Credits Running Sequence

This running through space brought to you by Sunrise.

Kohaku: Oh right, it's time for the ending theme! Let's run!
Akiha: Huh? Why?
Kohaku: You didn't know? There's a jinx that says people run during the ED in good anime!

— Carnival Phantasm

In a lot of anime, a character (usually the protagonist) will show up in the opening or ending credits, running along while remaining on a fixed spot on-screen. The character could be running the whole time, or start out walking slowly and gradually pick up speed. The background is usually of the scrolling kind, but sometimes the character actually seems to run through a changing scenery. In any case, it's rare for characters to maintain a leisurely speed the whole time; usually, this has something to do with either the pace of the music, or the animators' need to keep opening and ending themes moving fast at all times.

Side-on running and walking cycles are often created by animators as a way to get a feel for the characters, and these cycles will no doubt be used at some point in the show, so this could count as a cross between Shown Their Work and Stock Footage.

This trope can occasionally overlap with Team Shot and Welcome Titles, when The Protagonist goes around —maybe running— greeting the cast during the Title Sequence.

---

Examples:

Anime

• The opening of Ace Attorney (2016) has Phoenix — and then Maya, Larry, and Gumshoe — running down an (eventually) sunflower path during the daytime (it rains at one point, though). Edgeworth, on the other hand, is walking a leisurely pace on a snowing beach at night.
• The ending of Active Raid has Liko doing this. This becomes creepy after the twist in episode 11, with the slightly unsettling Logos apple icon taking her place. Including the running (or bouncing).
• The last opening of Assassination Classroom had the three main students Nagisa, Kayano, and Karma running one appearing after another and Nagisa is shown again before the next segment. While the overall direction isn't shown, it is implied that they are running for their future after the semester ends. Bye Bye Yesterday indeed.
• Astro Boy, 1980s version: the closing sequence shows a succession of pictures of Astro in a flipbook-style animation sequence in which he starts walking, then running, then takes to the air and flies off the page.
• In Attack on Titan: Junior High, Eren and Mikasa are seen running during the end credits as animated blackboard drawings.
• In Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts, Yuuji and Akihisa are both running away from some angry girls at the end of episode 13 in Season 2. The rest of the cast gradually chases after them as well.
• Battle Athletes has this in the opening and ending credits, which is justified since it's about a group of top athletes.
• In the ending of Blue Drop this is done with the running silhouettes of Hagino and Mari.
• The second version of the second outro to Boruto is mostly a walk cycle that ends with Sarada meeting her parents at the end. It serves to show how Sarada has finally found peace and contrasts with the original hectic outro.
• Buso Renkin: The first scene to show Kazuki in the opening credits of the anime has him running up a hill with Ginsei City in the background, giving a good indication of his straightforward and energetic personality.
• Carnival Phantasm. Kohaku lampshade this in the special season's credit sequence.
• CLANNAD ~After Story~. The ending has the leisurely variety with the added effect that even if they are walking forwards the scenario and the scroll of the screen makes it seem that they are all Moonwalking.
• Comet Lucifer has shots of Sougo and Felia running against backgrounds that suit their personalities: Sougo runs against a background of red crystals, and Felia runs gleefully through an open field.
• Daily Lives of High School Boys' opening sequences featured a running sequence of the main trio—Tadakuni, Hidenori and Yoshitake.
• Dagashi Kashi has shots of Saya running from the front and back, but oddly not from the side as is the norm with this trope.
• In the opening Doki Doki School Hours Mika-sensei runs to school, meeting up with her students.
• Dog Days: the ending sequence is this but unlike most the camera moves faster than the mooks, dogs and Chocobo looking mount passing them one at a time.
• The first ending in the Dragon Ball Z anime has this with Gohan later joined by the other cast running towards the screen. Happened again in the second ending when the majority shows Teen Gohan walking then running and later joined by Goten and Trunks.
• The second-last ending of Dragon Ball Super ends with Goku running (and briefly flying on the nimbus) while the background shows various supporting characters and antagonists from Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Super that he has encountered so far.
• Eyeshield 21 justifies this, since the protagonist is a running back for American football.
• In the anime adaptation of Flying Witch there are a few groups of the characters shown like this in the opening, first in silhouette then fully.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • One anime's opening sequences has the "running the whole time" version.
  • Brotherhood's first ending has a short sequence of this near its end across stone alchemy-made pillars.
• Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu featured Super-Deformed versions of Sosuke and Chidori walking towards each other in the ending.
• Guilty Crown's ending has Inori walking in place as other characters move by.
• Haruhi Suzumiya:
  • The second opening theme of the anime for features all 5 main cast members running together towards, nothing in particular?
  • Also invoked with the Non-Indicative First Episode, where the intro to Haruhi's anime is basically just Mikuru running over and over again.
  • Spin-off Haruhi-chan includes running in both its opening and ending sequences.
• Hidamari Sketch's first season's opening has the four girls◊ running with images of art tools pass in the background for a portion of the opening, and season one's OAVs change up the order and add some weird stuff like an Afro◊.
• The opening of Higurashi: When They Cry has Rika doing this for part of it. Combined with a Futile Hand Reach at the end for bonus points.
• The third opening of Hikaru no Go has a slow paced version of this, with three different aged versions of Hikaru walking next to Sai.
• Hunter × Hunter:
  • The first ending of the 2011 anime has Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio running for a portion of it.
  • The opening of the 2003 Greed Island OVA features Gon and Killua running amid a backdrop of the arc's characters.
• Infinite Stratos's ending uses this as well as Evolving Credits; as each main character is introduced, it adds a new person into the running sequence.
• The ending of Jewelpet Twinkle☆ features the main characters alternating between running and walking.
• The ending for episode 12 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has Kaguya chasing after Shirogane in an attempt to clear up a misunderstanding. It takes them through most of the school and past most of the supporting cast (including Miko and Osaragi) before shifting to the standard running loop from a side perspective.
• Kamen no Maid Guy has Naeka and Fubuki running away from Kogarashi in the ending.
• The ending of the Kyoto Animation version of Kanon.
• Kiddy Grade and Kiddy GiRL-AND, with some Fanservice added for good measure.
• The opening for the second season of KonoSuba's anime adaptation parodies this trope: the main characters are seen happily running towards some unseen location... before they quickly get winded and have to stop to regain their breath (minus Darkness, who's in a much better physical shape than everyone else).
• Magical Witch Punie-chan: in the opening, which has Punie run past battlefields and scenes of extreme carnage.
• Mahoraba has the leisurely version.
• A variety occurs in the opening of the fourth season of Maria Watches Over Us, in which Yumi, Yoshino and Shimako run over the high school grounds by means of some sort of teleportation system.
• Mekakucity Actors: During the intro, there is a very brief shot of Takane Enomoto running with tears in her eyes, after which it cuts to Headphone Actor (Takane's game avatar) doing the same thing. These are both references to Takane's songs Yuukei Yesterday and Headphone Actor, respectively.
• There is a variation in Mitsudomoe, involving all three sisters and their whole class.
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam's ending features Fa Yuiri running on the spot with the starry space in the background. Both openings featured a sequence of Kamille walking away from the camera through space.
• Modern Magic Made Simple does this for the anime's ending credits, of the "start out slowly" variety.
• The ending of the first season of My Hero Academia shows Izuku Midoriya running, briefly tripping, regaining balance and continue running, symbolising his quest for becoming a hero, despite not having any powers and his determination to never give up.
  • The second ending of the sixth season shows a montage of everything that has happened since the beginning and Midoriya is seen running, first as a skinny teenager and later as a muscular hero in front of a slideshow of all the important events that has happened.
• In My-Otome, Arika has one in the closing credits.
• My Wife is the Student Council President has a novel variation where the ending depicts Ui running through a side-scrolling Platform Game level. Each episode's ending picks up where the previous one left off.
• No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! does this, with a few exceptions.
• A lot of the One Piece openings.
• In Oreimo, Kirino has a running sequence during the opening title.
• The second opening for Osomatsu-san has the Matsuno brothers (and eventually many other characters) running down a rainbow/trippy road nearly the entire time.
• Hachimaki does this at he beginning of the intro for Planetes. It starts off as a slow, slack-armed jog, but at the end of he intro he's running a full on sprint, stumbling briefly before picking up his pace again.
• In Pokémon: The Series, the 5th ending, "Type: Wild", has a variation where Ash and Pikachu are shown running towards the screen, while their shadows are running sideways. Both animations are synchro, so, for example, when Ash trips during his running at one point, so does his shadow.
• PriPara's first ending of the third season, "PriPara Dancing!!", is accompanied by an animation of chibi versions of SoLaMi Dressing marching.
• The ending (when it was actually shown; some episodes simply played the credits as the plot continued behind them) of Puella Magi Madoka Magica has Madoka doing this against a rather... disturbing background.
  • She also does this with a Girly Run in the opening.
• Ramen Fighter Miki: in the opening.
• Ranma ½:
  • The first opening does this with multiple characters (making it a Spoiler Opening for some that have yet to appear at this point). It starts with Akane running alone, then adds Ranma, then each subsequent cut adds more characters until the screen is filled with them.
  • The second opening has a brief action-oriented sequence where female Ranma is running through a succession of images of recurring rivals.
  • The third opening starts up with male Ranma dashing out of the Tendo home, and then running for school.
  • The fourth opening has Ranma running in total panic from the lines of wet paint representing his enemies and fiancees. His running animation slows down to a near-standstill when the lines manage to cling to him, which makes him speed up to run twice as fast.
  • The seventh ending likewise has a variant at the beginning of a paper flip animation of Ranma slowly running until it becomes fully animated.
• The Sacred Blacksmith has Lisa running, and repeatedly tripping and falling down in beat with the ending theme (which is performed by Lisa's VA Aki Toyosaki).
• The ending theme to Sailor Moon R, "Otome no Policy" (A maiden's policy) is like this, with Usagi walking through most of it, stopping for a bit, and then running at the end.
  • Usagi also does some running in the openings used for the first half of season one, the first half of season two, and the second half of season two.
• Saint Seiya:
  • The first opening starts off with the entire roster of Bronze Saints running towards the viewer in an offensive line, a huge effigy of the Pegasus Cloth bursting open in the background, with an awesome guitar solo blasting away.
  • The second opening (and its third season variant) starts with the main five Bronzes doing an Airplane Arms run towards the viewer in their new and improved Cloths, before turning into rays of light.
• The 2nd ending of School Rumble season 2 showed Tenma running after Karasuma while Harima was running after her.
• Squid Girl season 2's ending credits have Ika walking on the beach (while the first season was static with her watching the ocean) there will be some event from the episode that makes its appearance in the sequence.
• The third closing sequence for Sonic X, "T.O.P." has a digital version of Sonic running on a loop.
• The second closing credits of the Soul Eater anime starts with Maka walking, but when the chorus kicks in, she starts jogging.
• The ending credits of Sound of the Sky has Kanata run with her bugle.
• Happens in the opening of Star Driver. Takuto spends most of the opening walking across the island then slowly building up to a run.
• Student Council's Discretion's ending sequence has the cast running in Super-Deformed mode to a theme song, "Mosou Fetish" (Fantasy Fetish). The fans never had a chance.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's ending themes depicts Simon walking from the bottom of the screen. Following the Time Skip, it features his older self walking forward in the credits.
• Hibiki from Vandread is shown running to the left in the end credits sequence, occasionally stopping and getting nosebleeds from the scantily-clad female characters.
• Nitori from Wandering Son is depicted in the outro as walking in various stages. At first it's formal and rigid before becoming increasing casual and almost skipping.
• The ending credits of Wolf's Rain show the main protagonist Kiba running through the snow in slow motion in his true wolf form. The background varies from episode to episode.
• Xabungle's closing credits feature protagonist Jiron Amos running as portraits of the core cast scroll across the screen...Until he trips.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • A variation in Yu-Gi-Oh!'s 5th ending "Eye's" shows Pharaoh Atem on his horse galloping while transparent fore shots of the characters appear.
  • The sequel's (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX) 2nd ending credits "Wake Up Your Heart". It ends with The Hero jumping and behind him is a collective pic of various key cards he used on the second half of the first season.
• Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead: The first opening features Akira running from a horde of zombies that are just about to catch up to him when it cuts to the title screen.

Fan Works

• Featured in this Rhythm Heaven fan video, a hypothetical intro for an anime adaptation of Rhythm Tengoku.
• Touhou Project Fan Vid example with the end credits of Touhou Kinema Kan ~ 2nd Curtain, which features Reimu running in place as pictures of the various characters of the Windows games scroll up in mostly reverse chronological order along with the credits.

Live-Action TV

• A rare Live-Action example occurs briefly in the opening credits of Disney Channel's Best Friends Whenever.
• For the 2005 general election, the BBC politics programme "This Week" had special edition credits parodying Peter Kay's video of "Is This The Way To Amarillo?". Andrew Neil, the host, is therefore seen jogging towards the camera throughout the credits.

Video Games

• In A Hat in Time, the credits sequence shows Hat Kid running through all the places she visited along with the people she met.
• A rare Western example is Jak 3, which shows most of the cast walking when they appear, including main protagonist Jak.
• Joe & Mac series examples:
  • Caveman Ninja's ending credits sequence shows Joe and Mac running in terror from a group of Nubile Savages.
  • Joe & Mac Returns shows Joe and Mac racing each other Wheel o' Feet style as the credits fall.
• Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] has a variant with (an adult) Sora diving in the second stage of the Creative Closing Credits. The player even controls him during this stage, and can unlock a secret message by grabbing all the highlighted letters.
• The Pokémon video game series has done this multiple times for its ending credits since its third generation (though sometimes the characters ride bicycles instead of running).
• The VS mode ending sequence of Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon depicts Yoshi/Lip running on a rainbow bridge.
• Star Fox 64 has a Team Shot running sequence starting after the Starfox team returns to Corneria being invited to join the regular army. Near the end of said sequence shows the Great Fox carrier in the background take off, with a cut to the Great Fox being escorted by the four fighters.
• Wild ARMs 5 characters Dean, Rebecca, Avril and Volsung (younger versions of them, anyway) run during the game's ending credits.
• The intro cinematic for The World Ends with You is mostly Neku running.
• The enemy and boss roll-call sequences in Mega Man X and Mega Man X3 show X running down a highway (in Mega Man X2, he drives a Ride Chaser instead). In X3, Zero joins him if he wasn't "dead" at the end of the game.
• Mega Man ZX has Vent or Aile running down a highway.
• Illusion of Gaia intercuts the credits with various scenes from the story, often animated as Will, Kara, and other characters running to the left over a background.

Web Animation

• Parodied in Girl-chan in Paradise, where about half the opening is the same animation of Kenstar and Yusuke running towards the camera, occasionally getting zoomed in or flipped around. The closing credits have Kenstar's silhouette running on one side, while close-ups of the cast pan out on the other, to a melancholy twang.
• Spooky Month: The credits for "The Stars" have Skid and Pump running on a hill as the credits scroll beside them.

Western Animation

• Miraculous Ladybug: The end of the Season 1 opening credits has the two heroes running, with the Kwamis flying around.
• South Park: Parodied in the credit sequence for Princess Kenny.
• The first opening to Steven Universe has a sequence mid-way where the Crystal Gems run like this. The extended opening has a similar scene.
• The Venture Brothers have Hank and Dean in silhouette running (in distinctively awkward runs) in the opening titles. Variations have alternate characters in their place, like Dr. V and Jonas Jr. in the Season 2 opener, implying Hank and Dean were dead for good.
• The end credits in every episode of T.O.T.S. depict the characters running on the top of the screen

---