An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

2nd Anniversary Special: Top 10 Anime Openings (Action and Non-Action lists)

Well, it’s that time of year again – time for a Top 10 list! This is one that’s probably going to be deeply contentious: there are so many anime openings, and so many of them are really good that I think every anime fan has their own personal top list, with very little overlap between them. So if you disagree, go ahead and share your favorites in the comments, I’d love to hear them.

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1 Year Anniversary Special: Top 10 “Sad” Anime Moments

So, for the one-year mark of the blog, I’ve decided to do a top ten list! This time, it’s the top ten moments from anime that I’ve found darkly emotional. I titled the list as Sad, but Sad doesn’t quite cover it as when preparing the list I wanted to include some things that weren’t traditionally sad, but had more complex emotional profiles, hence the air quotes in the title. The scenes will include sorrow or crying on the part of the audience, but can also be ones that touched on fear or had you crying for reasons other than straight-up tragedy and loss. I did, however, have a couple rules. First, I had to be able to determine a fairly contained scene, rather than a longer sequence. At the very least, it needed to be contained to one episode in the end. Second, it did have to have some element of pathos, it couldn’t be a purely fear-inducing horror moment. Something in the scene had to be something that would make you cry. Third and finally, I both restricted myself to multi-episode shows rather than movies or one-off OVAs and also would not give more than a single mention to a particular property, even if it had many strong moments.

Now, I am not a review-bot who has watched every Anime in existence (shocking, I know!) and scenes that threaten to start the waterworks can be intensely personal. So if you think there’s something else that should be mentioned, either because I didn’t consider it or because it’s in something I haven’t spoken about… leave a comment! Let me know! Tell me about the scenes and shows that moved you. And, if you can, leave a comment as well telling me what you think about the “Top 10 List” format, and if this is something that should be an occasional feature.

All that said, while this list is intended to cover something of a spectrum, it does hit on a LOT of turning points and especially character deaths, so from this point forward, there will be spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

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