Opening and End Credits in Anime

[jagarus]

When I encode Anime Episodes, should I leave the opening and end credites on each episode, take them out altogether, or take them out and make two separate files?

I can really make the quality of the episodes go up if I take them out. What do you think?

[khp]

None of the above ...

In my opinion, the best way to deal with beginning and end credits, is to encode them at a low quality level. And reattach them to the main part of the movie/episode. I know you asked about anime episodes, but the same problem applies to movies.

For the endcredits, the easiest way to do this is to use GordianKnot, which automatically recalculates the bitrate, and reattaches the endcredits.

Of course I would only do this, in cases where, except for the credits, the screen is blank. which means that this often isn't relevant for the beginning credits.

[jagarus]

MY question is, are the opening and end credits REQUIRED in ANIME episodes?

[MrSnail]

I would have thought that's up to you.

[Enchanter]

In my opinion, you should include the opening and ending in the first and last episode of the series. It is important that viewers see the opening, as it is often the very thing that buys them into the show (It applies to me). Anime fansubbers, though, ALWAYS include the opening and ending for each episode. That is reasonable, since many series can have different styles of ending and, at times, a new opening.

And also, it is not a good idea to encode the opening and ending at low-quality, because unlike the movies in cinemas where the end credits are just credits (Take exception Jackie Chan's movies), the anime ending often includes full-motion animation as well. If you were to use low bitrate, that would look horrible. The anime opening has a lot of high-motion scenes and is a challenge to encode for many fansubbers.

When you are including the opening and ending, you will need to use a lower bitrate, in order to keep the same filesize as the others without. This may result in a video that suffers from macro-blocks and picture warming. What you can do is apply a smoother to the picture and use a lower resolution. It will help, though not by much IMO.