One clear difference between Japanese animation and other TV series is the importance of openings. In most American series it feels like they don’t know what to do with it, it’s more of a hindrance in the way of the actual programme, just throw in the credits over a slow moving camera and an instrumental track then call it a day. In contrast for a more niche and as such competitive market, it’s a way for a company to flex its animation muscles for a lasting first impression. They need to stop people changing the channel, sell those VHS’ and release those cassettes so in some cases that means blowing the majority of their animation budget on a minute and a half music video.
As such here are some of the most vibrant, artsy and stylish intros for getting pumped and seeing the sort of spectacle that’s possible. It’s these sort of feats that popularised “Japanimation” and “Cool Japan” in the West:
Read Or Die The TV
I had an internal struggle over which R.O.D. intro to choose, as they’re both similar but have unique stuff I really like. In the other opening the pan of city drawn like a time-lapse shot and the zoom in on the key character at the end are excellent but the drop in pacing part way through is a little long despite fitting nicely to the music. In contrast here every second holds you with the excellent set pieces against the bombastic music. The character outline slowly walking in time to the increasing beat in red only emphasises the following action with contrasting vibrant blue seen in four quick angled action shots ending with a mini jumping out of an exploding building as the first trumpet sounds. From this point the credits frequently flash up as writing across nude women as if it’s a model shoot amongst slow pans of large busy cityscapes perfectly setting the tone while not lingering too long in one place or on one character. The way it uses angles and replicates cinematography techniques and camera focusing to slowly engage with the shows cast as the music keeps building, it’s all so memorable.
Gunsmith Cats: Bulletproof!
I’ve probably watched this more than anything else because it personifies classic ideals of “cool”. Inspired by American pop culture, as with the shows setting, this opening is rife with muscle cars and guns in a blue and red pop art style. As with many of the intros I talk about there is a nice balance between slow pans of large areas and quick cuts of close ups complimenting the music. Shots tend to consist of three base colours, such as blue, white and black, which makes shifts much more noticeable and motion more vibrant. The effort that went into these set pieces, getting the mechanisms right on the handguns for example, is evident. In addition the way the title keeps appearing, and especially the final few shots such as them staring at the sky in leather jackets and sunglasses, it’s just so cool that I love this immensely.
Lupin 3rd: Part 4
Lupin the 3rd has been seeing adaptions since 1969 and for good reason, the series is a classic with a clear jazzy style, but amongst it’s array of amazing intros (mainly mixing the same song where the sole lyrics are “Lupin the 3rd”) the opening for Part 4 delivers exceptionally. The use of vibrant colour shifts and filters seems to be an ongoing theme here, but that’s because it just works so well. Framing is used excellently here, with various elements moving between the layers of animation, all which managing not to seem too busy, in addition to transition effects that are extremely stylised. All this with the production company flashing their fancy new animation methods and budget. This series marked a new beginning in the franchise characterised by the title characters new jacket colour, with a 30 year gap since Part 2 aired and aimed to deliver on what fans had wanted for years. Though quite different the intro to “The Woman Named Fujiko Mine” is also notable for it’s pencil style and dark tone as the title character narrates over the instrumental “Wuthering Heights”, it’s just very NSFW.
Michiko and Hatchin
Sometimes it’s hard for Japanese animation companies to express the feelings and ideals of another culture through their work, but not here. Michiko and Hatchin’s colourful, exciting and gorgeous opening captures the liveliness of Brasil in a way that sets the scene before the show even starts. With music production by Shinichiro Watanabe (of “Cowboy Bebop” fame) his knowledge of Western music fits perfectly into the show. This is helped by the characters non-Japanese designs that are unusual in anime, the sounds of upbeat trumpets driving them on in their adventures through slums and deserts.
Sailor Moon
A lot of people seem to forget just how excellent the original intro to “Sailor Moon” actually is, lost in favour of the catchy American opening it was replaced with. Here they manage to capture the distinct shoujo artstyle of the manga perfectly with some impressive animation for the time. The light yet colourful tones compliment the fantastical scenery well, with Usagi lost amongst large set pieces searching for love and companionship. There’s a lot of walking and gazing into the distance in place of action but this works well amongst the mystifying hue of colours. I’m also a fan of the various patterns you can see displayed across background elements, making the setting stand out even more rather than just standard images of Tokyo.
Dirty Pair TV
Earlier I mentioned the use of backgrounds elements crossing layers of the animation and moving into the foreground, this opening does this perfectly. When I first discovered “Dirty Pair” I felt like this was the kind of show I’d want to make. Apart from the quick flashing lights at the start, before our heroines appear, shoot the screen and pose next to the logo which is shaped like a pistol, the rest of this intro is shot as if being watched on a big screen upon a bustling street. I adore how the the action switches between the screen and the street below, it’s so lively and fun alongside the great song “Ru-Ru-Russian Roulette”. It has a very “80’s” colour screen switching from pinks to blues, it manages to express the fun factor of the series while retaining style. I especially like how how Yuri does the super 80’s anime finger gun to shoot the screen towards the end, a more fun take on Kei’s more serious pistol shot at the start.
Dirty Pair: Project Eden
I normally wouldn’t want to have numerous clips from the same franchise but the opening to the Dirty Pair movie is just too good not to show. You’ve probably seen footage from this across the internet as gifs of this beautiful animated piece are common, especially on the future funk side of the internet. Coming in following the explosive opening scene this intro is something they could only pull off with a movie budget, not only is this the most colourful intro I can think of but this film has the best soundtrack. It plays like a Bond movie opening, but with robotic imagery mixed amongst flirtatious and dangerous women. It screams of hiding sorrow beneath a life of luxury, just like the lyrics say it’s a “beautiful nightmare”. The one shot where the throwing knife is caught in the woman’s mouth is superbly animated.
Ghost Hound
The amazing jazz of Mayumi Kojima is one of the highlights of the intro to this horror series. This whole opening is filled with dark and murky imagery, starting with birds against a clouded sky to a worker surrounded by steam, it tries to blend the man made imagery against the eerily chilling natural environments before mixing in the supernatural. It tries to express the idea of something hidden amongst everyday life, with an opening that despite the upbeat music tries to remain very grounded in tone as seen through its grounded colour scheme. Nothing is made to stand out too much, not even the title crawl. I particularly like the close up of the animals, followed by people and then a supernatural beast, overall it’s the tone that comes across strongest here.
Space Adventure Cobra TV
This is one of the few slow and moody intros I’ve included but it’s one that works really well. Firstly the animation in this is excellent, especially the background animations showing space rushing past, creating an atmosphere of wonder and intrigue which is brought forward onto the protagonist as he slowly comes into view. The progression of the slowly approaching silhouette, to him kissing his gun arm and finally firing it in time with the singer’s methodical chants is brilliant. The final shot of him approaching dodging projectile like shapes with ease helps to highlight the over the top style here. The framing emphasises the ideals of beauty and mystery to suit the adventurous tone of the show itself and is perfect for such a character driven series.
Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad
This is a very different opening to a lot of others I’ve included due to it’s lively tone as the director of Beck attempts to frame the intro like an American music video. Across this whole video the ideals of the “American road trip”, with travelling musicians starting from the bottom to build themselves up can be seen. Instantly the scene is set up large obnoxious signs for diners, casinos and churches. Against backdrops filled with metropolitan imagery and empty deserts, it really gives the feel of a journey through cities, ending amongst skyscrapers. Beck does an excellent job of catching the style of Western rock culture here in a way that many others would struggle to show, with the characters singing along this introduction provides more of an emotional look at the character’s dreams and desires.
Overman King Gainer
Looking at this intro I think “yes, this is definitely a Tomino show”. As the director of Gundam as well as many other weird and unusual shows, Yoshiyuki Tomino is a fan of spectacle and this opening displays all his tricks. Stormy weather with unclear visuals as a choir calls forward the “hero”, lyrics repeating the mecha’s name as it shoots througha bright blue sky before the flamboyant title screen appears and moves to the music’s beat. Slow pans of impressive landscapes set the scene before zooming in on characters, but then it switches to the “as of this moment” sheltered protagonist against a blank backdrop, who is then summoned by others, discovers the mecha and slowly matures into a soldier. In addition the character designs are all fun with flashy colours defining them. Now I won’t lie, most of the reason this is included is the fact that all the characters do a fun dance in-front of crawling text a la Star Wars, showing that this show priorities human feeling an emotion before lore and war like earlier Tomino works. The protagonists dancing in a forest together is really cute and emphasises this previous point, before a Tomino favourite of the cast reaching out their hands to the protagonist. Overall emphasising characters and emotion through crisp visuals make this memorable and really enjoyable.
City Hunter
“Go Go Heaven” is an excellent song and this is an excellent opening where the stylishness comes from the fast paced action shots. It’s incredibly character focused, with most backgrounds being blurred colours, but this just emphasises the feeling of motion. The framing of spotlights on characters against brick walls and a slow movement across late night cityscapes provides the prefect tone, there’s even a disco scene! The background changing with every gunshot he makes is an additional nice touch, The characters are framed excellently like it’s a series of shots from modelling photo shoots, style provided through cinematography.
Future Police Urashiman
So 80’s it hurts but in all the best ways, I was instantly pulled in by the clashing vibrant colours and strong science fiction imagery alongside classical imagery signifying wisdom, like the Thinker, Chess and the Sphinx. It’s a great blend of different genres before the characters are introduced through flashy short introduction sequences that are all really unique. You can tell they’re really fans of spinning camera angles and rainbows in this one, everything is so visually striking it’s kind of hard not to love it.
Bakuretsu Hunters
Just like the previous intro was extremely 80’s this is quintessentially 90’s as the font flashes in part against vibrant comics style colour schemes. A lot of the techniques used here were common trends of the time, such as a close up of the protagonist’s fist reaching to the sky and a slow pan away from the villain, but it’s the fact that they’re all done so well at such a lightning pace that really makes it. The characters are introduced with a spinning single colour frame before a series of shadowy yet bright action shots, while later shots have character faces streak onto the scene in white rectangles, it does an excellent job of setting the tone and introducing the characters while being colourful and fun. While again close up shots of a nude woman with two or three basic colours and the show title always works and looks flashy done like this.
Kimagure Orange Road
All the intros and outros to this show are great, at the last minute I decided to use this opening instead of the first which is choreographed really well with a song I prefer but commits the carnal sin of using footage from the show itself. With the art style seen here we get a much more “80’s music video” vibe, reminiscent of something like “Take on Me”. The first thing that hits you with this is the sketched art style which looks so unique and full of motion. Rather than flashy vibrant colours this opening is slower with the waving black and white pans slow pans with one item of a different light tone in most frames. Amongst this we get shots of the characters playing instruments in a school gym, with varying shots reminiscent of different music video styles. This feeling is only escalated by the TV style static and the beginning in particular which shows quick cuts of a CRT playing the first opening to the show.
Though I have undoubtedly forgotten some I really need to stop. There’s a wealth of amazing animation out there, what are some of your favourite openings?
Geek in the Shell 