While narrowing down my favorite anime openings was easier than last year, it would be a lie to say it was not hard.
Now, with that said, time to get to the list!
Honorable Mentions
Pokémon XY OP1
“V (Volt) (Ｖ（ボルト）)” by
Yusuke
It has been many years since I stopped watching the Pokémon anime (the games still rock, though!). To me, it simply became repetitive and seeing Ash starting all over again in the Hoenn region was not all that fun. The characters for that region were also not to my liking.
Then I came across this Japanese opening for the Pokémon XY anime and color me surprised: I loved it! This opening is full of energy and makes me want to give this new season a try. I have heard many good things about it too.
As a fun aside, the English opening might actually be a remix of the original English one! Check out the English anime trailer HERE!
Tesagure! Bukatsumono OP
“Stand Up!!!!” by
Asuka Nishi, Satomi Akesaka, Karin Ogino, and Ayaka Ohashi
Every anime opening ever made.
Best Openings of 2013
#12 Eccentric Family OP
“Uchouten Jinsei (有頂天人生)” by
milktub
Stylish, wacky and once again stylish. What more can you ask for? It perfectly captures the spirit of Eccentric Family.
#11 Servant x Service OP
“May I Help You? (めいあいへるぷゆー?)” by
Ai Kayano, Mai Nakahara, and Aki Toyosaki
The terrible video quality aside, this is a weird opening for such a normal anime as Servant x Service. Stationaries slowly flying through the air? Win.
#10 Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta OP1
“Sakura no Ato (all quartets lead to the ?) (桜のあと(all quartets lead to the ?) by
UNISON SQUARE GARDEN
Terribly sorry, but I just love the cheery song along with the colorful and smooth animation. Why is not Yozakura Quartet available anywhere?
#9 Naruto Shippuden OP13
“Niwaka Ame Nimo Makezu (ニワカ雨ニモ負ケズ)” by
NICO Touches the Walls
Naruto, how I wish the whole anime looked like this fantastic opening. Imagine how epic it would be? At the very least, can we have a remake in the same vein as Hunter x Hunter? Watching this video makes me excited about how things could have been.
#8 Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko OP
“Fantastic future” by
Yukari Tamura
Call me crazy, but I adore this one. I cannot even remember how many times this has looped while I have been at the computer, however silly that sounds. This is the type of cutesy songs that gets stuck in my head.
Kocchi muite! ❤
#7 Monogatari 2nd Season OP4
“Kogarashi Sentiment (木枯らしセンティメント)” by
Chiwa Saito and Shinichiro Miki
Studio Shaft has been disappointing this year. Normally, they create extremely bizarre yet lovely openings and endings for the series they animate. This year, however, has had very plain and empty-looking ones. Even the Monogatari series suffered from this!
Lucky then that the final opening to Monogatari 2nd Season was a return to form. Shifting between the classic and modern anime look is such a cool idea.
#6 Tamayura: More Aggressive OP
“Hajimari no Umi (はじまりの海)” by
Maaya Sakamoto
Sweet and calming, yet catchy. Listening to this always lightens up the mood.
#5 Attack on Titan OP1
“Guren no Yumiya (紅蓮の弓矢)” by
Linked Horizon
#5 Attack on Titan OP2
“Jiyuu no Tsubasa (自由の翼)” by
Linked Horizon
No matter how much I try, I cannot place one of Attack on Titan’s openings over the other.
The first one is amazing (except the weird “magical sound effects” at 00:15 and 00:25) and fits perfectly the given length.
The second makes me even more pumped about the anime than the first and looks even cooler. Especially the credits look great. Oddly enough, this opening makes me think of a movie. Annoyingly enough, the “magical sound effects” are still there and the German is a bit cringe-worthy.
Still. These are two amazing openings.
#4 Little Busters! Refrain OP
“Boys be Smile” by
Suzuyu
“Boys be Smile” was a weird experience. In the beginning it was alright, but the more I listened to it the more it grew on me. I love how the song slowly builds up throughout the opening and then, at the end, calms down before finishing. Not to mention how the accompanying visuals fit to a T.
#3 Gatchaman Crowds OP
“Crowds” by
WHITE ASH
I wish to say something more than “This opening is cool!”, but there are times when words are not enough. So.
This opening is cool!
#2 Kyousougiga OP
“Koko (ココ)” by
Tamurapan
Kyousougiga’s opening feels very melancholic and I love it. A nice detail is how the glass becomes more and more shattered as the series progresses, mirroring the events of it.
#1 Galilei Donna OP
“Synchromanica (シンクロマニカ)” by
Negoto
My favorite opening of 2013 belongs to Galilei Donna. It is visually clean and stylish, while featuring a legitimately fantastic song. Who knows how many times I have watched it.
Speaking of that: time to watch it once more!
Anime Viking 
There weren’t heaps of OPs that impressed me this year :-(. Like you (and many others) I loved the Titan OP, which was the perfect way to get pumped for the episode. I like that you included the Monogatari Kaiki Arc OP too. If I listened to it by itself, I would probably get fed up with the vocals, but when you take the animation into account and how the vocals suit the characters, I ended up loving watching it each episode.
I would also add add Silver Spoon’s OP, which was a bubbly song accompanied with CUTE FARM ANIMALS!!! I also thought the Log Horizon’s OP kinda cool with the rap, but didn’t like the chorus as much. Another one I enjoyed was Watamote’s, but I can understand how it might not be for everyone since it was fairly metal.
I like your new header btw, though I’m not familiar with Aria.
Database, database, database! I wanted to keep the list short, so Log Horizon, Watamote and Psycho Pass among others were left out.
Nice that you like the new header! Feels a bit happier than the last one. If you like relaxing anime, then you should give Aria a try. It’s not for everyone, though.
Koimonogatari’s opening was fantastic, though honestly I found just about everything about that arc to be fantastic as well so it’s no wonder I loved it. It was really interesting seeing how it tied in to the main plot. Admittedly though I have a lot of love for the 3rd OP of Monogatari S2, in large part because I’m a huge Kana Hanazawa fan to begin with.
The Attack on Titan OPs are definitely among the more memorable ones so it’s no surprise to see them there. I love them both a lot, though I do think I prefer the first one, I really enjoyed seeing all the different YouTube videos putting that song with different anime openings back when the anime first started airing.
The Little Busters!: Refrain OP was great as well, I personally loved it from the very beginning but it really did benefit a lot from my understanding of the relevance of the lyrics to the series as a whole.
Sadly, I haven’t seen any of the other anime so I’m not familiar with those openings. One of these days I’ll have to watch those as well, there’s a lot I didn’t get around to in 2013.
Koimonogatari was great! I can’t wait till we get the rest of the Monogatari adapted.
Since you haven’t seen much from 2013… I’d recommend checking out Gatchaman Crowds, Aku no Hana, Kyousougiga and Inferno Cop among others. They are the standouts.
We had the exact same top opening of 2013, great taste sir.
Greate taste yourself 😉