Top 10 Anime Openings of All Time, Ranked
A great opening is ninety seconds that tells you exactly what a show is. These ten are ranked on song, animation and how completely they became the identity of their series. Modern openings got their own list; this is the all time version.
The rankings
- Tank!, Cowboy Bebop. Big band jazz over silhouettes. Twenty five years later, nothing has matched its swagger.
- A Cruel Angel’s Thesis, Neon Genesis Evangelion. The most karaoke’d song in Japan and a perfect misdirect for the show that follows.
- Guren no Yumiya, Attack on Titan. Linked Horizon turned a first opening into a global anthem overnight.
- Sono Chi no Sadame, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The opening that set JoJo’s whole visual language.
- The World, Death Note. Nightmare’s track and Light’s apple made a psychological thriller feel like rock opera.
- Again, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Yui’s song over the Elric brothers’ journey is the emotional key to the series.
- Silhouette, Naruto Shippuden. Kana Boon’s track is the one every Naruto fan sings first.
- Gurenge, Demon Slayer. LiSA’s song became a phenomenon in its own right.
- Kaikai Kitan, Jujutsu Kaisen. Eve’s opening and its now iconic dance sequence.
- Unravel, Tokyo Ghoul. TK’s song outlived the show’s reputation and became a standard.
The rule we broke
We limited each series to one entry, which cost Naruto and JoJo several deserving spots. Blue Bird, Bloody Stream and Great Days would all make a top twenty.
My take: Tank! is number one and it is not close. It is the only anime opening I have heard played by a live band in a bar full of people who had never seen the show.
