The bestanime commercial cuts do something special to ease viewers into a breakand welcome them back when they’ve finished watching ads (or, more likely, getting up for a refill on snacks). Typically known as eyecatches or midcards, these can be as simple as a flash of the show’s title or logo. Many, though, choose a more creative route.
Usually, these eyecatches are short animations that feature the characters in lighthearted situations or skits. Other times, they’re creative ways of showing off the show’s title. And on rare occasions, they maintain viewers’ interest in coming back after the break by being incredibly ominous and weird.
10Haikyuu!! Has Fun on the Volleyball Court
Based on the manga by Haruichi Furudate
In the vein ofSlam Dunk,anothersports anime whose eyecatches feature the teams goofing around,Haikyuu!!’s eyecatches are bright and cheerful. When the players’ personal struggles mount up and a match’s final rallies are at their most intense, the eyecatches are there to lighten the mood. Pairs and, on occasion, trios from the various teams practice hitting a volleyball into a water bottle on the far side of the court.
The simple practice exercise gives a great picture of their relationships and personalities. Kageyama and Hinata cheer when they successfully teach Yachi to serve, Hinata and Tanaka accidentally hit the camera instead of the target, Bokuto reacts dramatically when he misses while Akaashi stoically looks on, and such. They also play with each team’s animal motif: anyone who didn’t get that Inarizaki are foxes will have it click seeing the Miya twins as foxes making mischief in their eyecatch.
Haikyuu!!
Cast
Haikyuu!! is a Japanese anime series based on the manga by Haruichi Furudate that follows Shoyo Hinata, a high school student determined to become a top volleyball player despite his short stature. Through resilience and teamwork, Hinata joins Karasuno High’s volleyball team and forms a dynamic partnership with former rival Tobio Kageyama. The series highlights their journey to national tournaments, emphasizing themes of perseverance and sportsmanship.
9Death Note Reveals the Rules of the Killer Notebook
Based on the manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
The titular tool of the Shinigami may sound easy to use in theory — write in a person’s name and they will die — but in practice the Death Note is operated by a whole list of rules that can backfire on an uncautious user. Light meticulously reads all those rules so he can figure out how best to use them against others and to cover his own tracks, and they are drip-fed to viewers through each eye catch.
Some are bonuses that don’t come up in the story, such as the apparent age limit on victims of the Death Note and how names can’t be erased or whited out once written. Others are very plot-relevant, such as the final rule shown in the penultimate episode being that, “The human who uses this note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell,” which is something certain characters will have to worry about very soon.
8Dragon Ball’s Eyecatches Center Playful Moments Between Heroes
Based on the manga by Akira Toriyama
In its long run,Dragon Ballhas had plenty of time to show off creative eyecatch segments throughout its multiple series. The original series features the young Goku goofing around with his loved ones, juggling Dragon Balls, and not quite getting one over on Master Roshi. (Disappointingly, the earliest English dub ofDragon Balldoes away with them in favor of screenshots.)
Like the series itself,Dragon Ball Zbrings in several new characters, starting with Goku happily playing with his new toddler son Gohan, enjoying family time for as long as he can. Later in the show, there are multiple eyecatches featuring characters messing around with cars: maybe they should have joined Goku and Piccolo at driving school in one of thebest filler episodes in anime.
Dragon Ball
From the creative mind of Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball is a mega multimedia franchise that spans back to the 1980s. Dragon Ball expanded quickly, starting as a serialized manga for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. It made its way overseas via manga and an anime adaptation that is enjoyed worldwide. Dragon Ball was the initial starting animated series that followed the adventures of the young Son Goku as he sought after the Dragon Balls. These mystical orbs would grant the wish of any who gathered them together. Then, the series would branch off into the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z, which followed Goku as an adult and featured high-intensity battles and Goku’s never-ending search to be the strongest. The series has also enjoyed several popular video game adaptations and continues to release several new animated series and theatrical films up to the recent popular Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
7Mobile Suit Victory Gundam Reveals Its Animation Slowly
Original anime directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam,airing from 1993 to 1994, is considered one of the most tragic and depressing installments in one of thelongest-running anime franchises ever.Unfamiliar viewers would never guess it from how peppy and cheerful the eyecatch music is, though. Poor Flanders the dog is horrified as Uso Ewin’s grinning Haro grows larger and larger until it overtakes the Earth.
Another wayVictory Gundam’s eyecatch sets it apart from other anime is that it doesn’t show the entire sequence at once. Instead, it shows only two frames per eyecatch, revealing it steadily over the course of 51 episodes. It may take viewers some time to realize that all the fragments come together into one short, cute scene.
Based on the manga by Mohiro Kitoh
Kitoh is also the mangaka behindNarutaru,another famously dark story.
Even in a mecha anime dark enough to rivalNeon Genesis Evangelion,one might not think at first thateven the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it eyecatches get steadily more depressing over time.However, one would be wrong. It’s just one more reminder of just how few of what was once a full class of (mostly) innocent children is making it out of this show alive.
The eyecatch is simple: the class stating the name of the show, “Bokurano” (or “Ours”) over an ominous image of the current Zearth pilot’s seat. But as the show goes on and bodies pile up, the number of voices speaking slowly lessens, until by the end it’s just a single one, the silence surrounding it much louder. It’s certainly not “ours” anymore.
5Hunter X Hunter Teaches Viewers Its Alphabet
Based on the manga by Yoshihiro Togashi
Like many of thebest fantasy anime, the world ofHunter X Hunterfeatures its own alphabet, its triangular lettering appearing on all the various street signs, books, and much more around its extensive world.The eyecatches take a moment to teach viewers a little of it,with characters standing beside a word that will rotate back to reveal a translation of readable Japanese characters. They all look very pleased to see their names in their audience’s language!
Unlike its opening sequences, which loyally keep using the same song, “Departure!” even as its imagery changes,Hunter X Hunterdoesn’t actually maintain its eyecatches for long. After episode 26 (of a 148-episode series, to put it into perspective), the eyecatches become, sadly, much more conventional: a flash of the show’s title and nothing more.
Hunter X Hunter
Hunter × Hunteris a Japanese manga and anime franchise created by Yoshihiro Togashi. The story follows Gon Freecss, a boy who discovers his father is a legendary Hunter, and embarks on a journey to become one himself. Along the way, he encounters friends and foes in a world filled with martial arts, adventure, and paranormal elements. The franchise spans manga, multiple anime adaptations, films, OVAs, and video games.
Original anime written by Seishi Minakami
Paranoia Agentis Satoshi Kon’s only full-length television show.
No, Shounen Bat didn’t just home-run your TV screen, that’s just how theParanoia Agenteyecatches are. One of Satoshi Kon’s best anime centers around themes of disconnection from real life, whether through escapist media or self-delusion, and refusal to talk plainly about the things that matter most. It’seasy to see why even the eyecatches are strange and incomprehensible.
These thirteen eyecatches exemplify not just those themes but the show’s dark and unsettling tone as well. Ominous animations resembling lightning, whirlpools, grainy film, firing neurons, and more. Instead of music or voiceover, they play with strange ambient noise and various muffled sound effects in the background: all in all, a very creepy goodbye and welcome back to the show.
Paranoia Agent
Paranoia Agent is a Japanese animated television series created by Satoshi Kon. The show follows several unconnected people in Tokyo who are terrorized by a mysterious juvenile assailant named Lil' Slugger. As the attacks increase, detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa investigate the incidents, uncovering complex psychological issues and societal pressures among the victims. The series offers a critique of modern urban life and explores themes of paranoia and self-deception.
3Attack on Titan Uses Its Eyecatches to Add Trivia
Based on the manga by Hajime Isayama
One of fans’ favorite aspects of one of themost popular shounen animeisthe steady reveal of an interesting world.Eren and company are already no strangers to horror, sequestered in a walled city and living in fear of the man-eating Titans outside. But the farther out they venture, the clearer it becomes that even the most unlikely humans can become the worst monsters of all.
The show’s eyecatches add “Information Available for Public Disclosure.” These specific details and diagrams are a fan fiction writer’s dream, explaining things from how the heroes’ gear works to why the Survey Corps’ horses are like that to how food is stored and transported within the walls. They don’t much affect the story proper, but they make the world even richer.
Attack On Titan
Based on the manga, Attack on Titan is a dark-action fantasy series set in a world where humanity has been corralled into walled cities from fear of monstrous human-eating Titans that exist outside of them. When protagonist Eren Yeager’s mother is killed in front of his eyes at a young age, his thirst for vengeance leads him to join an elite group of soldiers created to fight back against the Titan menace.
2Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Announces Its Eyecatches Proudly
Based on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa
All things considered,Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s eyecatches aren’t actually that different from the average: flashes of different characters featured in each episode on solid-colored backgrounds. However, the deep voicesintoning the title in many varying tones have been iconic sounds among fans for fifteen years: it’s a sign that things are deathly serious when the cards are absolutely silent. It’s easy to understand character relationships from the cards alone.
In Greed’s introductory episode, his gang is shown in a group shot, but Greed’s own card is him alone, setting him apart (exactly where he doesn’t want to be). In Pride’s introduction, the first card is the innocent Selim and the next is his monstrous true identity, Pride. And in the final episode, the cards are Edward, Alphonse, and Winry, and Roy’s team: very close groups of characters who have never been together in any previous card, but are finally reunited in a more peaceful new world.
1Pokémon: The Series Asks — Who’s That Pokémon?
Based on thePokémonvideo game series by Game Freak and Nintendo
It’s Pikachu! The main appeal ofPokémonas a franchise is getting to know hundreds of different creatures and all their attributes.Who’s That Pokémon asks viewers to recognize Pokémon by silhouette aloneas the show goes to commercial, telling them when it returns if they were right. Even when it was phased out, later seasons use similar gags such as Pokémon trivia.
The eyecatch games even become a joke in the episode “The Ultimate Test,” in which Ash and a disguised Team Rocket take the Pokémon League Admissions Exam. They’re asked to answer trivia about Pokémon and identify them by silhouette. The test-takers and the viewers can certainly all agree that “Jigglypuff viewed from above” is a nonsense trick answer.
Pokémon
Pokémon follows Ash Ketchum on his journey to become a Pokémon Master, accompanied by his loyal Pikachu. Released in 1997, the series explores Ash’s travels through various regions, where he encounters new friends and challenges, underscoring the themes of adventure and teamwork.
