• Nah. It's more like the difference between the person who has watched almost every episode of Star Trek and has a working knowledge of it versus someone who has written most of the articles on Memory Alpha and had a full-blown Star Trek wedding. In short, it's the difference between enjoying a medium and making it the primary obsession. I like anime; I don't want to be Japanese. The type of people who pepper their speech with "kawaii" and the other handful of Japanese words they've learned want to be Japanese - or rather, their highly idealistic, highly uninformed view of what a Japanese person is. And, yes, there is a bit of self-deprecation and irony in it, most of it self-aware. This is the internet, after all.

• Mr. Poole, creator of 4chan, was originally part of Something Awful but he wanted to create his own forum. He was actually very big into anime - it was the first board, in fact, with random coming second - and a good number of people were active on both 4chan and Something Awful. While that's not the case so much now, there's still a lot of collective culture. Or, to put it another way: mootles was underage b& on SA. butthurt, created 4chan, was a huge weeaboo. oldfags were all weeaboo and memes never die.

• Mr. Poole, creator of 4chan, was originally part of Something Awful but he wanted to create his own forum. He was actually very big into anime - it was the first board, in fact, with random coming second - and a good number of people were active on both 4chan and Something Awful. While that's not the case so much now, there's still a lot of collective culture. Or, to put it another way: mootles was underage b& on SA. butthurt, created 4chan, was a huge weeaboo. oldfags were all weeaboo and memes never die.

• I'm quite pleased to see that Trigun's not included.. which I hope means that its opening sequence is pretty unique. ^_^

• Is this... some kind of A. Hamasaki eurobeat-remix thingy-ma-jig?

• Did the music make anyone else think of the old school Sonic games? And yeah, I recognized quite a few shots in there of anime I watch and I had to bow my head in shame after seeing this.

• That was the bad intro? that was the one i loved... whats the other one then?

• Wait, I remember that intro, too. I gather they aired at least a few episodes with that intro before switching to the other?

• Tell me about it. I'm the secretary of the Anime Club at my university. It's depressing how rarely we actually watch the show seriously. Mostly we just mock the heck out of them.

• Isn't it a tattoo of Lum on his arm or something? I seem to remember him showing it off in Anime Insider years ago.

• Yeah, how dare he only use 93 different openings in less than 4 and a half minutes. There's barely any variety!

• I did not mean for this to be a reply to Tony, but whatever.

• The worst part about anime? <i> The fans </i>. The ravenous, indiscriminate, highly vocal fanboys/girls that love every show with a robot or a ninja or a harem and proclaim from the highest tower that their show is AWESOME. Let's all get something straight: just because you ENJOY something, does not make it a quality work or one of the best of its genre. I like Sailor Moon: it is silly and fun and hilarious in its goofiness, but if someone asked me if it was GOOD, I'd probably have to say no. The characters are a little one-note (depending on the season), the monster-of-the-week formula is pretty tiring (I fast forward through transformations too) and it has plenty of flaws. Lots of other fans don't make this distinction. I don't care how sexxxy you think the kids from Candidate for Goddess are: that is not an amazing show that everyone must see. This shit plagues me; I'm not kidding. Have you ever tried having a conversation with an anime fan? Once you start talking about a show they like, they can only pretty much give a one or two sentence reason why they like it. It's "cool" and that's enough, apparently. Well, that's fine for one or two shows--we all have guilty pleasures--but can't you actually DISCUSS a show beyond just the fact that you like it? Damn, it's disheartening.

• The Flying Panties were on the end credits not the opening, get it right.

• Sorry, dude, but I got to side with McDuff on this one. I love anime, but if you compare by volume, the percentage of anime that drastically deviates from the basic look is pretty low compared to western comic books and animation. I think it's because American/western animation feeds off each other's influences much more than in Japan. Up until the past ten years or so, I get the impression that Japanese manga and anime artists view outside influences as something that could potentially water down their art style and they want to preserve the traditional "anime" style and not stray too far. That being said, if you look at anime from diffrent decades, you can tell they all had trends in their styles within those times, but the basics are still pretty similar. In general, I feel like the Japanese anime industry sort of turns its nose up at its western demographic or any of their potential influence.

• Unfortunately, Black Lagoon and GTO were both featured at some point in this video. (PS, I like those shows too. GTO is amazing.)

• I think you're lost. You're looking for /b/ on 4-chan.

• I didn't know that 4-chan and Something Awful had a crossover fanbase. Is it the /b/tards that came from there or some other boards on 4-chan?

• "It the equivalent of trying to pronounce oil like it has an 'r' in somewhere between the 'o' and 'i' while in the deep south." That must be regional to some parts of the South and not others. I've lived in South Carolina all my life, and I've usually heard the people with heavy accents just over-enunciating the vowel sounds and stretching it into two words. Oeeeee-uhhhhlll. *snicker*

• Hahahaha, I fucking hate that show. I just plain don't find it entertaining. Absurdist humor for its own sake can't carry a long-running series in my opinion.

• Your friend could be suffering from Baby's First Syndrome (kind of like Nerd Commandment 2). It's when you insist the first shows/comics you were exposed to are the best and most original and that everything you see after it is a shameless ripoff. Example: Your friend loves To Love-Ru and probably hates anything Tenchi, even though Tenchi came first.

• It's great when someone has a bit of fun with cliches, and I think he got most of them.

• That doesn't change the fact that this video proves that the vast majority of anime is just retelling the same story you heard last season. America does this too but at least we have enough creativity (and maybe a little decency?) to redesign the wrapper.

• Agreed. I am in japan and can say the vast majority of everything on television is junk (much more than 90%). I mean, did we really need MST3K to tell us that many sci-fi movies are steaming piles of shit that didn't even go through the mcdonalds factory to look like something edible. The beauty is when you go somehow stumble on something that truly has something interesting. Sure it's like one-three shows a year, but when done well the art form offers as much as any other form of fiction. Beneath the incest shows.... and dear god are there more of those than anyone wants to think about, you have the stuff Satoshi Kon directed, there's Hosoda's work, the adaptations of Urasawa's excellent manga work that I don't consider to be any less than any well nerd media. Every so often you get someone who tries something new and quirky... only for it to fail to catch the attention of the hard core otaku who will pay 100bucks for their queen's blade figure complete with "milk" face. The reliance on that market has really killed any innovation as of late when dating sim licenses are cheap and can be shot with panning camera and lens flare. So basically: I enjoy anime and manga, but there are good shows for any nerd type. Just find a trusted person with a masochist streak and an iota of taste to shift through that 90%+ of crap to find something that will not insult the intelligence of anyone with an IQ above 80.

• http://www.tubehome.com/watch/thunder-cats-intro/3 This was the original intro, it was boring so the animation studio in japan made one for themselves. Which is the one that we ended with. Because it was awesome.

• Loved this! I love anime and Manga, but i have to weed through large piles of shit to find the good stuff. mush like looking for a new fiction author to read, or a new show on tv. XD

• You know, that would have been much more impressive if they had used more than 5 or so different shows. More FMA, anyone? Jesus. Very lazily done. Especially the way they would show the first half of a shot, then use the second half of the same shot to make it seem like each sequence of templates had more clips than they actually did. That said, yes, there are a limited number of kinds of shots that one can utilize in opening sequences for a genre that spans thousands of different shows. It's be like putting a montage of similar-looking shots from films. Too easy and not all that amusing. Yaaaaawwwwnnnn.

• The video missed one of the most-used cliches in anime openings: the entire cast of the anime sliding into a single tableu just as the music finishes up! ------RM

• I kind of want to see a live action American tv show do opening credits like this.

• That's from the Japanese opening credits for X-Men. In Japan they thought the American opening wouldn't go over well with audiences so they made their own opening credits in the style of anime credits.

• Moar panties prz.

• They made an X-Men anime style opening. And the opening is cliched as crap, complete with Engrish theme song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSw4Xl5qfs

• I refuse to watch 3rd season and pretend it doesn't exist.

• Really? Thundercats once had a crappy intro?

• Recognized 44 out of 93. That's bad isn't it? (I haven't SEEN them all at least)

• Third season went all Jesus on us literally.

• ... X3 I loved that, not only because I'm an anime fan but because it pointed out the ridiculousness involved in anime hehehe all those running shots made *me* feel tired xD also i might have squee'd every time they showed an fma shot heh heh heh... I'm not an otaku not at all... x3

• Hey Dan! Where the heck you been? No seriously, it's really me. As proof, I will now instruct you to go eat a lava hat or get a bag of hell. I don't know if you remember that one or not :P

• Why is this not listed under "Super Terrific Japanese Thing"?

• Well, if there's a series worth a tattoo, One Piece is it.

• You forgot "Camera focusing a blurry shot"

• It made a great DDR song!

• Agreed. Some of my favorite AMVs are mashups like this where I can play 'name that show in one frame!'

• DRAGON DRAGON! ROCK THE DRAGON! DRAGON BAWLL ZEE!(guitar solo)

• This makes me want to watch Moribito again. Great show. Also reminds me that I need to try watching the new FMA. I wish they would rerelease Sailor Moon. :/

• as opposed to beefy men and bouncy women blowing shit up to a generic butt-rock theme and then posing as a group before the title card comes to announce that the show was "Extreme!" or "Cutting edge!"? ...yeah i'm a child of the 90s and had grown desensitized to western action toons.

• Here is what making me Laugh at 2:07 that is NOT AN ANIME!!!! that is The 90's x-men cartoon.

• I think my head just exploded. But seriously, Rob, I'm with you on the love/hate thing when it comes to Anime. Back in junior high, I used to love coming home and watching Toonami (with Fat Tom the Toonami Robot!)on Cartoon Network for 2 hours before doing homework. Sure, everything was dubbed and super-duper edited (except for that glorious afternoon when somebody in CN's editing booth royally screwed up and Jean Starwind called somebody a "lying bastard" on Outlaw Star), but I didn't really care. It was like cold pizza, and my 12-year old brain was always hungry for more. It wasn't until I got to college and started hanging out with some other Toonami-era nerds that I started to realize how badly we'd all been duped. Sure, the shows we chose to watch had changed, but seeing a bunch of geeky boys turn various Anime shows into drinking games based solely on the number of cliches you'd see during any given episode? That's a level of irony that my body still just can't seem to handle properly.

• More like every anime opening in the last 20 years. Where's Macross? Where's Lupin? Where's Dirty Pair? Star Blazers? Speed Racer? The oldest thing in there is City Hunter, and that's the early 90's!

• Sorry but no Macross and Saint Seiya???

• What is flying? Panties are flying! How can that be?!

• Well the fail moments for like 90% of this thread is that Anime Openings merely follow the past establishment of Openings from Japanese culture...Remember in the 80's where every damn show was a cheezy song written by Alan fukking Thicke with status quo machismo clips of all the characters as the music progressed (Who's The Boss, Growing Pains, etc.,)? Anime is the same way in that context...Also because MANGA is bigger than anime often times they leave the opening very ambiguously static in a way that can be inclusive to potential things the author may create in the future that the animators don't know about yet... To westerners anime is ZOMG cool cartoons, but for the Japanese it's just $hit on TV with established norms like what you see in almost every anime opening...It's really nothing to get in a growl about, unless of course YOUR A NERD -_-"...

• you forget the panties flying in the air.

• he's got one that reads 'The Big 'O'' and I leave the rest to the imagination! >:D

• I was going with "socially retarded outcasts!", but moot point. Also, Boogiepop Phantom is an excellent anime series despite the title.

• Video games... anime... comic books...assorted adventures in space...joss whedon's cock... I don't get all fandom bashing in these comments. Clearly we're all fucking social outcasts.

• MUCH Love for Paranoia Agent!

• I am running! There is sky! I run some more, with side characters! Dramatically turn around. Now I am in profile. I am moody and deep. Windblown hair, oh my! Here we are happy and with friends. Fight with enemies, in profile! Shakeycam, pantyshot, jazz hands! Non-slutty good girl love interest! Birds.

• I actually think that many anime shows have openings that are better than the actual content of the show itself. They use the best music and the shiniest animation to draw you in and make you curious. But hell, it isn't for everyone I guess.

• Not to mention those are demographics and each one can be split into numerous genres. I had a friend say "I don't like Shounen". I then had to point out that his favorite manga were To-Love-Ru and Suzuka...

• Boring troll is boring. Better luck next time,right?

• very cool video. Nice too see cowboy bebop be the least cliche out of all those anime, they only played like two clips out of the whole intro.

• That's an extremely untrue. There's also Seinin, Jousei, Gekiga and several others

• It has such bad, bad, baaaad animation. It doesn't do the show any justice. I mean if they wanted to do it "epic" fine, but why cheap out on the intro and do bad 3-d, when the show itself has such great animation? It feels like they used all their money on the series and then at the end remembered they had to do an intro. Justice League Unlimited has a better intro. In fact take out the clips of the show and just leave the MOVING DRAWINGS and it's a better intro.

• I like how Gundam 00 has a clip in pretty much ever category. I guess it shows that a show can have the most generic opening sequence ever and still be TOTALLY AWESOME.

• indeed

• Aw this anime has everything: People walking, people turning around, wistful looks, sakura petals and birds! Lots and lots of birds! What's not to like!

• Does it say something about me when I'm disappointed that my favorite series <i>doesn't</i> make it into the video? Or does it mean that it's just slightly less cliche than the norm?

• I guess there is a law in Japan that states that all animated shows must have: - a montage of characters running - shots of characters looking over their shoulders - lots of leaves/feathers/embers/snow blowing around - extreme closeups of irises - shots of characters looking morose and/or thoughtful - not too obvious shots of panties - very obvious shots of panties - giant robots flying through space - underage girls in skimpy sailor/maid suits - random crying - glowing orbs floating over characters hands - indecipherable weird shit to confuse the round eyes.

• The Japanese people are afraid of anything different or not the norm. Hence why all anime openings and to an extension all anime are in essence the same show. They only have 4 different anime genres; Shonen, Shojou, Hentai, and FLCL.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgb1H2hzOJ8 Wow. This is like an encyclopedia of anime cliches. Inexplicably, they missed the turning-from-behind shot, but more then make up for it with awesome mecha.

• Hahaha, yeah, I remember first watching Kenshin, and sitting down and thinking, wtf is this... and then it turned out to be cool... and then second season turned out to be mind-blowing. But Freckles... meh.

• Im sorry did you just call the Justice League intro horrid or I just imagining some heresy

• This reminds me of the video of the side-by-side openings of Nadesico and Evangelion. I wonder, if you did a cop-show montage, would it look like the Sabotage music video?

• I think it's because it sounds like somebody throwing a bag of spoons down a long stairwell with a melody. Then that recording is sped up to sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

• Am I too late to say "inb4 weeaboos defend their precious anime?"

• What does it say about my life when I can remember over half of these and name about 30%? Man with all the hours I spent watching anime I could have a Doctorate by now. Until now I never really noticed how all the intros are almost the same thing. However it should be said that Kenshin (first season)has the most inappropriate opening song EVER!

• that's stupid and here's why. Openings are supposed to be a hook. That's why they have better animation and are usually in some way exciting. A boring opening sequence is indicative of a boring show and while this may not always be true it is the responsibility of the animators to draw people in. It is not the responsibility of the viewer to stick through and hope things get better. Simply put if your opening sequence is jsut a bunch of prissy little teens standing around looking sad or annoying school girls running no where don't be surprised if people change the channel

• I can't care about any anime montage that doesn't include Iria in some capcacity

• I got about a minute into this at which point it was either shut down the horrid music or put my fist through the monitor. I hate Japanese pop music, it seems like it is either obnoxiously saccharine or sounds like it's on PCP.

• I'd say I would agree with that.

• What he said ^ Evangelion 1.11 is vastly superior to episodes 1-6 of the original show, and while I haven't seen 2.22 I've heard enough about it to know it splits off from the show in ways that can't be described without massive spoilers.

• This... Just... Wow. This is something I'd never noticed but I'll see everytime from now on. Granted, I watch 99% of my anime on DVD and skip the opening most of the time. I'll watch it once each sitting if it's one I really like, though. (And in the case of BECK, I watch it for every episode)

• Paranoia Agent should also get a nod for a great non-cliche opening. It has to have one of the lowest shot counts of anime openings, doesn't have some generic J-Pop song it's trying to sell (yodeling, really!). It's creepy and perfect for the show and a work of art by itself.

• McDuff,you admit to liking American comics,but anime is too bland and cookie cutter? Isn't that kind of the pot calling the kettle black?

• Derek Lieu if you're reading this, it's me, dan. We were roomates in college. How the heck are you? Nice video.

• This made my day; out of the kigillion anime series I've seen, a disturbingly high percentage use the same blueprint(as shown above)for the OP. I feel however I should give a shout out to some anime series with Excellent OPs that also break the mold: Ergo Proxy, Elfen Lied,GTO(first season)Black Lagoon, Irresponsible Captain Taylor and Beck.

• He probably has Nami,Chopper, or maybe the Straw Hat Flag from One Piece on his arm. God knows he's run his mouth about One Piece enough times to have given that one away.

• I agree; the new eva movies are spectacular. Watching them so far has been pure, unadulterated bliss. I would go so far to say that jaded fans of the original tv series should drop what they're doing at the moment and give it a shot (cough*Rob*cough).

• Did you just reprint your contest entry? Damn!

• If you don't watch something based simply on how lame an intro it has, I'm pretty sure you must not watch much tv, AT ALL. Whether it be japanese or american, both have some pretty awful openings. Just remember that horrid justice league intro, or the original thundercats intro; which had to be redone by the japanese, because it sucked so hard.

• Where the deuce is TRIGUN!?

• No, if I had the patience and intelligence of a two year old I would LOVE "Tim and Eric".

• I've also never gotten past "This is the Cleveland Show and..." before I change the channel.

• BeBop is one of those rare anime that I LOVE. The Big O is another.

• I love anime, and I love this video. There are cliches in any media, and anime is no exception.

• BeBop is one of those rare anime that I LOVE. The Big O is another.

• Sturgeon's Law Corollary 1: The existence of immense quantities of trash in [anime] is admitted and it is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere. Sturgeon's Law Corollary 2: The best [anime] is as good as the best fiction in any field. "90% of everything is crud...but the remaining 10% is worth dying for."

• How did you not know this? You nearly read this site religiously and I am not entirely convinced that he posts about anime for any other reason than to remind us about it, as he almost always does when it comes up.

• Rob, I just want to say that I'm not the least bit amused by your dissing and doubting of Rebuild of Evangelion. To me, the entire Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise is the single greatest artistic endeavor in the history of everything, made from a secret blend of 1001 types of greatness; but I can still admit that it's deeply flawed (especially the original show). The moment I saw Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance, it instantly became my favorite movie ever and my love for the franchise increased a-thousand-fold. It fixed all the problems with the original show and replaced them with pure awesome, and crafted probably the most powerful and engaging story possible from the material it was working from. I will not stand for any more doubting of what is shaping up to be the best work of the best franchise ever. P.S. EVA Unit-05 shows up for one scene only, Gainax is having next-to-nothing to do with the film productions, and the 1.11 edition of the first film doesn't just fix the brightness problems, but also adds additional scenes of animation, not to mention an additional disc of extra material.

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