Favorite TV Show Openings/ Credits

[sextus the crazy]

Spoiler: Elfen Lied

Shit! For every opening I remember, I forget 2. Elfen Lied's opening was the best thing about the show.

 

[Snownine]

I think the shortest one I have ever seen has got to be My Name is Earl's, not sure if it totally counts though.

 

[wolf thing]

war planets shadow raiders, the music, the footage works so well. a great opening for a great show.

 

[Nouw]

Spoiler: Boardwalk Empire's various credits songs.

The various old songs in the credits is nice as a temporary farewell and reflection of the episode.​

I quite like the opening theme as well:

Spoiler: Boardwalk Empire intro

I'm actually not a fan of the intro. It's a missed opportunity and I was disappointed they opted for using electric guitars, an instrument that wasn't even invented in the early 20s >.>.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Since we're entering anime territory, I'll post two of my most recent favorites since most of the classic things have been posted.

Both of these get my heart racing and full of emotion for the characters involved.

Cheating a bit on this last one, it's not an intro song but it's so damn good I had to post it. It's a piece of music that plays during many episodes of the anime 'Berserk' which I watched recently.

(BTW it's the first 3-4 minutes of that video that I'm talking about)

Paranoia Agent snip

Susumu Hirasawa (who's work I love greatly, infact FORCES is one of my favorite songs and I was gonna post it because it's the preview song) is the man behind the OST for both of those, it's nice to see I'm not the only one here who pays attention to him.

The Berserk OP, isn't bad either, really summarizing the main character's inner struggles.

 

[Snownine]

I dig Firefly and Cowboy Bebop. Also the first two MST3K openings but I'm less on board with everything that came after.

I'll add two openings I like because they are effectively theses for their shows:


First Rome. Not a single lead actor is pictured and the camera never focuses on anyone's face. It's all about the city, the graffiti, the muck that comes about when real people make an impact on their world, and that impact isn't always the clean white marble we're used to thinking of when we think of Roman relics. It also creates an excellent bridge into the cultural mindset of classical Romans- sure, their attitudes toward sex and violence were different than ours today, but they're not so different that we can't comprehend them.


Next: Paranoia Agent. This series is a beautifully scathing criticism of many facets of Japanese society, yet both inside and outside Japan it seems to get very little recognition as anything other than "weird". The music to me is like a soundtrack to Tokyo life, but it's the images that I like best and I find it odd that people often react to this OP like it's some inscrutable puzzle. We start with the main character Tsukiko depicted in an archetypal Japanese suicide attempt (It might at first seem that she's just standing on a tall building, but if you look carefully you see she's holding her shoes. Apparently many Japanese people who kill themselves by jumping off of buildings take off their shoes first.) laughing mindlessly. The OP then procedes to show us all the other principle characters of the show in terrible predicaments (submerged after a tidal wave, falling from the sky, in garbage dumps, etc) laughing in the same mindless way, eventually leading to the old man laughing on the Moon as the Earth is wracked by nuclear explosions. I don't want to give away the plot, but this denial of one's circumstances to force an outward appearance of happiness essentially ties into the thesis of the show.

The tidal wave scenes especially carry weight for me in the aftermath of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. It's a precognizant echo of the odd way that in the weeks following people were constantly inundated with horrible news about destruction, devastation, and ruined or lost human lives, yet people who were not directly affected seemed to feel that they must go about their normal daily routines as though they felt nothing.

Thank you for that awesome exploration of the opening sequence and the show in general. I remember watching it back when it was on its first run on Cartoon Network several years ago (almost 8 according to a quick Google search), back when that station actually meant something to me. I have not seen it since then and I really think I should give it another look. I remember the opening always feeling powerful to me, especially the man standing on the tower as the mushroom cloud looms behind him.

 

[RADIALTHRONE1]

Yes! Got it! Honestly didn't think i would be the first to post this.

 

[GoldenEye]

Doctor Who, especially with series 4 theme.

Spoiler

 

[Tony2077]

the first outro for shakgun no shana is good and the intro for egro proxy is in my 10 ten

 

[Berserker119]

Spoiler

 

[janjotat]

Anyone who has been to Portland will find this extremely amuzing

And I love the ending to Bastion so tah dah here it is