Opening Narration / Anime & Manga

• During the three prologues of Soul Eater, the narrator, who is later revealed to be Lord Death, begins each episode with "Welcome to the Death Weapon Meister Academy, commonly known as the DWMA..." and about a minute and a half more of explanation of the goal of the DWMA, and the role of meisters and Kishins, and so on. Oddly, weapons are not mentioned. The narration is the same each time it is said.
  • Before each episode actually begins, Maka always says "A healthy soul resides in a healthy mind and a healthy body."^note translated in the English dub as "A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body."
• Every arc of Bakugan begins with one, explaining the premise for each arc.
• Best Student Council: "At Miyagami Private Academy, there is a group of beautiful girls, who have power and authority on par with the faculty members. Miyagami Academy Maximum Authority-Wielding Best Student Council. Or for short: Best Student Council!"
• The first chapter of Delicious in Dungeon opens with a short Info Dump from the narrator which sets up the background of the story.
• Shugo Chara!: "All kids hold an egg in their soul... the egg of our hearts... our would-be selves... yet, unseen..."^note This opening narration is spoken exactly as it appears in English.
• Early episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! had the "Long ago, when the pyramids were still young" speech in the dub, and the "History of Gaming" speech in the original Japanese (based on the opening "narration" of the first manga chapter).
  "Long ago, when the pyramids were still young, Egyptian kings played a game of great and terrible power. But these Shadow Games erupted into a war which threatened to destroy the entire world, until a brave and powerful Pharaoh locked the magic away, imprisoning it within the mystical Millennium Items. Now, 5000 years later, a boy named Yugi unlocks the secret of the Millennium Puzzle. He is infused with ancient magical energies, for destiny has chosen him to defend the world from the return of the Shadow Games, just as the brave Pharaoh did, 5000 years ago..."
  • At one point in Shadi's introduction in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Shadi recites the dub narration word for word.
• Outlaw Star has a different Opening Narration before each episode which is used to deliver background information, set the theme for the following episode, or even introduce themes for the series in general.
  • Same as above: "...Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha will now begin."
  • Also featured in Martian Successor Nadesico, with Ruri giving her sarcastic views of the previous episodes' goings-on.
  • The Opening Narration for Code Geass is updated every so often as major events happen, but a majority of the time it's about the hero's quest to overthrow The Empire and its effects on him. Played with in that more than one character delivered the speeches, and sometimes (e.g. at least one of the Suzaku examples) unreliable narration was in play.
• The DiC English dub of the first season of Sailor Moon used them... spoiling half the series in the process.
  • The original version had a short summary of the episode at the start, as well as a more typical narration after the opening — Usagi explaining the plot of the series. The latter segment was upgraded at least once, with the addition of Mercury and Mars.
• Hayate the Combat Butler: "A butler is one who serves..."
• Shakugan no Shana: "Infinite time stopped beating its heart, and humans burnt away without making any noise..."
• Yakitate!! Japan: "There's German bread, English bread, French bread, but there's no Japanese bread, or Ja-pan. Which means there's nothing to do except to invent it..."
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003):
  • "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost: that is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth."
  • In episode 37, a variant of this monologue is delivered by Riza Hawkeye in place of the ordinary pre-credits sequence.
  • In the final stretch of the series, it changes to: "The Philosopher's Stone: those who possess it no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice, create without equal exchange; we searched for it, and we found it."
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood had one of these for the first dozen or so episodes, where the narrator explained how alchemy is a science, not magic and how human transmutation is taboo.
• Berserk begins every episode with: "In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will." It is only revealed in the final episodes that the ominous voice that gives this monologue is Void, the de facto leader of the Godhand.
  • The dub outtakes feature the narrator screwing up the intro repeatedly, including a Beavis And Butthead style intro and one where he talks about "tiny red objects", letting you know that he wasn't given much background on the actual series, but then getting really into his part as Void and starts demanding that the voice director can't make him go away even though the series is over.
• In Case Closed, all of the movies have Conan explaining the basic plot of the series. The first opening for the anime also have him explains who he is and how he came to be Conan, before changing to a unique speech in subsequent openings.
• The first few episodes of The Vision of Escaflowne began with Hitomi narrating: "Sore wa yume? Soredemo maboroshi? (Is it a dream? Or an illusion?)" while the episode title was shown. It stopped about halfway through, though.
• The first few episodes of Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou have Fuji-hime explaining the show's premise. In the first episode, this intro continues into the actual beginning of the explained events before finally showing the opening sequence.
• One Piece changed this up each season. The first season's is by far the most famous: "Wealth. Fame. Power. Gold Roger, the King of the Pirates had seemingly attained everything the world has to offer..."
  • All the ones after season one were subversions:
    • Season 2 opened each episode with Gold Roger's last words, where he talks about the nature of freedom.
    • Season 3 starts with Gold Roger making a speech about the reasons pirates travel the seas.
    • Season 4 starts with Luffy telling us the premise, and getting all worked up over how awesome this week's adventure is going to be.
    • From season 5 on, the show dropped the opening narration altogether. Strangely, this resulted in the intro sequence getting longer.
  • The start of the New World Saga (which marks the series' halfway point) sees the return of the original narration.
• "In matters relating to the world of the dead, there is an institution that judges the sins of the deceased, the Ministry of Hades. The Summons Section of the Judgment Bureau comprises a group supporting the ministry's operating functions by guiding the lost souls that wander the mortal world; they are also known as the Guardians of Death"- Descendants of Darkness
• Tokyo Mew Mew "The Earth, an exquisite, blue planet with more than a million species living on it..."
• Transformers: Armada had three. The first, lasting until about episode 15, was Rad explaining the situation to the viewer. After that, a proper narrator took over, giving a more cosmic description of the premise with some variation from episode to episode. In about episode 40, this narrator switched to a third, Unicron-centric, spoileriffic monologue.
• In the second and third season of Ranma ½ after the opening themes, there is quick narration of Ranma's arranged marriage to Akane and an explanation of Ranma's curse
• Cat Planet Cuties, rather than having one of its own, starts borrowing and slightly modifying other shows' narrations from episode three onward.
• Macross Frontier has a few different ones in the first half dozen or so episodes which would usually touch on the basic premise, then go into different aspects of the setting as necessary for the episode in question.
• "This is the story... of the super force... of space explorers. Specially trained and sent by the alliance to bring back... Voltron, defender of the universe." (Both Lion and Vehicle versions)
• Both the original GoLion and Dairugger XV have one each before the opening sequence proper.
• Humanoid Monster Bem tells the origins of the trio.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena begins with the shadow play girls narrating a fairy tale about the girl (Utena) who was inspired to become a Prince.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: "This is the story of a man who has yet to realize his own destiny."
• Slayers: Particularly the first season does this, but also the fourth and fifth. (The one from the first season is actually at the top of the show's page.)
• Pani Poni Dash! didn't always do it, but when they did it would go along the lines of "Rebecca Miyamoto. Born of an American father and a Japanese mother. Graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the youngest graduate in the school's history. She then returned to Japan to become a high school teacher. However... she was only 10 years old at the time!"
• Digimon Fusion implemented one of these in a franchise which hasn't used the trope before - Taiki delivered the narration for the first half, wherein it varied slightly in every episode, and a single stock monologue was delivered by an unnamed narrator in the second half. In the sequel, Tagiru delivers a single unchanging narration.
• The Brave Series has no shortage of opening narrations.
  • Brave Exkaiser introduces the dynamic of the main heroes and villains.
  The mysterious and vast universe. In this universe exist the evil energy lifeforms, the Space Pirate Geisters, who have invaded Earth to take the treasures of mankind. However, before the Geisters who destroy and plunder as they wish, a hero appeared who completely stood in their way. He is the space policeman, Exkaiser. This is the story of the brave Exkaiser and his friends, who fight against evil all around the universe.
  • The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird uniquely has a dialogue between characters for opening narration.
  Draias: Listen, lowly humans! I am known as the Emperor of Space, Draias... I hold the power to control your planet.
  Fighbird: Not if I can help it!
  Draias: Who are you?
  Fighbird: Call me Fighbird! I am a member of the Space Police Force, sent here to thwart your evil plans!
  Narrator: This is the story of the Space Police's Fighbird and his friends in their battle against Draias, an evil alien lifeform intent to plunge the world into a reign of darkness.
  • The Brave Express Might Gaine:
  Nouvelle Tokyo City was established on the surface of what was once Tokyo Bay. It is one of the few modern cities full of peace and freedom. But a huge wave of crime has begun, and the peace is being threatened. But a champion of justice has appeared stunningly! His name is Senpuuji Maito. Alongside the robot Might Gaine, he thwarts the evil ambitions of the criminals. A brave hurricane rises in Nouvelle Tokyo City!
  • GaoGaiGar has this after the last line of the opening theme song: "This is the story of the brave men and women who protect the Earth."
• "Meteoro" (the Latin-American Spanish dub of Speed Racer) uses one accompanied by an instrumental version of the original Japanese opening theme song.
• "Battle of the Planets! G-Force, Princess! Tiny! Keyop! Mark! Jason!^note An alternate version of the intro introduces them as "G-Force", but then simply refers to them as "five incredible young people with super powers".And watching over them from Center Neptune, their computerized coordinator, 7-Zark-7..."^note "Their computerized coordinator" is left out in the later version of the intro.
  • "(G-Force!) Five teenage champions! G-Force, Guardians of Space! Fighting for good over evil..."
• In Guardian Fairy Michel, Kim narrates a legend relevant to the episode or talks about the Tree of Life at the beginning of every episode.
• Ashita no Nadja: "A long, long time ago... about a hundred years ago... the story I'm about to tell you took place. It's about a girl... who opened the door to her destiny." This plays before the Title Sequence of the first few episodes, and is altered at the end of the final episode.
• Transformers: Cybertron: "Our worlds are in danger. To save them and the galaxy, we must find the four Cyber Planet Keys before the Decepticons can use them for evil. It is our mission. Hot Shot! Jetfire! Vector Prime! Landmine! Scattorshot! Optimus Prime! Transform and roll out."
• The English dub of Yo-kai Watch has an Expository Theme Tune but also has a narrative beforehand. It's probably justified as most outside of Japan don't know what Yōkai are; in fact the children in-series don't either.
  Unexplained occurrences happen every day. But if you possess the "Yokai Watch" you will have the amazing and rare ability to see the illusive "yokai", invisible, spirit-like entities responsible for life's daily annoyances. But beware: When a yokai enters your life, things will never be quite the same.
• The anime adaptation of Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note has the following, followed by the summary of the previous episode:
  I'm Aya Tachibana. I couldn't have imagined that my encounter with four super-eccentric boys would change my life so much. This is the story of the exciting cases that we, Detective Team KZ, solve.
• For a number of years now, the Pokemon movies have started with an opening narration explaining what Pokémon are and how they co-exist with humans, along with introducing us to Satoshi/Ash and pals.
• The first few Wandering Son episodes end and begin with monologues.
• The Urara Meirocho anime has this:
  Narrator: Sometimes, people lose their way to their fate, or the crossroads of life, as they wander through the maze of their everyday lives. In those times, a diviner can present you with an arrow pointing you to the right choice. The magical power that points the way is sometimes panacea, sometimes poison. To possess that power, one must be a girl who has passed her fifteenth birthday. The girls in this fortune-telling town are sometimes goddesses, sometimes witches—
  Cast in unison: Urara!
• Doraemon: The Disney XD opening has Doraemon explain that he helps Noby with his gadgets, but something always goes wrong.
• The anime of Komi Can't Communicate features one during the cold opens of each non-pilot episode:
  "Most people suffering from extreme social anxiety, or social-phobia, often struggle to communicate. Here's something to consider: they are only struggling. It doesn't mean they don't want to form long-lasting connections or friendships."
• Every episode of Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department opens with a short monologue, delivered (in the original Japanese) by a different voice actor each time:
  As long as good exists in this world, so, too, shall evil thrive. But behind this eternal clash of good and evil, there is another battle that goes unseen.^note Sub version
  As long as there is good in this world, evil shall ever persist to challenge it. But behind this eternal struggle, there's another battle that quietly rages on. ^note Dub version
• The original intro to Cap Revolution Bottleman explains what Bottleman is and how those in Bottleman duels specifically compete to be the Bottle King.
  Bottleman! A new entertainment that has revolutionized the world! In the virtual space, Drink World, people use Bottleman to do bottle battles with one another! All strong bottle fighters aim to be the Bottle King!

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