mix such weird styles of music together mixing the hip hop with their usual sort of mpc rock i guess it does have a sort of disco vibe to it but

10:51 it's a lot more funky maybe a little bit more big band style this time around [Music] i'm not watching the video right now but it's so fun to watch the video too because obviously tawanna the singer she's doing all her little rap things but kevin the mtc dude he's the one rapping and he's such a funny dude man [Music] oh nice chromatic chef oh that sounded like it came in early i don't think it did but 90s rnb style but like a faster pace or r b not r b 90s pop 90s pop vocals with a more modern sort of mix

11:39 oh whoa whoa what is this oh this descending sector oh super disco there oh this is such a cool breakdown [Music] holy crap oh my god what a cool breakdown that was amazing such a good hook it's so simple so single but it's so catchy ah nothing but smiles so fun there's no other feeling than happiness when you hear something like that it's so good tawana super cute voice sato junichi amazing composer and then kevin just a

12:25 super funny guy he's just always so full of energy and you know what he makes that track kevin forever next up we've got the opening for hey once again by kitany tatsuya very different vibe from the last song oh okay there we go so good i can never remember this off the top of my head but i haven't skipped the opening for a single episode yet just because every time it comes on it's like oh it's so good he has a really good sense of pacing

13:10 when to when to go fast when to go slow such a classic beef this sounds like something you'd hear in a sports arena that drop at the course is just so good it's so so good [Music] yeah this song is all about rhythm there isn't a ton of cool stuff going on in the instrumental arrangements it's not even a tempo change but it's the rhythmic shift from section to section they're all so different and they really flow into each other but i really love this super deep heartbeat like beat [Music]

13:58 i don't know why i can never remember this but i wish i did so so good such a good sense of rhythm it's all it's all in 4 4. it's all super metrically simple super straightforward arrangements for the band and everything but like oh it's so good i don't know how to explain how this mix just works i feel exhausted because of how good that is but we've gotta move on to the endings i have no idea what my favorite opening of that bunch is right now i'm gonna have to think about it some more first one we've got digimon adventure ending number five dreamers by atis [Music]

14:51 classic western influence k-pop beat and mix if there's one thing about k-pop it's always super catchy [Music] and a fun chorus here too it's not anything special but this is something i could imagine in a club as one of the more upbeat feel good songs it's kind of interesting it's actually got a lot of afro pop influence in here [Music] k-pop rap is always really funny to me i don't know why it's just it feels really

15:37 out of place super fun but i'm not sure how fitting it is for the actual digimon ending [Music] fun song digimon has gone through so many different endings so far and so many different types of music that i guess anything kind of goes and it always just sounds really good i mean this song is not as good as overseas highway good mix good pretty much everything i can't i don't have anything bad to say about it it's just uh i don't know how to talk about kpop so let's just leave it at that next up we've got the ending for higurashi sotsu missing promise by suzuki konomi

16:23 oh such a nice piano line one two three one two three really interesting rhythms [Music] oh it's such a good chorus [Music] oh i love these strings i didn't notice them before but now that i'm actually hearing them it's really well arranged into the mix oh i love that transition how she goes from the pre-chorus into the chorus just

17:09 all the rhythms in this are really really cool like it's very swingy because it's in 6 8 for most of it [Music] that went in a completely unexpected direction super super calm break down here break down after the bridge not just one or the other key change for the last chorus oh no it's not a key change okay never mind i'm just an idiot such a fitting style of an ending for higurashi that sort of calm but unsettling vibe it had and then yeah that super calm breakdown after the bridge i really want to know what the lyrics are and i feel like this might be a song that i'll

17:55 cover in the future like for its own video so keep an eye out on that but i'm not promising anything so if it doesn't happen don't be upset or at least don't get mad at me next up we've got the ending for kanojo kanojo girlfriend girlfriend pinky hook by asakura [Music] what a cool funky guitar rip at the beginning mixed with some bubble gum puffs cowbell oh it's so fun it's so cute i don't know if disco is having like a resurgence in japan but i'm all for it because disco never should have died i'm just like disco baby i will never die true disco

18:42 will never die [Music] and then a weird key change for the chorus it's not super smooth but it also doesn't not work [Music] i love that little cowbell thing that just switches it ooh really nice funk space here get me some earth wind and fire on this track slower breakdown cool little organ bit oh this is so good this is so much better than i realized it was oh i thought i knew what my favorite ending was but this could upset things oh funk mixes are so good rock on guitar dude oh i love these the

19:31 understated choruses where they build into the chorus [Music] go off basis [Music] oh and they had the cowbell right at the end there too so good oh such a good song and it's so it's so fun it's so cute it's so catchy it's so much more complex than i think you would think because the voice leading just goes off in weird directions that sound good but aren't what you necessarily expect go off japan get disco back on the charts next up we have the ending for kageki shojo hosino tabi vito by senbongi sayaka and hanamori yumigi who are the

20:19 seiyuu for sarasa and i oh [Music] oh such good harmonizing [Music] da oh it's so good

21:05 [Music] oh the harvard i think is so good ah the composer for the show also did this song uh saito tsuniosi and he just really understands the style of takarazuka's music and it's just oh it's so so good don't mind me while i just you know blow a load over takarazuka music [Music] a weird breakdown section though but still very flowy very musical theater weird it it's very flowy it almost has like a three-four vibe but it's clearly in 4-4 uh nice closing section i wish i knew the words such a good song

21:52 i can fully understand if you don't like it or if it's just not the kind of music that you would ever choose to listen to because it's just a very niche thing it's not something that i would expect a lot of people to get into next up we have the ending for shinigami nocturne by mano ayumi who is the voice actress again for alice [Music] [Applause] very western electro pop style love the finger snaps too [Music] really cool singing rhythm there really cool mix like a really interesting

22:41 arrangement of instruments [Music] such a good drop i really love how the opening and ending musically they don't really fit the atmosphere of the show but they just feel right and i'm not really sure what makes them feel so right with the show but it works super well and i love it this is becoming a really standard style of japanese electronic music kind of reminds me of like snails house and uca and you know me more trap inspired [Music] very dark all of a sudden [Music]

23:27 oh such a nice symptom [Music] oh really nice cut there [Music] don't know how i feel about that very very ending part it felt like it should have kept going and then it just i mean it just didn't they left it on an open-ended chord i don't really see the point of that in the full version of the song maybe in like the 90-second version that would have been okay still like amazing song great synth line great sort of drawing from different kinds of electronic styles overall it sounds really really nice that ending is it's it could have been better next up we've got the ending for uramitio nissan

24:12 dream on by miyano mamuru [Music] immediately just such a clean mix kind of a weird mix but super clean [Music] i mean i don't deny that it is like a big contender for the best ending of the season [Music] i mean i basically watch this show for the ending because i don't find the humor that funny but the music oh [Music] it's such a weird mix of instruments and stuff like the church bells on the

24:59 background but it fits so well and i don't know how to explain it i guess it's a dream-like quality how surreal it all kind of sounds not the biggest fan of this face it's a little too heavy like very muddy and thick sounding oh but the pre-chorus and then the chorus itself too but this free chorus oh [Music] nice vocal line [Music] kind of a weird way to end it out but also didn't sound bad great song um i don't really have a lot to say about it i can talk about melody i can talk about

25:44 harmony but when it comes to production and like how clean things are i'm not really an expert on that it does have a really clean mix though and it's weird how the instruments kind of came together it starts off with that synthesized marimba sound and then mixes in like church bells underneath such a weird mix but it works so well i feel like i want more out of it i don't know what that more is in a good way it gave me a lot and i just want more and more of that next up we've got the ending for banitas zero by lmyk

26:37 [Music] oh it's such a nice vocal line on top of that synth pad it's a nice trap inspired backing beat this is just oh it's so chill like such a vibe and then that oh that drop it's not a very heavy drop but oh it's so good one and a two and a three and a four and a one and a two and a three into four oh no she switched there oh oh it sounded like it was going in a different direction and then i pulled back and went back to the normal pre-chorus that's so good it sounds so great i think this is her debut song too

27:23 what a song to debut with [Music] pretty understated bridge it's basically the same as the rest of the track just a different vocal melody [Music] oh really nice wash of sound at the end here and that's how you do an open-ended ending chord shinigami song that one was it felt like it didn't end this one was leading you into the open-endedness and it's just the odds isn't it it sounds so good the last song i want to talk about is the ending for shiroi sunano no yurikago by mia regina

28:09 really great atmosphere oh building eddie songs are just i mean i'm biased because i write for orchestra and stuff but oh it sounds so good it's such a good atmosphere like they really get that underwater feeling going and just stick to it really nice piano runs like they're very subtle and they kind of blend into the mix but like they really push the music along in that wave-like motion getting some nice synth effects in there too but still keeping that underwater vibe man i didn't look up who actually

28:55 composed this but now i'm really curious i'll put their name on screen but oh so good i love how it found it sounds kind of dramatic but not too dramatic so they can keep that sort of calming flowing vibe going but i do wish they would harmonize they don't need to to make this song pretty like it sounds really pretty regardless of them all singing the same line or not but it's a pet peeve of mine for idols to always just sing in unison the exact same line instead of harmonizing not really like a bop but definitely something to put on and just relax to because it's oh

29:41 and again this is how you write an open-ended song oh man such a good song it's really hard to talk about what makes it so great other than just like the the overall mix because the instrumentation very orchestral really pretty strings very high reverb for that underwater sound i'm a sucker for a good oboe line and it was very very hidden in the mix but when you could hear it i love oboes that is the last one i wanted to talk about but i do have a few honorable mentions that i do still like but i don't think they did quite enough to make it into the sort of top tier list we've got the opening for kanojo mo kanojo uh by nekurai toki it's fun it has a really nice arrangement and overall it's a

30:27 pretty nice song i'm not a huge fan of the singer she's not in tune and it's just kind of like maybe it's the style of the song but it's a little bit grating on the ears if you will the opening for tensei star slime like flames by mindanion i love the chorus i love the pre-chorus she has an incredible voice but if there's one thing that i should say about her voice it's that it feels a bit thin it feels like she doesn't have enough power to really bring out what she's trying to in the chorus great song just fell a little bit short for me the opening for season two of my next life as a villainous andanteni koyostek by angela it's a lot of fun it's a little too campy for me to enjoy it just felt a little too anime-y if that makes sense and i just couldn't

31:13 get into it beyond being just a fun anime opening i also don't understand the ode to joy riff that's in it it felt really out of place maybe it makes sense with the lyrics but i don't know the lyrics also the aquatope opening by arcana project i actually was gonna put this in the list uh because i think there's a lot of merit but uh it doesn't really stand out to me that much the idol vocals it feels like wasted talent idols obviously have to be somewhat good at singing at least they should be good enough singers that they can harmonize but i do love that it switches from 4 4 to 3 4 for the chorus the peach boy riverside opening dark spiral journey by q megahertz cool arrangement the singer seems a bit out of place with the style she sounds very classical or anki

32:00 because she has a lot of vibrato in her voice maybe if she had changed up her voice or her singing style a little bit for it it could have worked but it just fell a bit short the opening for tsukimichi gambling by shudo again another song that really could have made the list but it just it fell a bit short for me i know a lot of people are going to give me flack for that but it feels a bit too campy for me to fully get into i know people are going to say like oh like you liked some of the campy songs but it's the way they fit in whereas this one just it feels very campy it feels very middle schooler as for the endings uh dragon made s's ending made with dragons by super super toro gonz again could have made the list but it felt kind of all over the place it didn't have enough direction this one feels like they were

32:46 trying to go above and beyond what the first season did and it just it's still a fun song but just nothing special the peach boy riverside ending by miteno just kind of generic it sounds like a standard shonen opening which is why it's weird that it's the ending this one's just kind of generic i don't have a lot to say about it um it was fine and hiroaca season five ending number two usojanai by sakiyamasosi basically the same thoughts that i have for the peach boy riverside ending the singing for the chorus is a little bit flat it's a nice sounding song the genericness doesn't really detract too much but yeah the flat singing took away enough points for me that i was just kind of like this doesn't deserve to be here and that's the end of the honorable mentions i know

33:32 there are a lot and i think a lot of people will probably disagree and think that i should have put some of them in the top picks but again this is personal so it doesn't matter what i think now i have to think of what my favorite ending and opening are i still haven't really decided several song filled hours later so for the openings i was initially thinking that i was going to go with shinigami botchan's mangets i ended up changing my mind and it has to go to dragon maid season 2's i no supreme by fauna there's just so much to like about that song i mean disco funk for one it's a lot of fun it puts smile on my face and tawana is a great sing-songy cutesy rapper but then you have kevin who just kind of steals the show all of that combined with the amazing arrangement makes me forget

34:19 about the one little hiccup that it had but yeah no it's just it's a great song and i will probably listen to it until the end of time just like i do with the first opening and for the endings i was initially going to pick venitas no karite's ending zero by lmyk but in the end i ended up changing my mind to kageki sojou by the seiyuu the voice actresses i mean look i know not a lot of people are gonna agree with me it's kind of niche for a lot of people and i think just in general musical theater isn't the most popular genre for songs but as far as i'm concerned this specific musical theater track is very on point with everything that i look for in a good song great arrangement tight orchestral

35:05 writing it has amazing singing great harmonization from the two singers which is super important when there is more than one singer i just i love everything about it takarazuka music is some of my favorite yeah it's my favorite of the season again it's very niche i don't expect a lot of people to agree with me and that's okay because again my picks are my personal picks you can like what you like that's perfectly fine i'm not watching every single show this season so if you think i missed any of the great openings or endings that are airing this summer 2021 season let me know down in the comments below and don't forget to like the video and subscribe to my channel and if you want to vote on any of my future video topics and get access to my music transcriptions make sure to support me over on patreon because hey maybe you can vote on getting a more analytical look at some of the songs

35:51 that i covered over in this video thanks as always for watching and i will see you in the next one [Music] you