Couch Gag / Anime & Manga

• Any anime subbed by Dattebayo Fansubs frequently has a wry comment at the end of the opening credits. This can range from an in-joke between the Dattebayo production team, to something like "Attempting to unlock bankai in three days can be hazardous to your health."
• Aho Girl: The opening credits feature a gag and ends with a close-up of someone's reaction to the gag; the gag and the person varies with each episode, seen here.
• Beastars: The first season's closing credits are a theatre performance centered on Legosi, which varies in ending song and visuals depending on the mood of the episode.
• Bleach:
  • While not exactly a gag, one of the end credits sequences for the second season focuses on a different one of the 13 squads for each episode.
    • The final opening has Ichigo's outfits change throughout the arc to reflect how his abilities change in the Fullbring Arc.
  • The fourth opening, "Tonight Tonight Tonight" features a different pic of a character near the end of the song. It was cut out in the U.S. broadcast only keeping the first one.
• Carnival Phantasm: At the end of each episode there is a skit in the Tiger Dojo with Taiga and Illya.
• The the openings and endings of Case Closed in the original Japanese version included clips from the episode.
• Cat Planet Cuties typically starts each episode with an Opening Narration before the opening credits start, acting as a parody of classic television like Star Trek or Bewitched.
• Every chapter of Crimsons starts with a water flea (Daphnia) monologuing about life, the universe and everything and is quickly interrupted by being eaten by a fish.
• In Dropkick on My Devil, the third season's opening features Jashin and Yurine watching something different each time on their TV right before the latter pulls a chainsaw to kill the former.
• Durarara!! does this as well, essentially "slipping in" a few seconds of new footage in between a section of the Openings; only carrying over the music until it returned to the stock footage. Used very effectively.
• Played more seriously in Eureka Seven: the way Renton and/or Eureka say "To be continued" ("Tsuzuku" in Japanese) reflects the state of things at the end of the episode. At first, Renton is the only one who says it, Eureka joining in about half way through the series to symbolize their relationship moving forward.
• I, Koshi Rikdo hereby give my permission to include a couch gag featuring me at the start of every episode of the Excel♡Saga anime.
• In The Familiar of Zero anime, the third season's ending credits start with Louise chasing a rabbit, and at the end the rabbit turns out to be a girl wearing rabbit costume after she removes the rabbit head. And in each episode, she was a different girl who is relevant to the episode.
• The ending credits to Genshiken show the club members watching an episode of Kujibiki Unbalance in the club room in the immediate aftermath of the episode, featuring some sort of visual reference to the events of the episode.
• The Gintama anime, having run for over 200 episodes, has had several cases of this:
  • Episode 48 has the opening credits fast-forward with an apology from the staff.
  • In Episode 67, Gintoki's bike spins out of control instead of riding into the sunset as usual,seen here.
  • Episode 55 has a Mother's Day greeting. In Japan Mother's Day falls on Sunday in the second week of May, the week this episode aired.
  • Episode 90 features an intro based on the in-universe manga Gintaman, seen here.
  • Episode 97 features an intro based on Lupin III Green Jacket show, seen here.
  • Episode 112 replaces the usual anime with Katsuratama.
  • Episode 138 has the previous version of the Yorozuya in the opening credits.
  • Episodes 151-154 features a brief preview of the soap opera/drama Kin Tama, which portrays the Gintama cast in dramatic situations.
  • Episode 171 features a new intro with the Yorozuya sporting wigs, because they went bald in that episode, seen here.
  • Episode 183 starts off as a parody of Fist of the North Star, with Shinpachi as Kenshiro, seen hr. But Shinpachi protests, and the opening credits warp to being the normal version, but done in Microsoft Paint format, seen here.
  • Episode 224's opening continues as usual until the very end, at which point Gintoki fails to balance his bike properly as he usually does in the intro and instead falls flat on his face. The next 30 seconds feature the aftermath of the crash, during which the main trio comment on how they were bound to mess up after doing the same thing 23 times in a row.It can be seen here.
  • Episode 227 features a Sket Dance crossover, features the Sket Dance group in the opening/closing sequences.
  • Episode 240 has Hasegawa join Gintoki's harem in the opening credits.
  • Episodes 244-247, which feature the debut of Tetsunosuke Sasaki, have him rapping at the beginning.
  • Episode 282 features the characters dressed up in Saint Seiya gear, seen here.
  • During the Tama Quest arc, Tama was replaced in the credits by a pixelized version of herself.
  • During the Kintama arc, Kintoki replaces Gintoki with himself in the opening credits, seen here.
    • The finale of that arc features a new show, Mantama, seen here.
  • During the Dekkobokko arc, the closing credits feature the characters in their gender-swapped versions.
• The ending theme for Girls und Panzer always — except for the first episode and the OVA "Ankou War!" — follows the same template: after a few seconds of sun, a close-up of the front of a tank's side as it moves forward toward the left of the screen; then a shot of it moving along a path, pointing diagonally with respect to the screen, and with its operators in super-deformed form sticking out of the tank; then a side view of same, then a front view of same, then the show logo in the grass. The differences are in which tank and who the operators are. Understandably, the Anglerfish Team's Panzer IV shows up a few different episodes, always reflecting its current setup: when Saori changes to communications, she starts wearing a headset in the ending theme; when the IV gets a barrel upgrade, that shows up, too; when it gets its Schürzen skirts, those, too, are shown.
• In the anime adaptation of Girlish Number, something different happens to one of the cast in the title sequence. For example, in the third episode a pan falls on Chitose's head.
• The preview for the next episode of Gourmet Girl Graffiti always does things that took place within that episode.
  • In episode 1, Kirin and Ryou simply sing the tune and spin in conjunction with it.
  • In episode 2, Shiina, who was introduced in the episode, joins the two girls.
  • During episode 3, the character from the movie the girls watched in the episode spins around with food on his head and hands. Ryou watches in suspense to see if he drops the plates.
  • In episode 4, the shopkeeper in that episode notices a young Ryou unable to choose between two items. He then does a little hand movement to distract her.
  • In episode 5, Shiina's mother dances to the song. Shiina then draws her mother, who then goes over to look at her drawing.
  • In episode 6, Kirin sings and dances like in episode 1, though in a towel, while a nervous Ryou hides just offscreen. Kirin pulls out a popsicle to draw her out, but Ryou's towel comes off just as she jumps for it. Kirin then jumps in front to block viewers from seeing Ryou naked.
  • During episode 7, Kirin and Shiina do the singing/dancing, while Tsuyuko stands in the middle. She pulls a fan out and spins with the girls right before it ends, with Shiina's mother popping out at the last second to record it.
  • In episode 8, Kirin and Ryou are running, and attempt to spin during that section of the song. Ryou however, is unable to keep up, and gradually falls behind, but still attempts to do the spin during the appropriate time. However, due to her exhaustion, she's off by a second.
  • In episode 9, Akira, Ryou's aunt, and Kirin's mother take over the dancing portion. Kirin and Ryou just watch them until the very end, when they join in on the spin as well.
  • In episode 10, it starts with Kirin and Ryou as back in the first episode, but then the camera starts panning lower, as if to go into Yuki's apartment which is below Ryou's. Yuki watches them, and attempts to dance, but is too shy to do much. Kirin then pops her head down, and both she and Ryou jump down and spin her briefly towards the ending of the preview.
  • In episode 11, Kirin, Ryou, Shiina, and Yuki all sing and dance together. Shiina starts dancing a brief moment after Ryou and Kirin, while Yuki starts shortly after Shiina does. Despite that they spin in unison during the appropriate sections of the song.
• Though not exactly a joke, the endings to Hetalia: Axis Powers have variations of this. During the second season, the ending song was sung by the character that was the focus of that episode. During the third season, a certain potion of the credits changes to depict either the Allies or Axis Powers standing around a tree, and then focuses in one one of the characters' faces.
• Hidamari Sketch x365's opening has several: Miyako eating a different dish in each episode, the scroll on the wall behind her changing, the message Hiro writes on the paper airplane changing, and Yuno's attempt at a group picture getting messed up in different ways.
• Kemono Michi: One/Some of the main cast looks at the screen (generally in their debut episodes) at the end of the opening credits, whoever it is depends on who is the main focus of the episode.
• Appropriately, each episode of the Kujibiki♡Unbalance TV series ended with a pan across an illustration of the Rikkyoin school campus, also with a visual reference to the events of the episode.
• Makura no Danshi: Whoever is the focus of the episode is shown sleeping behind a large group of Counting Sheep during the opening.
• Every episode of the first half of Lucky Star ends with the characters doing karaoke versions of various anime theme songs (different each episode). They're always arguing at the same time. The second half of the series has Minoru Shiraishi (the actor, in live-action) singing other random old theme songs a capella. The last one, though...
• The last scene of Omamori Himari's opening changes from episode to episode. When Rinko goes up to Yuuto's room, she always finds him in bed with one (or more) members of his harem in a compromising position. Megaton Punch ensues.
• One-Punch Man: The second season's opening utilizes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-style gag in the form of a single drawing of a different character, always rendered Super-Deformed.
• At the end of Please Tell Me! Galko-chan's opening segment there are some introduction about the main trio, which is different for each episode. This comes from the manga, where the character bios for the characters are different for each chapter and are customized for each chapter's content.
• Pretty Cure:
  • While not an opening, Smile Pretty Cure! has a different eyecatch each episode.
  • At least for its first 33 episodes HappinessCharge Pretty Cure! will have cameos of each of the previous Pretty Cure heroines up to that point congratulating the franchise for hitting 10 years. Fittingly, Black was the first and White was the last.
• The Queen's Blade second season closing credits play a musical number featuring one of the Swap Witch Trio (Menace, Airi, Melona), changing each episode.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei has these in the middle of the openings without animation: Series One has large blocks of text, while Series Two has fanart.
• In season 5 of Sgt. Frog, each of the episodes using the thirteenth ending theme, "Bokura no Aikotoba", used different art over the end credits (though all were overlaid with the same animation of the Keroro Platoon clapping along to the music).
• Shomin Sample: Each heroine periodically gets a cover of her raising her skirt.
• The ending theme of Squid Girl's first season is nearly always set at the beach at night, usually with Squid Girl looking out over the sea, and even the exception ends that way. But then, there's always something referring to one of the mini-episodes, such as fireworks, or the oversized Squid girl head, or the mini-Squid Girls walking by.
  • The second season does this, too. Except the various stuff happens as Squid Girl walks down the beach.
• Every episode of Sister Princess ended with Yamada alone in his apartment watching something on television — usually the fictional Humongous Mecha show Garban — which had a comment relevant to the episode's action.
• The second opening to Tamagotchi has a few things that change:
  • Which characters sing the song. This might also affect the lyrics.
  • A character gives a speech after the first chorus.
  • Another character gives a speech at the "Lucky, lucky, tamatomo ga iru!" part.
• Trigun had scenes from the episode in its opening credits. The initial American DVD release left this out, apparently because the US licensor didn't want to create different English credits for each episode.
• One opening animation of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX had a pattern of introducing a duelist followed by several short clips of their past duels. During the introduction their deck is shown in the background with more cards becoming face up as they are newly used. But after Edo Phoenix's introduction, instead of his duels, a short preview of the duel in this episode is shown instead.
• For a time, part of the credits of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds played over a still image of Yusei holding a card. The card itself was always prominently featured in the episode.
• Tsukiga Kirei: A conversation through the messaging service Line takes place in the closing credits, between Kotaro and Akane. Each episode features a different conversation, referring to events in their future relationship.
• Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?: The start and end of the opening credits and the full ending credits change to showcase the "main" teacher of the current arc which includes a "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune ending done by said main teacher.

---