#even excluding the fact that i was crying in a movie theater parking lot at the time

[sophisticatedswifts]

Watching the ME! music video for the first time was the weirdest experience

#even excluding the fact that i was crying in a movie theater parking lot at the time #at 2am #the video was just so much to process #especially given the circumstances #in which i was sleep deprived and emotionally drained from a movie #katie rambles

[wheretoputyourobsessions]

Alright I feel bad about not expressing how much I love this movie so I made a list of some of my favorite moments/details:

Emma looking like she’s gonna cry after they announce they are canceling the prom and all the reporters are swarming her

The Eleanor musical costume and theater bits 

Very grateful that they changed that line at the end of ‘Changing Lives (Reprise)’ 

Trent wearing his Julliard shirt for (almost) the entire movie

Just before ‘Just Breathe’ When Alyssa walks by and the two of them just look at each other like: 😍

THE GODSPELL BUS

Barry and DeeDee talking about the cellphone incident 

Hawkins’ reactions throughout ‘It’s Not About Me’

Literally any of Emma’s outfits

I actually enjoyed James Corden as Barry more than I thought I would (definitely still have strong opinions on Barry’s portrayal & story line though)

‘Dance with You’ was ADORABLE, the flowers and the spinning just 🥰

Are we not going to talk about Emma doing the little come here gesture near the end of ‘Dance with You”???

The almost kiss + Emma’s lovesick stare when Alyssa walks away

The delivery of “well this isn’t america this is indiana!” was on point and the PTA’s reactions made it even better

‘The Acceptance Song’ plus the scenes right before and after were very funny (even if they did cut it short)

“Apples and Bees”

‘We Look to You’ was awesome, seeing Swallow the Moon and DeeDee preforming was a great visual that you can’t get in stage musicals

BETSY NOLAN!! i love her, what an icon

We got to see Emma’s truck!

The shopping montage was really fun (remember when we could go outside?)

The school parking lot being empty and even if you’ve never seen the stage musical you know something is about to go wrong even before it’s mentioned (it hurt but I loved it)

ANGIE WIPING AWAY A TEAR AFTER EMMA TELLS HER SHES A GOOD FRIEND

Angie & Emma, their entire dynamic

THEY KEPT THE FANCY ICECREAM LINE

Emma clearly going through a bit of gay panic during ‘Zazz’

“Blueberry heart”

The romcom scene with DeeDee and Barry was really sweet (even if it did take away from Emma & Alyssa’s time) and Corden’s acting was fantastic

At first I was disappointed with the lack of the iconic ‘Lady’s Improving’ outfit but then we got more of Swallow the Moon and it was worth it

“Not charging for an apology is not a selfless act” “ What the hell?”

again the hesitant, “apples and bees?”

Emma and Alyssa holding hands during ‘Alyssa Greene’

That last line of the song being sung while Emma is walking away from her (again it hurt but it was good)

‘Love Thy Neighbor’ being as iconic and high energy as always

Andrew Rannells was an amazing Trent

THEY KEPT THE TAMBOURINES

Dramatic use of water foutains

DeeDee and Hawkins smiling and having a good time as they’re getting out of the elevator was so cute

The whole bit where Emma tells DeeDee that she won’t go on tv

“YOU OWE ME A HOUSE” “SHES A VERY PASSIONATE WOMAN”

‘Barry is Going to Prom” was really good and I liked seeing young Barry the whole thing was so well done

UNRULY HEART

IT ALWAYS MAKES ME CRY BUT STILL

THEY WERE ALL SO REAL AND RELATABLE???

i could rant about it for hours so i have to move on before i get distracted

DeeDee hiding when she knows they’re going to ask for money 

Okay,,, the scene they added with Barry and his mom

I have very mixed feelings about that whole plot line but im trying to stay positive

The acting was phenomenal and very real so kudos to them

The way that Alyssa says “Well I think it’s brave” (honestly even though her development isn’t as obvious as in the stage version (at least to me) I love those moments where you can see her growing and getting ready to just be herself)

Hawkins and the flowers

“You guys are the best middle age people I’ve ever met” First of all, I know for a fact that the bar is on the floor, second of all their reactions kill me

I once again have mixed feelings, this time about the coming out scene because it not being as public took away from the impact it had and how nerve wracking it would have been for Alyssa as well as Barry’s speech to Mrs. Greene not happening

BUT STAYING POSITIVE: Kerry and Ariana’s acting was soo good (return of good but it hurt)

ALSO angies face while she was watching it go down :O

When Alyssa goes to try and hug her mom but she moves away: >:O

When Alyssa hugs Emma in front of everyone: :D

Emma holding the back of her head was   🥺

Emma and Alyssa walking into the empty gym but this time they are together and it’s only empty caus they are early, its a nice little parallel that I just noticed

another small detail that I saw was Alyssa being the one to reach for Emma’s hand before they walk in

Emma going around and hugging everyone at the start of ‘It’s Time to Dance’

THEM DOING THE SPINNY THING THAT THEY DID DURING ‘DANCE WITH YOU”  AGAIN

Anything Angie did throughout the entire movie was just *chefs kiss*

All the couples coming in is always adorable but this was even better

also the wide range within the couples was also a nice touch

KAYLEE AND SHELBY HOLDING HANDS WHEN THEY COME IN WITH THEIR BOYFRIENDS IS HILARIOUS TO ME

The moment between Mrs. Greene and Alyssa after they hug was amazing and Alyssa dragging her mom into the room

HAWKINS AND DEEDEE KISS!!!

They kept the “do not let me destroy him” but cut the corset line :/

I don’t know why but it made me so happy to recognize the choreo (especially that Alyssa danced during the boys part like always, I was worried they would change it and i’m glad they didn’t. it’s a little detail that I’ve always loved)

THE KISS

You think I would make you read this and then exclude the kiss?

the way that before they kissed the actors were all watching to see what would happen

Alyssa turning to look at her mom after she kisses Emma

And her mom giving her a little nod to let her know she’s okay

‘Wear Your Crown’ was actually really good

And all the clips in the credits were so adorable

Especially Emma and Alyssa in the prom queen and king crowns

I’m very grateful that they kept the full versions of ‘The Acceptance Song’ & ‘You Happened’ on the soundtrack

We finally got ‘Tonight Belongs to You (Reprise)’ on an album but at what cost

I know there is more that I’m missing but this is already longer than I’d planned

#are we not going to talk about mrs greeenes dress???? #the prom #im gonna make another one of these but i probably wont post is unless im asked about it #the prom movie #mine

[recentanimenews]

Every Opening in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Ranked!

A new year is upon us, and with it comes an all new season of anime. The transition from one season to another is an exciting time for every seasonal anime viewer. As we say goodbye to our favorite shows either ending or going on break, our thoughts turn toward the continuing shows and the promise of all new openings for them. While we know we’ll miss the openings we’ve come to love for 90 seconds every week so far, we always hope the next one will be even better than the last.

As for myself, I can’t tell you how excited I am for the upcoming season’s worth of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind we have in store for us. What we’ve seen so far is nothing short of some of the best action that 2018’s anime had to offer, and all of it was preceded by “Fighting Gold,” its stellar opening. If recent entries in the JoJo’s anime are enough to go by, we can expect Golden Wind to receive another spectacular opening any time now. Not only that, I know for a fact that it will be spectacular, because every single JoJo’s opening is. We’ve seen eight openings now over the course of the show and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch. All of them deserve a spot in my personal list of all time favorites, but in what order? I know which one is my all time favorite, but I’ve never sat down to compare them all to one another. So, without further ado, here’s every opening in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure ranked from best to bestest.

8.) "JoJo Sono Chi no Kioku ~end of THE WORLD~" by TOMMY, Coda, and Jin Hashimoto

I know I’ve already said it, but given that I’m starting from the bottom it needs to be reiterated. Every single opening in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is incredible. Some just happen to be more incredible than others. A common thread I found among openings in the bottom half of this list is that either the visuals couldn’t quite match the quality of the music or vice versa. Usually there just isn’t enough there to compete with the best openings on this list. This one is different. This one just has way too much.

Visually there’s a lot to love about it. The opening is done in the extremely attractive 3DCG style that dominates all of the show’s openings through the first three seasons. Of particular interest to me is just how much foreshadowing takes place in this opening. The first shot is of the inner workings of a giant clock, alluding to the yet unknown Stand powers DIO possesses. Clockwork imagery continues throughout the opening amidst recreations of famous moments from this particular arc. Many of these moments are innocuous enough to one watching for the first time, but the seasoned JoJo’s fan will recognize them as moments taken right before a major character death (or supposed death). There’s even an incredible alternate version of this opening run later in the season where DIO uses his newly revealed time stop powers to literally pause and manipulate his place in the opening.

Its dedication to fanservice is ultimately the reason this opening places at the bottom of this list, though. The opening’s accompanying single is performed by TOMMY, Coda, and Jin Hashimoto, all of whom individually performed the show’s three prior openings. They’re all incredibly talented vocalists in their own rights, but they don’t quite gel together as well as anyone had hoped. As much as there is to love about this opening, it unfortunately ends up being less than the sum of its parts. Which, to be fair, is still better than most openings can aspire to.

7.) "chase" by batta

You know, there was once a time where I didn’t like this opening. Going back and watching it again while constructing this list taught me a few things. One, past me was a complete and utter fool for not liking this opening. Two, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a really silly series.

Okay, so maybe I knew that one already, but I still had to realize it all over again when figuring out why “chase” shouldn’t place higher in these rankings. After all, everything about it is superb. The carefree daily life of Josuke and his friends is cleverly undercut by the washed out palette and unsettling framing of each character’s actions. A crowd of feeding pigeons is disturbed by a single fingernail, taking to the skies in a Hitchcockian swarm. Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu chat about their day as the camera glares down at them from above, watching them. Blood drips from suitcases packed in tight corners and a clawed hand emerges to crush the protagonist’s signature anchor pin. A serial killer is lurking in Morioh, and no one is yet the wiser. The accompanying song is frantic and pained, almost as batta’s Tatsu Hoshino himself is desperately trying to warn the characters that Kira is coming for them.

It’s simply spectacular all around, which is why it pains me to say that it’s just too dark. It just doesn’t fit the tone of Diamond is Unbreakable at all. If I was judging it entirely on its own, it’s a top three opening for sure. I simply can’t do that, though. A show’s opening sets the tone for what’s to come, and the tone that “chase” sets is not at all the one that Diamond is Unbreakable provides. Yes, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure can be dark and disturbing, but it’s also very lighthearted and fun. As we’ll see soon, the best of the best JoJo’s openings convey both.

6.) "Fighting Gold" by Coda

“Fighting Gold” may not be one of the most visually inventive openings on this list, but I’d be remiss to rank it any lower than it already is. While it is easily the most conservative on this list in that department, what it has to offer is still quite good. Its opening shot depicting Michaelangelo’s statue of David in one of Giorno’s poses from the original manga and covered in chains sets the stage for a tightly composed opening. These chains binding David are a common motif throughout the opening, symbolizing the chains that bind the members of Passione to their respective fates. That is, until they’re shown calling out their Stands, at which point Gold Experience turns the chains into vines and we see one of the best Stand summoning montages of any JoJo’s opening.

The real standout part of this opening, however, is the music. “Fighting Gold” is Coda’s third appearance in a JoJo’s opening and a surprising one at that. In the songs climax his sultry crooning turns into a loud and throaty cry as the members of Passione break free of their chains. At the same time the music’s accompanying strings swell and you begin to forget you’re listening to a rock anthem. That is, until the very end when one final strum rings out on the electric guitar and Coda sings out the song’s titular line in his most gravelly voice yet. That one moment alone fills me with emotion and makes me pumped to watch a new episode of Golden Wind every single week.

5.) "Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town" by THE DU

If there’s any single testament to the sheer quality of all of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s openings, it’s that “Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town” is only ranked fifth on this list. Seriously, this song is pure unbridled FUNK. It was the first JoJo’s opening to not be done in the distinctive 3DCG style seen before, which disappointed me for about the first five seconds watching it. It’s impossible to feel anything other than joy and happiness while watching this opening. This song is easily the JoJo’s single I go back to listen to the most. Not even the show’s own cast of characters can resist dancing to it at one point! It’s bright and colorful and couldn’t fit the opening arc of Diamond is Unbreakable any better. I love it so much. God, JoJo’s has great openings.

4.) "JoJo ~Sono Chi no Sadame~" by TOMMY

I gotta admit, it had been a long time since I’d last seen this one. For awhile all of the early 3DCG openings ran together in my head as all being very similar stylistically. In analyzing them deeper for this article, though, I began noticing some stark differences. This one, the one that started it all, is actually among the most unique. This opening is a love letter to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as a whole.

The first images shown in the opening are animated manga panels of the first six protagonists of JoJo’s (you’ll have to wait a few years to understand why the seventh and eighth ones are excluded) counting down until finally we get to Jonathan, the first, who transitions from his panel seamlessly into the 3DCG style. The rest of the opening recreates panel after panel from the very first arc, acting as a near-complete retelling of Phantom Blood in the space of a minute. SFX blast onto the screen, panel borders move in and out of frame, and colors wash away into monochrome as Phantom Blood finally transitions from the page to the screen in front of our very eyes.

The whole opening feels is a 90-second love letter to Phantom Blood and the legacy it’s left behind. While it may not be the first time it was ever translated to the silver screen (it received a movie adaptation in 2007 that ran in few theaters and was never brought to video), this animated iteration of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was many longtime fans’ first time seeing one of their favorite series done so well. For most international fans (such as myself), it was our first time experiencing the series at all. If this opening can get me feeling nostalgic and emotional for this series, I can only imagine what it’s like for someone who’s been a part of the now three-decade ride.

3.) "STAND PROUD" by Jin Hashimoto

“Ohhhhh, ‘STAND Proud.’ I get it now.”

--My dumb ass like three days ago.

Hard rock and Stardust Crusaders go together like a hat and Jotaro’s hair; you can't have one without the other. Classic rock and metal are, as we all know, referenced heavily in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, so it was only a matter of time until they tapped into those influences for an opening song. And boy do they ever knock it out of the park with this one. “STAND PROUD” shreds, rips, and rocks in every way you could conceivably like it to. It’s a hard anthem that goes perfectly with the arc that gifts us Jotaro Kujo, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's hardest dude.

If all it had was a killer sound, though, it wouldn’t be near this high on the list. Suffice to say, this opening’s visual direction and animation have the chops to back up everything the accompanying single lays down. This opening is chocked full of references to past arcs. Both Jonathan and young Joseph are shown multiple times, including one sequence harkening back to moments when each one either passed on their resolve or inherited the resolve of another, ending with Jotaro inheriting both. Eagle-eyed fans will also recognize a sequence in the opening where Jotaro confronts DIO face to face that coincidentally mirrors a scene of Jonathan confronting Dio in the very first opening.

There are so many great moments in this opening I could keep pointing out. I love the scene full of action shots of everyone using their Stands amongst a backdrop full of the series’ signature SFX. I love the intimate shots of quiet time where they wander through the desert or lounge together underneath the stars. I love the beautiful art depicting Holly being overtaken by her own Stand, and the shot of it all rushing into Jotaro as he summons Star Platinum. I also love the final sequence where we get a dynamic camera shot rotating around Jotaro as Star Platinum attacks the reflected visage of DIO. The 3DCG these openings became known for has never looked better than it does in that one shot. “STAND PROUD” is incredible.

2.) "BLOODY STREAM" by Coda

Ask any random JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fan what their favorite opening from the show is...I mean it. Go ahead, do it. I’ll wait…

...Oh, you’re back. That sure took a while. Is it because they immediately screamed “BLOODY STREAM” and forced you to watch it with them for an hour? In the time I’ve spent among other JoJo’s fans, this opening is the fan favorite by a wide margin, and for good reason too! It’s fantastic! It’s everything Battle Tendency condensed into one 90-second sequence. Despite the show’s first few openings being known for their heavy use of 3DCG, “BLOODY STREAM” actually foregoes it for much of the opening in favor of 2D silhouettes, line-heavy action, and low-movement recreations of famous panels from the manga. All of it is overflowing with bounciness and color. The entire opening simply oozes style out of every orifice. It’s as cheeky and fun as Joseph Joestar and still manages to pull an emotional gut punch at the end alluding to a major character death late in the arc. And all of this is perfectly backed up by the legendary sultriness that is Coda in the first of his three appearances in an opening for the series.  Honestly can’t find a single fault with this opening. It was my number one for a long time, that is, until...

1.) "Great Days" by Karen Aoki and Daisuke Hasegawa

Is there anything more perfect than perfection? There is; it’s called “Great Days.”

I can’t stress enough how much I love this opening. I’m bursting at the seams waiting to tell you about how good it is. It’s 90,000 milliseconds of everything that is good and just in this world delivered directly to your eye holes. Imagine 90,000,000 straight microseconds of pure, unadulterated good vibes being auditorily injected into your mind and you get “Great Days.”

This might very be the most detailed opening in the history of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Blink past the very first frame and you’ll already have missed a wealth of cool artwork that absolutely no one realized they needed. Did you notice that at the beginning the big “JOJO” is spelled out using the figures of the main cast? That the symbol you see between each “BREAKDOWN” represents a different one of Yoshikage Kira’s powers? You may have noticed that the number one in “1999” is Heart Father, but did you also notice that the other numbers were Janken Boy, Highway Go Go, and Misterioso? Everything in this opening just looks so good. The frame by frames of all the characters moving through town are incredible. I wish I had the technical art and animation knowledge to talk more in-depth about the tracking shot through Rohan’s doorway or the sequence focusing on the fracturing of Kosaku Kawajiri’s family. The moment where everyone points to the sky in unison up at their friends who died at the hands of Kira is an emotional gut punch rivaling that of Joseph donning Caesar’s headband, and my god the music! The beat changes up so much throughout this song, and it lands perfectly each and every time. It’s a roller coaster of emotion befitting of what I consider to be the high point of the entire series so far.

I am grabbing you by the collar and shaking you now. How can I possibly expect to explain to you the depths of how great this opening is? What if I tell you that there’s an entirely different version of this opening that reflects the main antagonist’s newly discovered ability to completely undo the past? Not only is the entire opening undone, but an alternate cut of the song plays too! No one asked for them to deliver something so perfect to us, but they did it anyway! It’s incredible!!! I literally have to stop myself now before I ramble on for another thousand words about it. It is without any doubt in the world the single best opening in the entirety of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

If one thing’s obvious by now, it’s that I care a lot about an anime’s opening. There’s something so uniquely integral about them to the anime experience. Pretty much every show around the world has some kind of an opening, but you’d be hard pressed to find ones that place as much emphasis on them as anime does. With so many incredible ones out there, it can be hard to really stand out among the pack. It’s an awesome feat that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s openings consistently stand head and shoulders above the pack in their style and quality. I’d have been remiss to let the opportunity pass me by to not recognize each one’s greatness, and I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the next one Golden Wind has to offer.

Which JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure opening is your favorite? How would you rank them all? Break down (BREAKDOWN) your thoughts in the comments below!

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Danni Wilmoth is a Features and Social Videos writer for Crunchyroll and also co-hosts the video game podcast Indiecent. You can find more words from her on Twitter @NanamisEgg.

By: [email protected]

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