"I Hear Singing!"

Hey, fellow anime lovers! You may have heard about a thing that K_at_the_Movies did, inviting a bunch of us anibloggers to comment on and rate ~150 anime openings, to see which were the WORST of all time!

Now that you’ve presumably brought yourself up to date watching the vid, you’re naturally wondering: “But NegativePrimes, what about your impeccable taste? Which of these candidates were, as perceived through your piercing insight, the anime equivalent of going to the maitre d’ and demanding a cocktail of rancid shark blood?”

I’m glad you asked. Below are the ten most cacophonous monstrosities to scorch my ears and eyes in the lead-up to K’s film (which you really should watch if you have not). They are accompanied by my ratings (from 10 = the best to 0 = the worst; none of those listed below scored better than 2/10)—and my comments, i.e. the uncensored thoughts that went through my head in the very act of viewing the OP.

Enjoy.

Number 10: Naruto English OP 1 – 2/10

Yelling does not make one sound tough. Nor is it particularly ninja-like.

Number 9: Alps no Shoujo Heidi – 2/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR2WY7ucrfc&list=PLFwxEhseY8sEU5JI6fnkAHJ2M_eifB17g&index=2&ab_channel=IgnacioRodr%C3%ADguezCh%C3%A1vez
Two words: Japanese yodelling.

Number 8: Mushibugyo – 2/10

Take the same fourteen notes, repeat them a couple dozen times, with a screechy voice and no respect for rhythm, and ta-da! You have the song for this OP. Visuals are meh.

Number 7: Oh! Super Milk-chan – 2/10

Please make it stop.

Number 6: Cyborg Kuro-chan – 2/10

Irritating singing, irritating cats.

Number 5: Souten-Kouro – 2/10

From the overly-repetitious guitar riffs to the people moving their mouths with no words to match, plus the screaming… No.

Number 4: SD Defender Gundam Force – 2/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTYZ9OTgYBA&ab_channel=AkaAnimeIntros
Bad CGI and robots dropping their pants make this a nope from me.

Number 3: Puchi Eva Evangelion@School – 1.5/10

This one starts out like a shadow puppet show. I wasn’t impressed because that’s not really animation; but then we got to the real animation and it looked even worse. I’m giving a half-point because the animators realized their mistake and went back to the shadow puppets at the end. Also, the music was some very talented person murdering their electric banjo.

Number 2: Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Bangaichi – 0.5/10

I’m not sure what I just watched, but it is unquestionably… bad. Just bad.

Number 1: Monkey Magic – 0/10

Here it is! The dubious distinction of being the most appalling sight ever to grace(?) my computer screen goes to Monkey Magic‘s opening!

This is a painfully bad ripoff of Dragonball. And yes, I checked the timeline and confirmed that this is about ten years later than DB.

Now that you, Hardy Soul, have persevered through this list, your eyes and ears may require some assistance. Or perhaps some bleach*—I mean, Bleach. Here is one of my all-time favorite OP’s, Bleach OP #10, featuring Scandal’s “Shoujo S”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9vIpu0kAbE
Feel better? Of course you do.

*Curiously Dead Cat does not endorse the use of bleach in any way other than that listed on the manufacturer’s label.

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9 thoughts on “Worst Anime OPs of All Time”

  1. Oh dear God the Monkey Magic one is an abomination. Ditto for Evangelion@School. They literally, for the latter, took my favorite anime of all time and crapped on it so hard like it was supposed to be a parody. 😡

    And to think there are shows that I found bad but still enjoyed the opening… but for me three which come to mind which I didn’t like (and they were decent shows, mind you) are the second openings of Cardcaptor Sakura, Yu-Gi-Oh GX, and the opening to Sonic X. That’s pretty much it.

    I should do a similar post to this if I can. Thanks for the idea! 😁🙏

    Reply

    1. Credit where credit is due: the original idea is K’s! I’ve not seen the other OPs you mention except the CCS one, and I don’t remember it (so how good could it be??). XD

      If you do a post like this, let me know so I can check it out!

      Reply

  2. I see some similarities with Dragonball, but I think that Monkey Magic is an adaptation of Journey to the West, which dates back to the 16th century. Though I don’t know how closely it follows the novel since I’ve never watched it. Dragonball was inspired by Journey to the West too, which is a fun fact.

    Reply

    1. Yes! The original Dragonball shares a lot of similarities with Journey to the West. DBZ took things in a whole different direction…

      I still suspect that Monkey Magic, as an adaptation of JW, wouldn’t have been given the time of day if not for DB’s success, regardless.

      Reply

  3. I see you and I do not have the same taste in music because that SZS opening is AWESOME! So great. I love it.

    And there are couple on here that i think are fine.

    Reply
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