The Anime OP(ening): a Corpus Study of Anison

This paper presents a corpus study comprising 348 anime opening credits (OPs) released between 1989–2024, to highlight formal and audiovisual conventions. The author gathered data on 200 OPs from the top 200 anime on MyAnimeList.net, and on 148 OPs from the Japan Billboard Hot Animation year-end charts from 2013–24. The corpus encodes information regarding an OP’s associated anime, musical form, vocals, and visual devices. In doing so, this study enables an in-depth look on how formal characteristics work in tandem with visual images to capture viewers’ attention. This study complements broader corpora on contemporary J-pop—such as Ramage’s (2023) research on the Royal Road progression—and extends Nazare’s (2023) research on anison’s form archetypes and expands their “historico-hermeneutic” approach (Martin 2024). The first significant finding concerns trends in OP’s form, or the “OP format.” With very few exceptions, OPs are adapted from a full-length musical track averaging 2–4 minutes. This adaptation typically results in an abridged verse–chorus form: a “call” (described below), a verse, a prechorus, a chorus, and an outro (usually a postchorus adaptation). The second finding reveals that the majority of OPs analyzed (77.1%) feature a timbrally bright, loud and memorable introduction (a “call” section). This short and distinct section positioned at the start of the OP, functions as an attention grabber. The call is differentiated from similar formal units such as “overture choruses” (Nobile 2020), “chorus-first forms” (Ensign 2015), “core-based intros” (Summach 2012), and “buildup introductions” (Attas 2015) in two aspects: calls are texturally busy and often timbrally bright (Malawey 2020) and anticipate a musical climax, usually the chorus or postchorus. These characteristics are not Japan-specific: this study motivates research in cartoon music trends in the West, too. For example, the tritone chorus in The Simpsons or the shout “Yabba Dabba Doo” in The Flintstones both fit the description of a call section. This study shows that both the OP format and call are part of a thought-through framework to entice the viewer, motivating them to watch the anime about to start.