The original Pokémon “Gotta Catch ’em All” intro is nostalgic for many who grew up in the ’90s. Whether a fan of anime or a total normie, “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” from Neon Genesis Evangelion is a widely known song in Japan that’s classically sung for karaoke. Dandadan opening “Otonoke” by Creepy Nuts is a relatively newer opening theme that quickly gained popularity as one of the best openings in recent years. But while there are plenty of openings in anime that evoke nostalgia and become highly popular, there are also plenty that are… not that great.
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In fact, they’re pretty awful. Even if some of the series themselves are actually pretty good and worth watching, some of the openings have below-par animation, visuals that are jarring or don’t properly represent the actual anime, or have just straight-up terrible music. That last component is probably the worst part since the music is supposed to be the main appeal of the opening. And some go a little further to have awful everything. And in the realm of just terrible anime opening themes, these are certainly some of the worst.
10) Berserk 1997 OP
While Berserk is a widely popular, beloved anime (at least the 1997 series), the original opening was somehow both iconic and straight-up terrible. “Tell Me Why” by Penpals just feels entirely wrong, as if purposefully misdirecting the audience to expect this grimdark series to eventually somehow have a happy ending with its incredibly upbeat tune and carefree lyrics.
The heavily accented English lyrics have even become a sort of meme within the fanbase, with quoted lyrics such as “put your grasses on.” The song may sing “nothing will be wrong,” but such an optimistic, empty promise couldn’t be further from the truth. Everything will be wrong.
9) Psychic Princess OP
While a comedy, “The Princess of the Spirit” by Lei Minmin Ci, as the opening theme for Psychic Princess, lays the presumably purposefully silly-toned singing on a bit thick. The strange, nasally tone sounds as if the song itself were some racist parody, even though the series itself is a legitimate and actually highly-praised Chinese series and not a mockery of one. Despite the strange singing and dance club beat and bright colors, the animation itself is actually pretty good, if a bit silly.
8) Kill Me Baby OP
It’s questionable if the opening to Kill me Baby, “Kill Me no Baby!” by Mutsumi Tamura and Chinatsu Akasaki, is purposely terrible since the series is a comedy, after all. Are the English lyrics supposed to feel disjointed? What’s with the lyric “Homie’s nothin’ to me”? While the lyrics and song in general leave so many unanswered questions when just viewing the opening, one thing’s for sure: it’s absolutely iconic for an already frantic anime opening to just straight up have the random lyric “Holy sh-t!” come out of nowhere. Truly a masterfully, hectically crafted kludge of an opening.
7) Gakuen Handsome OP
To be fair, Gakuen Handsome is a parody that’s blatantly supposed to be comically awful. Even so, it is awful in an unironic sense. Gloriously and iconically awful. The stereotypical yet uncanny poses, the overtly tropey bubble backgrounds and sweeping scenes, the conventional upbeat melody, the ridiculous (-ly handsome) Chad chins… Let’s be real, “Get!! Yume & Dream” by Kagami Shou is stupid. And yet goes hard. An amusingly awful opening for an amusingly awful anime.
6) Spiral: Bond of Reasoning OP
With the relentless percussion banging away as if to compete with the awful, tone-deaf singing, “Kibouhou” (“Cape of Hope”) by Strawberry Jam as the opening for Spiral: Bond of Reasoning instead should’ve been named “Cape of Migraines”. Although the series itself is a pretty decent mystery drama about a detective going missing and his brother being the one to investigate a murder he’s been framed for that wraps back around to his vanished sibling. Even so, the opening is quite the blaring misnomer that should probably be set to be automatically skipped should you watch this series lest you actually develop a headache.
5) NieA Under 7 OP
Sure, some singers have a pleasant, gritty, or raspy quality that can complement a song, but this isn’t one of them. You’d think that an anime that included staff who also worked on Serial Experiments Lain would have a bit more tact for choosing an opening especially for a series within the iyashikei genre.
This anime opener, however, is immediately jarring, and not in a way that would be apt to evoke a more surreal, avant-garde, or thought-provoking complexity. There’s no sugarcoating the opening theme “Koko Made Oide” by SION — it sounds like they purposefully sought a singer with a voice as though they were a pack-a-day smoker with a lung infection.
4) Musashi Gundoh OP
No, “Ghost Busterz” by ULTRA BRAiN has nothing to do with the more fondly recognized film starring Bill Murray. Instead, it’s the opening theme for Musashi Gundoh, a fairly low-rated, poorly executed anime about a samurai who wields a gun.
The anime’s opening theme immediately begins with, frankly, some pretty unpleasant audio assault that sounds like chiptune glitching out. Then the near unintelligible lyrics crop up that sound like they’d be a bit more apt for background music in a Tony Hawk Pro Skater game. Overall, the opening is just garbage and unmemorable.
3) Honey and Clover OP 1
While “Dramatic” by Yuki isn’t the worst song for an opening, don’t let these visuals fool you. Honey and Clover isn’t even a gourmet anime, despite solely displaying plated meals and not a shred of any animated visuals of the actual series, instead opting for stop-motion, and it’s actually rather charming.
Some of the fare is actually kind of creative, like the cute floral foods or the pasta mummy. But… What’s with the soiled plate of panties? Or the hand spelling out “help”, hopefully in ketchup and not something more sinister? Not to mention the shrimp-fingered hand at the end that gives a completely unnecessary jump scare for a josei, albeit apt for major Beetlejuice vibes.
2) Baki the Grappler OP 2
The second opening of Baki the Grappler featuring “All Alone” by Techno Sheep is a prime example of an opening with terrible animation and song that’s tone-deaf both literally and regarding the premise of the show. It’s a bit jarring hearing an opening that’s more sultry in nature rather than hyping viewers for an action-packed martial arts series.
Also, while plenty of anime openings do successfully insert English lyrics that can benefit the overall vibe of a song, this is not one of those. The lyrics, being entirely English, are pretty clunky, disjointed, and, frankly, don’t really make much sense. Then again, it does have some pretty iconic, if silly, lines like, “She makes me feel a little special, yeah!”
1) Naruto German OP
“Believe It”, composed by Giovanni Rubbiani and performed by Jungle Crew and Silvia Orlandi, is just a terrible excuse of an opening in which Germany would’ve been better off either just adopting one of the other readily made openings or even just leaving it silent. But what’s fascinating is that the opening isn’t just an indication of Germany’s dreadful attempt to import the show, but the show itself was apparently infamous as being one of the worst cases of absolutely butchering the entire series due to strict censorship.
Cutting out entire scenes, poorly editing out blood, and avoiding any mention of death, the show for Naruto as a whole suffered so immensely, it’s astonishing that they even bothered with trying to edit it rather than just banning the series as a whole. After all, the opening itself should be banned.
What anime do you think has the worst opening theme? Or perhaps is there a theme that’s so bad, it’s good? Let us know in the comments what terrible anime openings fans everywhere should know about!
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