I think pretty much everyone is in agreement that the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya didn’t really live up to the promise of the first (Endless  Eight is mostly the reason to blame). But one place where it did overhaul its predecessor was in its choice of opening music. Call me a heretic if you will, but I always thought original OP “Bouken de-show de-show?” was a sort of bland and anonymous.

By contrast, “Super Driver” fits the mood of the show perfectly. Like its title character, it’s a relentlessly get up and go type, a power pop song driven by an incredible energy and an infectious backbeat, the music stripped down to just a raw four piece with guitars front and centre. The animation meanwhile adopts a delightful pop-art aesthetic,  all written sound effects and coloured silhouettes. You can almost feel the song exploding with energy as it bursts into its racing chorus, voices shouting in the background. It’s just an absolute delight to listen to, and I’m glad we got the second series just for this intro alone.