I figured it's time for me to give my opinions on this.
Because a lot of pop music in Japan uses the Royal Road progression, I hear it all the time in anime openings, and it's become equivalent to Four Chord Songs in my brain.
The Royal Road Progression is: IV-V-iii-vi.
And if you ever wanted to turn a song or composition into J-Pop, that's the way to do it.
Here's a Japanese music comedy group demonstrating it:
But I found my ears
love it when songwriters and composers either break out of what's considered normal, or take a normal thing, and put their own twist on it.
So these are the anime themes that I find are the best.
Cowboy Bebop is my all time favorite anime, so it figures that its opening is at the top of my list of best anime openings.
For what's essentially a Lovecraftian story about giant mechs, this song is strangely happy. It also doesn't use the Royal Road progression. Kinda. In the bridge it does, but it's off by one chord. That bit of familiarity is a bit of genius songwriting.
I just love this opening of
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure the best. It perfectly captures the energy and emotions I have when I watch the show. Just pure entertainment and style.
It's catchy, and it's one of my favorite anime/manga series. So of course it'd be here.
I love this anime, but really I latched onto this theme because the artist is one that I've admired for a long time. And true to form, they deliver quite a banger of a song.
Such a great opening.