The 5 best Bleach openings

It’s time to continue on with our Top 5 openings from some of the shounen series of my youth — and today we’re going over Bleach!

Regardless of whether you actually liked Bleach or not, there are a few general things that everyone has come to agree on with regards to the series: great character designs, awesome fashion, strong female representation, and an incredible soundtrack — which of course includes the openings!

This is a little mini-series of articles that I am doing at the moment where I go over my top 5 favourite openings from the Big 3 that I grew up on. You can check out my list for One Piece here, and Naruto here!

Bleach opening 1: Asterisk

Tradition states that I must include one of the first openings from each of the series I am talking about, so Bleach will not be an exception. Asterisk brings back a lot of memories of and part of it is down to how the opening features a complete lack of action — it’s rather an opportunity to show off what Tite Kubo is great at. 

Throughout the lifespan of Bleach Kubo has drawn so many images of his characters dressed in cool clothes and simply posing as if they were models — and that’s the feeling I get from this opening. I got into Bleach because my brother told me to give it a go, and I ended up completely falling for the character designs and the way Kubo drew them as if they were fashion icons.

Bleach opening 9: Velonica 

As is the case with a lot of the songs on this list, Velonica is a really catchy song, but it’s mainly the visuals throughout this opening that land it on this list. This gives us some of the classic posing that Bleach openings became somewhat known for throughout the story post-Soul Society. 

I really love the way that the characters are front and center in numerous cool poses, and the use of the hard shadows and multi-coloured backgrounds makes them stand out so much more. Each character gets their moment to look awesome, and when it comes to Bleach openings, that’s what’s important.

Bleach opening 10: Shojo S

Again, we see the return of the awesome character poses to make everyone look badass — something which I have just come to love at this point. However, the best thing about this opening is the introduction of the completely unexpected choreographed dance featuring Rangiku, Orihime, and Rukia. 

Rather than the classic poses, followed by scenes of the characters progressing through the events of the story arc, we get a dance number by three of the show’s best waifus — I couldn’t ask for more. It came out of nowhere, but the more I watch this one the more I like it.

Bleach opening 13: Ranbu no Melody

Now, this opening is really interesting, the main reason being how it’s presented from the perspective of a bystander. The opening shows us numerous different locations in which we see sudden flashes of something happening, and I always viewed that as the battle of Soul Reapers and Hollows from the perspective of a normal person who can’t see them. 

It really plays into the idea that these are heroes completely unknown to the average everyday person — people are being saved by heroes they don’t even know exist. I thought it was a really interesting opening when compared to a lot of the others that came before it, and that’s why it sticks out so much to me. 

Bleach opening 5: Rolling Star

Finally, we come to Rolling Star by none other than Yui, the amazing artist that brought us Fullmetal Alchemist, Again. Usually for these lists, I preface them saying that the list is in no particular order — but this one is definitely my favourite Bleach opening.

This is the opening I always come back to when I think about Bleach — the song itself, the scenes of the characters we’ve come to love as they are seen relaxing in their downtime, followed by the sudden change of atmosphere as they fight the lurking threat of Hollows, and the flashes of scenes that foreshadow huge events to come. It is without a doubt my favourite Bleach opening.

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And what are yours? Sound off down in the comments or via the usual social channels!

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