Every Anime Opening Ever Made

Somebody has finally noticed that all anime openings are identical cut-and-pastes of the same elements ad nauseam, and gone so far as to compile a helpful meta-OP template video to prove it.

The video:

The creator’s explanation and the all important list of titles viewers will otherwise be struggling to identify:

Music: Ayu’s Euro Mega-Mix [Y & Co. Mix] by Ayumi Hamasaki

It’s always amused me the repeated imagery that exist in anime opening credit sequences. This video doesn’t cover them all, but it has a lot of the big ones. Interesting thing I learned, if a character is running it’s overwhelmingly to the left of the screen.

I first started thinking about this years ago when I saw the X-Men intro that they made in Japan to replace the American one. The part that especially hit home was Wolverine, and Cyclops standing on some nondescript land mass.

For this I used only textless credits I found on Youtube (with the exception of Evangelion). So if your favorite anime isn’t in here either there was no textless version or it had a pretty unique opening sequence.

Here’s the complete list of what anime made it into this.

009-1
Ah! My Goddess
Ai Yori Aoshi
Angelic Layer
Asu no Yoichi
Azumanga Daioh
Berserk
Big O
Black Lagoon
Bleach
Blood+
Blue Dragon
Burst Angel
Cardcaptor Sakura
Chrono Crusade
City Hunter
Clannad
Claymore
Cobra
Code Geass
Cowboy Bebop
D. Gray Man
Death Note
Diebuster
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball Z
H2O Footprints in the Sand
Eureka Seven
FateStay Night
Full Metal Panic!
Full Metal Panic Fumoffu
Full Metal Panic The 2nd Raid
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fushigi Yuugi
GaoGaiGar
Genshiken
Ghost Stories
Girls Bravo
Gokusen
Golgo 13
Gosyusho sama Ninomiya-kun
GTO
Gundam 00
Gundam Wing
Gurren Lagann
Hajime no Ippo
Hellsing
Hikaru no Go
Ikki Tousen
Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny
Inu Yasha
K-On!
Kanokon
Kare Kano
Kaze no Stigma
Last Exile
Love Hina
Love Hina Again
Mahoromatic
Mai Hime
Mai Otome
Martian Successor Nadesico
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Midori Days
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Nadia – The Secret of Blue Water
Nana
Nanatsuiro Drops
One Piece
Planetes
Rahxephon
Ranma 1/2
Read or Die OAV
Ruin Explorer
Sailor Moon
Samurai Deeper Kyo
School Days
School Rumble
Shakugan no Shana
Strawberry Panic
Strike Witches
Tenchi Muyo Universe
Third – the Girl with the Blue Eye
To Aru Majutsu no Index
Toward the Terra
True Tears
Tsukihime
Utawarerumono
Welcome to the NHK
Wolf’s Rain
X-Men
Yu Yu Hakusho

His Twitter account for those interested.

As 2ch has it, “Wherever you look, all our games and anime are just cutting and pasting the same things over and over.”

Fortunately, all major anime have access to at least 8 hair colours, 2 genders and 5 different costumes to help make the cutting and pasting a little less noticeable.

via sankaku

AKIRA? KANEDA?!?! NOOOOO!!!!!

Hollywood’s pending rape of Akira, set to be a PG-13 action flick set in New York, is rumoured to be casting actor Zac Efron, star of such dark and gritty classics as High School Musical, in the lead role of hooligan biker Kaneda.

The rumoured casting decision in detail:

Another rumor which is making the tracking board rounds today is that Zac Efron has apparently been offered the lead role in Albert Hughes’ upcoming live-action adaptation of the popular anime/Katsuhiro Otomo’s six-volume manga Akira. I’m not able to confirm the offer, but one source tells me Efron is in talks, while another says that it is “far from a done deal.”

[...]

Last we heard, producer Andrew Lazar said that Hughes is was busy “conceptualizing the movie with a bunch of visual artists” and working with a new screenwriter, Albert Torres (Henry Poole Is Here), to put his stamp on Akira.

That draft was due in September. Hughes has also talked about the film being PG-13 and the idea that he might only direct the first of two planned films. (One adapting the first three manga volumes, and the second volumes four through six.)

The previous screenplay was set in a post-apocalyptic “New Manhattan” and will feature Akira’s famous red motorcycle. The original Katsuhiro Otomo anime was set in a futuristic and post-war city, Neo-Tokyo, in 2019. As for the casting, here is an excerpt from a previous posting by Russ Fischer:

No cast has ever publicly revealed to be attached. The involvement of Appian Way led many to suspect that DiCaprio would star as the teen biker Kaneda, despite being demonstrably too old for the part, but the actor publicly denied any involvement beyond producing duties.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was rumored to be in mind for Tetsuo, the friend of Kaneda whose psychic powers are awakened, setting of a cataclysmic chain of destructive events in Neo-Tokyo. He also denied any attachment.

It seems the red motorcycle is all that will survive Hollywood’s “vision” for the adaptation.

via sankaku