Since most of these evolutions involve major spoilers, this page is Spoilers Off.
The 2012
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime takes its title sequences very seriously, not just filling them with Easter eggs and cool visual effects, but updating them to reflect the plot.
In general
- The end credits for Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency features a slow-pan over a Mayincatec mural filling with blood while shots of the characters appear in the foreground. This mural is frequently updated as new characters are introduced and old characters fade away, either when they die or fade from relevancy in the current events or undergo a drastic change (like normal Dio becoming vampire Dio, or Stroheim becoming a cyborg). When the story switches from Phantom Blood to Battle Tendency, the mural changes from one part to another, the camera movements change (moving up instead of towards the left) and legacy characters fade into one another, with Jonathan "passing the torch" to grandson and the new hero Joseph, and Speedwagon changing from his younger to older appearances.
- Each Part will have at least one opening sequence (usually reserved for the last OP sequence of that Part) that has a unique "sound effect" version played in the final episode the OP is featured in, where sound effects are realistically depicted, like the "camera" whipping around and picking up "wind", crackling fire, gunshots, Hamon auras radiating energy, and so on. Kamikaze Douga, who originally animated the opening theme sequences, later parodied this in an opening for Pop Team Epic which they produced.
- Starting with Stardust Crusaders, each Part has an "endgame" version of the final opening of that Part, which showcases the Big Bad influencing the credits (sometimes extending that power to the theme song itself) with their Time Master powers.
Stardust Crusaders
- The original version of "JoJo Sono Chi no Kioku ~end of THE WORLD~" (the OP used for the second half of Part 3) showed Star Platinum punching a mirror followed by DIO appearing behind Jotaro. Starting with Episode 46, the ending of the OP sequence is changed, as DIO freezes time after Jotaro breaks the mirror and slowly walks behind him, with no sound except the echoes of his footsteps. Several other shots are modified in the final episode's version as well: the part of the credits that suddenly gets hit full of holes is modified to show The World's arms punching them, DIO is shown at the top of the stairs Polnareff is climbing, the shape that points at Joseph's neck is replaced with DIO's arm reaching for him to absorb his blood, and there are very brief additions ahead of and behind that of The World destroying the lines crossing over Kakyoin and Star Platinum punching away several of the pointed shapes (representing DIO's thrown knives) closing in on Jotaro.
Diamond is Unbreakable
- "Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town"
- The opening has this in play for the first few episodes: Josuke and Okuyasu are both shown posing with their respective Stands while Koichi is shown posing all alone. Once his Stand Echoes is revealed, it appears alongside Koichi, and appears later in the opening alongside Okuyasu's The Hand.
- The "Yukako Yamagishi Falls in Love" arc in the anime is accompanied by the use of the "EDM version" for the opening theme in the OP sequence for those two episodes.
- Following their introduction, Reimi and Arnold appear in the second Diamond is Unbreakable opening "chase" during the group photograph behind Jotaro.
- The end credits sequence updates itself with the introduction of new characters.
- "Great Days":
- Episode 27's debut version of the opening seemed to be unfinished, with minor animation errors, such as the shadow over the radio tower going the wrong direction, missing visual effects, Kira's appearance before the opening's end being reused animation from the end of Episode 25, and a stock reel of the protagonists' Stands fighting (said reel of the Stands were then used for the Bites The Dust version of the OP). The following episodes (and the Blu-Ray release of Episode 27) fixes these errors and replaced the Stand reel with a sequence of the Stands on the "JUSTICE" Sun.
- During the final arc, after Yoshikage Kira gains the power to create a time loop, the OP is shown in reverse and we hear the final chorus of Great Days. This effect manages to make a heroic and victorious opening into something more dire and hopeless. However, the scene where the heroes point to the sky to cast a light over Morioh still plays normally, indicating hope that they will stop Kira. The opening also ends on the heroes turning to face Kira instead of looking away, as Kira activates Bites The Dust again. There are other noticeable differences like Kira having his post-Bites the Dust appearance and Hayato looking determined instead of worried. Interestingly, this version reuses some animations from the original version, namely the shadow looming over the radio tower and the Stand reel.
- The penultimate episode's version of the opening plays normally, albeit with the inclusion of Kira's altered appearance, and the shot where the heroes turn to confront him as he activates Bites The Dust is placed at the start of the opening, signifying that the villain is about to be caught red-handed.
Golden Wind
- The second Golden Wind ending credits sequence consistently changes as the arc progresses. Like the slow-pans in the first season, this time the camera pans up along a pillar that gradually begins to depict every Stand featured in the season in the order in which they appear. When it was first used, there was a noticeable gap in the Stands featured in the pillar after all of the various enemies they had already fought before switching to the heroes' Stands battling the Final Boss's stand towards the top. As they fight more enemies, the pillar fills up with their Stands until the finale where a stone sphere that had been seen at the bottom of the pillar the entire time is revealed to be the Stand encountered in the flashback sequence set before the start of the season that the final two episodes covered and at the top is hero Giorno Giovanna's Stand in its final form.
- "Uragirimono no Requiem":
- Originally a portion of the animation showed drops of blood falling onto the ground in time lapse due to King Crimson's power. The endgame version shows this sequence from Diavolo's perspective as he monologues in Italian at a time-skipped Giorno as Diavolo's theme plays. Also, the opening initially shows Doppio going through a mind battle as he realizes something. Once it's revealed Doppio is Diavolo with another personality, the opening changes appropriately to show Doppio transforming into Diavolo.
- From the penultimate episode onward, the opening changes once again. This time, once Diavolo activates King Crimson to skip time, the effect of King Crimson is reverted to zero by the effect of Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem.
Stone Ocean
- The second batch of episodes for Part 6 includes an updated version of the "STONE OCEAN" sequence, where it replaces the scene of Jolyne resting her head against the prison bars in dismay with a scene of Jolyne hugging her father Jotaro from behind. In addition, the final shot featuring a butterfly escaping the Green Dolphin Street Prison is now changed to a similar shot where Savage Garden (the bird) flies out of the prison with Jotaro's Stand Disc in tow as Weather Report's poison-dart frogs rain down onto the prison. This version of the OP sequence is altered one final time in the final episode of the second batch, but this time, a vast majority of the credits are now embedded onto the backgrounds and are all presented in a much more stylized font.
- In the final episode of Part 6 we are given a finale version of the "heaven's falling down" OP sequence. The clouds obscuring the background in Weather Report's shot of the opening has now parted, showing off his sister Perla Pucci, as she throws herself off the cliff. The sons of DIO (excluding Giorno) who were shrouded in shadows in the regular version are now visible alongside Pucci. Jotaro Kujo now appears in the opening credits and activates his Stand to halt them...then Pucci appears and activates his evolved Stand, Made in Heaven, to reset the universe. The rest of the sequence is then changed to be a remake of the first season's OP sequence "Sono Chi No Sadame" (with an Autobots, Rock Out! version of "heaven's falling down" playing over it), which includes a different montage of manga panels (showcasing each preceding Joestar from Jonathan to Giorno) before showing Jolyne pulling off the same pose she had from the third manga panel shown in Part 1's OP, features Jolyne fighting Pucci at the Joestar Mansion, and ends with a glimpse at the new universe created upon Pucci's death at the end of the story.
