And though I had hoped to be able to finish this series before the end of 2009, it appears that a few other things had my attention and that this will likely be reduced to a weekly thing. That might not be a bad idea considering that I also have the 2009 in Retrospect series to do and can thus devote just one part of my time per week to have something consistent for a while. Anyway, here are the ED theme songs that caught my attention in 2008 and also the best of them, completing a 2-part series on theme songs, the first being on OP theme songs.

And we move to the next category in the 2008 in Retrospect series, that of OP and ED theme songs of the various anime series I may have watched or completed throughout 2008. Some of these songs do come from series that I planned on watching but never got around to (or perhaps plan to watch in the future). This list includes songs from the well-established shounen series Bleach, and despite its downfall in 2008, I still regularly listen to and prefer some of its songs to others. Anyway, this post only covers OP theme songs; ED theme songs will be covered in the next post of the series.

I’ll assume all of you reading have watched the show, Tytania, or at least its first episode. And for the record, Panther – Nishikiori Ken isn’t all that good a tenor. Notice, at around 1:08, he loses control over his tone, and breaks into a sound that is unsupported by his diaphragm. The most important quality about a classical voice is consistency of tone across the register, and he, well, rather obviously fails at that. As an aside, I should think he’s more of a baritone than a tenor.

*SPOILER WARNING*

There was a very good OP released recently. At least, it was hell of a lot better, in my opinion, than most of the pop shit that comes out by the mass production brains nowadays. And of course, that OP is none other than Tytania’s OP song, a change from the norm, the Japanese opera song “Ano Sora wo, Ike” by tenor Nishikiori Ken.