Death Parade is not a cheerful show. It's a quiet, often devastating series set in a bar at the border of the afterlife, where the recently deceased are pushed into games that expose the worst and best of who they were. Feelings. Murder. Existential dread.
And then the opening starts, and it is the single most joyful 90 seconds in anime.
The greatest tonal mismatch in anime
The OP is "Flyers" by BRADIO — a blast of retro funk with roaring horns, a soaring afro'd vocalist, and enough Earth, Wind & Fire energy to power a city. It's the kind of song you'd expect over the credits of a heist comedy, not a meditation on death. Fans summed the whiplash up perfectly: Parade is the opening; Death is the actual anime.
That mismatch is exactly why it became legendary. But the song is only half the story.
The music video is a budget-effects miracle
BRADIO's official music video for "Flyers" has to be seen to be believed. It looks like the moment a band discovered green screen and decided to use every single effect at once: chintzy chroma-key halos, the members multiplied into dozens of copies, backgrounds swirling for no reason — and, most famously, a section where the singers' heads are visibly composited onto the bodies of actual dancers, because the band, bless them, are not dancers.
It is cheap. It is chaotic. It is, as one commenter put it, so bad it "transcends the concept of bad and becomes good." See for yourself:
The comment section is a national treasure
Half the joy of the video now lives underneath it. The comments have become a running comedy bit that's been going strong for a decade — an endless stream of variations on the same loving joke:
- "How many effects do you want?" — "Yes."
- The eternal "when you discover green screen for the first time."
- Awards for the "editor" who clearly deserves a raise (or was paid in beer).
- The dawning horror at the 2:36 mark when everyone realizes the heads were pasted onto other dancers.
What makes it wholesome rather than mean is that everyone is in on it with the band. The cheapness isn't a failure people are mocking — it's a feature they adore.
Why it works: the cheapness is the point
Here's the twist: the song is genuinely, unironically excellent. The vocals are powerhouse, the funk is tight, the hook is immovable once it's in your head. The lo-fi video doesn't undercut that — it amplifies it. The gap between the professional-grade music and the "made in an afternoon with free software" visuals is the whole charm. A slick, expensive MV would have been forgotten. This one is immortal.
It also, weirdly, fits Death Parade. Beneath the show's grim premise is a sincere question about what makes a life worth living — and there's something perfect about answering it with a video of five guys having the most unselfconscious fun imaginable.
Watch the video above, then go read the comment section on YouTube. The show will break your heart later. The opening is here to make you dance first.
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