The World Ends With You Scraps Original Opening Theme Following Band's Scandal
The World Ends With You's anime has scrapped its original opening theme following a scandal from [...]
The World Ends With You's anime has scrapped its original opening theme following a scandal from one of its band's members. The World Ends With You's official anime debut was set this week as part of the Spring 2021 anime schedule, and it was revealed the day before that the anime would be changing its opening before the premiere of its first episode. Sony Music Labels reported that the drummer for ALI, the band behind the original opening theme, "TEENAGE CITY RIOT," was arrested and while the reason was not revealed, it was confirmed this meant a change for The World Ends With You.
With The World Ends With You: The Animation officially making its debut in Japan (and streaming with Funimation for fans in North America), the opening track was instead revealed to be a new version of "Calling," made specifically for the anime. The track was originally included in the original video game soundtrack and is composed by Ishimoto Takeharu, performed by Leah, and with lyrics by SAWA.
ご視聴いただきありがとうございました✨
第1話「死神ゲーム」変則OPは石元丈晴氏作曲の「Calling -Animation OP ver. -」でした！来週、第2話「シキ」にて通常OP映像を公開します！
— すばらしきこのせかい 公式アカウント (@TWEWY_PR) April 9, 2021
楽曲はなんと…お楽しみに！#TWEWY #すばせか #すばせかアニメ pic.twitter.com/cdEwO0mnew
The World Ends With You's anime is now airing new episodes, and fans can find the series streaming with Funimation. It's currently unknown as of this writing if this will continue to be the only opening theme for the anime adaptation of the video game, but we'll see soon enough! Funimation officially describes the series as such:
"Based on the hit game from Square Enix, Neku has died but doesn't remember what happened. He joins the Reaper's Game in The Underground, a contest for the dead where he fights to be brought back to life because…losers are erased from existence. No matter how stacked the odds may be in each round, he must overcome every obstacle in order to survive."
What did you think of The World Ends With You's first episode? Curious to see how the rest of the anime shakes out in future episodes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!