The original theme, “ A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” starts off like soft rock, then gets increasingly frenetic.
A cryptic rumination on religion, depression, grief, and the possible futility of love that plays out against the seemingly hopeless series of battles of giant robots and their teen pilots against increasingly monstrous creatures that might in fact be angels, EVA (as its fans call it) is so incredibly popular that its creator has been doing a new rebooted edition for the past several years. If you’ll allow a personal digression, Neon Genesis Evangelion is this writer’s favorite anime, period. The jazzy theme is called “Tank!” and it invokes the two-fisted P.I. A kicky space noir, the show serves up deft characterization, swift action, and a knockout punch of a conclusion. Two-Mix also did the main song “White Reflection” for the wrap-up film, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.Ĭowboy Bebop is frequently held up as one of the great anime series. The J-pop theme “Just Communication” by pop duo Two-Mix is by turns propulsive and introspective, which are the two dominant moods of the series. Gundam Wing is one of the series that stepped outside of the main Gundam continuity to tell its own story of rebellion and the cost of war. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing is part of the mighty Gundam franchise the giant robot pioneer hit screens in 1979 and is still going strong. (Uploaded to YouTube by crunchyrollcollection) Quite simply, this wonderfully playful intro shows that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a lot more nuanced than that.Subscribe Today 40 (tie). But amidst calls of “she’s so broken inside” from her animated crew, the toe-tapping tune also finds the time to dispel the notion that the show, and particularly its title, is sexist. Initially opting for the rapid-fire delivery of a rip-roaring Broadway show tune, the theme acknowledges both our hero’s flippancy (“one day I was crying a lot / and so I decided to move to / West Covina…”) and lack of self-awareness (“It happens to be where Josh lives / but that’s not why I’m here”). In just 32 seconds, Rachel Bloom and her cast of co-stars in cartoon-form perfectly embody the musical rom-com’s spirit, while neatly offering a quick catch-up for anyone who’s just succumbed to its many charms. We are, of course, referring to the impossibly perky show-stopping theme of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s superior first season. Plus, how great is it, really, to rhyme “horse” with “of course”? Here are the 50 Best TV Theme Songs of All Time. What will the future of TV intros bring? That we cannot say, but in the meantime we can celebrate old-school classics and some newer favorites (including those mood setters). There have been a few exceptions, like the quirky series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but they are also quasi-musicals already. More contemporary series like The Witcher and The Righteous Gemstones created incredibly catchy tunes within their respective shows, but alas, they will never break out into the intro (although unofficially they are definitely the shows’ theme songs). Sometimes those wordless ditties are pure gold, like the harrumphing waltz that begins every Curb Your Enthusiasm-or, for that matter, M*A*S*H*-but it’s not exactly the stuff of Archie and Edith at the piano or the old-timey photos ahead of Cheers, when a show’s theme could tell you a little story by itself. But it’s basically mood music, kind of like the screeching techno that began each episode of Silicon Valley. More paired-down and wordless intros have dominated, like in the case of two TV titans, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, but that’s not always a bad thing-led off every episode with a memorable credit sequence that captured an essence of the show- Mad Men’s ratting drums and melodramatic strings, Breaking Bad’s simmering slide guitar and sinister hissing. In 2008, Paste claimed “there’s no denying we’re past the golden age of the TV show theme song.” More than 10 years later, that still feels pretty true.