Top 10 Anime Intros: Part 2

 Continued from Part 1

#4: Bleach (Intro 10)

 I unabashedly love Naruto,  though I have a sense of love/boredom with Bleach. Though Naruto's story has gotten progressively darker and more original in its twists and turns, Bleach has become akin to Dragonball Z in its waning years. Bleach is dressed up in a new a different mythology, which while interesting in its complexity, still has the misfortune of having it's conflict resolution feel as rote as DBZ's eventually became.
Basically, the story antagonist is super strong, while the hero must build his powers through each successive fight with the antagonist's underlings. Each time the hero seemingly reaches a new power-level plateau, he then miraculously breaks through and transforms into something exponentially greater by some vague means, and is able to defeat the antagonist in a final earth-shattering fight.Thankfully, the manga seems to have shifted a bit in this new story arc, since the uber-baddy that has threatened the world for 5 years has been defeated. Oh wait - the intro? Yeah, the other thing that's nice about the series is it's attention to cleavage.

#3 Bleach (Intro 6)

The best intro Bleach has ever done, during what I would argue was the peak of the story so far. Singing stuffed animals is the stuff of nightmares though...

#2 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Intro 1)

Fullmetal Alchemist (both series) has a special place in my heart; there just hasn't been a better anime devoted to what it's like to be brothers that look out for each other. There have been two whole anime series based on the FMA manga; the first and more widely known anime is from the early 2000s and followed the comic closely until it had to veer off on a tangent because it ran out of source material (and thus, the ending had been widely panned).

A whole new series debuted in 2009 entitled FMA: Brotherhood. This "new" anime is seemingly identical to the first one in most respects, up until the point where the original anime jumped the shark. Brotherhood instead also features a style and action closely resembling the manga, as well as adhering strictly to the superior and more affecting canon of the comic. The episodes are now dubbed and free on Hulu - you won't be dissapointed.

#1: Naruto Shippuden (Intro 6)

This intro pretty much has it all: action, badass music, and sentimentality. I won't spoil the series for you, but the old guy at the beginning and then fighting on the giant frog at the end is the main character's surrogate grandfather and all around pimp. Suffice to say, he goes out with a bang; all anime fans are thankful that the intro paid such an amazing homage to a beloved character (believe me it gets better once you get passed the dude trying to speak English with a mouthful of peanut butter).

That's my list - hope ya'll have enjoyed it. Post some suggestions if I missed any, and I'll do and updated list later.