Best Key Ending!

Key Discussion
#1

This poll was closed on September 26, 2018 due the options being outdated. We will make a new one if there’s interest.

Due to the success of the Best Key Opening poll, the next logical step would be to make an ED poll. Only problem is… as of right now there are 29 Key endings! Watch out guys, this one’s gonna be a doozy~

Unfortunately, the Discourse plugin only allows for polls with “under 20 options,” so I’ve had to create a Straw Poll instead. Sorry about the inconvenience~

BEWARE: This poll contains slight spoilers for where certain songs play in their respective visual novels. All spoilers beyond where each ED plays, including context of the scene, must be tagged.

  • Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho (Kanon)
  • Farewell Song (AIR)
  • Kage Futatsu (CLANNAD Character routes)
  • Dango Daikazoku (CLANNAD anime)
  • TORCH (CLANNAD After Story anime)
  • Chiisana Te no Hiro (CLANNAD After Story route)
  • Hoshi Meguri no Uta (planetarian)
  • Life is Like a Melody (Tomoyo After)
  • Alicemagic (Little Busters! anime/Komari & Haruka routes)
  • Kimi to Nakushimono (Little Busters! Refrain anime)
  • Mezameta Asa ni wa Kimi ga Tonari ni (Little Busters! EX anime)
  • Hanabi (Little Busters! Refrain anime Ep. 6)
  • Ame Nochi Hare (Little Busters! Kud & Mio routes)
  • Song for Friends (Little Busters! Yuiko & Rin-Refrain End)
  • Regret (Little Busters! Rin2 route)
  • Saya’s Song (Little Busters! EX Saya route)
  • Little Busters! (Little Jumper Ver.) (Little Busters! Refrain)
  • Hoshikuzu (Kud Wafter)
  • Brave Song (Angel Beats! anime)
  • Ichiban no Takaramono (Angel Beats! anime Ep. 10 & final)
  • Subete no Owari no Hajimari (Angel Beats! VN)
  • Yami no Kanata e (Rewrite Kotori, Chihaya, & Lucia routes)
  • Koibumi (Rewrite Shizuru route)
  • Itsuwaranai Kimi e (Rewrite Akane route)
  • Watari no Uta (Rewrite Moon route)
  • CANOE (Rewrite Terra route)
  • Sasayaka no Hajimari (Rewrite Harvest festa!)
  • Yake Ochinai Tsubasa (Charlotte)
  • Towa no Hoshi e (Harmonia)

0 voters

Yeah, so umm… good luck choosing, guys~

PS: There was a digression into discussing EDs in the OP poll, and I have moved those posts to the top of this topic.

EDIT: Ayyyy the polls works now! Everyone make sure to vote again!

4 Likes
Best Key Opening!
List your favorite tracks from Key's OSTs
#2

Saya’s Song being in there leaves me no other choice, but to pick it, even though I like so many of those songs so much. Saya’s Song is just something special to me and well, I listen to it everyday.

#3

Well, Dango and Brave song are some of the best Key ED’s (in terms of chart position on oricon and popularity). The only other competition would be the Charlotte ED, since everyone’s ovverrating the new OP and ED. For me personally, It’s a tie between “The start of the end of it all” from Angel Beats! -1st beat. The Harmonia ED, I dunno the name of it, but I know how it sounds like. And, the Tomoyo After ED, such a beautiful song.

1 Like
#4

You have to remember that this forum is mainly filled with people who much rather read the VNs, and don’t fall into the bandwagon of “aww muh dango feels”, so I would expect different results to what is popular.

#5

I know. But I’m saying, if Dango doesn’t win, then Brave song will obviously win, or that Charlotte ED. The ED’s for Air and Kanon aren’t all that special compared to after-wards Key ED’s. Rewrite’s ED is only good on the chorus. Kid Wafter, it hasn’t been translated. And it seems that Tomoyo After wouldn’t win, since there was a 0% vote for Light colors, even though that stood out in terms of catchiness.

#6

Eh? Like the Charlotte OP is stellar, but if we’re talking ED I’m not entirely sold that it’d win. Since unlike an OP, the animation or lack of animation in an ED can be more powerful. I’d place my bets on a Little Busters ED possibly winning? But I’m not sure at all that an ED poll would be a landslide, or substantial win at all. Hell, this poll isn’t even a landslide. So yeaaah

#7

I think that would be harder to have since I know Clannad has 3 EDs (VN, Clannad and Afterstory), can’t remember Air or Kanon, Little Busters I think has multiple, Angel Beats and 1st Beat have different for some reason I remember Rewrite having a different song for one of the routes but that seems stupid for just one, etc. I’m sure it could be done it would just have a lot more choices.

#8

Angel beats has a different OP and ED because it’s the visual novel… Maeda likes making new music… Rewrite only has Canoe as an ending song. I don’t think Koibumi or Itsuwaranai Kimi E count for Rewrite ED’s when they’re end songs for characters. Koibumi was for Shizuru and Itsuwaranai Kimi E was for Akane. It’s not stupid. There was clearly a reason for that.

#9

by stupid I meant for one character to get a unique credit song but not the rest. I don’t remember Akane’s route well at all and I could have sworn Shizuru had Canoe but now I remember hers and it makes sense. My main point was there’s far more ED songs than OPs that it seems like there’s too many for a poll unless you want quite a few songs with 0 votes (even here not counting Harmonia there’s 2 with 0)

#10

Dango Daikazoku is always nice, but that’s it. It’s nice. None of the ED songs for the CLANNAD anime were particularly great though. You can’t compare them in a positive light to Song for Friends, or KimiNaku, or any of the Rewrite EDs.

It starts off nice, but it gets boring.

I try to appreciate everything Tomoyo After, but Light Colors is just another boring Lia track. You could slap it on Air or Clannad without any problems… because those songs have no personality.

The song was a treat, because it used the track that always played when Nagisa was around in the VN. I don’t really associate it with any of the sad parts of Clannad though… Chiisana Te No Hira bests it.

The Air ED is pretty popular. Not as popular as the OP, but people love that track. The Kanon ED is too repetitive for me, but it has dedicated fans who like to rap along with it. I’ll still dance to it.

Canoe is only the ED of the Terra route.
There are multiple, 5 to be exact, and they are all pretty good. Yami no Kanata e is the first, Koibumi for Shizuru’s and Itsuwaranai Kimi e for Akane’s. Watari no Uta, my personal favorite, is Moon’s ED.

The Tomoyo After ED was nice, but I’d never call it catchy…

Kanon '06 used the VN ed iirc.

2 Likes
#11

Four actually! Kage Futatsu and Chiisana Tenohira for the VN, and Dango Daikazoku and TORCH for the anime.

#12

Watari no it’s is just Canoe though. W/o the BGM. Also, I wouldn’t consider the end routes of the characters as the “ED” cause, it is the ED, but if we’re talking about the ED of the visual novel/anime, then it’s different.

#13

Hands down, my favorite is the one that started it all: Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho.

So you’ve been through some really sad moments, you feel emotionally spent and then you breathe a sigh of relief when the resolution kicks in. When this song plays, it gives you hope for the future, as well as excite you for what lies ahead. I loved this song when I first heard it playing Kanon (didn’t make as much of an impact in the anime, being truncated for TV and all), and even today, it stands out to me as the quintessential ending for a VN. I would even say it would fit some routes in other Key games better than their actual ending themes. X3

It also kind of set the standard for how Shinji Orito would write his openings later on, since I’ve noticed that Tori no Uta and Light Colors share a similar tempo and even some similar motifs.

#14

Holy shit.

For me it’s really a close call between Koibumi and Ferry Poem (CANOE).

While from a musical standpoint, Ferry Poem is way superior. I just love how beautifully it is executed and the astonishing vocals.

But dang.
Even listening to Koibumi now.
I can’t.
I just cry.
Nothing I can do about it.
The feels are just too strong for me there.

So yeah, my vote for Koibumi.

4 Likes
#15

This is much much much harder than the OP one. Like it’s really really really difficult for me to choose between Regret, which I’d forgotten was an ED and is one of my favourite songs from Little Busters, and A Song For Friends. Eventually decided on A Song For Friends since I think I prefer it as an ED, as opposed to Regret which I … ‘love’ as a song. A painful, agonizing, melancholic song.

#16

Well I just had to vote for Little Jumper, It’s just a change of lyrics of a fantastic song that I like more than everything else there, and the lyrics make it happier, and it makes me feel happy!

#17

The Rewrite EDs are all great, but I’ll vote Song for Friends, because it plays at the end of what I believe are two of the three big moments in Litbus.

#18

Song For Friends, easily.

#19

Because “best” is totally subjective, I will be picking my best despite having absolutely no context of the song. For me, it would be Life Is Like A Melody.

I have never played Tomoyo After and have no idea how well it plays into the ending of the story. The ending song, however, is probably one of, if not my favorite Key song out there.

I can’t explain it in any way other than I just adore its melody. Jun Maeda does a great job at composing, and it just matches so perfectly with Lia’s vocal quality.

#20

I think that out of all of the ED songs, Tomoyo After’s was used to the most effect.

The melody is good as a standalone, but it fits so well with the VN. It has a well-set pace; It’s never too fast, but it’s not slow either. It’s fitting with the progression of the TA story. As the song comes to a close, the pace of the song slows and whimpers… And then a nostalgic sound takes over. It harkens back to CLANNAD. It’s a full-circle moment.