What I consider to be the most important thing while analyzing an Opening is how well it represents the overall nature of the show and the ability to utilize the 90 seconds it has (in most cases) to present to the viewer what kind of anime we’re about to watch. The tone, timing, music and even color palette all have to create a collaboration of different elements that still need to make sense, both thematically and narratively.

Going back to the part of the question about an opening, I wanted to present my point using an opening to the classic anime from the year 2007 by Brain’s Base studio “Baccano!” The opening is directed and storyboarded by acclaimed Takahiro Oomori (who also was the main director of the show itself and drew storyboards for episodes 1, 4 and 13) and includes all of his most recognizable assets as a creator. The visuals of the opening are extremely colorful, bombastic and insane, which accompanied by the extremely loud, fast paced and euphuistic song “Gun’s & Roses” performed by Paradise Lunch fits the eclectic yet reasonable soul of Baccano disgustingly well.
The opening’s biggest strength however lies in presentation of the most important characters of the series, and there are a lot of them. Baccano features a total of 17 character cards, during which, the camera zooms in onto the characters face, colors are limited to a single specific one (not counting shadows) for not more than half a second goes and their name is shown next to them. It’s a great way to help the viewer memorize the enormous number of important characters in the series as well as to remind them about all of their names. Every character also manages to do at least a small “gest” that immediately tells the viewer quite a lot about who this person is. And what’s even MORE impressive is that it somehow avoids spoiling the biggest plot points of the show, which we can notice especially well on how the camera tries to pay as little attention as possible to Stanfield Claire at 0:50 mark, which makes sense narratively as the reveal of who he is plays a big role in the confusing and “jumbled” plot of the series. The opening has a rather standard framing with a loud first act, then getting silent for the second act only to erupt again during the climax of the song. Yet despite that, Baccano manages to somehow make every cut feel alive, it doesn’t slow down even for a second even though it might give you an impression that there are no important facts shown on the screen right now, even though there are.  Baccano’s opening is the perfect example of how much information a talented director and a bunch of animators can convey in 90 seconds and how well it represents an anime.

So to juxtapose this, I want to analyze an opening that does a bad job at representing the series and makes you assume things about the show that are just not true. I’m talking about the opening to a fairly recent 2019 anime “Dororo” directed by Takeshi Koike and featuring a song “Kaen” by Ziyoou-vachi.  Giving credit where credit is due, the old aesthetics of the opening fit the tone of the show pretty well, and the Mise-en-scène gives the viewer good understanding of the positions the both main characters are in and how similar they are to each other: alone, scared, almost in despair. This comes back at the very end of the opening, where you can see both Dororo as well Hyakkimaru in the same shot for the first time, with them hugging each other for basically a single frame before they end up on two far sides of the screen. It does a good job showing that even despite how they might seem distant, those 2 really do need each other.
What grinds my gears is the 28 seconds long part between 0:57 and 1:25 and, which is in my opinion by far the worst aspect of the opening as a whole, the song. The action accompanied by the energic rock song is exciting, fun, badass and seems to build up the hype for the brawls Hyakkimaru will encounter in the future. Except the real fights in “Dororo” aren’t like that at all. The atmosphere of the series is grim, dark, ugly and filled with despair. Many tales in the show are tragic, brutal and full of pain. Vocalist’s smooth energic singing about how “The party is over” and electric guitar lead in the climax of the song aren’t reflecting the honest nature of the show, and while Ziyoou-vachi tries to give the track more of the feudal japan vibe with some single notes of classical Japanese instruments worked into it as well as the occasional singing of who I assume to be Geishas, it all feels way too up-beat, new, clean and fun. It’s not a song I would associate with a tragic tale of a samurai hurt by fate, and neither is arguably the most important part of the song, filled with awesome tricks by our cool main character. I enjoy the song by itself a lot. I enjoy most of the visuals quite a lot too. But unlike Hyakkimaru and Dororo, those 2 elements aren’t making a good duo together.