Is this for animation only?: R Rated Opening

The trope description makes this sound like a trope exclusive to animation, as a means of warning the audience "No, this is not for kids just because it's a cartoon".

The examples include various other media and seem to interpret the trope as "opening that sets a dark tone for a work".

Something doesn't match up here.

I agree that the trope in question does not need to be animation only. I think that What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids? and Animation Age Ghetto cover most of the first paragraph of R-Rated Opening anyway, but I could be wrong.

edited 2nd May '11 9:51:04 PM by LouieW

Should there be R-Rated Movies on this list or is the trope for works that establish themselves as R-Rated quickly?

I notice also that the trope image, Pirates Of The Caribbean, is both not animated and not R-rated.

We have an awful lot of trope descriptions like this, ones written with the implicit or explicit assumption that they only occur in one particular genre or medium or culture. (The "Japan-centric" descriptions seem to be the most numerous.) Seems like a rewrite of some sort is in order.

That'd be my fault, I didn't check the rating on the Pirates movie and just assumed it was higher than the last one. It was a real curve ball opening (and the movie is a bit darker than the last one) so I thought it would make a good pic.

Should we pull it?

edited 5th Jun '11 9:29:21 AM by Earnest

The trope lists a lot of films that arn't either R-rated or animation. Just seems to mean a dark intro to show the film is NOT all sweetness and light.

I always thought this kind of opening was used to shock the audience, so that if it's something with content they don't want to watch, they'll know it at first glance and not have to find out the hard way.

Cannibal The Musical is a good example of a non-animated R-Rated Opening. "Oh! It's a musical! Musicals are for the whole family, right?" Opening scene starts and cue the Gorn. But it's not just establishing the tone of the work—that's the most gruesome scene in the film.

edited 5th Jun '11 11:36:00 AM by troacctid

The description now contains a paragraph mentioning it's not limited to animation. Is this acceptable or is there more work to be done?

@Suedenim: It doesn't need to be literally R Rated; the trope is just that the work has a dark opening to establish that "This isn't for kids" early on.

I think the actual restriction is that it should serve as a preventive measure against What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?. If there's no risk of people thinking it's a kids' thing, it shouldn't count.

I agree. It should be for animated or otherwise kiddish-looking stuff so that misguided parents and their kids have a chance to escape the theatre really early on.

I think the Pirates Of The Caribbean image is approprite because it WAS released as a Disney film and not under their Touchstone label, therefore lumped with their animated and kid-friendly fare. On the other hand, the film was not R-Rated, not even close. IF it was straddling the fence between being PG-13 and R I'd say it was fine, but the movie doesn't really get THAT adult.

EDIT: @Suedenim - The reason there are so many Anime/Manga entries is that it's pretty easy for an R-rated anime to be picked out by a parent and have it open with a guy getting cut in half or something. There's generally more imported anime that is both violent/sexual and easy to mistake for being 4Kids.

edited 18th Oct '11 10:26:04 PM by Gillespie

Lost track of this one. Is there a consensus, and if so, what is it?

I think it should apply to all media.

If that makes sense

Consensus seems to be to expand definition to apply to all media. We should probably get more input before changing anything, though.

+1 for "apply to all media."

edited 23rd Nov '11 4:42:52 PM by INUH

...with the caveat that it has to be a work that (for whatever reason) might otherwise suffer from What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?, sure.

Is that caveat really needed? If we're going with the "work has very dark Series Establishing Moment" definition, I'm not certain if the "kids" part is really necessary.

Flipped the order of the paragraphs to make it more clear it's for all media, just that it's particularly common for animation.

^^As written, the point of the trope is "the work starts off by making sure the audience knows it's not for children or the squeamish."

This thread has been dead for a while. Do people feel that the description has been changed enough, or is more needed?

I don't see a problem with the current description.

Added a laconic.

edited 10th Feb '12 6:29:34 PM by troacctid

yes, this can be closed