Eye Catch - Television Tropes & Idioms

An eyecatch, or commercial bumper, is a short blurb displayed when a series goes to or comes back from commercial. Anime eyecatches tend to be either humorous, with a little musical sting played over them, or simple representative pictures with the series' name. Series that run for more than one quarter frequently will have several eyecatch styles over their run, sometimes with a small set of choices that rotate from episode to episode. Saturday morning cartoons in North America frequently had one generic set of "we'll be back after these messages" Ad Bumpers per network, played at breaks for all of the series running on that network. Generally in the west, the term "bumper" applies more to this kind of EC, and bumpers are usually done by the broadcaster, rather than as part of the show itself. In the days of syndication, some syndicated cartoons would come with their own eyecatches, but these were typically rather generic (a still from the theme sequence and a voice saying, "We'll be right back" was usually the extent of it).

Not a subtrope of Eye Scream, though a poorly done Eye Catch may make you want to.

open/close all folders

Examples

Anime

Sailor Moon had new catches for each season, usually involving the team jumping around inspirationally.
- A few of the eye catches were also recrated for the video games. Noteably the first part of R's eye catch is recrated in one of the first games, unless Chibi-usa mode is selected, where-in she drops into the eye catch ontop of the Sailor Senshi.
Bubblegum Crisis 2040 has a pretty standard logo display eye catch.
Neon Genesis Evangelion has an eye catch with white lettering on a black background, preceded by Japanese kanji shown with startling rapidity.
Planetes has one where the show's title shifts from one language to another.
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor has one where the show's title is at the bottom of the screen and portraits of the crew are put up with startling rapidity. The process is reversed when the break is over.
The first season of Blood+ had a shot of Saya's sword as the blood runs through the blade, with a loud noise in the background. The later seasons had a shot of several Shif weapons thrown in the viewer's direction, each making a pretty loud noise when hitting the screen.
Marmalade Boy features eyecatches that sort out which members of the Love Dodecahedron are an Official Couple.
- In addition, you can always tell which characters will be featured in the second half of the episode by which ones are shown/come out on top in the Eye Catch.
The eyecatches in Chou Kuse Ni Narisou featured the Unknown Rival hamming it up, and the series lead not noticing.
Simoun is rare in that it never reuses an eyecatch — each one is a beautifully detailed drawing of a character in a pose related to the episode. Postcards of the eyecatches, and an eyecatch art gallery, were used as DVD bonus material.
Eyeshield 21 has "Amefuto Clinic", where Mamori and the Devil Bat give the audience a trivia question about the rules of American football in each episode's eyecatch.
Death Note places a rule for using the Death Note in each of its eyecatches, much the same way the manga uses a page at the end of each chapter. The exceptions are episodes 25 and 26, in which only "Death Note" is shown.
Ranma ½ had two different eyecatches, one in the first season, one applied to all of the remaining six seasons, and the first one might not have been a proper eyecatch. The differences between the two could be chalked up to the fact that the series was produced by first one studio, then dropped and picked up by a second. The first season had a single eyecatch that played in the middle of the episode, and a second one that played just before the end-credits. The former consisted of Genma, in panda form, juggling three pieces of fruit and eating them on the second rotation before washing them down with a cup of tea. The second consisted of Ranma, in girl form, nonchalantly juggling first P-chan (Ryoga's cursed form), then Shampoo's cursed form, then looking horrified and barely managing to catch Genma's panda form. The latter seasons had a two-parter proper eyecatch, using Super-Deformed artstyle. When the episode ended for its commercial break, Ranma-boy would come running in from the right side of the screen as an angry Akane pursued with swings of a broom, flipping over her and, to the horror of both, unintentionally landing on P-chan, who had followed Akane. When the episode returned, Ranma-boy would back in from the right as Akane, with P-chan sitting on her head, tried to strike Ranma, who backflipped away and pulled a face- only to land in a tub of cold water as Genma-panda suddenly rushed onto the scene, emerging with a dumbstruck, exasperated expression in female form.
The original Slayers series had no eyecatch. Next had a quick montage of the main characters ending with two of them in a couple pose; amusingly, when Gourry and Zelgadis (both men) ended together the screen would shatter. In Try the montage showed the main characters as children and ended again on a couple pose, but this one seemed to represent possible pairings as they would be at the end of the main story arc (and the series). Both series reused a set number of eyecatches but had unique ones for the last few episodes. For the first time in the series, Slayers Revolution has the post-break eyecatch showing events directly connected to the current episode.
Tenchi Muyo! uses a Kabuki stage with tsuzumi and okawa sounds in its Eye Catch.
Cromartie High School parodied this trope in one episode, as it has 11-minute episodes and thus no commercial breaks.
Cosplay Complex also parodied this trope, since it was an OVA and had no commercials. Rather, each Eye Catch showed off the cast cosplaying characters from another anime.
The Non-Indicative First Episode of The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya featured a hand-drawn Eye Catch, done in crayon, halfway through the amateur video that the main characters produced. This was the only episode with an eyecatch, which Kyoto Animation tends to discard in favour of spending more time on the story.
Lucky Star has the round little cat (The Author Avatar) from the episode card to the left of the logo with two variations; the first commercial eyecatch is on a green background with the cat yawning; the eyecatch before the Lucky Channel segment is on a pink background with the cat sleeping and snoring. Both eyecatches conclude with the four main girls saying "Lucky Star!"
Pokémon has the "Who's That Pokémon" segment, in which viewers are asked to identify a Pokémon by its silhouette (and, in more recent episodes, some information about its behavior). The Japanese version eventually dropped this, replacing it with normal eyecatches, but the American dub kept it. Then, the dub replaced it with "Trainer's Choice", a quiz on Pokémon knowledge (the answers to which were usually highly inaccurate) until The Pokémon Company International took over the dub.
Okay, trainers! Which of these Pokemon*
Arbok, Sableye, and Suicune
evolves into Seviper?
If you chose Arbok, you're right!
- After 5 seasons without eyecatches, the dub brought back Who's That Pokémon for the Black & White series. Eventually, the Japanese version added it back as well after spending Hoenn and Sinnoh with generic eyecatches.
Trigun's eyecatch at the beginning of a break had a distinctive guitar fill; the one at the end of the break had the same riff played backwards.
In the Toei Animation version of Kanon, two different characters, the arrangement changing each time, would say the show's name while standing beside the logo.
Tsuyokiss Cool X Sweet also had a guitar riff, played backwards at the end of the break.
Tokyo Mew Mew had a cute eyecatch featured Super-Deformed versions of the protagonists, and then a cute slider puzzle eyecatch.
Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu would just show Guu saying "Eyecatch," sometimes featuring other characters.
Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer changed the eyecatch mid-season from just Misaki to Misaki and Hatoko. In the English voice actors' audio commentaries, someone would often announce "Commercial!" when the eyecatch showed up.
The first Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch eyecatch was composed of pictures of Lucia and Hanon in glowing stars (apparently ignoring Rina, even though the show is focused on the three as a Power Trio). Once the OP changed for the first time, Lucia would draw a card from a deck of playing cards, with Hanon and Rina around her. She smiled if the card bore a hero and gasped at a villain; the character on the card was usually a character that had a big role in the episode, and if not, it was Lucia. The second season's eyecatch was one of the mermaids (or Hippo◊) surrounded by a bubble border; again, if no specific character held the spotlight, Lucia or Seira appeared. Caren, Noel and Coco each appeared in this eyecatch a total of one time.
Pani Poni Dash! used them constantly, not just for commercial breaks. For some reason, the early ones were of local Magical Girl Behoimi.Negima!? was much the same, probably because it was by the same studio. The use could be excessive — the last episode of Pani Poni Dash! felt like it was half eyecatches.
Azumanga Daioh has the various characters with a comic balloon (usually filling most of the screen) saying simply the letter A.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha uses different Eye Catches for every episode. These range from action shots to humorous snippets to Shipping fuel.
Bakuretsu Tenshi usually features Meg and Jo in some sort of badass pose, and occasionally, they feature Amy, Sei and Kyohei.
Midori no Hibi features the eponymous character waving a wooden sign around.
Hayate the Combat Butler and Zettai Karen Children have the characters playing shiritori (a Japanese word game) across the eyecatches for the entire show. In Hayate's case, the eyecatch sometimes contains shout outs to other anime.
The boys love anime Gakuen Heaven had two. One had the student council president (called the King) approaching the treasury president (called the Queen) as if flirting or asking for a date. The next eye catch is The King on the floor devastated after being rejected and the Queen walking away nonchalantly.
- The Eye Catches in this series also tend to have action of another sort — including one in the first episode of the token Creepy Twins with each other.
Gundam SEED initially has eyecatches showing off the Gundam. Once Lacus is introduced the post-break eyecatch instead switches to a scene with Lacus and Athrun. Later in the series when Lacus becomes Kira's love interest, he replaces Athrun in that scene. The eyecatch in Gundam SEED Destiny is similar to that last scene.
In general, Excel Saga's eyecatches are nondescript — except that the characters often talk over them, sometimes about the fact that a break is happening.
- During the bowling episode, the events happening over the eye catch take longer than the catch did, so the catch was repeated several times. Naturally, the characters then wondered why the catch was being repeated so many times.
- During the "survival" episode, Excel accidentally shoots Menchi, with a lot of drama in it. In the "be right back" eyecatch, she tosses Menchi's corpse into the Great Will of the Macrocosm, asking her to reset it. In the "back to the show" eyecatch, the Great Will tells her it's done, and Excel pulls a revitalized Menchi back out.
Instead of full-screen eyecatches, some shows just display the logo in the corner before going to commercial. Mai-HiME and Monster do this.
- Alternatively, the "logo in the corner" version may appear after the commercial break, as done, for example, in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou; in this particular case the logo is also accompanied by falling sakura petals (just like it does in the opening).
One Piece uses these, and they're downright charming. Each one features a different character; at first, they simply involved a wanted poster of the character blowing by while a snippet of that character's theme music played, but later in the series the eyecatches changed to more detailed animations of the character in question. Every Strawhat gets one, and the eyecatches played for an episode seem to usually (but not always) feature the Strawhat most heavily featured in that episode.
Every episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a different eyecatch, usually related to the plot of the episode, and always done in a heavily contrasted and exaggerated style with a giant lens flare. Fans took it upon themselves to make high-resolution vectorized images of them to use as wallpaper.
In Sonic X, a card would appear with data about one of the characters — usually one relevant to the plot. That is how the name of Cream the Rabbit's mom Vanilla was revealed.
- Sometimes they double as Trailers Always Spoil, especially in the case of the weekly robot that hasn't shown up yet. This, however, is averted in Episode 26, where the featured robot, E-99, was shown in silhouette. For that extra-special effect, it took up both of the usual spots of the eyecatch (still in silhouette), and Dr. Eggman even popped up in front of the second occurrence.
Shakugan no Shana's eyecatches were accompanied by the same loud fanfare (Da-dun-da-dun dada-da-dun, dadadada da-dun), causing Soundtrack Dissonance several times. For the second season, they usually reflected the events or characters of that episode. The Shana-tan DVD specials had eyecatches between each short skit.
The first season of Princess Tutu has an eyecatch of the main character's mentor and the eventual villain, Drosselmeyer, spinning on a cog while the Nutcracker March (his leitmotif) plays in the background. The second season originally didn't have an eyecatch, since each episode was split up into two parts and joined with another show—but when they were put back together for the DVD, they added an eyecatch in which a clock spun around to the same tune, then opened to show Drosselmeyer drinking a cup of tea.
- One of the episodes in the first season also replaced the normal eyecatch with a special one in one episode. The marriage-obsessed Mr. Cat believed the main character was going to meet him for a date at the pizza parlor, and the eyecatch shows him waiting patiently for her while humming the Nutcracker March.
One very odd example can be seen in the second set of Angelique OVAs. The artwork consists of fairly standard images of characters posing on Tarot cards. The background however contains some suspicious background text◊ which English-speaking fans figured out came from an article about Queer As Folk. Remember now — this is supposed to be a very chaste series of Dating Sims for girls... but it does have a very large fanbase of Yaoi Fangirls due to the sheer amount of slash-worthy guys involved, making this a rather funny occurrence.
Sky Girls has one halfway through the episode. It will feature closeup (often Fanservice) of one member of the Sky Girls and a picture of said member piloting their Sonic Diver. It managed to spoil the appearances of new members of the Sky Girls team by showing them piloting a new Sonic Diver before they were even introduced as a pilot.
Kiddy Grade has a different pair of eyecatch images for each episode, often depicting the main characters Éclair and Lumière in similar situations in each image of the pair (e.g., Éclair sitting on a couch with a Lumière doll in one and Lumière sitting on a couch with an Éclair doll in its corresponding image). Each episode featured a different guest artist and some image pairs also sported...unusual art styles.
- Kiddy Girl-and continued the trend - however they were all done by the one artist, Dr. Moro, in how own.. unique style.
Stellvia of the Universe has a unique pair for each episode, too. The pre-commercial eyecatch is also often (but not always, especially when it doesn't fit) accompanied by light-hearted jingle (which is identified in the soundtrack). The post-commercial eyecatch is always accompanied by a more heroic jingle (which is also identified in the soundtrack).
Slam Dunk has several of them, usually featuring Sakuragi, Rukawa and Haruko, or Sakuragi being disciplined by Akagi.
GaoGaiGar would show technical data on various robots and tools; two per episode. These could get pretty in depth sometimes.
- It goes to show you how many robots, mechs and machines showed up in Gaogaigar, that despite the series running for 57 episodes (with two eyecatches per episode) it never used the same eyecatch twice.
Ichigo Mashimaro's eye catches always feature Nobue, rather than the younger girls — though they do sometimes appear in the form of key-chain/cell-phone fob type dolls. They are always against a white background, and usually, in the TV series, from odd angles, such as an extreme closeup of her bottom. The OVAs also have eye catches in approximately the middle of the episode (ranging from 8 to 23 minutes into a 24-27 minute episode), despite, obviously, not having to break for commercials. The OVAs also change them from episode to episode, rather than reusing them as the TV series did.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has this in the form of pictures of characters appearing in the episode as someone yells "Fullmetal Alchemist!", but the tone of voice often changes with each episode. During certain dramatic parts of the plot, such as character deaths, the speech would be omitted.
- Some eyecatches can be downright disturbing. It sounds like some of them are done by native English speakers, but others are done by people who know how to pronounce the title but not what tone of voice to use when doing so. And at least one that was the verbal equivalent of Camp Gay.
S.A. has Eye Catches featuring the couple of the week starting at the latter episodes.
Outlaw Star's involved going from, first, white to black, with gunshots firing individual letters of "OUTLAW," followed by "STAR," then with one gun cock, the logo appears with a black background. Returning from commercial, the backgrounds go from black to white, complete with a musical stinger and the sounds of a chain gun firing the letters, then a flash to the logo once more.
Fushigi Yuugi makes use of two, but switched rather early: The first is more light-hearted, showing Miaka against a backdrop of food and being pummelled by Tama (who wasn't yet known by non-readers of the manga), who then sits on her head as Yui looks on from behind. This is, of course, complete with bubbly music. After Yui's Face Heel Turn, which takes place in Episode 11, it is changed into Miaka, Tamahome and Yui appearing sequentially against a starry backdrop. The music used for the new eyecatch is more dramatic.
Wandaba Style used the same image for the eye catch each episode (the first, an image of the girls of Mix Juice, and the second, Teen Genius Susumu and Satellite Girl Kiku#8), but featured the girls saying something different each time.
The eyecatch of Bokurano shows the chair of the currently selected pilot.
- And it has all of the pilots who haven't died yet saying "bokurano" together.
Victory Gundam has an evolving eyecatch that advances two frames per episode.
Fairy Tail's first season has Happy doing a little dance, then him with a Balloon Belly, having apparently consumed a lot of fish. This is accompanied by a cute little jingle, which can be a moment killer when it follows a serious moment.
- Notably, who appeared in the eyecatches for the S-Class Exam arc in season 3 changed usually depending on who was the focus of the episode.
In Sgt. Frog's first season the eyecatch is Keroro holding a sign... with the word eyecatch in giant letters in the background. In season 2, he crashes into the camera while swinging.
Yu Yu Hakusho has a cute one with Super Deformed versions of the main characters killing some demons, which then form the show's title. Then Botan flies in and Koenma falls on Kuwabara's head. It never changes though, and it does get a bit annoying after seeing it over one hundred times.
Princess Princess uses an eyecatch with one of the boys in both their normal clothes and then their princess outfits.
The first season of Ikki Tousen featured Hakafu kicking the camera for the "going to commercial" eyecatch, followed by her skirt lifting, giving us a panty shot for the "back to show" eyecatch. 2nd-4th seasons feature still images of suggestive poses and revealing attire on the female characters while rock music plays.
The eyecatch for To Love-Ru featured Lala removing her towel.
The eyecatches for Amaenaideyo almost always featured revealing attire worn by the ladies. The exception was Jotoku Kawahara, the old lady who ran the temple: She was always fully clothed (thank God).
Shuffle was an interesting case. The first half of the series had light-hearted eyecatches with upbeat ditties, but when the show got more serious, the eyecatches in turn got more dramatic-sounding.
Spoofed in DNAngel. In one episode, the eyecatch is used to transition between scenes instead of cut to commercial. This causes it to pop up about once every three minutes. Eventually the characters get sick of it and scream "Knock it off!" when the eyecatch appears.
Get Backers shows one of the characters.
Last Exile has a chrome version of the logo with the voice of a random character saying the title.
- The latter part is kept in the sequel, but averted for the most part.
Axis Powers Hetalia is an interesting case. It's not aired on television and is instead aired through cellphones and the internet, and the episodes are only about 5 minutes long, so the eyecatches are used to switch scenes instead. The eyecatches themselves have the logo with a chibi nation-tan popping out from behind the logo and saying the title in a slightly more high-pitched voice.
Tenshi Ni Narumon is an interesting case in that throughout the whole series its eyecatch featured always Noelle and Yuusuke - the main couple, but in the last episode, it was switched to one with Mikael and Raphael, implying that THEY were the main couple, because Mikael was the real main character.
To Aru Majutsu no Index has the screen cracking and breaking like glass to reveal the show title; a short musical piece plays in the background as soon as the screen cracks, a different one in each season.
- To Aru Kagaku no Railgun has a white/orange screen with the show's title on the white (right) half and the episode number and title on the orange (left) half of the screen, both written in the other half's color.
Fruits Basket featured two different eyecatches in each episode, usually cute pictures of the characters' cursed animal forms. The final handful of episodes just use somber black ones.
The Japanese dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! has a spinning Millenium Puzzle and the word "Yu-Gi-Oh" appear on the screen.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has a different one every episode, generally of a character and monster relevant to the plot for that episode.
- Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds has Yusei summoning Junk Warrior or Stardust Dragon. Near the end of the series, they did away with this entirely. Zexal is the only series to totally avert this.
Lupin III Part II had some funny ones, such as Lupin's gun firing while he twirls it on his finger, or jumping into his car, only for the steering wheel to break off and causing Lupin to roll out the other side.
Along with the rest of its nods to the game's gameplay system, Persona 4: The Animation has eyecatches which show the hero's character stat growth.
Mawaru-Penguindrum uses a map of Tokyo's Marunouchi subway line with each stop representing the current episode. This is a rare case where the eye catch isn't just a reference to the plot but an important clue in itself since Marunouchi was targeted in two of Aum Shinrikyo's gas attacks.
Digimon:
- Digimon Adventure: Cards of the seven (at the time) partner Digimon pile up before reforming into a picture of their evolved forms posing as a team.
- Digimon Adventure 02: V-mon does incredibly silly things with chocolate eggs, spontaneously spawning the other partner Digimon to pose as a team.
- Digimon Tamers: Vaguely LEGO-like renditions of Guilmon, Renamon and Terriermon pop around for a bit before evolving. Meanwhile, Impmon bonks Culumon on the head, making them evolve again.
- Digimon Frontier: Pictures of the five heroes surrounded by hexagons flash around before focusing on one, turning into a picture of the hero and his Human-spirit form posing with the logo.
- Digimon Xros Wars: Cards from the Super Digica Taisen game are demonstrated, with cartoony renditions of the heroes popping up. The first half had one of its two eye catches feature ghostly images of Agumon, Garurumon, V-mon and Guilmon popping out of Taiki's X Loader and laughing at him.
- Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Leaping Through Time: Pictures of one of the six Heroes posing with their unevolved partner, then flicks around into a silhouetted image of them posing with their evolved partner, enclosed in a circle.
The Yuru Yuri anime has a separate, rather long and elaborate, Eye Catch for each of the main cast, complete with individual themes.
Natsume Yuujinchou has Nyanko-sensei doing something slightly different with each eye catch (yawning, trying to catch a butterfly, etc.).

Live Action TV

Most British networks use a static caption with the show's title and sometimes a superimposed network logo, sometimes accompanied by a snatch of the theme tune, at the start and end of each break. In the past there were a few shows that used animated bumpers, notably The Prisoner with an animated pennyfarthing bike disassembling before the break and reassembling afterward. (These are not included in the main body of the remastered DVD episodes, but appear as extras.)
Live action shows with network content warnings sometimes have additional content warnings in place of where an eyecatch would go. Not really an eye catch, but they can "catch your eye" if you're fast forwarding through the commercials.
Andromeda uses them as well.
Fringe uses X-ray pictures that form a code when put together.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 usually displayed the show's trademark "spaghetti ball" spinning for a few seconds before commercials, with an instrumental snippet of the Theme Tune.
- Seasons 2 through the Joel episodes of season 5 would also have eyecatches featuring close-up shots of Gizmonic Institute.
- Starting with Mike episodes of 5 and running through the end of the show's Comedy Central run, some of the eyecatches would be shots of various experiments in Deep 13.
The Sci-Fi Channel used to have interesting eyecatches used on most shows they played. Normally they depicted something absurd or nonsensical, and then the Sci Fi logo would fade out partially, leading the word "IF" behind.
NCIS
- Starting around the 2nd season or so, NCIS lets its viewers know when a commercial break is starting or ending with a grayscaled half-second snippet overlaid with a soft thump. It can also serve as a sneak peek and even potential (yet minor) spoiler, as 99.9% of the time, the eye catch from the start of a segment will be a quick view of the end of that same segment (which will also serve as an eyecatch). Partially subverted in that these also happen right before the end credits.
The NCIS spinoff NCIS Los Angeles is a bit more frenetic with its version of this, with several connected grayscaled snapshots of past and/or future events.
Dirty Jobs uses eyecatches based on the opening credits, with bugs, unidentified gooey stuff and squishy noises present.
Good Eats uses a rejoin eyecatch (the title card and a quick snippet of the theme) starting with the third-season episodes.
The Australian series Spellbinder used the "Logo in the corner" version for both entering and exiting the break—quite unusual on Aussie TV of the time. Usually, kids' shows would simply go to commercial, sometimes with an eyecatch that may have simply been a freeze-frame of the title card, and then they came out, the network would superimpose a card across the bottom of the screen showing the network logo, the name of the show, and the rating.
The different Star Trek series will sometimes have the logo shown with a background of empty space (TNG), the station (Deep Space Nine), space with nebulas, solar flares, etc. (Voyager), or the Cool Ship (Enterprise) while a snatch of the theme music plays. The remastered Star Trek: The Original Series got ones with various scenes from the show.
Mythbusters shows their title as letters welded on a rusted steel plate (or sometimes cut out of one) with some action occuring either to or near it (like being shot with a BB gun or moved through their building, M5, on the front of a forklift), usually before and after each commercial break. They use one that reads "Warning: Science Content" sometimes, too. This all fits in with their theme, since they use similar plates reading "Busted," "Plausible," and "Confirmed" at the conclusion of each myth.
Beakman's World had the famous catch with the robotic-voiced bumpers. BKN infamously overlaid them with their own Ad Bumpers when they ran the series in 2000. And the Netflix version also leaves them off, what with no commercials to be cutting to.
Of course it's not just anime in Japan what uses eyecatches. Super Sentai has them too, and the one for Gekisou Sentai Carranger was kept in the later episodes of Power Rangers Turbo —- the Power Rangers one, of course, removed the Carranger name
- Averted with Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, which don't have them - it's just the animated logo popping up at a corner of the screen. Episode 29, which had cameos from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger characters, did an exception with a proper eyecatch of the "what will happen after the commercial break? Stay tuned!" kind, as a nod to Abaranger's ones. Tokumei Sentai Go Busters also averts it too, but not for Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, which uses a different eyecatch every episode.
- Showa Era Kamen Rider shows have this too. The Heisei ones don't have any, just cutting to Ad breaks.
Syndicated Reruns of programs will occasionally feature eye catches with an announcer, usually one of the cast, saying that "(Show) will be right back." Then during the final commercial break, there will generally be another one, this time announcing that "(Show) is brought to you by the following sponsors."
On Michael Moore's series TV Nation, commercial breaks were preceded by the results of humorous opinion polls. (The polling, done by the firm of Widgery and Associates, was legitimate, though the questions were preposterous.)
The Wild Wild West had a unique method of doing this. The last frame of the sequence before the commercial (usually a cliffhanger) was transformed into a comics-style illustration (in the pilot and from sometime during season two onwards) or alternatively a black and white (in season one)/tinted colour (in the first several season two episodes) and placed into one of five panels that resembled a comic strip, with each sequence being placed in a different panel.
Some Victorious and Big Time Rush episodes have Customized Eyecatches featuring their recent songs, but that depends if they're using their customized Credits Pushback ending credits.
24 has its signature ticking clock both immediately before, and right after any commercial break.
Better Off Ted has a fake ad for Veridian Dynamics (the show's fictional company) before the first commercial break.

Video Games

Disgaea 3 had more stages per 'episode' than its predecessors. In keeping with the spirit of the series, this was Lampshaded by running eye catches about halfway through the plot of each episode, using the battle close-ups of the cast. Instead of running fake commercials, they led into a brief skit featuring 'Today's 10 Gents', aka the Diez Gentlemen.
Atelier Iris 2 had something similar to this when transitioning between Felt and Viese.
Being what it was, Tech Romancer had eyecatches for each Mecha's Story Mode between the dialogue and fight in each stage.
Asura's Wrath does this intenionally, with the Eyecathes being just like anime ones, and is episodic like a real anime.

Web Comics

The now-defunct Life Of Riley used to do this in a webcomic! This was one way they handled filler strips.

Western Animation

The Real Ghostbusters had a variety of these, all featuring the ghost from the GB logo doing something funny and then saying "TRG will return after these messeges/ And now back to the RGB.". These include:
- Getting caught whistling outside the "No ghosts" symbol, then jumping back where he's supposed to be.
- Looking left, then ducking down as a bunch of ghosts run by.
- Finding himself upside down, then correcting his position.
On the other side of the Pacific, the eyecatch for Æon Flux was a Visual Pun: a fly crawls closer and closer to a human eye seemingly without iris or pupil. The eyelashes close like a Venus Flytrap, imprisoning the fly, as the pupil of the eye rolls around to examine its catch.
Unusually, Totally Spies! uses an eyecatch into, but not out of, a break.
The original Transformers cartoon had eyecatches before and after each break, each one showing off a different character's transformation and accompanied by the distinctive voice of Victor Caroli intoning, "The Transformers will return, after these messages".
- The VHS release of some episodes kept these, and added sound effects for flying, transforming, etc. The DVDs don't have it.
- Transformers Armada would have a scene of Optimus posing dramatically for going to commercial, and Megatron for coming back.
- In fact, there's a whole list at the TF Wiki, covering both US and Japan.
Code Lyoko has five eyecatches in each episode, one for each member of the Five-Man Band, in variable order, with an animation of the Lyoko avatar, name and face of the character in the XANA logo.
The The Super Mario Bros. Super Show had episode-specific eyecatches for its first few weeks.
Inspector Gadget - Dr. Claw: "Inspector Gadget may return after these messages."
Dexter's Laboratory, and other rerun series have these for airings on Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel in the United States.
Family Guy "Airport 07"
"Garfield and Friends will be back after these messages. If I feel like it."
KaBlam! - "Hey Ka-Blammoids, keep your hiner in the recliner! Still to come, [Insert short], [insert short], and more Action League Now! Right here on KaBlam!!"

After the commercials ended, the announcer would say "kaBlam!" , while a picture of the logo would do something. Later seasons changed this toHenry trying to lift up the logo, it falls on him, and then June winks at the audience. Then the announcer would say "KaBlam!!" again like previously, this was to start the next break.
Daria - The Eye Catch was a slow-motion clip of something that happened earlier in the episode. A subversion occured when Daria and Quinn pick up a hitchhiker. After they drop him off, Daria freaks out that he stole their money. Cue the Eye Catch, only for it to cut halfway through and go back to the show, as Quinn explains that she gave him the money.
Fantastic Four World's Greatest Heroes had one with each member of the team making the team's symbol (This troper vaguely remembers a four in a circle.)
Coming Attractions, the Show Within a Show from The Critic, featured these, usually as a joke at the expense of host Jay Sherman.
Beavis And Butthead has eyecatches that either use "we'll be back after this" messages or fake "Coming up, this will happen to the protagonists" announcements.
"Butt-Head pulls a muscle and Beavis pulls his finger, right after this."
Rocky and Bullwinkle used several elaborate clips in rotation:
- Bullwinkle tries to pull a rabbit out of a hat but gets a lion or a rhinoceros, whereupon Rocky says to the audience, "Now here's something we hope you'll really like."
- Rocky delivers an urgent message to a battlefield.
- Swami Bullwinkle announces, "Eeny meeny, chili beany, the spirits are about to speak!" Rocky: "Are they friendly spirits?" Bullwinkle: "Friendly? Just listen!"