Why JOJO OPs Matter

there are typically a few different ways that a series can build a brand usually a definitive aesthetic is the easy way to draw an audience's attention which is why you see so many series try to emulate what's popular at the time this makes it seem like some shows are on a cookie cutter production line and the difference in quality might be more difficult to discern this isn't exclusive to Western or Japanese animation or just animation in general shows for the longest time have always needed a way to grab the attention of an audience and distill down the themes tone and style of a series in about 30 to 90 seconds Minions are real I have seen one I have touched one with my own hands and one of the most common ways to achieve that goal is by having an opening theme song the evolution of opening themes derived from musical theater in which the Overture was meant to be a medley of the most prominent songs of the entire show showing the themes tone and feel of what the play was about television used the idea of an opening theme to instantly grab people's attention think back to how many theme songs are just instantly recognizable these will stick with an audience far longer than most specific dialogue from the shows they're even watching openings can be short long relevant or not but typically they maintain one thing consistency it's fairly uncommon for an opening to a television show in the west to change because that risks losing the factor of recognizability with the audience this usually comes down from a corporate standard and not a lack of creativity most Productions will use the same song but may change scenes being shown between different seasons then enter Japanese anime where openings can be as good and in some cases better than the show you're watching anime openings are one of the major draws to watching it in the first place since they managed to suck you in with typically very upbeat and engaging themes anime specifically from the Shonen variety tends to focus on maximizing the hype aspect of a production with the opening some shows that I grew up with on four kids like Pokemon dragon ball and yes even one piece attempted to capture that draw energy and appeal of the source while putting an Americanized spin on them often changing the lyrics and meaning while the music itself still fits the appeal of the 90s cartoons airing at the time golf I guess the best thing you can say is just that anime openings hit differently however that doesn't mean openings can't fall into well being repetitive trite to dog water whatever's popular at the time tends to lead the trends however I've always found myself loving series that rebuff the established Trends by taking their Ops in directions that help them stay stand out from the crowd and in my mind there's no series that does this better than JoJo's Bizarre Adventure JoJo openings are some of the craziest in all of anime for many reasons and since you clicked on this video you're probably expecting me to elaborate in glorious detail someone needs to because JoJo openings are something special compared to your typical anime's opening and even if you're not acquainted with the series viewers can still come to enjoy and appreciate them this is because David production the studio that produces JoJo had enlisted another Studio known as Kamikaze Doga to make half of the openings for them and Kamikaze Doga did something incredibly interesting with them JoJo's original openings happen to be 3D CGI oh oh wait it's actually good CG nutty yes it turns out a studio filled with dedicated 3D animators can actually create better CGI than the director of golden kamui who could have thought but in all seriousness the 3D JoJo openings are are unlike anything around see the author of JoJo's hirohiko araki has a unique art style to say the least some of these designs have had trouble being adapted into 2D before however to see these characters fully rendered with fluid movements is a joy Beyond none other a gold experience that is made in heaven so let me briefly explain and go over what each part's openings accomplish for simplicity's sake I'll be analyzing in chronological order and not the full songs only what aired on television starting with part 1 Phantom blood Sono Chino sadame comes out of the gate Swinging with the best foot forward this song was sung by the iconic hirokai Tomi tominaga this opening really drives home the relationship between Jonathan joestar and Dio Brando especially with the title itself Sono Chino sadame which translates into the fate of that blood but the relationship is punctuated with lines like twin stars streaking through the heavens stir the surface of light and Darkness throbbing hearts burn as if a flame the pulse which beats forth from their palms the courage which runs through their veins but besides the lyrical composition each transition in this opening seamlessly flows from one scene to the next as the music builds to its Crescendo there are plenty of analysis videos that go over every little detail in reference in the series in the opening I've even done some before myself I don't really want to retread that ground with this video I want to talk about the structure of these openings and how they say something profound and that's what you get from the first moment when you open up the literal pages of time as they rewind through Jolene Giorno josuke jodoro and Joseph until Jonathan gives his moment to shine and you see the real rivalry between this character and deal grow and develop until this bombastic ending and the ending itself being the mask's Burial at Sea makes this opening feel almost mythical as if it was some sort of Legend while being a direct reference to the fate of characters at the end of the park being the first opening there's a lot of big and stilted animations here and there but it's not too noticeable so overall it's a beautiful way to open up the series Part 2 battle tendency introduced a new opening bloody stream by the always entertaining Coda this is where JoJo openings decide to take a bit more of a fabulous Trend when it comes to how they establish themselves and what aesthetic limits they decide to push right from the first few seconds of this opening a more confident easy going tone is established through Joseph doing his Chad stride onto the scene and this is the perfect way to reflect the comedic nature of part two when compared to part one this opening goes wild with color contrast and even the fluid movements are blended with 2D animation where it fits and with it you're introduced to so much more of the cast than the previous opening had as the last was focused primarily on Jonathan and Dio this opening manages to include however brief it may be characters like C Caesar Lisa Lisa the pillar men Speedwagon Smokey stroheim and the rest of the cast the opening is a lot more extravagant with the posing something the coda openings are just very well known for not only is the visual foreshadowing even more explicit in this opening than before but the lyrics of the song once again translate to the message being portrayed from the silent death the pillars awake from their ages-long Slumber Crimson blood summons the valorous stand-up undying bonds of Honor awry take hold of them Joseph is stepping into the role of his grandfather a bit unwillingly because of the imminent threat of the pillar men I really love the reference to Crimson blood the blood that awakens my masters but also is the bloodline of the Joe stars and the zapellis fighting the stone masks once again and I can't stress enough how much of a banger this song is like I really need to do a ranking video of all the openings based on How likely I would be to put them on if someone passed me the aux cord bloody stream was the first opening to push forward the unique hodgepodge of design motifs and that's why it certainly stands out speaking of standing we're about to stand proud with the third opening from part three Stardust Crusaders with one of the most iconic characters from anime manga jodarokujo performed by Jin Hashimoto this opening wants to Hype everyone up to the maximum as this part was where JoJo's big break really came from it's hard to understate how influential Stardust Crusaders was to the series with not only the change in power system but the longer narrative structure that really felt like you were on a journey with these characters and this opening captures that perfectly before the lyrics even get started you're reminded of the generational Journey that led us to this point once again this opening heavily leans into the posing and the references from the original Source material by having jodaro's signature point and the reveal of star Platinum synced to the music Stan proud was really detailed in retelling the first half of part 3 through its visuals as it leads from each story beat to the next there's a slow kind of walk as the characters are sizing up to face their foe until the Beat Drops and each of the Crusaders breaks out their stands fighting in their own unique Styles as their enemies the tarot cards and sound effects fly across the screen see what helps with these early openings is the fact that they're synced not only to the music but also the lyrics being sung lyrically Stan proud tells a similar tale like the openings before it failing the role of your bloodline and now these Gathering stardusts summoned in The Awakening of a catastrophe but to some extent because this opening appeals to more of a mainstream audience it sort of generalizes some of the lyrics and tends to make them a bit simpler break you down break you down break you down let these fists fly free with the hollow vision stand proud I actually don't mind this too much for starters the ingrish is really great and it narratively fits JoJo's solutions to most problems in the story Stardust Crusaders was so long that it was actually gifted two openings one to represent the global journey and one to represent the Endeavors in Egypt and that's why we've got Sono Chino kizuku or end of the world performed by a culmination of everyone Tommy Coda and Jin though Tommy is more of a side dish than the main course but bringing back all the previous artists is absolutely warranted because it felt like a celebration of what JoJo's was up until this point Sono Chino kizuku is a wonderful remix of the old and new whilst maintaining that typical Shonen action tone that JoJo was known for the opening builds up to a point very slowly with ominous ticking clocks before it breaks out into a tracking shot featuring all of the main characters and then puts them in various situations and encounters during the events of the second half of the part the visuals of this opening are not only better than before but they merged the silhouette style from bloody stream with the iconography of stand proud the lyric lyrics balanced the opening perfectly a growing Inferno scorches their destination the power of the Gods has been assembled their story has begun their time is running out they will finish this they won't stop Crusaders references to the events of the story are one thing in making an opening stand out but sonoshino kizuku does go beyond that I haven't mentioned up until this point but the standard finale of each part ends with a sound effects opening where sound effects from the anime are inserted into the opening to match what's going on sound effect openings are just the Pinnacle of what is enjoyable about listening to these songs however this opening not only does that but goes above and beyond by inserting the antagonist Dio into scenes to show how he affected everything throughout this entire opening which makes going back to the original opening just such a cool experience so you can see where everything leaves but it doesn't stop there do is such a menacing threat that he himself can even stop the opening at will and I just gotta say when I first saw this I lost my mind the amount of dedication that everyone put into this just blew me away but here's where our story takes a little bit of a sad turn as Kamikaze Doga had finally grown from their humble beginnings to become one of the few powerhouses of nearly entirely 3D modeled anime so they went on to create a movie about Batman being a ninja known as Samurai superhero but with the sudden change in the order of things they were no longer available to work on the openings at that point and this marks the beginning of David production developing the openings in-house this was a shock to many fans when it first happened myself included but at the very least they delivered certified classic after certified classic especially with their first entry into the 2D era when you think of part 4 Diamond is unbreakable you think of a crazy noisy bizarre Town known as Mori Ocho and that's exactly what the do provided with this opening it's also funny because du diamond is unbreakable I don't know I like that little bit of Providence a certain change of musical tone especially compared to the first three part is evident from the very first moment you see these characters on screen this opening was something of a refresh for the series as part 4 had a bit of a slower start when compared to the other parts and that's coming off of the big build up at the end of part three and The Slice of Life tone happens to be really evident in this opening because this seems like the first one that isn't expressly trying to Hype you up this one just features the main characters going about their lives striking poses some of which became prolific memes and that's something I love about this opening in particular that it manages to evolve with the character as the story is going along The Groovy disco vibe that it gives is just asking you to lay back chill out and get accustomed to being a visitor in this town and that's expressly clear through lyrics like this there's no limit to each new encounter enter everything so ordinarily bizarre the time we have flies flowing free as we bicker away dancing all while in this crazy noisy bizarre Town oddly enough in lieu of a sound effects opening there's an EDM opening that takes place during the fight against Akira otoshi while it's certainly unique and bizarre I personally don't like this one it just doesn't hit as hard as it could have in fact I don't think this song is particularly suited for an idiom remix though that may just come down to personal preference however I can't deny how much of an absolute Jam this song was and I'm not ashamed to admit that it was my alarm for about three years crazy noisy bizarre Town hides a lot of secrets in its opening about the plot and maintaining that generalized vibrato of the part diamond is unbreakable was also long enough to Warrant multiple openings and that's primarily because the part breaks very evenly into three narrative acts and the second opening happened to be at least prior to the most recent opening the most controversial one Chase performed by Bata this opening is the most polarizing for one major reason contrast it clashes so hard against the appeal of crazy noisy bizarre town and I get that's the point but it's entirely understandable for many fans myself included why we dislike it it takes a Very Metal approach to arguably the darkest Act of part four and that's when I realized its true purpose part 4 is telling a story through the opening which is kind of just mind-blowing when you think about it Chase is meant to be the darkest opening because technically in a three-act narrative structure the second act is always when the heroes are at their low Point while I think Chase audibly feels more like a Naruto opening it visually still maintains the JoJo appeal Chase is very edgy with its lyrics and that comes as no surprise considering how it's being sung my most precious thing seems about to to be stolen by a demon that's burrowed into my everyday life with the sharpness of piercing arrows these colliding hearts are a thing of beauty Chase can be both about josuke chasing after Kira and Kira chasing after his next victim which is really nice to see The Duality really cleanly embraced see it seems like the Hipster answer to call Chase your favorite opening but it just proves the point that even the least Jojo Jojo opening can still be pretty good great days is the final opening for part 4 and it's another culmination of everything this part has been building up to great days is a monument that builds off of what was established by Sono Chino kizuku originally performed by Karen Alki and Daisuke hasigawa it also has a unit version that brings in Tomi Coda gin the do and Bata all into one extravagant finale great days like the name implies is meant to remind you of all the great places you've been to the people you've met and the things you've done in this little town Mario also as a side note from the guy who played all the openings on piano it's kind of awesome to have a song in F sharp major you don't see that every day great days not only brings back all the previous artists but also has various alternate versions that really help Define it as its own it strikes loudly with the passion of the duang gang as they close the walls around Kira but Kira's not out of it yet he's just as strong as Dio when it comes to interrupting the openings and he uses the power of His stand to rewind what you've seen again when this happened this was absolutely wild now the precedent has gone forward of the villains having to interrupt the opening near the end of the part lyrically great days reminds you of the spirit of humanity that this town brings out let the voice of Love Take You Higher wait this Gathering Power go beyond even time 1999 bizarre summer this city through unrevolving courage great days supplemented by the constant chanting of break down break down this pushes hard against the force of evil that has been plaguing the town part 4 showed that even with the 2D openings David Pro's directors were competent enough to continue the spirit of what was originally established by kamikaze Doga while making them feel unique even compared to your typical anime's opening Golden wind continued the trend of using 2D openings but unlike before Coda was brought back to announce bloody stream to Fan expectations were at an all-time high when this project called fighting gold was announced but little was known about it until the actual release of part 5. having been an avid enjoyer of Jojo Fridays at the time it was certainly not what I expected Coda maintained a minor key bloody stream being in c minor while fighting gold was in D Minor however these small changes make a huge difference in tone C minor correlates to E flat major and D Minor correlates to F major if you know a little bit about music theory you might know where I'm going with this Coda is really brilliant at taking these commonly understood to be bright and positive sounds and turning them into more dark and serious themes but while bloody stream does have a light-hearted tone visually and through its instrumentation fighting gold is a little different the immediate comparison is that of a bond opening and the visuals punctuate that feeling to the maximum fighting gold is kind of like Stan proud or crazy noisy bizarre town in which its visuals are very generalized however I think even more so than those openings but that isn't a bad thing an opening can communicate each character's personality and ability given the position they are in and somehow it manages to foreshadow a good chunk of the part this is why fighting gold is just so different and so unique even when it comes to Jojo openings it is not only a master class in visual silhouette storytelling but it lyrically establishes the strongest Motif in all of part 5. it's as if you're being crushed by the heavy will of Fate that holds your dreams in bondage fighting gold only those who believe their own path will eventually shine until their lives burn out the chains of Fate binding these characters to their Destiny is really something to appreciate in this opening considering how golden wind is contextualized around Faith as a narrative device of all the 2D openings I was the most impressed in this one as an overall package since part 5 narratively is split into two even halves it would only make sense for a second opening to Dawn our ears Daisuke hasagawa returns to bring us or Trader's Requiem not only is requiem A fitting name as the half of this part revolves around the pursuit of the Requiem era but traditionally a Requiem derives from the Roman Catholic Church as a mass to Repose The Souls of the Dead composers have implemented this idea of respect for the dead and the coming to rest of those souls in music for centuries Benjamin Britton's War Requiem stands out to me as when I saw performed live while I was at University requiem's bring forth a tone of thematic elements but are usually anchored in religious respect and influence the slow build up at the beginning leads into a fast recap of what the Gang has been through and dives into references of chapter covers while placing focus on each member of the gang the tone builds around the antagonist and swells into the realization of what they are these feelings of fear drown them out with rage from the day I swore to turn my back on the devil when your body perishes does your prayer disappear as well hell no it's the beginning of the golden wind it's obvious to most readers that araki himself certainly brings a level of respect towards Christianity in his stories and he's made it the focal point of Parts five through seven and this Requiem balances the dangerous dance between the characters and the devil as they engage throughout the part all this leads into by far the best ending to any JoJo Opening in the history of ever there are alternate versions of what happens in Trader's Requiem where the jofo is so strong he is able to skip past part of the opening however when Giorno accomplishes his goal he actually takes the opening back from diavolo this once again was just mind-blowing because it took what our expectations were that Diablo would take over the opening and then turned it on its head by having Giorno take back the opening this is just insane and while instrumentally it's a bit different and I would say a little bit weaker compared to your traditional anime opening it just proves the point I've been making in this video so far JoJo openings are not your traditional anime openings they push the envelope on what you think could be possible in in the medium of animation and Rhythm after going through each opening in extensive detail I'm sure you can see now that these openings just don't feel like pop songs tagged onto the production they have a genuine purpose relating to the story Characters themes and references Stone ocean saw the re-introduction of 3D openings now that Kamikaze Dogo was finished with their other major projects and I have a whole separate video delving into that opening that's linked in the top right hand corner if you want to check that out in some ways this opening felt like a return to form being technically brilliant in its animation now we get to the point of why I made this video in the first place I've had many criticisms so far with how Netflix has been handling the release of JoJo's sixth part Stone ocean and as egregious as the battery leases are one of the casualties that no one expected would be the lack of a new opening for the second batch yes Netflix and David Pro waiting nine months between batches was not even enough time to give us a new opening oh wait I'm sorry we got a version 2 opening that changed 10 seconds of Animation at the end don't get me wrong I love the opening and I think it's a banger 3D CGI work from kamikazadoga is amazing and the musical prowess of kishida kyodan and the akaboshi rockets really outdid themselves but prolonging the use of the first opening through the second batch really shows the cracks in not only how it was marketed to us but also establishes a worrying precedent for Netflix release of the third batch coming this December first off I think we should start with the title of the opening itself Stone Ocean's opening is titled Stone ocean which is also the same title as the first episode at the very least call it something else to differentiate it unless Netflix thinks the average binge Watcher's IQ is so low that you can call the first episode the opening and the part the same thing without them questioning it you could literally have called it something like break out and that would have done wonders to not only give it more of an identity but also keep in line with the goals of Jolene through the first five episodes like at least when golden wind titled giorno's theme IL vento De Oro which literally means the golden wind it had the decency to put it in Italian and that's not even the opening it's just the theme from the OST I've already talked about the importance of foreshadowing the themes and tone of the part through the openings lyrics and visuals while Stone ocean certainly hits the bullseye on the visual storytelling at least with regards to the first batch the lyrical composition is to be desired in previous openings you had Tales of Brotherhood the obsession of finding a murderer and the willingness to step into the role that your destiny calls you to the most important message from Stone Ocean's opening is don't stop beating don't stop beating don't stop beating them up which I mean is totally fine if this was going to be the first opening in a Trilogy of three that would Encompass all of the feelings of stone ocean kind of like what part 4 did but no this is what we got and probably the worst trend is that this opening makes it into the new batch with the version 2 instead of being an original opening and I'm going to make a prediction that I pray isn't true but knowing the show is airing on Netflix I see this as entirely possible look at the difference between version 1 and version 2. in version one Jolene is taking a pose away from her father jodaro and walking away on her own path through the events of the first batch we end up with version 2. jodoro is still in jolene's mind as someone who rejects her and continues to face away but having realized she doesn't not want to go through the loss of losing him again she walks toward him to give him an Embrace similar to this volume cover they also added Savage Garden and the reigning frogs from weather report a nice reference to be sure but now this whole scenario is making me very nervous for the worst timeline what is the chance that for batch 3's opening we'll just get stone ocean again but the last 10 seconds this time will be Jolene turning to face jodaro who is facing her back with pride and accomplishment something dumb like that now a lot of fans are sanguine enough to give Netflix a chance thinking that they're going to do something similar like fighting gold that aired for 22 Episodes of part 5. that is far too charitable of a view in my opinion fighting gold as I mentioned before was like stand proud somewhat ambiguous enough that it could be used for long stretches of episodes without losing its meaning or form stone Ocean's opening Stone ocean has overstayed its welcome considering over 90 percent of the events in the opening don't occur in batch 2. furthermore golden win's narrative structure is like Stardust Crusaders where the events are split into even halves while Stone Ocean's narrative structure is like diamond is unbreakable where the events are split into thirds that was the whole reason they Justified the batch release it's entirely understandable why fans would be upset if there wasn't a new opening featured but that's not even the worst part about it at the end of the first batch we had a sound effects opening sound effects openings up until this point were an indication that that would be the last time you heard that opening so they literally put everything into it to go out with a bang that happened to give fans a false expectation that a new opening was on the horizon as I mentioned before new openings give Stone ocean the chance to build a pipe especially for a community that was starved for Content waiting such a long time to hear something new we were not given that chance because Netflix interfered in some capacity with either budgetary or release restrictions think about it Netflix's business model is consume product and get excited for next product the option to skip intro on Netflix is something that's prolific it's something I think is a terrible feature yes you give the average binge Watcher a faster viewing experience but at what cost consider what's lost what was taken from you Netflix can probably see that a bunch of people are going to skip the opening to begin with which is something that I never do when watching anime unless the opening is physically making my eardrums bleed so this company who's floundering about right now cutting budgets here and there of most of the shows they're offering if not outright canning them probably restricted the amount of dolans David Pro would get for their adaptation hence why we only got one variation on the original opening there were three whole versions of Traders Requiem time to make a new opening was never the issue especially since Kamikaze Doga hasn't announced any new projects they're on now from what I've seen of the second batch that I've been watching weekly which you can too on my Discord server with me I must admit that the quality of this batch is already looking much better than it was before the nine month release schedule certainly gave the production some time to polish the show however one of the most apparent budget cuts or at least indications that the first batch was rushed was the limited amount of tracks in the OST this is being somewhat remedied by the second batch but the OSD budget where the opening often reside was likely one of the first things on The Chopping Block since it effectively is just icing on the cake for any production like even parts of the second batch just strike me as odd the finale of Limp Biscuit or limp biscuits CNN bias analyzer ended with a track from starters Crusaders why doesn't armies have her own theme yet if she did that would be the perfect place to put it that might answer why we haven't seen the full OST release anywhere yet because if people realize how small it is they might start asking some questions now a new development that happened during the making of this video was that Netflix randomly announced that the third batch will be releasing December 1st 2022 only three months apart and not nine like they did between the first and second batch this Springs the whole release schedule of stone ocean to one year in total it turns out when you take a weekly series and spread it across three years of batch releases that doesn't work who could have guessed this actually lines up with the weekly airing so I'll continue to enjoy my JoJo Fridays like normal but did Netflix listen to us no I really don't think so something must have happened behind the scenes which caused Netflix to bend and announce this out of nowhere that needs more investigation from my end and while I'm glad it's coming sooner I think it's too little too late if you wanted to save the hype Chuck stradamus is predicting no new opening considering I'm right 99.7 of the time I hope this is one of the 0.3 percent where I'm not it would be a real shame if that's the case and while this whole video doesn't give anyone at Netflix or David Pro the time to consider why JoJo openings matter I hope it helps you you all understand all this to say that JoJo openings are very very important because they have defined this series to an extent most other adaptations don't get I sincerely hope you enjoyed the video man talking about all these openings made me want to rank them so I'll probably follow up to this video with a quick tier list or something just giving everyone a little bit of context for which ones I like the absolute most if you want to see that make sure you subscribe and turn on all notifications so you don't miss it let me know if you agree or disagree down in the comments Below have a beautiful Dwayne and I'll see you all next time [Music] thank you

Channel: The Shuckmeister

Views: 159,828

Keywords: shuckmeister, the shuckmeister, jojo, jjba, jojos bizarre adventure, jojoke, araki, hirohiko araki, jojo anime, jojo manga, jojo reference, jojo meme, ジョジョ, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険, diamond is unbreakable, jojos bizarre adventure openings, jojos bizarre adventure reaction, jojo op, sono chi no sadame, bloody stream, stand proud, sono chi no kioku, crazy noisy bizarre town, chase, great days, fighting gold, traitors requiem, stone ocean, stone ocean op 2, whats in an op?, golden wind

Id: ZdVx13Uf2co

Length: 32min 8sec (1928 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2022