Last time, we took a look at openings, the bright, happy, cheerful first born children. This time around in Arguments About Anime, we look at the part that is sometimes a mere afterthought, the Ending. There are people who don’t even bother watching them (we don’t approve of such people). We’re coming from a fitting place, the Main Exit Gate from the Fandom Post’s sprawling office complex campus, or rather the pub that is located near the exit gate, called The Bitter End. As always, I’m Greg Smith, with me is Brian Threlkeld and to continue our look at the short segments that begin and end anime we welcome back Brandon Graves.
BG: Hello. Happy to be back. I should have expected I would be as openings and endings are linked in my mind. Going from one half of the discussion to the other.
GBS: They are very closely connected often and we’re happy to have you back to continue the discussion. So, what should we start off with drinks-wise?
BT: Ah, I was hoping we’d do one of these at the ol’ Bitter. (And welcome back, Brandon!) Hell, it’s where we hang out most of the time on campus as it is. Well, you’re the host here. Figured you’d just get the first round, eh? I’ll get the next.
GBS: Happy to do so, since I have the company’s credit card for today. We should probably start off with a round of classic English bitters, since they have them on draught here. So while the people behind the bar pull our pints, let’s think a little bit about endings.
BT: Good. Mean time, I’m going to cue a certain song up on the jukebox.
GBS: That one? You play that one every time.
BT: Because it’s the only song they have on it…
GBS: Alright, now that you’ve got your favorite tune running and our drinks are coming around, let’s get to work. Openings, which we covered before, and endings have somewhat different tasks. An opening is the introduction to a show, the show’s way of saying “Hello” to the audience. Endings therefore are the “Goodbye,” possibly the very last thing we see when a show comes to its final end, unless the producers throw in a special end card or post credits scene.
While there are many similarities (the most important of all being that they’re most often both there as short music videos to sell a CD single or series soundtrack), their positions at the start and end do create noticeable differences. As the majority of staff and cast credits come during the end of the show, endings are less likely to be fully animated than openings.
BT: Often not as fully animated, no, but sometimes subject to more clever or original concepts. On the other hand they can simply forgo that—the creativity that comes from expressing something with limited resources—and just run a static image.
GBS: Yeah, we’re all more than familiar with this phenomenon, what we could call the “Lazy Static Ending.” It comes in a variety of types, from half-screen pictures (with the other half of the screen solid black for the credits to display on) to slow panning shots of a static image with the credits rolling over them.
