Ask John: Which Shows Have the Best Openings?

Question:
I was sitting in my room the other day watching Cowboy Bebop and thinking about how cool the intro is. From the artwork to the music, it really sets the mood of the anime. Then I looked over on my shelf of anime and thought about other great intros. Key the Metal Idol, Iria, and The Record of Lodoss War TV series all had great intros. So the question is: From all the anime you’ve seen, what do you think are the top 3 intros out of all of them?

Answer:
It’s so difficult to narrow down a list of best opening animation sequences to just three. I don’t think I can really do it. If you’ll excuse my bending the rules a bit, I’d like to list a few more than three. Based on creativity, the pairing of catchy music and visuals, and the effectiveness of the opening to encapsulate the style of the entire show, here’s my personal list of what I consider to be the best opening animation sequences I’ve ever seen:

Lodoss TV series
Lain
Utena TV series
Kare Kano
Neoranga (second and third openings)
Kimagure Orange Road OAV series
Dirty Pair TV series

A few that I personally think are excellent, but not quite in the same league as the above list include:

Himiko-den
Steel Angel Kurumi
Angel Links
Dancing Blade (Dancing Blade is actually a Playstation/Dreamcast video game series, but in practical terms, they’re not games but rather interactive OAVs)

Oddly enough, some of the most dull, uninteresting opening animation sequences I’ve ever seen come from horror anime shows:

Vampire Miyu TV series
Night Walker
Devilman Lady