Great Days
Opening Animation
The opening begins on a bland background before several motifs bearing the image of, in order of apparition, Josuke Higashikata and Okuyasu Nijimura, Koichi Hirose's and the three stages of Echoes, Yukako Yamagishi and Love Deluxe, Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo's and Shizuka Joestar flash by, forming the word "JOJO as a direct reference to the B cover of Chapter 321. The scene quickly changes to a flashing of the word "Breakdown" in English bearing Killer Queen's face. The word explodes twice before reforming itself, each time revealing mechanical pieces underneath the word. The scene transitions to the ocean near the docks of Morioh, within the water are four different colored stars bearing the words "JOJO DU 04" on them.
The scene suddenly flashes back to "Breakdown" again, this time when exploding, Sheer Heart Attack is shown underneath. Amidst a red and black diamond-checkered background Yoshikage Kira, disguised as Kosaku Kawajiri, emerges from the darkness. The "Breakdown" sign reapears again, this time revealing an emblem with Stray Cat on it while exploding. Cutting back to Kira, the checkered background parts in the middle to reveal the streets of Morioh at night while Kira raises his thumb. The "Breakdown" sign appears for the final time, now revealing Kosaku Kawajiri's head stripped of its facial features. Zooming in on Kira's face, he readies his thumb as if pressing a detonator while Jotaro, Josuke, Okuyasu, Rohan Kishibe and Yukako have their backs to him; unaware of what's happening. As Kira detonates his bomb, the scene explodes into a flash of white, revealing the title card.
Against a simple backdrop with a giant, sun-shaped clock bearing the word "Justice" in the background, the silhouette of Josuke appears. As the hands on the clock begin to move (one of which being Arrow-shaped), Josuke walks throughout the scene while leaving afterimages of himself behind. As the silhouette of Josuke walks into the daylight of his town, his body is clearly visible now as he strikes a brief pose. After posing, Josuke continues to move, leaving behind more afterimages of himself as he walks away into the distance. Okuyasu walks into the scene in the opposite direction of Josuke, also leaving a trail of afterimages behind him as he walks with his father. Yukako appears and walks along the street with her boyfriend Koichi, both leaving afterimages behind as they meet up. In the background composed of the distorded Morioh, several street signs read "SC 1987" and a star symbol, "DU 1999" with the Morioh "M" and "GW 2001" and a ladybug, alluding to the adjacent parts Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable and Vento Aureo (or "Golden Wind").
The scene shifts to Rohan's mansion, with the camera panning through the doorway into the patio as Rohan looks out towards the street with his cup of tea; a deformed shadow briefly appearing on his back. Another door opens with the camera panning through it again, showing Masazo Kinoto with his back pressed to Rohan's front door. As Rohan looks on curiously, Mikitaka Hazekura appears in the background, standing horizontally on the wall of Rohan's house.
The final door opens as the scene transitions to a field in Morioh with a bird flying through the air, leaving afterimages behind. In the field below, the words Lucky Land are formed into the tall grass, above a collection of crop circles. The scene pans over to reveal a radio tower with an obscured man standing on one of the tower's lines. A looming shadow passes over the scene, transitioning to a shot of Shinobu Kawajiri leaning up as a spotlight focuses on her resting her head in her hands lazily. Shinobu remains motionless as afterimages of her travel down a long room, only illuminated by a lone television set bearing the image of a man. The television set disappears as afterimages of Yoshikage Kira appear, holding Tama travel in the opposite direction of Shinobu's. Fading into the scene from the middle of the room is Hayato Kawajiri sitting alone at a dining table with a sad expression on his face.
The afterimages of both Shinobu and Kira disappear as the background changes to a gloomy and dark night with Hayato now wearing his rain hat. Images of Kira slowly fill the background in a manner reminiscent of the Belgian painting Golconda as Killer Queen's hands descend from above to grasp Hayato's head, causing Hayato to look downwards. As all images fade away, Reimi Sugimoto's hand appears from the bottom as she points upwards to the gloomy sky, causing an aura of light to radiate from her hand and illuminate the sky. The scene changes to the middle of Morioh, with posing silhouettes of Rohan, whose pose is mirrored from one of his poses in Kishibe Rohan Meets Gucci, and Yukako appearing motionless before the shadows explode off their bodies, revealing their features with a "gyaan!" sound effect. The scene pans over to another street, featuring the silhouettes of Koichi, Okuyasu and Jotaro; all posing before their shadows burst off with a "zgyun" sound effect.
Shifting back to Reimi's hand pointing upwards still, now having changed the night to day, the hands of all of Morioh's protectors rise up and join her to point towards the sky. The symbol for Morioh transitions the scene into a colorful yellow and green backdrop with the symbols of Crazy Diamond, The Hand, Echoes ACT3, Star Platinum, Heaven's Door and Hermit Purple forming a ring around the symbol. Inside the ring we can also see symbols representing Pearl Jam, Bad Company, Earth Wind and Fire, Harvest, Highway Star, Surface, The Lock, Love Deluxe, Cinderella, and Achtung Baby. The ringed emblem of Morioh rotates like a clock to reveal the silhouette of Josuke pointing upwards before his features are revealed, showing him standing in a field with his comrades. As they all point towards the sky, the camera zooms upwards towards the sky, quickly passing by Reimi with her dog in the spirit world and the happy ghosts of Shigechi, Aya Tsuji and Keicho Nijimura all reaching down towards Josuke and his allies below.
The scene transitions once again to a red and white diamond checkered background, with Yoshihiro Kira holding the Arrow. As he fades into the distance, a 9 representing Ken Oyanagi through the hole in his cheek, and the rock and paper from Janked comes into view, followed by another 9 representing Terunosuke Minamoto and his Stand, Enigma. Followed by that is an image of Yuya Fungami with several feet placed over his body. The scene pans out to reveal all the enemy Stand users spelling out "1999" before transitioning into a dark room with the words "KILL A" on the ground. Standing in the room is Kira as he slowly turns to face the camera, causing a beam of light to illuminate his face. This quickly transitions to Star Platinum: The World readying a punch as The Hand follows suit. After them, Echoes ACT3 descends from above and readies its attack and Heaven's Door flashes by to join it. Lastly, Crazy Diamond rises up and winds up a punch before throwing it. As it punches, the scene transitions to an image of all of Morioh's protectors against the "Justice" clock from the beginning, now wrapped with vines from Hermit Purple, pointing upwards towards the heavens as the clock continues to tick on.
Altered Versions
Changes were made to Great Days, beginning from DU Episode 28 (the second episode with it as the opening) onward, with several scenes modified but otherwise the same score.
- The camera trucking scene in the streets of Morioh is continuously lit up more and more in a rising sun effect instead of having a static luminosity.
- The travelling scene over the crop circles and electrical tower, the shadow is retracting instead of covering the landscape.
- The scenes with the posing protagonists of Part 4 includes afterimages disappearing when the characters are revealed.
- The spirits of Shigechi, Aya, and Keicho are now tinted in a golden color.
- The scene including Yoshikage Kira has Kira now turning his head from the other side, rise his hand to cover his blinded eyes, and summon Killer Queen.
- The scene where the protagonists' Stand are reaching forward is replaced. Instead a "JOJO"-engraved heart entwined in vines reforms itself and is hold by Crazy Diamond. Then it is revealed that Crazy Diamond stand on one of the rays of the sun-shaped Justice clock and all the Stands of the protagonists are revealed one by one standing on different rays of the clock.
Lyrics
| Japanese Kanji | Japanese Rōmaji | English Translation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Song
Tracklist
- Great Days
Lyrics: Endokeipu /Arrangement: Yugo Kanno - Great Days - English Ver.-
Lyrics: Karen Aoki /Arrangement: Yugo Kanno - Great Days (Instrumental)
Trivia
- The title of the song, "Great Days" is coincidentally very similar to the Japanese romanization of Josuke's catchphrase, (グレートだぜ, Gurēto daze).
- The intro to this song bears similarities to the tune of the Diamond Is Unbreakable main theme, particularly with the repeated use of the word "Breakdown".
- In the full version of the song, towards the end the song is reversed back to the "Breakdown" lyrics momentarily; a clear reference to Killer Queen's third bomb, "Bites the Dust".
- The font used throughout the beginning of the opening, most notable with Hirohiko Araki's name, bears an incredible similarity to the Yes album cover Close to the Edge.
- Towards the end of the opening, Crazy Diamond is seen reforming the vine-entwined heart of Morioh, creating a continuity with the previous opening where it was destroyed by Killer Queen.
