Shojo S (Bleach OP12 — original)

Four distorted guitars hit simultaneously like a starting pistol, and Scandal's "Shojo S" never lets up from that first second. The track is pure propulsion — chunky power chords, a locked-in driving rhythm section, and a lead guitar line that cuts through the mix with a bright, almost cutting tone. What makes it distinctive is that all four members are young women, and the vocal has a girlish clarity that contrasts sharply with the surrounding crunch: there's something almost defiant in how sweet the melody sounds against such aggressive instrumentation. The song captures a very specific emotional frequency — the restless energy of someone who is angry but also desperately hopeful, the feeling of sprinting toward something you can't quite name. Lyrically it circles around themes of identity and becoming, the kind of self-declaration that only makes sense when you're in the middle of transformation. The production is punchy and clean, very much in the tradition of mid-2000s J-rock that ruled anime openings — tight, anthemic, engineered to make you feel like the protagonist of your own story in thirty seconds flat. It fits Bleach perfectly: the relentless momentum mirrors the series' battle pacing. You reach for this song when you're commuting and need something to make the sidewalk feel like a battlefield, or when you're seventeen and furious and certain the world is about to crack open for you.