Earlier this year, I wrote a post about how many recent anime series have had openings and/or endings that change frequently in song, animation, or both, sometimes as often as every single episode. Though it’s happened in a few cases for older anime, it seems like the trend has really taken off this year…
As with many things in the anime industry, changing up the animation and/or song for a given anime’s OP or ED is yet another way to increase sales. More songs means more artist promotion and more potential CD or itunes sales, while different OP/ED animation means more promotion for particular characters and more potential fan omake to include on DVDs.
The trend isn’t completely new, as there have been traces of it in anime as far as ten years ago. I remember downloading the Japanese openings for Digimon02 way back in 2001 and noticing that there would be an “A version” and a “B version.” The two versions were almost identical, the only difference being that the B version would change a few of the scenes to feature characters that don’t appear until later in the series. Similarly for the next Digimon series, Digimon Tamers, the only difference between the two versions would be that the A version features silhouettes of characters that don’t appear until later episodes, while the B version would then reveal the silhouetted characters in full color. This same trend continued for the 4th season of Digimon, as well as many other kids anime I came across back then. My guess is that it’s a good way to save time and money by not having to make an entirely different OP later in the series, and to avoid spoilers at the same time.
A version on left, B version on right; silhouettes of spoiler characters revealed in B version
Interestingly, another old kids anime, Sailor Moon, sort of went the opposite route and used the exact same opening song, “Moonlight Densetsu,” for 166 of its 200 episodes. It did, however, change the opening’s animation each season and used a different singer midway through. It also tweaked the OPs for new events/characters.
The same OP tweaked slightly for new characters
While cases like Digimon and Sailor Moon have occurred for many years, they were few and far between. Almost all anime up until this past year have used the standard tradition of changing their OP and ED roughly every thirteen episodes. As was mentioned in my previous post on the subject, I feel that Bakemonogatari, which started airing in summer of ’09, is the series that really took the trend to new heights. In only fifteen episodes, it used five different OPs with entirely different songs and entirely different animation, something that I don’t think had ever been done before. It was followed swiftly by Sora no Otoshimono, which used a different ED for all of its episodes (haven’t watched the series myself so I can’t comment on them). And, just a few months later, Hanamaru Kindergarten also used entirely different EDs with a different song and different animation for all of its twelve episodes!
Have there been more prominent examples like this since my last post? There certainly have…
Along with the song, the EDs have some slight scenery/character design changes
As if to follow in the footsteps of its sibling series, Katanagatari has used a different ending song for all of its currently eleven episodes. Going by this, it’s twelfth and final episode, due this month, will most likely have a different song as well. The animation is changed too, but not significantly. So it seems like this is a case of purely wanting to promote many different artists.
Characters are added/redrawn/removed in the ED to coincide with the episodes
Rather than change the song frequently, Angel Beats! keeps the same OP and ED song for all of its thirteen episodes, but has slightly tweaked animation for all of them – adding characters to the OP and ED when they appear in the series and removing them when they leave, and in the case of the OP, adding a few scenes from the upcoming episode within the OP itself (episode 4 was also an exception in which one of the characters actually sang the OP and the animation was changed more than usual). In this case, it seems like the purpose of the frequent change is purely fan omake rather than artist promotion.
Silhouetted characters are revealed as they appear in the episodes
Pokemon started following the “frequently changing OPs/EDs” trend sometime in 2006, utilizing it in a number of ways over the years – using the same animation while remixing the song, silhouetting spoiler characters until they appear in the episodes, but mostly adding new pokemon to the current OP and/or ED if a main character catches them. With the currently airing new series, Best Wishes!, they’re taking this to the extreme. The OP started out with Pikachu running through many silhouettes of new pokemon. One by one, each silhouetted pokemon is making its appearance in the episodes, and then in the OP for the following episode, it’s shown in full color.
Obviously the creators planned out which pokemon would appear in at least the first batch of episodes in order to make this work. The detail goes further – for example, the pokemon Hihidaruma first appeared in episode 8 while being silhouetted in the OP for episodes 1 through 8. When it appears in the OP of ep 9, its silhouette glows before bursting into full color. In episodes 10 and onward, it simply appears in full color in the OP. All of the new 5th generation pokemon that have appeared in the anime so far have been following this trend.
The OreImou OP for episode 10 has been my favorite so far XD
And lastly, out of all the series that I’ve seen, the one that has utilized the “frequently changing OP/ED” trend to its fullest so far is OreImou. It uses different animation and a different song for all of its EDs and, while it uses the same song for all of its OPs, the animation is changed slightly in every single one (I’m pretty sure…correct me if I’m wrong) to showcase important scenes or characters for that episode.
I’ve only commented on anime I’ve seen that follow this trend – I’m sure there are many examples that I’m not aware of from anime I haven’t seen. Nevertheless, I do believe it’s a new trend that truly took off in 2009. As mentioned, it’s a great way to promote many different artists and characters in the hopes of selling more CDs and character goods. Increased fan immersion is also a factor, as is the case with Pokemon BW! and Angel Beats!, where viewers can precisely follow the changes in the character roster in the OP/ED as well as the show.
Although it’s still not that common, a day may come when the majority of anime series frequently change their OP and/or ED. My two guesses as to way it wasn’t used before last year is that 1) for old anime (like early 2000s or before), technology wasn’t advanced enough to make it cheap and easy to change the OPs and EDs all the time, and 2) simple innovation of the times. Anime, like other forms of media, is constantly giving birth to new trends, and this would be one of them.
Don’t forget about the (subtle) inclusion of Azusa in the K-On! OP after she joined the club! Given that Kyoto Animation was also working on new episodes of Haruhi at the same time, I can’t fault them too much for taking it easy on the “new” OP after she joined.
I think changing OP/EDs is a way to keep fans interested into the same opening. I know that when I go through a show, I’ll watch the OP/ED once or twice and then skip it unless I absolutely love it. Given the relative ease in creating one now, I’m not surprised that studios are creating one to keep fans interested. It’s also easy for padding the discs with bonus extras of textless versions. JC Staff does a great job keeping all textless versions on their animation releases that I’ve seen with Railgun and Toradora!.
One thing that annoyed me while watching ~After Story~ was how the OP never changed to reflect the shift of the story. I’d be watching about life after high school and still see the main 4 heroines in the opening animation. Given the fact that I really liked those characters, it felt like a tease to credit them and not use their characters in the main story.
I’d say that shows are starting to become more clever with changing the OP/ED for a reason. In OreImo, each OP seems to reflect the episode moreso than a “standard” one would. As for the EDs, they were created from users on NicoNico in a contest, thus involving the fans moreso than a standard ED would as well as using various artists works for ending images. In Kami nomi, each heroine sings the ED of her arc (and Elsie for “filler” episodes), which helps keep each arc separate. There’s just a needed reason for each show to have changing OP/EDs from what I’ve seen.
Heh, I used to skip the OPs and EDs after a few times per series too. But now I watch the OPs all the time unless I’m in a hurry. It was a tradition at my college anime club so I just continued with it XD I’ll usually skip the EDs after one time though unless I really like them.
Yes, thanks to digital animation and other new technologies, I’d imagine it’s much easier to tweak OPs and EDs now than it ever was before. Also, the faster pace of the times and mass anime production which increases fans’ expectations, could be a factor as well.
Thanks for the info about the OreImou and Kami nomi EDs! I didn’t know that about the OreImou EDs and hadn’t noticed that the singers of the Kami nomi ED changed =P
They used this a lot of Umineko, too.
Maria+Holic they just switched out a shot with just text for a sequence of Maria throwing paint onto the viewer.
Sometimes I don’t mind this, but sometimes I wish they would animate a new opening entirely. Especially for Umineko. The OP just started to not seem as fluid as it was originally.
I do remember that the Umineko OP changed at times. I agree that sometimes it feels more appropriate to create a new OP entirely rather than just tweak a few things. Not just because the plot/characters change significantly, but fans could get tired of the same song after a while =P
The earliest show I’m aware of which really messed with its credits is ef: a Tale of Memories in 2007 (and the following Tale of Melodies), which had totally different EDs for each girl depending on who’d just been featured most, as well as, I think, some generic ones, changed various things around near the end, like one OP which was sung in Japanese rather than the English it had been, and pulled a couple of other tricks too. You don’t see the OP until the end of episode 2, and it makes for a great moment. There was also an OP where they took the song out one episode, and just had the instrumental backing, again a very, very clever integration with what was happening at that point.
I also remember being impressed at yet another, earlier SHAFT show, Tsukuyomi with its credits manipulation, including different OPs for the heroine’s two different personalities.
I haven’t seen ef or Tsukuyomi so thanks for the info about them =) That’s really interesting about how they messed with their OPs and EDs to that extent, especially ef.
I like watching how openings can change these days, since like you said, it’s a lot more common now. As someone else said, it’s definitely a great way to keep viewer attention, because unless I’m really in love with a theme song, I only sit through the OP/ED once or twice before I start to jump over it.
So it’s certainly not a trend I’m going to complain about, haha.
It’s not only a great way to keep viewers’ attention, but it could also be additional advertising for the song. Because the animation changes, viewers are more likely to want to tune in to the OPs and EDs because they’ll be different each time, thus they’ll be listening to the songs over and over too and may be more inclined to purchase the CDs.
I was surprised that AIC had made OreImo’s episode 10 opening credits a bit fantastic… naturally, better.
I think that trend was somehow a bit observed especially to those long play shows.
maybe, it’s also because that they are trying to update it all so I think the concept itself is not bad after all.
Yes, I loved the 10th version of OreImou’s OP. The Kirino vs Kuroneko scene was great XD And Kirino standing by herself in the rain was a nice melancholic change of pace.
One of the oldest animes that I know of with changes in Ops/Eds is Bottle Fairy from 2003. It has the same opening for all 13 episodes. However, there are five endings with the same melody but different lyrics and sang by different characters from the anime. Each ending has a picture that expands. You can check it out online if you want. I find such endings pretty interesting, who doesn’t like it when anime characters sing? But, like others said, I usually skip over openings and endings, and I end up not seeing any differences.
Thanks for the info about Bottle Fairy.
I agree, I love it when characters sing the OPs and EDs. It makes the songs feel more like they’re for the show rather than just a way to promote random artists using anime. It also helps that 99% of seiyuu I’ve ever heard have good singing voices, but I guess they’re trained for that ;)
Whenever I know that a series has a tendency to change the OPs and/or EDs, I’ll always watch them for every episode. I’m sure that’s something the creators want XD
Great page! What is OreImou about? I might want to check out the anime on youtube. :) Thanks!
OreImou is about 17-year old high school boy Kyousuke who finds out that his younger sister Kirino is secretly an erogame (erotic game) otaku. Throughout the episodes he tries to help her cope with different aspects of her unusual hobby despite the fact that she’s insufferably ungrateful to him. Even though it has some controversial themes, it’s a well done, engaging series. But I think only fans interested in the hardcore Japanese otaku-side of the anime would enjoy it.
I think High School of the Dead also has a different ED for each episode. It isn’t just a different sequence. The theme songs are completely different from episode to episode. I thought that is really neat.
I hope this trend becomes more widespread, but budget is always an issue for anime productions.
Guilty as well of fast forwarding OPs and EDs :S I’m never doing that again.
Also, some anime are also showing more footage after the ED, I guess to keep people watching the ED and what comes after it. For example Gundam 00 and Darker than black S2. First time I watched Gundam 00, I did not watch the bit after the ED, and missed some pretty important moments :S