No. 1 (My Hero Academia OP 8)

 I have an off and on relationship with anime, sometimes I will watch a series the entire way, and most times I fall off after a couple episodes due to my ADHD, but hopefully this blog will inspire me to cover some anime in various ways and see them through. But one anime I am caught up on and am a big fan of is My Hero Academia, the characters are great, the story though sometimes giving me mixed feelings can inspire me, and the animation looks good. I decided to go through one of the openings or the more reason seasons, opening eight which is called "No. 1.". Even if i don't finish or even watch an anime, I love the openings and endings, often times going out of my way to find the full songs, and seeing what was cut for the show. The songs that roll during the credits or as the show begins, I love listening to these songs, so I am going through this one, why this one first and not the first opening? Well I will get into that in a moment, but namely because I recently went through all the openings in the series thus far with a friend of mine and we found our favorites and least favorite, by the end of the night I decided I wanted to analyzed the visuals of this one, and talk about it.

The visuals show as class 1-A and 1-B are about to compete and in sort of tournament arc. The music and visuals blend well together as we see all the players who will be taking the stage in this part, as either students or the teaching staff. There are a couple smaller action scenes and a few moments that show the plot moments that will shine through this arc but that is about it. The music does most of the heavy lifting for me in this opening with the visuals boosting them by being synced well with the music. The visuals look fantastic and are well made, they are crisp and clean. 

The music and visuals come to a head towards the end, blending the action scenes with the music swelling perfectly, making some striking visuals. Working hand in hand together to set the mood and get the viewer excited for this episode. 

The music is served to us appropriately by the band named Dish// and it is performed so well. The piece of the song picked for the opening was well chosen and has the perfect feeling of calm with a bit of excitement to fit the mood, starting nice and calm and then picking up by the end amazingly. The pace of this song is fantastic and I even looked up and now often listen to the full version of this song. That is the mark of a good anime opening, encouraging the listener that if they enjoyed the sample of this song to listen to the full piece. And the full version does not disappoint either. 

This song also invokes a feeling of Autumn for me, the reason I say this is the song and visuals have a some what warm yet cool feeling to them. This might also be because this season like many for this show premiered in that season of the year and thus I associate it with that. But the instrumentals and visuals invoke to me a cooler yet still excited feeling. Music can sometimes transport the listener to different times or seasons, and even invoke memories at times. This one for me reminds me of the Fall and as it approaches I have found myself listening to this song more often. Perhaps I should do a series about music and seasons, for if I had a nickel for every time I did this on this blog, I would have two nickels, which is not a lot but still funny it happened twice. Inspiration comes in funny ways sometimes, such as a friend wanting to go through all the openings an anime has so far and talking about them.

This one is worth a watch and listen, first as the opening, and second as the full song if you like what you hear. The song works in both ways, both with and without visuals. Seeing how the music conveys the emotions of the story about to unfold without words, or as a full song to listen to. Even without the context of the series or being a fan there of, this is a good song. A great one to wind down to, or get ready for your next errand right after the last one wrapped up.