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Anime intros and endings
15 years ago
General
TL;DR: My ramblings thoughts on cartoon and anime intros and credits and stuff. Plus videos at the bottom
For a good few years now, I've been really into anime intros and endings. There's just something about them that are really cool to watch. Even a bit motivational as far as art goes.
Most American shows, nowadays, seem to make their intros and credits as an after thought. Usually with passionless songs lasting no longer than a minute. And most of those songs seem to be nothing but guitar riffs and people repeating the name of the show over and over again.
But Japan, cartoon intros and closings are practically an art form! Every season (sometimes every new story arc) there's a new opening sequence. And for every new opening they have a new song, made by real bands and music groups.
Take One Piece's 11th and 13th opening for example:
Now that series is so big (running over 10 years), their opening is over 2 minutes long! They actually do this so that they don't have to worry about making any end credits. But the animation quality is actually higher than a lot of the in show animation, itself. And the songs are sung by Japanese groups called Tohishinki (for the 11th Op) and The Rootless (for the 13th).
One neat thing about a lot of anime intro/credit songs is that the songs are actually vague/open ended enough to be made into real songs, as if they weren't part of the anime to begin with.
Like how Tohoshinki did with theirs (yes they're a boy band):
Basically any band that makes a song for a show can make more money selling singles separate from the show. Not only that, but if the show is popular enough, that'll give them huge "ups" in publicity and popularity. Like how an actor guess stars in a popular show.
I sometimes wonder why America doesn't give their cartoons the same treatment, but then I remember so many reasons. Not a lot of North American shows seem to last that long. Quality intros require a good amount of time and money. Channels need space for commercials. Its also hard to make epic openings when your show is mostly made in flash (Here's looking at you Total Drama Island). And most producers seem to discount the idea since they don't think kids will notice if the quality is cheap.
More and more, it seems like American animation is so about business and cutting corners, that artistic integrity and passion for animation is becoming up and forgotten. Sure you save money, but when does it stop becoming frugal, and start becoming greedy?
Well that's all I got to say. Here's a few other anime intros I find cool.
For a good few years now, I've been really into anime intros and endings. There's just something about them that are really cool to watch. Even a bit motivational as far as art goes.
Most American shows, nowadays, seem to make their intros and credits as an after thought. Usually with passionless songs lasting no longer than a minute. And most of those songs seem to be nothing but guitar riffs and people repeating the name of the show over and over again.
But Japan, cartoon intros and closings are practically an art form! Every season (sometimes every new story arc) there's a new opening sequence. And for every new opening they have a new song, made by real bands and music groups.
Take One Piece's 11th and 13th opening for example:
Now that series is so big (running over 10 years), their opening is over 2 minutes long! They actually do this so that they don't have to worry about making any end credits. But the animation quality is actually higher than a lot of the in show animation, itself. And the songs are sung by Japanese groups called Tohishinki (for the 11th Op) and The Rootless (for the 13th).
One neat thing about a lot of anime intro/credit songs is that the songs are actually vague/open ended enough to be made into real songs, as if they weren't part of the anime to begin with.
Like how Tohoshinki did with theirs (yes they're a boy band):
Basically any band that makes a song for a show can make more money selling singles separate from the show. Not only that, but if the show is popular enough, that'll give them huge "ups" in publicity and popularity. Like how an actor guess stars in a popular show.
I sometimes wonder why America doesn't give their cartoons the same treatment, but then I remember so many reasons. Not a lot of North American shows seem to last that long. Quality intros require a good amount of time and money. Channels need space for commercials. Its also hard to make epic openings when your show is mostly made in flash (Here's looking at you Total Drama Island). And most producers seem to discount the idea since they don't think kids will notice if the quality is cheap.
More and more, it seems like American animation is so about business and cutting corners, that artistic integrity and passion for animation is becoming up and forgotten. Sure you save money, but when does it stop becoming frugal, and start becoming greedy?
Well that's all I got to say. Here's a few other anime intros I find cool.
Fuck yeah! Tank! |D LOVE that song.
Brothers is the best FMA song to me. So pretty. Well... Ready Steady Go was good too.
Imagine how cool so many American shows would be if they put the passion back in animation and songs! :D
Western has animation cuts, as in: cheap, flat, shadowless goo with lots of flash twisting and resizing.
Anime is more stagnant repetition, keyframes and such.
Either way, both suck. Although anime is better on average.
But yeah. I totally agree with everything here. Anime openings indeed get you pumped for watching the show, and are always one of the most intriging aspects of Japanese animation to me. I suppose they are akin to amazingly detailed comic book covers, where the incredibly detailed outside of the book sorta draws you in to check out what's inside...
In any case, great OP examples all in all ^^
This is especially true for long lived franchises like One Piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygdnpbrb0dw&feature=related
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efTj0-N_J6U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcCZVgqisic&feature=PlayList&p=C72A7500D49F48E5&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1
But if you've ever heard of Hyadain. It's the alias of the actual composer who did the "Share the World Opening." Also, if American cartoons had these kinds of openings, they would increase awesomeness tenfold, but instead we got the pirate rap as a One Piece opening. But maybe because most of the songs you hear in America isn't close to the same style as the Japanese songs.
And yeah, one second that show looked like the most bad-arse show ever, then you hear nothing but corny one liners from EVERY character for the next 30 minutes.