Drama Overdose
September 24th 2023
Recently, I've been obsessed with Black Jack.
Of course, this isn't what I want to talk about, not exactly. After all, I've got a whole page dedicated to the manga. What I want to talk about is more specific: it's the 2004 TV anime (Black Jack 21)'s opening and ending. I watched a few episodes of the show with my boyfriend earlier this week, and was absolutely awe-struck by how wonderfully dramatic their op/eds were.
However, before I start ranting about what makes me think they're so amazing, I'd like to define exactly what I mean by 'dramatic.' My definition for the word drama, especially concerning anime openings, is one that is pretty specific, and definitely not what most people would consider dramatic.
First, a 'dramatic opening' needs to have a good amount of action in it. It doesn't matter what sort as long as it's overdone enough: fistfights, princesses getting kidnapped, intense amounts of yearning, star-crossed lovers... a good dramatic opening has intrigue, it has thrill, it makes me want to know what the hell is going on, how, why, and makes me want more! It doesn't need good animation to get the point accross. It doesn't even need to make any sense! All I want is for stuff to happen. A lot of stuff.
But of course, although the visuals are important, the song that accompanies it is just as important. One without the other doesn't make a dramatic opening! The perfect song needs to fit this very definition of romantic: "marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized". It needs to powerfully carry the action, justify the teary expressions of the characters on screen and gracefully punctuate loving, longing gazes. The perfect 'dramatic song' is one that will have me daydreaming for hours on end, that will make my heart race and give me butterflies.
Now that the definition is out of the way, I can talk about what started my awfully specific affection for this genre of anime op/eds. It all started when I was a young child...(snore)
I used to watch TV a lot as a child, as I wasn't allowed to use the computer. I spent most of my time on one of the only channels that aired anime on a daily basis. One of those animes was called GTO, Great Teacher Onizuka. Although I could rant for hours about my love for the anime/manga, I want to focus specifically on its second opening. It's called Hitori no Yoru, performed by Porno Graffitti, one of my favorite bands ever, and it changed my life forever.
The opening starts in a highly stylized manner with the protagonist, Onizuka, having a lazy evening out in town. That is, until he witnesses a woman in the middle of getting kidnapped! Rushing to her rescue, he fights off her assailants and gives her back her glass slipper (yes). She ends up disappearing, and it turns out the whole thing was a dream.
If you paid attention, you can definitely tell why this opening was my blueprint. After all, it's got everything: a banger song, action, intrigue, romance, and a plot twist to wrap it all up. I loved this opening so very much back then, and I still do now. It kickstarted my love for overly dramatic and nonsensical openings, a love that followed me like my very own shadow everywhere I went. And then, I met my next anime opening crush: the first opening of the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle anime, Blaze by Kotani Kinya. To this day, the first line of the opening makes my heart jump, and the visuals are every bit as romantic and dramatic as they should be (although they could still use a little more oomf).
Now, we can finally go back to my main point. Considering all this, why did the Black Jack 21 op/ed leave such a big impression on me? Well, that's easy: it's because you could never guess what the anime is actually about by watching them. That is how overly dramatic they are.
The visuals show the protagonist, Black Jack, traveling all around the world (I assume?) along with his little assistant, traversing DnD-dungeon-looking caves, snowstorms and the seven seas. Where are they going? Why? Who the hell knows! Who cares?! It's all about the drama!! Throw in a childhood flashback, a random woman with a gun, teary gazes looking up to the night sky, and the protagonist literally on top of a moving train and you get one of the most amazingly dramatic openings I've ever seen to this day.
(No, but seriously. Why is he on
top of a running train??? How is
this relevant to anything??)
The op/ed to this show are truly, in themselves, nothing special. The animation is nothing to boast about, and the songs aren't so amazingly good that they could be called masterpieces that anyone could come to love. But they make me giddy when I watch them and they awaken my creativity in the best of ways. I could listen to them all day long, imagining more action, more drama, more romance, and I could watch them over and over again and still feel the same about it.
(How it feels when I take
the subway in France)
Although those are feelings that only I can truly understand and will always struggle to explain with words, I genuinely believe, from the bottom of my heart, that getting to listen to and watch these openings can be called true happiness.