SKY-HI - To the First - Lyrics

song (spotify) Japanese/Romaji/English lyrics under the cut

あの日夢物語と笑われた　 その夢を超えるため走りだそう 風の音　雲の鼓動　空の向こう　その先で会おう

型破りでクレイジー？　上等だ ハナからニュースタンダード 責任者を呼びな 色の見えない言葉 聞き飽きたよ

居場所がない　行く当てもない なら自分で作るさ　何でもアリ お前の物差しじゃ測れやしない さぁもう行くぜ　君はどうしたい？

It’s not too late Never too late to start 逃げやしないさ It’s not too late Never too late to fly Please don’t waste my time どうせ跳ぶなら高く ほかの奴らじゃ　到底追いつけないくらい I’m ready to go　ぶち破ろう 君と

I know this is the only way その炎を燃やせ I know this is the only way 怖くても進め I know this is the only way

何者でもない　蛹のバタフライ ここじゃ終われない　終わる気すらない ゴールなんて見えない　果てないこの旅 君と俺の行く先なら同じ どんな過去があっても今日がスタート 馴れ合いはNo　でもNever leave you alone 怖くなんてないわけがない　だけど止まれない 君と俺の生きた意味を　空の果てに刻もう

It’s not too late Never too late to start 待てやしないさ It’s not too late Never too late to fly Please don’t waste my time 放物線を描く 流れ星を掴むように空を駆ける Now I gotta go　ぶちかまそう 君と

I know this is the only way その炎を燃やせ I know this is the only way 怖くても進め I know this is the only way

We know this is the only way

その炎を燃やせ

--

Ano hi yume monogatari to warawareta sono yume o koeru tame hashiri dasou kaze no oto, kumo no koudou, sora no mukou, sono saki de aou

Kata yaburi de kureijii? Joutou da hana kara nyuu sutandaado sekininsha o yobi na iro no mienai kotoba kiki akita yo

Ibasho ga nai, iku ate mo nai nara jibun de tsukuru sa, nandemo ari omae no monosashi ja hakare ya shinai saa mou iku ze, kimi wa dou shitai

It’s not too late Never too late to start nige ya shinai sa It’s not too late Never too late to fly Please don’t waste my time douse tobu nara takaku hoka no yatsura ja toutei oitsukenai kurai I’m ready to go, buchi yaburou kimi to

I know this is the only way sono honno o moyase I know this is the only way kowakute mo susume I know this is the only way

Nanimono de mo nai sanagi no batafurai koko ja owarenai owaru ki sura nai gooru nante mienai hatenai kono tabi kimi to ore no iku saki nara onaji donna kako ga atte mo kyou ga sutaato nare ai wa no, demo Never leave you alone kowaku nante nai wake ga nai dakedo tomarenai kimi to ore o ikita imi o sora no hate ni kizamou

It’s not too late Never too late to start mate ya shinai sa It’s not too late Never too late to fly Please don’t waste my time houbutsusen o egaku nagare boshi o tsukamu you ni sora o kakeru Now I gotta go, buchi kamasou kimi to

I know this is the only way sono hi o moyase I know this is the only way kowakute mo susume I know this is the only way

We know this is the only way

sono honno o moyase --

They once laughed at me for trying to live in a fairytale But I’m running to try and surpass my dream Let’s meet again in a place beyond the howling wind, pulsing clouds, and the limit of the sky

I’m crazy for being unconventional? Fine by me I’ll create a brand-new standard Call the one responsible for this, ‘cause I’m tired of listening to tactless words

I have no place I belong, or a place to go Since anything’s possible, I’ll make them myself I can’t be measured by your standards Come on, let’s go – what do ya wanna do?

It’s not too late Never too late to start I’m not gonna run away It’s not too late Never too late to fly Please don’t waste my time If you’re gonna fly, you better go so far that others could never catch up to you I’m ready to go, I’m gonna make the first strike with you

I know this is the only way Light the fire in you I know this is the only way Keep going even if you’re scared I know this is the only way

I have no identity, I’m still the beginnings of a butterfly I can’t stop here; I don’t wanna let this die I can’t even see the goal, ‘cause this is an endless journey but our destinations are the same No matter what happened in the past, today you can start again We’re not close, no, but I’ll never leave you alone Of course I’m afraid, but I gotta keep moving Let’s engrave our reason for living somewhere beyond the sky

It’s not too late Never too late to start I’m not gonna wait It’s not too late Never too late to fly Please don’t waste my time Trace a parabola Chase after the sky, as if trying to catch the falling stars Now I gotta go, I’m gonna make the first strike with you

I know this is the only way Light the fire in you I know this is the only way Keep going even if you’re scared I know this is the only way

We know this is the only way

Light the fire in you

The Definitive Ranking of Bleach OPs

  For many years Bleach ruled the roost in the United States fandom as the coolest comic running in Shonen Jump magazine. For a period of time the anime was similarly successful, inspiring everything from cosplay to fanfiction to a live-action movie. Even more than Naruto, a far more sprawling franchise, Bleach defines a specific period of early 2000s anime fight media that briefly enraptured countless high school students as they illegally pored over multiple-part episode splits on YouTube, crafting AMVs set to Linkin Park while listening to Number One on repeat. And yes, I'm including myself in that crowd.

  The Bleach manga ended years ago, and the anime did too. That's all to the good for our purposes though, because it lets us build a genuine historical record based on the anime's most significant achievement: its range of incredible opening songs and animation. What is the best Bleach opening of them all? To craft this list I used this thorough and objective criteria:

  1. Is the song a banger?

  2. Is this opening at least as cool as Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape from the City?"

  3. How does it stand up as an artifact of its time, and how does it stand up today?

  Let's begin!

  15. "BLUE" (ViViD) 

    I like the attention to scale and space in this opening, with energy blasts blowing through whole rows of buildings and Ichigo knocking enemies over like bowling balls. But there's so much fighting happening here, crammed into such a short space, that it's hard to follow. Not a fan of the song either, so this one's placing at the bottom.

  14. "Anima Rossa" (Porno Graffitti)

Porno Graffitti has a long history composing opening themes for anime, accompanying everything from 2003's Fullmetal Alchemist to My Hero Academia. The song they've contributed here is a bluesy number that I'd rank above several other entries on this list. Then why is this #14? When watching this opening, I couldn't shake the feeling that this sequence could have been servicable for any other shonen anime series. Bleach earned its fame through a certain je ne sais quoi, and if it's not here, no matter how competent the sequence is otherwise, what's the point?

  13. "Chu-Bura" (Kelun)

  When rewatching openings to put this feature together, I was frankly blown away by the first half or so of this opening sequence. The cast being cute together and hanging out at the beach! Some unexpectedly fluid animated hijinks as Ichigo walks to school! A pretty good song! Then the fighting kicks in and the rest of the opening is comparatively boring. Worth a watch, though.

  12. "Harukaze" (SCANDAL)

  This was the last Bleach opening to be featured in the anime series, and features some fun callbacks to earlier episodes like a runthrough of every episode title card (!!). I wouldn't say this is one of the show's best, but it gets stronger as it goes along and features some neat and stylish visual tableaux. The doors opening at the end to reveal the sponsors is a nice touch, too.

  11. "Alones" (Aqua Timez)

  Watching Bleach openings on YouTube as a child, I used to be freaked out by the sight of Kon the stuffed animal very loudly singing the theme song. On rewatch, though, I think I underrated this one: it's a splintered sequence of memory, love and grief that bears the strong iconography Bleach had in its prime. Aqua Timez would later do better, though!

  10. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (Beat Crusaders)

  What makes a Bleach opening? Is it the music? Outrageous poses? Fast-paced fights? This opening doubles down on "style," which is admittedly Bleach's ace in the hole. There are sequences here that refer back to the first opening sequence, but on a grander scale: like the red and black silhouettes of Ichigo and Rukia being mean to each other, but projected on several television screens! Or every character recieving their own cool spinning CD cover. The song isn't really to my taste, but overall it's a good time.

  9. "chAngE" (Miwa)

  This opening makes an immediate statement when we see Ichigo's hometown erupt into an unmistakable mushroom cloud freeze frame. My other favorite bit is when the spooky devil hand reaches towards the other hand, just as the vocals spike. What can I say, I'm a mark for scenes in anime when hands reach out to each other but don't quite connect! I'm an Ikuhara fan, sue me.

  8. "Velonica" (Aqua Timez)

  This is the first great example on this list of a classic trope in Bleach openings: The Pose. It's no secret that Tite Kubo draws not so much to tell stories (though he can do that on occasion) but to showcase characters wearing cool outfits while they do cool things. This opening wrings everything it can out of the cast of the show standing in exaggerated poses while the camera swings from one angle to another. And it works! The bit of the Vizards being swallowed up by darkness, followed by Urahara's hat tip, has been lodged in my brain since seeing this.

  7. "Ichirin no Hana" (High and Mighty Color)

  More poses! The main cast looking very tired and noble as they stand on the battlefield. Shunsui's sword kata. Screaming vocals. When I asked the barista at the coffee shop today for his favorite Bleach opening, this was his answer; the harsh sound of the Soul Society arc's grand finale. It's a great pick, but the effects are a bit dated for me in 2020. Byakuya's special attack in particular screams early 2000s CG.

  6. "Shojo S" (SCANDAL)

  More outrageous poses from your favorite characters, except that you also have Rukia, Orihime and Rangiku doing a choreographed dance! I wasn't sure what to make of this sequence when I first saw it, but it's risen higher and higher in my estimation with each successive watch. Now I'm at the point where I'd say this is the Bleach opening I initially underrated the most (though there's some real classics coming down the pike!)

  5. "After Dark" (Asian Kung-Fu Generation)

  Bleach openings can be maximalist, so I find it fascinating how restrained this one is. Ichigo's friends running in the desert, the repetition of symbols juxtaposed to flaming credits, and a black-and-white super-cool layout of Aizen's war chamber. That's it. But set to the riffs of all-time great Japanese popular rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation, that's all you really need.

  4. "D-technoLife" (UVERworld)

  This is the Bleach opening that defines the whole series for many folks. The theme song to the start of the Soul Society arc, it harnesses the band UVERworld (still putting out songs for shonen anime even today!) to a carnival of non-stop forward momentum that keeps topping itself with cool characters and fight sequences. Within its specific niche of early 2000s anime openings about shonen heroes determinedly running toward the camera, this one's never been topped. But it's not my personal favorite, so I'm putting it at number 4! The scene where Yourichi takes a bite out of Soi Fon's sword and holds it between their teeth is outrageously good, though.

  3. "*~Asterisk~" (Orange Range) 

    It's fascinating in retrospect how little Bleach's first opening actually has to do with what happens in Bleach. We don't see much in the way of hollows or shinigami, and the only swordfighting we're given is a brief few seconds of Ichigo fighting some interchangable bad guys in kimono. Instead we're given a vibe: Ichigo's friends wearing stylish clothes straight from the manga while the camera darts from one angle to another, Orihime and her friends spray-painting the title of the theme song on the screen, the camera revolving endlessly around Ichigo as he stands in the middle of the city. The promise of this sequence was eventually crushed beneath a never-ending tide of new characters and concepts as the series collapsed under its own weight... but for me and my friends, watching this opening relentlessly on YouTube as teenagers, it convinced us of Bleach's effortless cool. The best first Bleach opening.

2. "Ranbu no Melody" (SID ❤) 

  Like the previous opening, "Ranbu no Melody" is notable as much for what it doesn't show as for what it does. We see Ichigo, the hero of the story, for only a few seconds. Instead of our heroes running endlessly toward the camera, we are given the slow unravelling of reality by invisible forces that repeatedly squish and stretch the aspect ratio and blast the viewer with impossibly fast, overlaid images. The brainchild of Masashi Ishihama, one of the best directors of opening sequences working today, this one works as both a horrifying short film of dramatic climax and as a sneakily crafted foreshadowing-laden promise to longtime fans of Bleach that the story has been building to this arc from the very beginning. The best opening.

  1. "Rolling Star" (YUI) 

  As a child, I would watch the first six openings of Bleach over and over on YouTube. I loved the first, and the second, and the third. But the one I would return to over and over again, even though it came from a section of the series that I never reached myself, was "Rolling Star." Seen in retrospect, it's a synthesis of all the aspects that made Bleach openings memorable. It's stylish, rendering Ichigo's hometown as a neon-lit sunset hangout where battles secretly play out just around the corner. It's just a bit scary, with Ichigo duelling his masked evil self as traumatic future events are carefully foreshadowed. But more than anything, this opening sells a closeness between the main cast as they eat together and fight together. A careful juxtaposition between the high school gang of friends who were way cooler than you'd ever be, and the supernatural terrror just barely poking out from beneath the surface.

  This opening was also directed by Masashi Ishihama, though the previous listed entry represents a more concentrated form of his style. "Ranbu no Melody"'s sequence may very well be superior from an animation perspective, but from my point of view, "Rolling Star" is and will always will be the best Bleach opening. And the song's a banger, so there's that!

  What is your personal Bleach opening ranking? Did I underrate "D-technoLife"? Is Bleach more or less cool than Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape from the City?" Let us know in the comments!

---

Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. He sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? He recommends reading David Brothers's old pieces on Bleach if you want to learn more. You can follow Adam on Twitter at: @wendeego

By: [email protected]

Episode 18

Scene 8:

[Ren, Akahata, Naihi, Kata and the snorunt (Tarahau) walk into the Mossdeep Gym. Beyond the lobby where the front desk is located, the floor drops away to show the river the gym is built over. There are four battle platforms and a number of smaller platforms between them suspended over dark, churning water. The gym leader platform is at the back and empty for the time being, but there is a pair of trainers waiting in the near right arena. There is another small platform in between, but the gap is still much too far to jump. However, Kata informs them that there are psychic boosters in place and easily bounces the distance to demonstrate. The snorunt follows after her and cackles with glee when she lands safely on the other side. Ren withdraws her two dark-types before taking a running start. She leaps and some invisible force carries her to the other side. Ren smiles and the three continue to the battle platform. Kata and Tarahau face off against a xatu and starmie. The snorunt is still inexperienced, so she focuses on distracting the xatu while Kata takes care of the starmie with charge beam. By the time the grumpig is ready to come to her teammate’s aid, the xatu’s wings are so weighed down with ice that Kata is able to easily one-shot it with power gem. Kata and Tarahau high-five each other and take a bow before moving on to the next platform. The second battle is a girafarig and chimecho, which are a bit more challenging since Ren’s duo has no type advantage, but they still manage. Next they face a grumpig and a kirlia. Tarahau manages to trip up the grumpig by icing over the floor beneath its feet, which gives Kata the opportunity to duke it out with the kirlia. The grumpig charges Tarahau with zen headbutt, but slips and the snorunt latches onto its arm with a bite and Kata finishes it off. Finally they face a kadabra and a medicham. Kata parries the medicham’s attacks with psyshock while Tarahau breaks free of the kadabra’s psychic hold with bite and starts chasing after it, cackling wickedly. Once again the snorunt manages to latch on so that Kata has a clear shot when she is ready. Ren and her two pokemon leap the final gap to the leader platform with a cheer and laugh when they land, clearly enjoying themselves. Tate and Lisa appear from a teleportation pad at the far side of the platform. They walk up to greet Ren and she shakes both of their hands. They are nearly identical but not quite, with Tate’s face being slightly more masculine. When they are ready to battle, the trainers return to their squares and send out their pokemon. Akahata and Naihi pace forward to face Tate’s claydol and Lisa’s gardevoir. The absol and mightyena glance at each other before leaping into action. Naihi rakes the gardevoir with shadow claw while Akahata breaks the claydol’s defences with crunch. The claydol retaliates with earthquake to unsteady them and the gardevor goes for a draining kiss on Naihi. The absol manages to dodge and the dark-types finish off their opponents simultaneously. The twins send out their signature solrock and lunatone. The solrock rises high in the air to use sunny day while the lunatone defends it with rock slide. Naihi cuts a path through the barrage with slash and slices the lunatone with night slash. It withstands the critical hit, but Akahata follows up with assurance and it goes down. The solrock uses solar beam on Akahata, but Naihi leaps up into the air and knocks it down with night slash. Akahata once again finishes it off with assurance and the battle is over. The twins withdraw their pokemon and admit defeat.]

Tate: You completely destroyed us.

Lisa: There was a combo I probably should have expected but didn’t.

Tate: Yeah, we thought because your mightyena was faster, you would go for sucher punch instead of assurance.

Lisa: But since your absol has super luck, it makes night slash almost certain to crit.

Tate: And having your mightyena hold back to combo on top of that—

Lisa: Butal. And our pokemon have pretty good defences.

Tate: We haven’t been taken down like that in a while.

Lisa: Do you mind if we show that battle video to our students?

Tate: We could really use it for our ‘maximizing you advantages’ unit.

Ren: Sure thing. Thank you.

Lisa: Not sure what else to say. You got anything, Tate?

Tate: Your battling style is pretty straightforward.

Lisa: But it’s difficult to counter that much raw power.

Tate: I wouldn’t call it raw.

Lisa: More like honed to a lethal point.

Tate: Anyway—

Tate & Lisa: Please accept the Mind Badge.

[Ren takes it.]

Lisa: I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other again soon.

[Tate goes ramrod straight and grabs his sister’s hand. She starts af if her had shocked her and their eyes lose focus.]

Tate: Do you feel that?

Lisa: Do you think it’s—

[The earth begins to rumble and Ren looks around the gym. The other trainers and pokemon who were practicing look up at the domed ceiling shaking above them.]

Tate & Lisa: [voices somehow loud like a megaphone] Everyone outside!

Tate & Lisa: [to Ren] This way.

[Ren withdraws her pokemon and follows the twins through the teleporter and then out a back door. The twins climb up the hillside a ways, still holding hands, to get a better view. The ground stops rumbling and Ren catches up and turns to see what they are looking at. A pillar of green light is shining to the south across the sea, breaking through the cloud cover around it to penetrate deeper into the sky.]

Tate & Lisa: The seal is undone.

Ren: [telepathy] Steven, are you seeing this?

Steven: Yes. I’m almost there.

Ren: Wait for me!

Steven: You know I can’t.

Ren: Fine. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t do anything reckless!

Steven: Shouldn’t I be the one cautioning you?

Ren: [to the twins] Will you contact the rest of the League?

Lisa: [on her nav] Already on it.

Tate: Are you coming with us?

Ren: I have to go now and help Steven. [running for the cliffs] I’ll see you there!