Evolving Credits

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A way of avoiding a Spoiler Opening, gradually changing the opening or closing instead of showing everything at once. Characters who haven't been introduced may appear as silhouettes or not at all (until they get a Promotion to Opening Titles), and certain scenes may change over time to reflect recent events in the story to demonstrate The Reveal.

This is becoming increasingly obvious in Anime, but it may or may not carry over into the series' foreign broadcasts. Compare Evolving Music.

Examples of Evolving Credits include:

Anime

  • Cardcaptor Sakura had Shaoran appear briefly in the opening credits only after he was introduced; the American version (even the subtitled version) used one set of credits for almost everything, missing this.
  • Cross Game does this very subtly. The heroine is from a family of four sisters who together are (in show) symbolized by a four leaf clover, which appears in the show's title logo. (See the image on the Cross Game page.) After the first episode, one of the leaves is faded, as the corresponding sister dies in the first episode. In the series finale, the leaf returns to full color once again, symbolizing that the cast have finally come to terms with Wakaba's death.
  • Death Note
    • In the first opening, Watari is in silhouette and trenchcoat until the series shows his true appearance. Although, curiously, L's much more mysterious and intriguing appearance DOESN'T get this treatment.
    • They also subvert the trope with Naomi Misora, showing her well before her introduction and for quite some time after her death.
    • Of course when it came time to adapt the second arc, the same second spoilerish opening was used even long after L and Watari's deaths and wasn't updated to give more focus to the "new" characters, perhaps foretelling the less focus that the second arc would get in the anime.
  • Digimon
    • Digimon Tamers and Digimon Savers feature these by unshadowing the higher level Digimon (and in the case of the latter two, unshadowing the Sixth Rangers) as the series progressed.
    • Digimon Xros Wars did a variant in its second opening - initially in the sequence where Shoutmon and Greymon warp through all their Xrossed forms the sequence stops at the point where Shoutmon X5 and DeckerGreymon form and switches to stock evolution footage to illustrate OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon, padding it out slightly. When Shoutmon DX and Shoutmon X7 showed up, the stock footage was removed and the full "warp" sequence was played adding in Shoutmon DX and Shoutmon X7.
    • The opening of Digimon Adventure 02 was altered slightly partway through, switching and editing a couple of scenes to reflect the change in antagonists, Ken's Sixth Ranger Heel Face Turn and the newfound availability of natural evolution. This was the only time the opening was changed, so it still managed to spoil the existence of both of Imperialdramon's forms...
    • A rare example of a translation doing this: the English dub of Digimon Adventure added Kari and the higher level digivolutions to the opening partway through the series.
  • Best Student Council uses the "simple" revealing-silhouettes version.
  • Gundam
    • The second opening for Gundam SEED features the Freedom Gundam with its wings deployed in silhouette, many episodes before its debut. The third opening, which started playing at least a dozen of episodes before the Freedom's actual debut, has it launching from the Archangel's linear catapult and in a few action scenes with the Justice Gundam, which also did not get its debut until an episode or two after the Freedom's. Subsequetly, in Destiny's first opening, the same scene shown in SEEDs second opening is shown again, this time without the shadowing.
    • Gundam SEED Destiny's second opening features shots of three future Gundams (Destiny, Strike Freedom, and Destroy) fighting one another in silhouette; by the time the third opening comes, all three have been revealed in-series, and thus the sequence returns sans shadowing.
    • After War Gundam X has a silhouette of the Gundam Double X showing up as it starts to influence the plot; the OP changes completely after it becomes Garrod's Mid-Season Upgrade.
  • The opening of Gun X Sword silhouettes everyone who hasn't yet shown up in a sort of violet-blue aether, and everyone and everything who has been killed or destroyed in solid black shadow. The end credits do something similar, showing various "casual" pictures of major characters. In the beginning, they're all of Van and Wendy; as the cast expands, pictures of the newcomers replace various shots in the montage.
  • Halfway through the series, the opening of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai added two scenes with Hanyuu and slightly modified another to reflect a very important event that had just occurred. A variation from the same intro was a playback to the gory, Poor Connection Kills time (Rena's machete) being replaced with a scene where the connection was fixed. It's a variation since it was due to censorship.
  • In Infinite Stratos (pictured), the ending credits change as more girls are introduced; the most significant change is that since the ending theme is sung by these girls' voice actors, the song progressively gets more and more complex as the verses get distributed between more voices. It also hints at how close the girls are to Ichika, the main male protagonist, and the closer the girl is to him in that episode, the closer they're running behind him during the ending credits. In hindsight, the ending credits have a stealth spoiler in the form of Charl who appears in the credits right after her introduction... even though it takes a few more episodes to reveal her real gender (and when that happens, her appearance in the credits changes accordingly). The spoiler comes from the fact that aside from Ichika, everyone else who appears in the credits is a girl.
  • Karin's opening avoids this by having a character who hasn't been introduced yet be seen only in a silhouette until after their first full episode as part of the cast, although their rather unique form makes it hard not to guess who it is when they first appear...
  • Moldiver replaces the central figure in its credits once it becomes clear in the story who the real hero is.
  • Naruto is particularly fond of this in its many openings.
    • The fourth and fifth changed with the introductions of Tsunade, Shizune, Kimimaro, and so on, and certain characters disappeared after they "died".
    • The first opening for Shippuden changed after the reintroductions of Team Guy and the Sand Shinobi, as well as the introduction of Chiyo. The fourth opening recycled scenes from the third for a while until that season's Big Bad was ready to make her entrance.
    • Technically, the scenes from when Asuma, Shikamaru, Izumo and Kotetsu fight Hidan and Kakuzu in the third opening were most likely supposed to be originally part of the fourth opening, given that they flow better with the fourth song and the animation, and were included to show that the show had moved past the filler arc.
    • Later, the second version of the fifth Shippuden opening transitions from Orochimaru staring at Sasuke as the curse mark spreads at him to Sasuke killing Orochimaru after he does, and now features the members of Team Snake.
    • Cartoon Network / Toonami's openings did not follow this format and always kept the first step of the Evolving Credits as the opening for that season.
  • Pokémon
    • Most late openings and endings of have had updates to reflect any changes to a main character's current team.
    • Additionally, high-ranking opponents in more recent seasons, such as Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, are shown in silhouette until Ash manages to meet and overcome them.
    • The best example of this was the fourth Advanced Generation opening, Battle Frontier. Each of the Frontier Brains were shadowed in the opening, becoming unshadowed when Ash meets them. This also carried over into the next opening, Spurt!, where the remaining Brains were unshadowed upon appearing. A small gallery of the times the Battle Frontier opening updated its animation can be found here
    • Best Wishes tops all of them; it features Pikachu running around a black and white field past many Pokemon in silhouette; after those Pokemon are seen in the show, the Pokemon are revealed in the opening.
  • Sailor Moon
    • A classic example is the original anime, where the early opening only showed three Senshi (before the other two were introduced). The original Japanese edition even had two subtypes of that first opening: before Sailor Mercury was introduced, it had minor differences like the color of the inside of Tuxedo's cape and the three Senshi not removing the veils. From episode 27 onwards a completely different opening was used, now including all five girls, as well as a completely different ending, complete with a new theme.
    • Sailor Moon R did the complete opening replacement as well, introducing Chibiusa and the Black Moon Clan halfway through. (Interestingly, the two openings do not correspond to the two story arcs of the season in terms of timing, the switch occurs way after Chibiusa's initial appearance.)
    • Sailor Moon S, SuperS and Stars do a less radical version of this trope, only altering part of the same opening sequence to introduce new characters. S pulled off three versions of the credits, first introducing Uranus and Neptune after they stopped hiding, and later adding Chibimoon, Hotaru and Super Sailor Moon. SuperS replaced the Amazon Trio with the Amazones' Quartet once the latter group took over the task. Stars showed Sailor Starlights as silhouettes until the end of the first arc, which focused on wrapping up the plot of SuperS; along with Starlights, the second version of the opening introduces Galaxia.
    • Sadly, the uncut DVD release of S and SuperS ignores this and uses the final versions of the opening sequences from the start, spoiling future characters' appearances. Stars was spared due to never getting an official release.
  • S-Cry-ed did this so much that there is perhaps one case of the title sequence being re-used without changes in the whole 26-episode series. (Apart from spoiler-based changes, there was also sepia-fading of deceased characters and 3 different main versions for three different verses of the theme tune depending on which of the main characters had the story focus that episode.)
    • The Special Edition DVD set has the option to watch just the opening sequence of each episode.
  • The first ending to Seto no Hanayome consists of a still shot of the characters in a karaoke booth that gradually zooms out. It starts out with only a few characters but gets increasingly crowded as more and more characters are introduced in the series and subsequently added to the mayhem.
  • Sketchbook changes part of the OP and ED depending on the primary cast of the episode.
  • The opening to Tenchi Muyo GXP shows four characters as silhouettes. The first three are obviously Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ayeka from the original series, who are revealed in the openings of the two episodes that feature them. The fourth is a new character who is revealed after her first appearance in the second half of the series.
  • Tsukuyomi Moon Phase's Nekomimi Mode OP changes slightly with every episode, including one where Hazuki just plain isn't present at all.
  • The parts of the Vandread opening that weren't clips from the upcoming episode; dead characters disappeared from the sequence, and if a character's appearance changed in the series, it would change in the opening soon after. Also, certain spoiler-ish aspects were obscured in the opening, only to be revealed once the plot got to them.
  • Weirdly subverted in the closing credits of Vision of Escaflowne. For most of the series there is a shot of Hitomi and Allen kissing during the closing credits, however once they kiss in the actual show the shot disappears. (This may not hold true for the official American release as it seems to have just picked one version of the credits and stuck it on to every episode. The original VHS American release only use one version, but the DVD's use both.)
  • In each of its four seasons, Ojamajo Doremi updated its opening (and changed its eyecatches) midway through the season to reflect changes from about that point in the storyline.
  • In the opening sequence of the Humongous Mecha anime RahXephon, the title mecha was shown as a silhouette with glowing eyes until a few episodes in. It changes again around halfway through the series to reflect the results of the Mid-Season Upgrade and a few other plot developments.
  • Planetes uses this trope extensively, always according to the mood and current plotline. For instance, showing different secondary cast members (or, in one case, in different clothes to show their changing allegiances,) showing an explosion on the moon, a floating compass, or progressively adding color to a sequence that starts out in black and white. Most tellingly, Hachimaki's encounter with his somber "Astronaut" persona during the Opening Sequence becomes increasingly important and denotes his current state of mind.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
    • The initial opening and the post-Time Skip opening. The latter changes the first verses of the theme song; the former, meanwhile, replaces Kamina with Nia after his death, and shows Simon tying a Red Armband of Leadership on his arm.
    • Each of the 4 arcs of Gurren Lagann has a different animation. It's most obvious between the pre- and post- timeskip openers, where the first verse of the theme song is replaced with the second, but the second and fourth arcs do have different animations than the first and third arcs.
  • Penguin Musume, a web anime, deserves a mention for having its opening evolve weekly. What started off as simple Flash animation eventually evolved into an opening with actual animation and some pretty nifty battle sequences.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn switched up its first opening early on in its run, replacing the goofy antics of baby Lambo and I-Pin with action shots of Tsuna fighting against the Kokuyo trio—a sign that things were going to get more serious.
  • Monster uses what seems to be illustrations from a children's picture book for the first ending theme. These gradually change over the course of the series. The series remix album contains what appears to be a reading of the actual story.
  • The opening animation for (Zoku) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei starts off as projected black-and-white film and gradually gets darker and lower-quality. Floating kanji and a border are also added to the falling sequence. Near the end of the series, the opening gains color during the falling sequence, but the film tears on the projector before getting any farther. The last episode finally has the entire opening in full, gaudy Technicolor with added animation.
  • Vampire Knight's first season does this twice despite the fact that it only runs for 13 episodes: the first revision of the opening titles introduces Kurenai Maria, a second introduces her true form as Hio Shizuka.
  • ef: A Tale of Memories eventually displays the pairings in the credits once the love intrigue was solved. While only shown in silhouette form you can see that Hiro ends up with Miyako and that Chihiro breaks from her chain which is a symbol for her having overcome, to some extent, the issues with her memory loss condition
  • Prétear's symbolic Anime Theme Song's standards are met in the final few episodes where the opening was touched up a bit, adding sound effects, and replacing one scene at a very specific part during the Theme Tune revealing Mikage to become the Princess of Disaster and her ultimate connection with Himeno, as the former Pretear herself.
  • ED example: Gainax anime Petite Princess Yucie changes scenes of the ending sequence to showcase the full cast of all the candidate girls finally revealed, also changing the lyrics a bit. It reverted back to the original sequence with Yucie solo in a very particular episode foreshadowing Yucie's memories becoming lost in the final episode as the girls wish to cease existence, leaving her alone, for her sake. Of course, they all get better in the end thanks to the magical Sparkling Stream of Tears and the Power of Friendship.
  • Gao Gai Gar
    • The original TV series changes its credits every time a new robot gets added to the heroes' lineup.
    • GaoGaiGar FINAL changes its opening for every single episode to account for the changes in the storyline. The main reason they could do this was because FINAL is an eight-episode OAV, and would thus have the size and budget to do such a thing.
  • Strangely averted in the opening credits for the anime version of Kekkaishi. The credits change to add shots of either enemies or allies relevant to whatever arc the episodes take place in, but always showcased Shishio Gen far before he even made an appearance and even after he is Killed Off for Real.
  • Tokyo Mew Mew is a strange case. Its opening actually shows all five girls from the start, whereas in the series itself they are introduced one by one over the course of eleven episodes (note though that the original manga shows all of them in the first chapter, albeit without revealing the names apart from Ichigo's. When the opening does change in episode twelve, it simply reveals the girls' respective Red Data Animals, which weren't kept a secret anyway, and also offers a shot of Mew Ichigo performing a new attack. Oddly, the two new aliens, Pai and Taruto, introduced just an episode later, never appear in the opening, and neither does the Mysterious Protector, so the credits' "evolution" in this case seems kind of pointless...
  • One Piece
    • The So Bad It's Good 4Kids opening updated the song every time a new character was introduced in the crew. By the time Chopper was in, there was almost no space in the song for another character (as the last verse said "Sanji is cooking, Chopper is doctoring"). For the very few 4Kids episodes that had Robin in the crew, all they did was add a shot of Robin into it and reverted the song back to version one.
    • Oddly, most of the openings from the original Japanese version have never done this, even when they got horribly out of date. The second intro, for example, continued featuring only five members in the crew for dozens of episodes after they had added two more (Vivi and Chopper.) What's odd is that an evolved version of the second opening featuring the two of them (along with characters from the Alabasta storyline) does exist, but it never aired on television: it was only used as the intro to a One Piece Playstation game.
    • And then they went ahead and inverted this trope with the third intro, which spoils the fact that Vivi leaves the crew and Robin joins them a good 10 or so episodes before this happens. Somewhat justified in that most Japanese fans already knew this was coming from reading the manga, though.
    • One Piece finally acted on this trope with the thirteenth opening, One Day, which, after Blackbeard's new crewmembers were revealed, they are all briefly shown alongside him.
  • The ending credits for the Clannad After Story anime features most of the cast walking in line one after the other. When Tomoya's grandmother is introduced in episode 18, she shows up in the ending. One episode later, and his father gets added as well, in the space behind Akio and Sanae. In the final episode, Fuuko and Ushio lead the line.
  • The opening of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's ends with shots of the various Devices used in the season. When the last episode rolls around, we see the Durandal and Schwertkreuz take the places of S2U and the Book of Darkness in the opening due to the events of the previous episode.
  • The first two openings of Code Geass's first season added images of new characters and mecha after a few episodes (like a silhouetted shot of cyborg!Jeremiah in the latter half of the episodes using Kaidoku Funou). However, neither of R2's openings did the same thing.
  • While Yu Yu Hakusho keeps the same song for the entire run, the Japanese version changes at some point during the Chapter Black saga, and instead of showing Yusuke and his companions fighting random demons, shows shots of them fighting Sensui, some of their new powers (Kurama's yoko form, Kuwabara's Jigentoh, and Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Flame), and a few new characters, but this opening isn't shown in the English verison of the show. The opening changes slightly for the Three Kings Saga in both versions, as it shows Yusuke falling out of Raizen's tower, Yomi and Mukuro, and some of the former Dark Tournament contestants.
  • Umineko no Naku Koro ni's credits change the initial portrait in the opening every five or so episodes to reflect the change in arcs. And then the third arc started, and the opening underwent a much larger transformation.
  • The credits of GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class not only cycles between 5 versions of the ending song, but also has steadily changed over the course of the series with the girls getting older and their activities changing.
  • In K-On!, upon the addition of Azusa to the Light Music Club, she is super-imposed into several scenes, as well as her very own character introduction, in the OP. Yet strangely, the keyword here is 'several', since she doesn't appear together with the other 4 club members in all the scenes where all the other 4 club members are present. Also, the opening theme song is modified slightly, with additional guitar bits and one more backing vocal mixed in.
  • NEEDLESS has a small one in the second intro—a shot of Simeon's fourth strongest removing their mask cuts away before you get to see the face until the big reveal happens a few episodes later.
  • The many Japanese Transformers shows are fond of this trend, updating whenever new characters are shown in the series, and typically having at least two opening videos per series.
    • Special recognition goes to the Galaxy Force series, which in addition to constantly evolving opening credits as new characters get added to the cast also features evolving end credits throughout the series. The first half frames clips from the episode just shown as flashbacks of one of the main characters, while the second half shows all the cast with characters who have yet to show up shown in silhouette only.
    • Also, the Japanese opening for Transformers Animated, in which in the first opening, we see Megatron in his Cybertron mode attacking the Autobots with the help of the Starscream clones, while in the second, they now use the second verse of the opening theme song not to mention the fact that the aforementioned animation with Cybertron-mode Megatron and the Starscream clones has been replaced with a new animation showing Megatron in his Earth mode attacking the Autobots with the help of two Soundwaves (the second Soundwave is a different color), two Blackouts (the second Blackout is supposed to represent Grindor), and Swindle.
    • They're basically a reversal of the usual intent of this trope. Instead of revealing characters one by one, characters who won't be seen for a very long time appear, and some one-shot characters are given screentime to make you think they were as important as Prime himself. Both openings are a thing of beauty, with major Ear Worm songs, but they're on crack when held up against the actual events of the show.
    • Just to go into the already-mentioned examples: the black-and-red Soundwave represents the real Soundwave's virtual world avatar, not another character. Also, Grindor is not in TFA at all [1] and the two Blackouts are perfectly identical (unlike movie Grindor, a blue-gray repaint of movie Blackout) so he is a second Blackout, not Grindor. In the actual show, Blackout appears for all of 20 seconds in the opening scenes of the third season premiere. He gets one line. He doesn't even appear in the virtual world alongside most of the rest of his team. Also, Swindle is a solo operator who'll sell arms to anyone, and is only considered a Decepticon because his toy's gotta be sold as something, and he sure ain't no Autobot, and makes little sense as someone to have alongside Megs. This is by no means the full extent.
  • Angel Beats!
    • The ending credits evolve with changes in the cast or relations among the characters, such as the removal of characters who move on, or a character who was revealed in that episode to be buff going shirtless in the credits.
    • The opening credits evolve as well. Like the ending credits, characters are added or subtracted from the opening as they are introduced to the cast, or they move on. Both the opening and ending of the final episode credits include ALL of the characters, even those who moved on very early in the series.
  • The opening for Dragon Ball Kai swaps out old footage for new action scenes whenever each new baddie shows up in the story. At first it focuses primarily on Vegeta and Frieza's men, then exclusively on Goku's fight with Frieza, and then changes to include the entire group fighting the Androids.
  • The anime of Mahou Sensei Negima does this with the opening. Apart from the song change every 5 episodes or so, the girl's bathing suits occasionally change colours. Negima!? plays the trope straight in the ending. The further the show goes, the more characters appear at the bottom-right and play music instruments. A Crowning Moment of Funny happens when Setsuna joins in, since she sleeps in halfway into the song, only to wake near the end and become red like a hummer out of shame.
  • Very common in the Pretty Cure franchise:
  • The final episodes of Sora O Kakeru Shoujo involve Leopard gaining the final parts needed to bring him to full strength. The openings of these last episodes, as a result, show Leopard with these upgrades attached in the final seconds.
  • Being by Studio Shaft, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Madoka Magica does this. Mostly pretty small changes, though. The only one the average viewer is likely to catch is Kyouko and Homura finally being added to the group shot in episode 10.
  • The first opening of Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal does this during the showing of being joined by his friends during a walk. Intially it just Yuma, Kotori, and Tetsuo. After the episodes that introduced them, Takashi and Tokunosuke are shown joining the walk.
  • The Second opening of Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds changes in episode 48, to reflect Aki and Jack's designated Signer opponents and Ruka recieving Ancient Fairy Dragon.
  • The Bleach ending theme Haruka Kanata gives the spotlight to a different character every episode.
  • Persona 4: The Animation has one of its credits animations, starting from the second episode. The credits sequence involves several Persona cards that are glowing white on one side. As the show progresses, the Tarot symbols start appearing instead of the blank space.
  • Both season of Working!! have characters added to the opening during the episode they appear in. For the first season, it was just Yamada, but for the second season Haruna, Youhei and Mizuki Mashiba and Kirio are all added to the opening by the seventh episode.
  • Outlaw Star has a subtle change starting with episode 18: The shot of the three female leads on a bed, instead of having them all facing different directions, shows Aisha and Suzuka holding Melfina, who's looking at the camera and smiling.
  • The Idolmaster: All the ending sequences are completely different.
  • Played with for the posters of the Rebuild of Evangelion series, with each poster appearing almost exactly the same, except with each new poster, new characters are added. For example, the poster for Evangelion 1.0 features Shinji, Rei, Toji, Kensuke, Hikari, and Kaworu. The poster for Evangelion 2.0 features everyone from the first poster, plus Asuka and Mari.
  • Inukami! has its endings show where the cast is currently living.
  • Eureka Seven AO has a minor version. The first playing of the opening has Ao with brown hair, to hide the spoiler of it turning teal in that episode. The subsequent opening had him with his altered hair color.
  • Chisame gets added to the credits of Bakuon!! when she joins the motorcycling club which is the center of the show; in particular she's added to the scenes of a daytrip that make up much of the credits, everywhere from adding her to the shots on the road, to including her in getting ice cream, and finally changing the positions and lineup for a club photo taken in the last moments.


Film

  • Frankenstein (1931) lists the cast members in the opening credits... except for the Monster, who is billed with a question mark where the name should be. It's only after the film, when the cast is listed again, that we learn it was Boris Karloff.
  • Star Trek III: The Search For Spock did not include Leonard Nimoy as Spock in the opening credits, unlike every other movie and episode. This was to avoid giving away Spock's eventual resurrection and fast-aging (so that he could be played by Nimoy again). It worked because so many people thought Nimoy hated playing Spock, as he allowed him to get killed off in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and wrote a book called I Am Not Spock.

Live-Action TV

  • The West Wing's credits changed not only to reflect the show's different casts, but also their evolving job titles. Fans have even gone so far as to edit together very convincing credits for a hypothetical eighth season, which happen to have the very sweet touch of Bradley Whitford being introduced at the exact moment John Spencer used to be, as Whitford's character would be taking up the same position as Spencer's. Plus, it works out right alphabetically.
  • Kamen Rider Ryuki
    • The series shows a few quick glimpses of the content of the episode at the beginning of each title sequence. Faiz and Den-O went on to show similar preview clips in their opening sequences. Kabuto shoehorned in new opening clips when Gatack was introduced, and so did Den-O for Zeronos. But for a classic example of this trope though, look no further than Blade: it entirely changed (including a brand new theme song) when Leangle showed up.
    • Of course, the AMV for Opening 1 still features four Riders.
    • Kamen Rider Decade evolved in three different ways: first, clips of Diend are added after his introduction, second, the opening narration is slightly changed when it becomes apparent that more worlds beyond the Heisei era Riders' will be visited and third, clips from the first movie (mainly from the really big battle at the end of it, and often spoiling several Crowning Moments of Awesome found there) are shoehorned in upon episode 26, the scenes changing each episode. The abrupt switch to the regular opening sequence for the final episode hints at it not being the true finale of the series (The second movie serves that purpose).
  • The recent revival of the American Gladiators show adds the new gladiators to the title sequence only after they've actually appeared on the show. In addition, gladiators have been removed from the credits due to injury or being part of the reserves.
  • On Angel, new images of Fred as Illyria were not added to the credits until after the characters [and the audience] discovered they couldn't get Fred back.
    • Additionally, in season 1 Wesley didn't appear in the credits until after he started working with Angel and Cordelia. His first episode still had Doyle in the credits despite the fact that Doyle had already died in the previous episode.
  • Babylon 5
    • The second season modified its opening after the third episode once a surprise is revealed. It also constantly updated its credit captions throughout the run to reflect change in character status, such as promotions. Unfortunately, the DVD release of the second season did not maintain these changes, and thus a new viewer could be spoiled if watching the opening credits on the first two episodes.
    • They also did a variant credit sequence for the episode "The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father", reflecting the episode's focus on Psi Corps.
  • Battlestar Galactica
    • Katie Sackhoff's name was removed from the opening credits after her character's death.
    • Additionally, they update the survivor count in the introduction every episode.
    • There is also a variant opening with different clips and no survivor count during the New Caprica arc possibly to hide how bad things had really gotten on New Caprica, so the revelation to the characters themselves in show would have more impact, or more simply because the governing president wasn't updating the white board.'
  • Miller Boyett shows did this out of necessity; in addition to reflecting cast changes, reshoots were done to reflect character development.
  • Survivor
    • In the Guatemala season, two extra contestants (returning from the previous season) were added to the opening after being introduced post-opening in the first episode. The China season changed its titles post-merge to show who was still competing and who was on the jury. Micronesia had eliminated contestants being removed from the opening, along with implementing the China-style post-merge titles.
    • Further, the team colors are altered in the opening credits to prevent viewers from seeing who changes teams. Since this is the halfway point of the season, it also allows viewers to know who's safe for the first half of the season.
    • Big Brother does a version of this as well; ejected housemates have a clip of them leaving the house replacing their appearance in the intro.
  • Every season of The Mole (except the first possibly) updated the credits each episode. The status of players who had left the game was displayed when their name and picture appeared in the credits.
  • Power Rangers
    • The title sequences for the shows change after a bit to include the new Sixth Ranger, Megazord, Battlizers, etc.
    • The record for fewest opening changes is 2 (Pre and post Sixth Ranger versions in Lightspeed and Wild Force) but some are always changing. Power Rangers Operation Overdrive changes to add a new Ranger, to update Miratrix's hairstyle, to add every new Megazord formation, to add a Super Mode for Mack, and... sometimes just because they feel like it, it seems.
    • Power Rangers in Space shows only four Rangers in its first opening and continues to feature Divatox from Power Rangers Turbo as if she'll be remaining Big Bad, the better to keep the arrival of new Ranger Andros and new Big Bad Astronema hidden until their debut later that episode.
    • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy has several, due to any character who isn't in the episode being left out, as well as permanent new characters being added. (The exception being Kendrix's departure, due to the actress' leukemia. She was left in the opening for the duration.)
  • Each season of The Wire uses a different version of the theme song, "Way Down in the Hole", and a different montage during the opening credits, which reflect the mood of each season. The montages integrate clips from previous seasons and out-of-context clips that become clear much later on.
  • The opening titles to the first episode of The Worst Witch did not feature Mildred and her friends. Instead we saw the shots we usually see of all of the other witches (as well as one of a witch descending in front of the gate which didn't end up in the proper opening). The school song (used as the show's opening theme) was also not played and instead an instrumental BGM was. It was from the second episode onward we saw Mildred and her friends (bar Enid, who wasn't added until after her debut episode) flying on broomsticks and the school song was used as the opening theme.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The first episode opening does not show the wormhole, because it is discovered in the first episode. Later seasons replaced the runabout with the Defiant after it was introduced at the beginning of season 3.
  • The opening credits for the pilot episode of Charmed did show the sisters casting a spell, but not their individual powers. Plus, starting from the second season, the title sequence was altered regularly to only show actors who appear in the episode.
  • iCarly has a new credit sequence every season after the second, and added a new cast member to it in the most recent one.
  • Australian soap opera Neighbours has as it's title sequence a montage of all the main characters that are in the show at that time (not just the characters who show up in the storylines for that particular episode, though which storylines will be continued in a given ep is spoiled by the "previously on" catch-up before the title sequence). Whenever a character or characters join the main cast or leave/die, the title sequence montage is updated to reflect this...though not always immediately.
    • In some versions of its title sequence, rival Australian soap opera Home and Away would also use evolving credits showing the current main cast. Again, just because a new arrival isn't on the credits, doesn't mean that they're not staying long...they might just not have been added to the credits quite yet.
    • By contrast, British soap operas don't tend to use title sequences that show the show's characters. Coronation Street has an establishing shot of the titular street, Eastenders has a title screen of a map of the London area, and Emmerdale has establishing shots of the rural setting. Hollyoaks however, if this troper recalls correctly, does show images of its main cast. Unfortunately they only update the credits every so often, and with Hollyoaks being a quiet suburb with the mortality rate of a Mafia blood feud, it means that on occasion a good proportion of the characters in the montage are currently dead.
  • Fringe's opening sequence was originally a series of fringe science-related words flashing on a blue background, some of which would relate to that season's themes. The season two finale, which took place on the "other side", introduced a new sequence with a red background; during the next season, the color of the intro indicated on which side the episode took place. The season three finale was set 15 years in the future and featured a silver background. Season four brings us a yellow sequence, signifying either the new Peter-less timeline or the fact that the two universes are bridged.
  • Game of Thrones's opening sequence alters slightly depending on where members of the main cast are at any given time.
  • Being a Long Runner that swaps out its main character as a matter of course, the credits for Doctor Who have gone through many changes.
  • As doctors came and went from the 4077th, Mash inserted and removed its characters from the scramble to get the wounded in the opening credits. The final shot of the credits originally showed Hawkeye and Trapper riding on the jeeps headed back to the camp. After Wayne Rogers left the show, they kept the shot, but reframed it to crop Trapper out.
  • The credits for NYPD Blue showed Dennis Franz second after the somewhat younger actors (David Caruso and Jimmy Smits) who played his partner. He was moved to first in the lineup when Sipowicz was partnered with detectives played by the considerably younger Rick Schroeder and Mark-Paul Gosselaar.
  • Breakout Kings: After Charlie's death Ray is alone and his badge now sports the black band used for mourning a fallen officer.
  • Later seasons of Burn Notice have the opening narration changed to reflect that Sam Axe is no longer informing on Michael to the FBI.

Video Games

  • Super Smash Bros..
    • The credits of the first two games won't show staff that was only involved with creating characters\locations that haven't been unlocked yet. Also, if someone worked on, for example, Mario and Luigi, it would say they worked on Mario and ???? if Luigi's locked.
    • The first scene in the opening sequence of Super Smash Bros.. Brawl (both the quick pass by the group and the shot of them standing on the cliff) gets increasingly filled with secret characters as they get unlocked. This is carried over from the N64 game, where the final scene before the title screen is the silhouettes of the secret characters, that are revealed as they are unlocked.
  • Wild ARMs
    • In Wild ARMs 2, 3 and 4, whenever you load from a save it plays an opening credit sequence, and in Wild ARMs 3 whenever you save and quit it plays a closing sequence. The sequences change based on how far in the game you've gotten so far.
    • The original and Alter Code F have one generic clip used throughout the game. Wild ARMs 2 and 4 have two different clips, which generally appear halfway through the game (on the second disk in the case of 2). Wild ARMs 3 goes mad with this though, having no fewer than five variations of the opening credits, not counting the different songs which also play in the background which evolve independently of the video footage.
  • The technical limitations of Wrestlemania 2000 let you play with this as it used in game models and costumes during its intro, which could be edited.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 2 had an Attract Mode that had all characters standing in a line with those yet to be unlocked merely as silhouettes.
  • In Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu, each time the player finishes a playthrough, a new set of battle and story sequences are added in the opening credits. You need to complete the game 15 times to unlock all of them, and the most interesting of them storywise (such as Levin being killed by Manfroy in battle, then resurrected/possessed by the Wind God Holsety) are of course the last ones you get.
  • In Silent Hill 1, the opening movie changes when you finish a playthrough with a Good+ End: in the part where Harry and his wife find baby Cheryl, Harry's wife is swapped with Cybil.
  • In SoulBlade, completing the game with all characters in Arcade Mode changes the title screen / main menu from a bland gray screen from a picture lining all characters.
  • Weirdly enough (and showing how much the Japanese adore this trope), you can do this yourself in the game Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, during a short video that flashes by the entire massive roster, and any created wrestlers you add will show up exactly where you put them, relative to roster position.
  • For a extremely rare case of a console's BIOS pulling this trope, look no further than the PlayStation 2's booting screen. Turning on the system with a completely empty memory card would show you nothing more than "Sony Computer Entertainment" in a dark blue void. Subsequently, the memory card will log each seperate game you play on the system in a save file called "Your System Configuration", which has the effect of adding one white block per game on the startup screen. Furthermore, the more you play a specific game, the more its designated block will grow in height. And as you might have guessed by now, deleting the "Your System Configuration" file will devolve the screen back to an empty void.
  • In Dead Space 2 the further the player's progress in the main single player mode is, the more pieces of the Black Marker congregate and take shape in the main menu. Completion of the game results in a fully assembled Black Marker drifting aloft the menu.
  • Call of Duty changes its menu image as you play farther in the campaign—at the start, it features an M1 Thompson; when you get to the British missions, it instead features a Lee-Enfield; and for the Soviet portion, it features a Mosin-Nagant.
  • Jet Force Gemini has a title screen that changes as you unlock more characters and levels.
  • Knights of the Old Republic 2's menu screen features a Sith Lord surrounded by ominous fog. Which Sith Lord depends on who the currently revealed Big Bad is. Bottom out the Karma Meter, and it will be The Exile him/herself


Visual Novel

  • In Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with you, if you complete a playthrough getting Shiori's love confession and Ending, the part of the opening demo where Shiori's lips are moving with no sound coming out, has now the sound added, revealing that she's saying : "Suki desu" ("I love you").

Web Original

  • The Twilight Chronicles features new opening credits for every episode, featuring only the series regulars who appear in that episode, as well as that episode's guest stars.
  • Atop the Fourth Wall will change its opening sequence in its annual looks at The Clone Saga, including updating the footage used in some areas!


Western Animation

  • The Spectacular Spider-Man added Mary Jane to the titles after her inevitable "jackpot" introduction.
  • After nearly twenty years of Art Evolution, The Simpsons finally updated the opening when the show switched to HD. It's essentially the same, but with some added background material that includes Continuity Nods and a bunch of characters introduced after the second season. Which itself is Older Than They Think: the show's first season had an opening different from the one used for the next 18 seasons.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender has an opening that involved a character's belief that the Avatar was still alive somewhere, with her narrating. This opening lasted for one episode before she found Aang, the new Avatar, about halfway through the first episode. Starting with #2, it kept the newer opening with some minor edits, seeing as the narrating character now knows of the Avatar's existence. It then fails this trope completely, as Katara continues to say "Aang is a long way from rescuing anybody," even after he has rescued many people and cities and even a king or two. She even says this at the beginning of the final episode, when Aang is in the middle of a fight to save the world.
  • Midway through the fourth season of the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, the show's opening was altered to take out scenes featuring the old vehicles (which had been destroyed) and Foot Ninja (which had been redesigned), replacing them with newer versions of each. Also, the scene featuring the Shredder, which had been altered to reflect his ultimate defeat, was altered yet again to reflect Karai's debut as his replacement.
  • The opening of Ben 10 Alien Force showed Alien X in silhouette until after his introduction in the season 1 finale "X = Ben + 2". Though Alien X's actual appearance is just that of his silhouette pasted over a space background.
  • Likewise with the original Ben 10 series, after Ghostfreak leaves the Ominitrix and Ben gains Cannonbolt. The alien roll call takes out the former and puts in the latter.
  • Wakfu: The second season's credit had a character added to the heroes' group after 4 episodes, when it was revealed he was Back from the Dead.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures would change its credits with the season's story arc, but only in certain parts. Most of it would be unchanged, but Jade would either be casually tossing a talisman or magic puzzle box, and Jackie would conclude by punching out the more threatening of the whatever version of the Enforcers were featured (Tohru, then Hak Fu, then magically altered Enforcers). Look close as the series progresses and you'll see more.
  • Similar to The Simpsons example above, King of the Hill re-animated their opening sequence EXACTLY as it was when the show started. Even Buckley was kept in.
  • After a few seasons, American Dad's opener changed almost entirely. Stan leaves the house differently, the rotating newspaper gag is replaced with Roger stowing away in a different costume each week (though often previously seen in the series), and his stance in front of Old Glory outside the CIA changed from a presentational gesture to a salute.
  • The intro to The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes has a shot of the team that varies depending on how many members the Avengers have at the episode's start.
  • In Alvin and The Chipmunks, after The Chipettes were introduced the title of the show was changed to The Chipmunks and clips from the "Girls/Boys of Rock and Roll" scene from The Movie were spliced in to include The Chipettes.
  • With the start of a new season of The Backyardigans, some clips of the opening, previewing certain episodes of the previous season, are changed to preview episodes of the actual season.
  • South Park added and fit every new character in the sequence as the series go on.
  • Each season of The Venture Brothers has a subtly different opening. Some episodes that focus on specific characters have special openings, like the season two and three openers.
  • DuckTales (1987) initially only had Bubba Duck appearing in new clips for the second season version of the intro. After the 5-part arc that introduced Bubba there was another 5-parter that introduced Fenton Crackshell/Gizmo-Duck, and subsequently there was another new version of the opening that featured clips of Fenton as well.
    • In the 2017 relaunch, the opening credits consist of the main cast - Scooge, Donald, Hewie, Dewey, Louie, and in some places, Ms. Beakley) pursuing Scrooge's Number One Dime while being pursued by most of the recurring villains. After Della is introduced in the second season, many of the scenes are altered to include her with the group as well.
  1. ↑ Okay, long after the fact, a Grinder (with an E) who is colored nothing like Blackout (unlike Blackout's 100% identical twin in the opening) does appear in a card game.
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