Well, at one point I was watching Akane-iro ni Somaku Saka. Back when I was young and naive and desperate for VN conversions.

Despite the horrible start, I was hopeful that it would pick up. It never did, so I hoped I would at least be able to enjoy the near-trainwreck nature of the plot, with little more than typical fluff and nonsensical developments. And with the way the ending turned out apparently, I might have been happy.

But somewhere along the way, I realized, Akasaka just wasn’t bad enough – and certainly not good enough – to justify watching. It trended up towards mediocrity, and without friends to lambast it with, my interest faded. But still, there was one thing that stuck with me – this song.

It’s fairly generic, being a rock-pop mix, but I’ve never been averse to any song I can imagine in Rock Band. “Confusion…” is a nice, upbeat song which can get my foot tapping and my fingers air-guitaring. Especially with the opening few riffs that sound like they were taken right out of Through the Fire and Flames. High marks for that.

One of two songs I’ve recently become addicted to, that I can hardly watch with a stoic face. However, it’s not out of laughter, but rather, emotion.

Featuring trademark KyoAni graphics and a slightly new tune (as opposed to the straight-from-the-VN-OP songs of Clannad, Kanon, and AIR), Toki wo Kizamu Uta is a particularly strong song at first glance, and only gets stronger once you look at elements like the lyrics.

It’s easy to see, just with knowledge from the movie (and I imagine the visual novel would provide more insight), that Toki wo Kizamu Uta is one of those songs that actually is quite relevant to the content of the anime it bookends. Unlike many generic pop songs which just sound cool and that’s it, this OP has definitely a strong correlation to the events of Clannad past and to come.

Oh, and that piano piece with soft-spoken lyrics at the end? Quite ace. Haven’t seen anything like that.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t been sold as much on Kannagi as many of the others in the otakusphere have been. It’s certainly a very watchable show, but with limited time, I found the vaguely similar substance of Toradora to be much preferable in any way. Or perhaps, it’s that the two shows are way different, in that while Kannagi is interesting episode-to-episode, Toradora provides a reason for me to continue from one episode to the next.

And the infamous dancing OP of Kannagi was much the same. It was above average, at least, at first glance, but nothing horribly catchy. Still, one day, during my Computer Science final, I just couldn’t get those words out of my head. “The kiss is too pl-ain~” and whatnot.

It’s then I realized, it’s actually a quite nice OP, in sort of a retro way. The instruments all remind me of old 90’s song, for some reason. The dancing … ? Maybe that’s just sort of slick in general; more realistic and less memetic than the Lucky Star or Haruhi dances, yet still quite memorable.

Like the song itself.

This may be a bit of bias here – I’ve always been one to pimp the Code-E series (and its sequel Mission-E), thanks to a perceived lack of interest for it. I never quite understood why – it’s just a touch away from something shonen-esque, with a nice bit of action, some cute girls (Chinami, Chinami, Chinami), and general lighthearted fun. (or, for the first season, slice-of-life romance fun)

And the instrumental OPs have always been somewhat of a great throwback in themselves, somewhat reminding of Cowboy Bebop or an old 90’s detective anime. What I picked here though, is the equally retro complement to the OP of the second season, “feel so easy!”, which could masquerade as an 80’s pop song with any luck.

Still, it’s inexplicably catchy with its high-energy, intensive beat, and cheerful lyrics, so I still loop it when I need to get my feet moving (yes, I have an workout mix full of anime tunes). And plus, it has a slightly different, slower and deeper mix in about a quarter of the anime episodes – any song with more than one in-anime mix (see: Sora no Yume) gets automatic cool points.

For a lot of anime, the value of an OP and ED quickly grow thin. I may obtain the song later for use in general activity (i.e. looping over and over while writing a humanities essay) but during the actual animation, I tend to use that minute-long break to get snacks, stretch, or, in some anime, scream in agony.

However, for a select few, I end up on the other end of the scale, stretching a 25 minute episode to 35 minutes, solely out of looping the short mix of an OP or ED. The animation tends to contribute a bit to this, although the song is likely also strong on its own.

Toradora, in addition to being awesome in every way ever, has an ace pair of songs at both ends; both seem like quite standard pop-ish fare, but have a strange appeal to them. This is probably due to the driving bass-techno beat that back up both songs; such a thing always gets me head-bobbing and dancing in a particularly embarrassing manner.

All four of Higurashi’s songs have a place on my long-term song rotation. This is something that amazes me, because at one point I disliked every one of them.

But as I got into the dark, psychological, maniacally insane mood of Higurashi, all the songs caught on with their unique style, all perfectly fitting to the anime. I couldn’t think of better songs to match with Higurashi; from the dark Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, to the wistful why or why not, to these two.

I eventually grew to love the songs of the second season more than the first; I can’t quite determine why. The OP song, Naruku no Hana, is more relaxed, maybe closer to the standard Anime Opening Song than Higurashi, but is still undoubtedly in line with the show, with the whining guitar licks and the ominous chanting. The lyrics have an amazing punch to them, as well, which really impresses me.

And “Taishou a” is a great chill song, maybe even more so than the first season’s ED. It’s something you could imagine seeing at a coffee shop or in a lounge somewhere. With its melancholy yet hopeful mood, it’s very Higurashi, and very moving. Great stuff all around.

The perfect example of an Anime Opening Song Done Right. It’s undoubtedly, completely, utterly generic, with that unmistakable J-pop style; yet the strongly-sung lyrics and wailing guitar make it stand out from the crowd. Almost like Haruka’s Secret as a whole.

The song has easily memorizable chords and lyrical patterns, which make it an ideal song to get stuck in your head for hours on end. And the way the last note in the final lyric, “hanasana-i-de~~~” is held, is simply magical.

As usual, I’m completely and utterly broken by ef, so don’t take this as a surprise.

I really feel that ‘ebullient future’ is an improvement over ‘euphoric field’ in every way; the two songs are quite the same, but as one blogger who I can’t place commented, “The song is very much ‘once more with feeling’”.

And I definitely feel the feeling of ebullient future; the slow, emotional lyrics, and the fast, powerful chorus work together to almost tell a story with the song itself, a story that you could probably draw ties back to the actual anime.

Plus that guitar solo in the center? Masterpiece.

I’m probably a bit biased by the raw emotional power ef now holds over me, and the OP song brings those emotions back to memory every time I listen to it in the car (or at least, makes me scream “Gah, I need to rewatch ef”). Not to mention, all the wankery Shaft did with the OP this season, counting the instrumental, English, and Japanese versions, with all the color permutations in-between.

But nevertheless, this is still one of the best anime songs this year for me.