I love anime opening credits. The best of them distill the strongest qualities of their source material into beautiful, ninety-second chunks of music and animation. Even the worst of them churn up love in my heart. I remember almost nothing about "Nobunagun," but I have a special place in my heart for its outrageous hard-rock theme song "Respect for the Dead Man." The opening guitar riff of "Rewrite," Asian Kung-Fu Generation's theme for "Fullmetal Alchemist," brings back vivid memories of my teenage years. I know that I'm not alone on that, either. "A Cruel Angel's Thesis," the theme song to "Neon Genesis Evangelion," topped Joysound's karaoke rankings for the Heisei period (1992-2019.) "Gurenge," the theme song to "Demon Slayer," has been downloaded over a million times and was even featured in Japan's recent Olympics Closing Ceremonies. The right Anisong can make a lot of money.

Anime opening credits are frequently over the top,...