Anime

I picked out a handful of my favorite OPs and EDs and grouped them by shows that I am watching vs. shows that I am not watching. I also threw in a couple random mentions at the end for fun. These are in no particular order.

From shows I am watching

• Rock Lady OP - Ready to Rock by BAND-MAID - This is really the standout OP for me this season. BAND-MAID really killed it with this song (and all the other contributions they have made to the show). Also, just a quick mention that the ED is fantastic as well.
• Too-Perfect Saint OP - Aitoka by Riria - A pleasantly upbeat song for a show that has had a surprisingly good adaptation.
• NinKoro OP - Yarenno? Endless by Kana Hanazawa - You wouldn't know this was sung by the voice of Konoha in the show. The song is nothing like her character.

From shows I am not watching

• Aharen-san ED - Twilight by shallm - I loved shallm's previous work for Torture Princess, and this is another great one in that same vein. This one will likely kick around on my playlist for a while like her previous song has.
• Witch's Death ED - Hanasaku Michi de by Aoi Teshima - This one is haunting and somber, featuring lovely vocals.
• Boy-Girl Friendship OP - Shitsumon, Koitte Nandeshou ka? by HaKoniwalily & HoneyWorks - a lot of fun
• Fire Force ED - Urusiren by Umeda Cypher - This ED is just dripping with style.
• Food for the Soul ED - Miso Shiro to Butter by Reira Ushio - A lot of fun and very cute.
• Witch Watch OP - Watch me! by YOASOBI - Bright and smooth animation pairs well with another great song by YOASOBI.

Honorable Mentions

• Dynamic Visual Style - Shoushimin OP - Kaseijin by Yorushika - There were so many cool visual styles packed into this OP. It was a lot of fun to watch. The ED also does a great job of combining live-action and animation in an engaging way.
• Most Obviously Desperate to Start a TikTok Viral Dance - MIRU: Paths To My Future ED - Find a Way by MIYAVI - This was actually hotly contested with both the Ballpark ED and the ED for Himitsu no AiPri: Ring-hen. The latter of which starts with a whole live-action sequence of a dance.
• Biggest Difference Between OP and ED - Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers. Seriously, listen to the OP and then the ED. The two songs are so different from on another.
• Most Playable - Loser Ranger ED - Seigi by Rukurow note - I loved all the gaming styles through this ED. It felt like taking a stroll through an arcade.

My favourite OPs this season (of what I'm currently watching) are:

• SHOSHIMIN
• Witch Watch

I'm intrigued by the Apocalypse Hotel OP due to its way out of key singing and messy instrumental, which seem very fitting.

My favourite EDs are:

• Too Perfect Saint
• Catch Me At The Ballpark

Other than that, I finished Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun. Really fun anime. Love the character interactions. I never watched it before, but it felt very nostalgic. Probably because I started watching anime around that time. Shame about the ending, but other than that I had a blast.

Witch Watch and To Be Hero X OP look amazing.

Weekly ranking roundup:

1. Anime Corner - Full Results - Weekly Winner: To Be Hero X
2. Reddit Karma - Weekly Winner: Apothecary Diaries

Credit to /u/Abysswatcherbel for making the chart for reddit karma and /u/Nooble5 for the Anime Trending chart.

Something finally topples Witch Watch from the top of the AC chart, and it came from all the way down in 12th place last week. I am curious to know how To Be Hero X would be placing on the reddit chart, but unfortunately the reddit mods have decided to not allow discussion of the show since it doesn't meet their standards of anime enough to be on topic for the subreddit.

The only ones I've seen are to the only series I'm watching this season - Apocalypse Hotel, which is of note for an oddly off-key OP.

The first time I heard it I just took it to be the OP as sung by an awkward and poorly skilled robot, endearingly trying to sing a song that's more upbeat than she is, and I loved it. I still do and I still do.

So I started off the week finishing up Noein: Mou Hitori no Kimi e, which was excellent. It's part political thriller and part coming of age story, played out against a backdrop of quantum mechanics and multiverse theory, and just very well done.

Then I watched both seasons of Getsuyoubi no Tawawa, which, in spite of its four minute episodes dominated by fanservice is actually pretty good.

Then, somehow, I ended up watching Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! for the third time, and enjoyed it all over again. (And just thinking about it, I now have Easy Breezy stuck in my head).

And at the moment, I'm watching Mekakucity Actors, which atarted off being all style and no substance, which is particularly disappointing in this case, since its style is just a retread of the Monogatari series. And I don't just mean that it's the same basic style - it's the same sort of character designs against the same sort of backgrounds (and seems as if they could be literally the same backgrounds) doing the same stylized gestures and motions accompanied by the same sort of droning narration of the same sort of edgy pop philosophy. So basically the anime equivalent of reheated leftover cup ramen.

The first time I saw a character do this damned head tilt, I almost shut it off right then and there.

Thankfully, it does seem to be finally revealing some actual substance (seven episides in) though whether it ends up being enough to be satisfying or not remains to be seen.

Went through them all again and here are my favorites this time:

OPs

• Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc - I love the storybook aesthetic and the overwhelming use of green. I have my issues with this series, but this OP hits a dark and oppressive tone that I think works very well.
• Hero Aca: Vigilantes - this show is a love letter to american superhero comics and the OP exemplifies that very well (and is also a bop)
• Shoushimin S2 - on the surface it's got tons of impressive art style shifts, a fun song, and interesting visuals, but I'm sure that deeper in there are clues to the mysteries that i don't have the context to decipher, lol.
• To Be Hero X - this shows off the show's mix of animation styles and also its mix of superhero action with hints of darker mysteries
• Witch Watch - I love this OP so much and it makes me wish I liked the show more, lol. The characters are so expressive and them having fun is infectious

EDs

• Classic Stars - I really like the song they put together for this, and I think the boys' singing goes well with the instrumentation.
• Gundam GQuuuuuuX - they made the interesting choice to have a bunch of shots with one camera angle and I think it worked really well. The backdrop is so detailed and we get to see a lot of really cute little scenes of their daily life (I like it when the cube falls down)
• Ninja and Assassin Under One Roof - fun and colorful, and gets extra points for heartlessly deleting characters from the ED after they die
• Rock is a Lady's Modesty - while it's mostly just pans across static images, the stylization and coloring really give a strong vibe
• To Be Hero X - very moody and emphasizes the way that becoming a hero often becomes a tragedy rather than a dream come true.

Mentions (honorable or otherwise)

• Normally I really like EDs with a rougher style like Ann Shirley's, but the color flashes made this really hard for me to watch
• I wanted to like Fire Force S3's ED, since the animation and rap parts are really good, but the autotune on the singing is just too much, it hurts to listen to.
• Himitsu no AiPri's ED has some extremely scary live action versions of the main characters. No thank you.
• Miru's ED features the robot character doing what looks like a tiktok dance ??
• Princession Orchestra's OP's melody strongly reminded me of D.N.Angel's
• I think it's funny that almost none of the characters in To Be Hero X's OP or ED are in the first three episodes (I'm a bit behind) of the anime basically at all, lol. Nice gets some screen time in the OP, but I have no idea who anyone else is.

Favourite opening song: Inertia by Hiroyuki Sawano (To Be Hero X)

Runner-up: Plazma by Kenshi Yonezu (Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX)

Favourite ending song: I don't care by Hoshimachi Suisei (Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX)

Runner-up: KONTINUUM by SennaRin (To Be Hero X)

My favourite songs this season are in fact not the OPs and EDs, but the insert songs:

1. PARAGON by Hiroyuki Sawano (To Be Hero X)
2. New Type of Hero by Chatterbox (To Be Hero X)
3. JEOPARDY by Hiroyuki Sawano (To Be Hero X)

I picked up To Be Hero X over the past week. The plot is kinda basic and it relies on shock value heavily, but I have been enjoying it so much regardless. The drama and politics(?) is like a blend of One Punch Man and Oshi no Ko. Also, it doesn't have a single soundtrack that I dislike. Each one of them is a banger.

In non-OP/ED stuff:

I realized late that I'd missed a few anime because (for whatever reason) I thought they were sequels/spinoffs that required prior knowledge:

• Hero Aca Vigilantes - turned out pretty good and fun, but I got really frustrated with how the whole franchise continues to be weird about women (and also I liked Shinsetsu Man when he was just helping people in mundane ways)
• Umamusume Cinderella Gray - It seemed like a decent sports girl anime, but I don't really like sports girl anime lol
• Gundam GQuuuuuuX - (I thought it started with a movie but later learned that was just the first few episodes bundled together or something) This is definitely stylish, but I feel like the lore is a little dense for beginners, even if veterans keep telling me it's fine. There was way too much jargon I did not understand at all
• To Be Hero X - Absolutely stunning visuals mixing 2d and 3d animation, and I'm hooked on the story, but I'm not confident it will be able to keep it up. It's interesting that its premise is very similar to the central lore conceit of Hanako-kun (which was on my mind because the season just wrapped up)

After a lot of deliberation and some unfortunate cuts, I trimmed my list to show my friends down to: Apocalypse Hotel, Catch Me at the Ballpark, Gorilla God's Go-To Girl, Ninja and Assassin Under One Roof, To Be Hero X, and Too-Perfect Saint. And after a lot of deliberation and some unfortunate cuts, we ended up with an overloaded schedule with: Apothecary Diaries S2, Wind Breaker S2, Apocalypse Hotel, and To Be Hero X (we usually try to stick to 3 shows)

This doesn't really bode well for next season for us, since Dan Da Dan, Dress-Up Darling, Reborn as a Vending Machine, and Hanako-kun are all coming back, and To Be Hero X will be in its second cour.