Ask John: What Anime Have the Longest & Shortest Openings?

Question:
What are the longest and shortest openings and closings ever produced for an anime TV series? And for an OVA series? I know it’s a really weird question, but it’s something I’ve been curious about for some time since I really love those long anime OPs and EDs they do in Japan.

Answer:
I’ll take a shot at this one, but I can’t promise thorough comprehensiveness or even, honestly, accuracy. Opening animation sequences are something which every anime fan notices and often remembers. But I doubt that very many otaku keep a conscious tally of the precise running time of particular opening animation sequences.

Typical OVA and television anime openings have always ranged from 70 to 110 seconds long. The average TV opening animation sequence is right around 90 seconds. Unusually long openings run over two minutes. The second Hiatari Ryoko opening animation runs about 2:20. The longest openings generally top out at 150 seconds, in part because an opening credits sequence that runs two-and-a-half minutes already feels quite long. More than that feels tedious. The opening of 1974’s Majokko Meg-chan television series is 150 seconds. The One Piece television series has always had long opening credits, but its 8th through current 13th openings have been 2:30. However, in recent years the One Pice television series has used a lengthy opening credits sequence because it doesn’t have an ending credits roll.

The shortest opening sequences are typically found on short shows. Two minute long episodes of Kuruneko have a 20 second long opening animation. Three minute long episodes of Kappa no Kaikata have only a five second opening animation. Twelve minute long episodes of Risky Safety, in practical terms, don’t have an opening animation sequence at all – just a title screen.