sayonara bystander is as good as OPs get.

it captures the essence of the stretch of episodes that it covers both lyrically and through visuals

3-gatsu S1 spoilers so don’t read if you haven’t watched it lol

the name of the song alone tells you exactly what’s happening in the latter stretch of season 1.

Rei was extremely reckless in the way he approached his shogi & his life in general, consistently getting bailed out by others approaching him instead of approaching others for help

Due to his past he opts not to approach others because he doesn’t want to leech off of them, but it’s this behaviour that puts him further & further down the spiral.

This OP plays from episode 11-22, and episode 16 is where Rei decides to take a step forward on his own for once

He says goodbye to the bystander in him that watched as others went out of their way to help him and for once took significant action on his own, a huge step for his character

The idea of climbing to the top of the shogi world is consistently presented as a storm in the series. You have Rei, who’s content with stagnation and sitting outside of the storm, seeking answers from outside of it.

On the other hand you have Nikaidou, Shimada, and Gotou deep in the storm, wind tearing at their bodies, demonstrating their will to continue, and of course you have Souya in the eye of the storm, sitting at the top of the shogi world.

After Shimada’s loss, Rei realizes that the answer he’s looking for cannot he achieved by simply being a bystander, and that he has to dive into the storm himself, signalling the end of his journey as a bystander.

in conclusion, thematically dope OP