Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince – 24 (Fin)

The final stage of the battle commences, as all of Earth’s forces lends support fire as Simon advances towards the gate in Star Rose. Izuru almost loses himself in his battle with Jiart, but his friends snap him out of it with insults. He masters Red 5, awakening its final form, and Jiart counters by souping up his AHSMB.

He continues dueling with Jiart. Theoria and Daneel keep the target clear as Ange defeats Dorgana and the fleet fight off the Wulgaru enough. Star Rose impacts with the gate in a massive explosion that collapses it. Theoria and Daneel retrieve Simon’s escape pod, and Team Rabbits locates Izuru, adrift, but alive.

Majestic Prince eschews OP and ED to squeeze every last moment out of its finale, and the epic battle gets a similarly epic coda with the awesome obliteration of Star Rose. Star Rose is a big, slow hunk of metal, however, so Earth’s forces and Team Rabbits in particular have to dig in and hold fast against what amounts to be an increasingly disorganized and ineffectual Wulgaru invasion force.

Jiart in particular may be a good dueler, but he’s a worthless general. As Kei reminds a frenzied Izuru before the hilarious insultfest the Rabbits unleash on him, Izuru has always wanted to be a hero; but heroes don’t just fight for their own satisfaction like Jiart. They fight to protect others. You can’t protect anyone if you’re dead, so sometimes heroes have to ease up. He does, and just barely survives. The Wulgaru threat is history, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be back someday.

Rating:7 (Very Good)

Stray Observations:

• We like how the action was broken up nicely by little moments of comedy, like Saionji flubbing her commands after having talked for so long.
• There’s also some nice little nods to the fact that the AHSMBs are not invincible, as the pit crews stay in contact with the pilots, and poor Kei’s ride gets wasted by Jiart.
• Unfortunately there was no time whatesoever for a happy epilogue; the battle ends, everyone is okay. Maybe an OVA down the road?

20 of Our Favorite OPs

(In Alphabetical Order)

UPDATE: We added five more for a total of 20.

Angel Beats!

A very lovely, moving theme accompanies an opening that still manages to efficiently unveil the sizable cast and the show’s purgatorial school setting.

Angel Beats!

(Yui’s J-Rock Arrangement)

A rippin’-good remix with electric guitars and a bolder, edgier palette.

Bleach OP#1

We once watched a lot of Bleach…too much, in hindsight. But we won’t deny it had a good start, and we still consider its first (of many) OPs to be the best.

Bokurano

We don’t know why, but Ishikawa Chiaki’s powerful, mournful yet hopeful vocals that open this GONZO series always get us a bit choked up. Pass the tissues, damnit! (This talented lady also sang the themes to Majestic Prince and Kamisama Dolls.) 

Chrome Shelled Regios

This is what happens when an OP washes down some adderall with a half-dozen Red Bulls. The booming energy is infectious.

Cowboy Bebop

One of the best anime ever made also has one of the best – and most iconic – openings.

Darker Than Black

This was a pretty good series partly due to Yoko Kanno’s participation in the soundtrack, but the OP is handled by a band rather amusingly called “Abingdon Boys School.” Our favorite part is how it so abruptly ends, which unfortunately this YouTube video cuts off.

Escaflowne

Yoko Kanno’s stirring, epic instrumentation, paired with a young Sakamoto Maaya’s strong, buoyant vocals make this entire OP shimmer and soar.

Eden of the East

We’re not what you’d call super Oasis fans (we’d never put a name to the song before watching this), but it really works here, and the complex, easter-egg-filled visuals still enthrall us today. A feast for eyes and ears.

Gantz

Considering how dark this show gets, it has a mighty upbeat theme! Another great GONZO OP.

Gundam 00

We’ve seen a lot of Gundam OPs, but this is our favorite, with a very serious and mature tone to it.

Kare Kano

Despite an abysmal ending due to running out of material and/or money, this remains hands-down our favorite romantic comedy series. Nothing else has been able to get into the heads of two crazy kids in love quite like this show did.  Its (literally) uplifting OP is one of our favorites as well.

Last Exile

Yet another GONZO series. Pretty much OP perfection, starting off with bagpipes and digeridus, then giving us Napoleonic sky battles and creepy starfish mechas. Claus’s touching down on the flight deck brings things to a tidy close.

Macross Froniter

Another very well-balanced and captivating OP, with an incredibly catchy theme tons of sci-fi action, love trangle themes and a few military salutes for good measure.

Mawaru Penguindrum

Crisp, sparse, dramatic, fantastic.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Evangelizin’ it old school.

RahXephon

Six Years after Escaflowne, Kanno and Sakamoto strike again and prove they’re a match made in heaven. The theme starts quietly, then progresses to a utopian/futuristic sound, and finishes with a nice acoustic guitar.

Samurai Champloo

Some days, some nights, some live, some die, in the way of the samurai.

Serial Experiments Lain

In our opinion, another successful use of an english-language song, along wih lots of weird multiple-personality imagery and general malaise.

Shiki

Weird-ass vampiry goodness, with a grinding, snarling, and rousing Buck-Tick song laced with appropriately dark lyrics.

Free! – 11

Rei confronts Rin, asking why he’s swimming in the prefectural relay, what happened in Australia that led to him abandoning the others, and what he wants from Haru. Rin turns it around and asks Rei what he wants, and Rei says he wants to swim as a member of the best team in the tournament, and warns Rin not to interfere. Believing him ill, Nagisa, Makoto and Haru stop by Rei’s house, surprising him with how much they care.

The next day the team heads up to the city hosting the regional tournament, check in to their hotel, have a meal, and go to bed, but Haru can’t sleep and goes for a run. He runs into Nagisa on the street, who’s looking for Rei. Rei meets up with Rin, who tells him about his woes in Australia, and how Haru didn’t cause him to quit, but rather inspired him to keep swimming when he returned to Japan. Later, Rin’s captain informs him he won’t be in the relay.

As evidenced by his bookshelf full of books on swimming, Ryuugazaki Rei is someone who doesn’t enter into any activity lightly, preferring to thoroughly study the theory before putting it into practice. As Nagisa warns, that can get him into trouble where swimming is concerned, but it’s how he operates, and it obviously served him well at track. Last week, Rei had gathered enough theory on the perplexing dynamic between Rin and Haru and Rin and the team he used to be a member of. Armed with his theories, he’s approaches Rin and doesn’t mince words. It’s the most fired-up we’ve ever seen him.

Like us, he wanted answers, and while he doesn’t get them immediately, Rin is moved by his passion and forthrightness, and decides that it’s alright after all to confide in Rei, and by extension us. He confesses that, far from killing it in Australia, going abroad made him feel inferior and hopelessly outmatched. He comes to blame his past relay swimming for his troubles in individual swimming, though he doesn’t blame his old teammates. Now that we know his side of things, Rin’s become someone we can empathize with. When he learns he won’t get to swim in the relay with Iwatobi, it’s as much a blow to us as him.

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stray Observations:

• Now that they’ve won something, the club’s fanbase is gradually growing.
• We loved the two birds eye views of the hotel rooms as the four swimmers couldn’t sleep. Tellingly, Nagisa’s side was a mess while Rei’s was immaculate, with everything at right angles.
• Haru really warms up in this episode, assuring Rei that he’s a crucial member of the team, then later thanking Makoto for being there for him, and thanking Nagisa for making him join the team.
• The pool where the regionals take place looks awesome, especially at night with its tranquil blue glow.
• If Nagisa and Rei are 15 (10th grade) and Haru, Makoto and Rin are 16 (11th), they’ll all be 22 or 23 in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo – the same age as Michael Phelps when he won eight gold medals at Beijing in 2008.