Top 25 Anime Ending Themes, Version 1.0: Part 2

Okay, let’s rustle up some more jimmies by presenting you the second part of my top anime ending themes.

Shall we begin?  Again?

19.)  Fly me to the Moon, by Various Artists (Claire & Megumi Hayashibara), Originally by Frank Sinatra, Kaye Ballard

          Neon Genesis Evangelion  ED 1

The ever-so memorable ED theme for an ever-so memorable anime, “Fly me to the Moon” serves two purposes:  it gives you a break after all the WTF moments that an Eva episode will definitely have with its soulful melody and at the same time it continues to squander your already blown-up brain by being a sharp contrast to the episodes’ dark and psychological undertones.  Either way, this is oddly a rather perfect match for a show like Eva.

Kinda like Shinji and his mother.

18.)  Fantastic Tune, by Kenshou Ono

          Kuroko no Basket Season 2  ED 2

At first, I had trouble whether I should add this ED theme or KuroBas’ 2nd ED for season 1 (Catal Rythym, by OLDCODEX) as I view both to be equally good, song-wise.

Thus, I had to consult my team of leading animations experts from Pixar in order for me to choose between the two.  Ultimately, “Fantastic Tune” came out on top by being more unique in terms of how it is animated, which was majorly under some sort of purple lighting, as well as it’s rotoscoped style during the beginning.  Seriously though, if “Catal Rythym” didn’t just have predominantly static animation, then I would have probably put that here instead.  But hey, I’m happy with this one.

17.)  The Real Folk Blues, by The Seatbelts

          Cowboy Bebop  ED 1

Of course something by The Seatbelts would be included in the list.  While it doesn’t have the same hype that the opening theme has (by the same band nonetheless), “The Real Folk Blues” definitely deserves some mention, at the very least, for being just the perfect ED for a show such as Bebop.  I take pleasure in listening to this song everytime an episode ended, and even when I’m just listening to it casually I still marvel at how jazzy it is.  Not to mention the way they used this ED at the last few minutes of the last episode, which really made it all the more memorable.

16.)  I’m Alive, by Becca

          Black Butler  ED 1

Ok, now some of you my bash me for including an ED theme sung by a western band, as it would “not be right for a western band to sing an english song for a Japanese anime”.

And to those people I can only say one thing:

I can kinda see where you’re looking at, but hear me out at least.

This ED is quite simply many things rolled into what would make a good ED theme for a show like Black Butler: 1.) catchy as all hell, 2.) it featured chibi versions of the characters (chibi Sebastian guys), 3.) it fits the rather comedic aspect of the first-half of the show well, and 4.) as a song itself it is quite fun to listen to.  The fact that it was also sung by an American band just adds to the awesomeness factor, so there.

I quite like it, needless to say.  Shame that there isn’t a lot like it.

15.)  Startear, by Luna Haruna

          Sword Art Online II  ED 1

Again, an ED theme that prevails over the others in its series because of its animation.

While both “Startear” and its closest contender for this spot, “Overfly”, are beautiful songs on their own rights (courtesy of Luna Haruna’s mystical singing voice), “Startear” excels in the animation that accompanies it, having this unique and pretty mosaic effect with a light-blue gradient to it, making the ED stand out all the more.  Plus, this is one of those ending themes which actually has meaning behind its lyrics in regards to the character it features, so kudos to that.

14.)  Uso, by SID

          Full Metal Alchemist:  Brotherhood  ED 1

Real talk:  picking an ending theme was an especially herculean task because of all the other ED themes that FMA: Brotherhood had, so in the end I gotta pick what was the most iconic out of all of them.  Thus, “Uso” was the one that popped to mind.  Besides its unique and fitting art style, the song itself is very beautiful and was something I looked forward to listening to a lot loooooong after the I finished the show, so there’s that.

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Aaaand, that’s a wrap for now.  I am slowly diminishing my reader-base each time I continue this list, but for the other existing readers, I thank you for your patience.  It must be soooo maxed-out by now, and I apologize.  Hopefully the next few parts of this list will have some of your favorite ending themes, and at the right places too of course.

Until then, this has been Ken, for thebuttonsmashers.com, and I’ll see you guys in the future.