Ask John: Why Are Anime Credits Sequences So Long Compared to American Ones?
Question:
In North America, theme songs and opening credits in general seem to be shorter and shorter, 10 seconds or less. While in anime they have beautifully made 90 second music videos? Do the Japanese know something we don’t, or vice versa? Why does anime have such big and beautiful opening themes while North American shows suffice with a 5 second sound bite over a title card?
Answer:
There’s a very simple explanation for the difference in priority placed on TV series openings and endings in America and Japan. Japan markets TV series openings and endings while America does not. Japanese animators and film critics recognize anime opening and ending sequences as mini films. Opening and ending sequences uncluttered by text credits are often a marketable selling point for DVD releases, and are sometimes released in collections on separate DVDs. For example, the Mobile Suit Gundam OP & ED Collection 20th Century and 21st Century DVDs released in Japan earlier this year contain just the “clean” opening and ending animation sequences from the various Gundam anime TV and OVA series. Furthermore, opening and ending theme songs can become very popular and successful in Japan. Theme songs for both anime and live action drama programs periodically top Japanese record sales charts. Theme songs from American television programs becoming popular occurs very infrequently. And American consumers don’t have a tendency to buy CD singles or albums featuring TV series themes or songs heard in TV commercials, so there’s little reason for American TV programs to prominently feature opening and ending credits sequences.
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Regarding closing credits in particular, there’s also a slightly different cultural attitude about them, which is that the average American viewer skips them. On American TV, closing credits are often minimized/interrupted/”shrunk” so that TV networks can show ads to encourage people to stick around for their next show (since that’s when people start changing channels). In American movie theatres, the lights generally turn up the moments the credits start rolling (and most of the audience promptly exits). Because the general Japanese cultural attitude is that the movie/show isn’t over until the credits are *finished* rolling, the producers in Japan have found ways of both making things more interesting for the viewers and turning it into a marketing opportunity.
So I think it all goes hand-in-hand, and may be a bit of a “chicken and egg” issue. If American producers started placing more emphasis on the credits, maybe American viewers would be more likely to stick around. But, because the current attitude is that they’re skippable/unimportant, many companies don’t bother spending much time on it — it’s more simple and utilitarian.
We also have to consider the structure of television productions… TV programs break for commercial programming after different minute-marks depending on the network/channel. This is especially true for American programming, though I cannot speak on behalf of Japanese TV viewing experiences. Writers/producers of popular american half-hour programs frequently write for four or five “blocks,” anticipating a commercial break at certain points of the series’ continuity.
If you add “these days” at the end of “occurs very infrequently” then I’d agree with John’s argument here. American TV series theme songs becoming popular as standalone entities was much more common prior to the 2000s, especially in the late ’70s and ’80s. Granted, it has never been terribly common, but I can think of several series theme songs that have endured over the years.
Thinking about Star Trek or Knight Rider openings, Key?