Best Anime OP [BAOP] Tournament - Round 3 Start!

[Draconus297]

That was admittedly a mistake on my part. I didn't see said promise to put it up, and I just took it upon myself to get this thing up and running while the idea was still fresh. If Nico would rather I put the idea down, I'll walk away and ask that the entire thread be deleted/locked. I could even agree not to touch the tourney Nico puts up, if this left a bad taste in his mouth. However, I'm starting to get rather annoyed that one rule is getting so many of you needlessly making issues.

[Nicο]

That was admittedly a mistake on my part. I didn't see said promise to put it up, and I just took it upon myself to get this thing up and running while the idea was still fresh. If Nico would rather I put the idea down, I'll walk away and ask that the entire thread be deleted/locked. I could even agree not to touch the tourney Nico puts up, if this left a bad taste in his mouth. However, I'm starting to get rather annoyed that one rule is getting so many of you needlessly making issues.

Well, you just missed the 1 comment out of 42 on that status... I'm actually kind of glad, I can try out the other idea, and doing 2 tournaments at once is a little much. As for that one rule, I don't personally care all that much about it either way, so I guess it's ultimately your choice (if you'll still do it), but there are so many people who don't think that rule matters.

[Draconus297]

Glad you're on board!

 

As for continuing the tournament, of course I intend to. Your objection, as originator of the idea, was the only one I was overly concerned about. Once Chaos Sonic cuts off two of his suggestions, the bracket will be full, and we can just do edits to suggestions in cases where people want to shuffle representation around. If nobody wants to do any edits, we could even get the bracket going early, and watch what ensues.

 

That said, I stand by my rule. The bracket is very diverse, so it achieved its intended purpose.

[Tourmaline]

Katayaku no Tori - Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Destin Histoire - Gosick

Pokemon Theme - Pokemon (the famous one)

Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku - Dragon Ball GT

 

Edit: I just noticed Chaos Sonic's earlier additions, but you told him to trim his list before accepting his openings, so I'm unsure which takes precedence.

[Draconus297]

Executive decision: I'll give Chaos Sonic until the end of the day. If no fixes are made by then, Hina's suggestions will make the list.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Howling - Seven Deadly Sins Season 2

One Me Two Hearts - Divine Gate

Wimp - Gundam Build Fighters (The one on the list is from Gundam Build Fighters Try, which is different)

My Dearest - Guilty Crown

Kyoran Hey Kids! - Noragami Aragoto

Inner Light - Hajime no Ippo

 

Chaos Sonic, I said 4 max per person. Please trim your list to four.

 

Executive decision: I'll give Chaos Sonic until the end of the day. If no fixes are made by then, Hina's suggestions will make the list.

Quoting him for fairness sake.

...Also what about Monotaro's?

 

Ready Steady Go! - Fullmetal Alchemist

GO!!! - Naruto

Hanamaru Pippi wa Yoiko dake - Mr. Osomatsu

H.T. - Trigun

Though I think a couple are from series already taken

[Nicο]

@@God Emperor Cow @

Or mentioning? Unless you know he gets notifications by quotes, I know it wasn't default for me, and for the longest time I didn't bother changing that setting.

[Draconus297]

Monotaro's list is exactly 4, from "Fullmetal Alchemist" (The original, I took Brotherhood), "Naruto" (The original, Shippuden was the one taken previously), "Mr. Osumatsu" (never heard of it, but whatever), and "Trigun" (unless I made a grave mistake somewhere, isn't on the list).

[Super Chaos Sonic]

Howling - Seven Deadly Sins Season 2

Wimp - Gundam Build Fighters (The one on the list is from Gundam Build Fighters Try, which is different)

My Dearest - Guilty Crown

Inner Light - Hajime no Ippo

Chaos Sonic, I said 4 max per person. Please trim your list to four.

Executive decision: I'll give Chaos Sonic until the end of the day. If no fixes are made by then, Hina's suggestions will make the list.

 

Glad I decided to come online after being somewhat sick...it's edited now...

[Draconus297]

That's a full bracket, everybody! If enough of you want to push it forward, we can start earlier than intended . . . otherwise, we start on March 26th.

[Shradow]

That said, I stand by my rule. The bracket is very diverse, so it achieved its intended purpose.

 

Well yeah, if you enforce an unreasonable limitation of course the intended purpose will be achieved, but that doesn't automatically make it a good rule or anything.

 

Anyways, I'll be dropping Ambiguous but I'll have my dispute for Rain in a little bit.

[Draconus297]

I wait with bated breath.

[Shradow]

First, as I will be referencing specific timestamps, please refer to these videos when appropriate:

 

Now, when it comes to the music, I didn't take Music Theory 101 as a college elective or anything so I can't go super in-depth with regards to that, but to begin with I'm a sucker for violins in rock songs. The string part that starts in at 0:42 of the Rain video is easily my favorite instrumental part of the song. The song has a good flow that maintains itself throughout its entirety, which I think Again lacked, as until the more exciting part of Again that starts at 0:48 I find the music a tad uninteresting (not to say I don't like the song overall), and I feel like it jumps from calm to fast-paced too suddenly. And I have listened to both Yui and SID a fair amount, but I prefer the vocals of SID's main singer Mao over Yui in general, and I feel like Mao's voice fits really well with the tone of Rain. I won't cover lyrics as I feel that would be largely pointless, since even referring to an English translation would not necessarily be truly accurate, and I'm not really familiar with either song's lyrics off the top of my head anyways (I'm not the best when it comes to remembering lyrics in general) so it doesn't really affect my perception of either song.

 

With regards to the visuals of the openings (which I consider just as important to an opening as the music, probably moreso), I much prefer Rain's overall as most of the various scenes are relevant to the parts of the story they're referencing. I feel like a large part of Again's shots are generic (though shout out to the first 11 seconds of it being a very truncated version of Hohenheim's story, and the fact they used young Hohenheim that early in the series to make viewers who didn't know any better think it was Ed was very well done), and in the case of Ed clapping his hands in the field or Winry/Riza matching the lyrics, a bit odd. I feel like Rain is much more gripping emotionally (which is one of the main reasons Rain is my favorite, the emotion the song invokes) as it comes in the final part of the show where everything in the story comes to a head, properly including all past characters during the blue scene from 0:13-0:18, and covering the various combat scenes of the arc as well as things like the 5 sacrifices and the people of Amestris. In particular I loved the red/black scene starting at 0:22 (which is similar to 0:53-0:55 from Again but more stylized and includes more characters), with the rough art style blending with the torrent of souls in the background, and also the short bit at 0:58 with blind Mustang followed by crying Hawkeye. And I'm always a fan of the sun heralding the bright future at the end of the darkness, which in this case also transitioned to a happy EdxWinry scene.

 

In addition, I just feel like Rain is more of an FMAB song than Again is. I have a similar thing with Soul Eater's second opening Papermoon (which I don't dislike, mind you), where it feels like a more generic anime song and less of a Soul Eater song, following Resonance which definitely feels like a Soul Eater song to me. Part of it may be that I associate SID with FMAB more than Yui, similar to how I associate L'Arc-en-Ciel to the 2003 FMA series more than the other artists who contributed songs to it, where SID is the only artist who contributed more than one song to FMAB (they also did Uso, the first ending), like how L'Arc-en-Ciel contributed multiple songs to the 2003 FMA series.

 

I think that's more or less everything.

[Draconus297]

Looks like you're a lot more passionate for relevance than I am for hype. I'll swap out AGAIN for one of my other picks. What would you like to give up to cycle in Rain?

[Shradow]

Swap Rain for Connect, if you please.

 

Also, one point I did forget to cover is that I really like it when openings are used as insert songs, it also adds to feeling like they fit with the show and can show songs as being good for playing not just on their own during the opening but while other stuff is happening as well. Rain was used in FMAB episode 52 at a perfect time (I'll never forget when Armstrong blocked Sloth's attack against Olivier or the emotion in Ed's face and voice when attacking the mannequin soldiers with his spear), and other examples of openings making awesome insert songs include Hello World! being played during part of the climax of Blood Blockade Battlefront S1 (don't remember the episode number) or when JoJo~Sono Chi no Sadame~ played during the final part of the fight against Kars in JJBA: Battle Tendency.

[Draconus297]

48 hours until Draconus297 and Shradow are permitted another change

20 hrs, 6 mins until CowCow's next change

18 hrs, 36 mins until BS can change again

18 hrs, 13 minutes until Thar, MS, and Nyx are allowed another change

[Shradow]

Though if there's something we do agree on, it's that I SAY YES is the best ZnT opening. The wedding version always gets me so emotional, too.

 

Also you have Just Fly Away listed as the second opening for Gundam Build Fighters, not Gundam Build Fighters Try. And Fight Together is the 14th One Piece opening and GO!!! is the 4th Naruto opening, since you just currently have those listed with a question mark.

[Draconus297]

The people adding them didn't list which opening they were, but I know that those series had more than one opening.

 

Also, I SAY YES is one of the few openings to any harem show I've ever watched more than like twice. It's good sheet.

[TF2_The_Scout]

Am I allowed my change now?

[Shradow]

Looks like you're a lot more passionate for relevance than I am for hype.

 

Also, I guess I didn't really register this at first, but I'm not sure what you mean by this. The visuals of Rain having more meaning to them than Again was only a small part of my argument, but aside from that I'm all about hype, I often get really happy when there's a new manga chapter or episode of a show I watch and I get that feeling more from listening to Rain than Again. Rain being a more mellow song doesn't necessarily mean it's less hype than Again.

[Draconus297]

28 hours, 51 minutes until Draconus297 and Shradow are permitted another change

 

Yes. You're allowed to change again.

 

It's irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, Shradow, is it not?

[Shradow]

Well I was just not sure what you meant, but don't feel the need to give an explanation if you don't want to.

[Draconus297]

I typically define hype more by the pulse-pounding excitement than just the anticipation of something cool happening, is all. It's why I wouldn't exactly call the Prime 4 reveal "hype"- nothing exciting has happened, it's just building anticipation for something exciting.

[Shradow]

But the anticipation and build-up is the definition of hype, hype is "extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion" leading up to an actual product or event.

[Draconus297]

Before I head off to dreamland, I'm just going to drop ties here: how does everyone feel about the tournament starting a week early, on the 19th rather than the 26th as initially intended? Shradow seems to be the only one who wanted to debate choices, no one indicated a desire to shift their choices around of their own free will . . .