Animation TV Theme Song Bracket
By: Dylan Hysen
Welcome to our mega-bracket of Animated TV Theme Songs where we’ll crown the ultimate cartoon theme song! Hear each theme songs as we give our selections for the best Recent, Classic, & Anime theme songs.
Hosts this week: Dylan Hysen, Beatriz Mourad, & Aly Martin.
See the empty bracket to follow along: https://www.overlyanimated.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ThemeSongBracketBefore.png
See the completed bracket (spoilers!): https://www.overlyanimated.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ThemeSongBracketAfter.png
Timestamps for the podcast:
- 0:00 – Introduction
- 9:25 – Recent Western Theme Songs
- 1:31:10 – RWBY Themes Face Off!
- 1:53:25 – Western Classic Theme Songs
- 2:36:45 – Some of our Favorite Anime OPs
- 3:35:40 – The Final 4 & Crowning a Champion!
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2 Comments
There are so many good songs on this, so many tough decisions! I honestly agreed with you on the majority of these, with a few major exceptions.
CARTOON NETWORK REGION
I’ve never heard of Mysticons before this podcast, but man, that theme song is epic! Just based off of name recognition, I would have expected it to be a throwaway pick, but you know, its a pretty deserving final four contestant, and for me its a pretty clear elite 8 pick. Other theme songs are good, but this and Steven Universe are the most memorable, and of the two, I think Mysticons is the most impressive.
MOSTLY DISNEY REGION
My first major disagreement with you comes in this region, and also comes with an asterisk, in that I don’t think its reasonable to truly grade a theme song without context of the visuals and the show it works for. So, on that note, I would tend to rate instrumental themes and themes that have amazing animations with them a bit higher than you did.
So, on that note, the visuals to the Tangled Adventures theme song are so stunningly creative! The song combines itself so well with Rapunzel’s diary and her drawings, which is a fantastic spin on introducing all the characters. I have a lot of critiques with the show and I’d say Ducktales is a better show than Tangled Adventures, but the opening here is just so creative that I’d probablyyyy put this one in to the elite 8, if not further. I dunno though, Owl House, Amphibia, Star vs, and Gravity Falls intros are also so good, I’d probably put ducktales as the sixth best intro on this section. The Ducktales intro is good in isolation and really catchy (I think this is a much stronger section in general than you do), but its longer so I feel more tempted to skip it than I do other intros here. I have no idea what I’d choose if push comes to shove, I like the music to the gravity falls intro the most, but the visuals are so creative in Tangled, and in an episode I think Owl House and Amphibia intros just flow so well. Star is just so ridiculous. I dunno. Aahh, so many good ones here.
I mean, I don’t really think Ducktales advancing is a bad choice, its just not the one I would choose. But there are a lot of deserving options here that all work super well for the show they’re on.
STREAMING REGION
You… You think the Animaniacs theme song is… good? Like… Argh it hurts me to watch it. Ok… Ok… You have your opinion and you have a right to it, its a beloved intro that most people love, but… Its… uh… probablyyyyy my least favorite intro out of all sixty four of these, like I find it actively painful to listen to. I’m sorry!!! Don’t kill me!!! 🙁
The intro its up against in the first round, though, the Hilda intro, is my favorite of this region. Like, yeah, its not a song you’d put on spotify, but it just encapsulates the series, alongside the visuals it gives you a sense of the world being filled with wonderful magic. Just works super well for the show, and its so beautiful.
The Tuca and Bertie theme is also just so… I don’t even know, but I love it, even though I’ve never seen the show. The She-Ra theme… a bit generic for me, didn’t like it at first though I got used to it over time. Show is fantastic though. Other themes here are all right, wasn’t blown away by any of them though.
RWBY Region
Not much to say here. All of these songs are great. I have no idea which one I’d choose. 1 is iconic, that might push it up here.
CARTOON NETWORK CLASSICS AND CW
I mean, Pokemon nostalgia probably makes this theme win the entire thing for me. Totally Spies and Team Titans have good openings, but better than Pokemon? I dunno, Pokemon struck gold with their theme song here, its just soooooo goood and memorable.
MOSTLY NICK PLUS DISNEY CLASSICS
Man, this region is stacked with amazing themes! I don’t have much nostalgia here for anything other than Avatar TLA, and I thinkkkk I would put Avatar TLA winning this region because its so memorable, but I wouldn’t blame anyone for choosing other options. Danny Phantom is the only intro in here I didn’t love when I heard it, these are all so good!
GRITTY ANIME
Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, and Madoka are my three faves from this region. I’d probably give Attack on Titan the nod, its the most memorable intro I’ve ever seen. Madoka’s a great choice though, I totally understand why you put it in the final four. I haven’t seen most of these before (only seen Madoka, first season of SAO, and the first two seasons of AOT), but most of them I honestly found a bit long and not super interesting.
ANIME SLICE OF LIFE
Haruhi is the only show I’ve seen from this section. If you had put in season 1 Haruhi, the first ten seconds of that intro makes it win this section hands down for me. As you put in season 2 Haruhi, I think K-On and Spyce are the clear standouts here, and I think K-On advancing makes sense.
ELITE 8 ONWARDS
So, I have Mysticons vs… uh… I dunno… Gravity Falls! RWBY 1 vs Hilda, Pokemon vs Avatar TLA, and AOT vs K-ON.
So, final four would be Gravity Falls vs RWBY 1, Pokemon vs AOT. Final is Gravity Falls vs Pokemon, and Pokemon takes it for me.
I think the mostly disney region in recent western shows is the toughest for me to make sense of. I could see myself going in five different directions on that, and I could see any of those five going to the final spot, since I think the bottom left bracket is the comparatively weakest bracket. The RWBY portion is really good, but I see these better as songs and slightly worse as openings, if I’m binging RWBY I’m more tempted to skip it than if I’m binging, say, TOH or Amphbia. I think streaming services especially lend themselves better to shorter openings, because you watch them more often in a short period of time. No matter how good the opening is, if its two minutes long in a 22 minute show, and you watch ten episodes in one sitting, spending 20 minutes watching the same opening over and over gets pretty repetitive. A longer opening works better for when you can see the show once a week, when it doesn’t get quite as repetitive.
Welp, feel free to exile me from this website for my dislike of the animaniacs theme song. This was a really fun exercise, it was fun watching you do it, and also trying to do it myself!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah you need to talk about Gang of Secrets!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know the podcast was restructured, but I feel like a good topic would be to do the stress trilogy of Truth Lies and Gang of secrets