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Since episode 279, the _One Piece_ anime doesn't have ending songs. Instead,
it has long openings: almost 3 minutes, instead of the usual 1:30 openings.

What was the reason for this change?


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2012-12-12T09:06:51.410
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one-piece theme-song
Why did the anime stop having ending songs since episode 279?


There could be lots of reasons they did that, the most logical being that it
was a production decision, they'll rather pay royalties or have one song made
than two, less time and money spent on one 3 min song than two shorter ones.


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2012-12-12T10:06:40.277
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I don't think any official explanations were given (I tried to search but
there are only speculations).

I think the most probable reason is the fact that when you're watching
broadcasts on TV, as soon as the ending theme song pops up you change to
another channel. Almost nobody watches the ending credits/openings and this is
true also for other things. Think about when you go to the movies: when the
credits starts rolling, is there someone that will stay sit there? Maybe, but
that's quite rare. Same for movies on TV, you usually change it because... you
really don't care, unless you need to look up some actor/character in those
rare occasions.

For this reason, and I'm quite convinced this is the case, they cut the ending
theme song, made the opening longer and put the credits there instead. More
people are likely to watch it, not just those that like the song, but also
once you get to the channel, you're less likely to change it _just because_ it
hasn't started yet.

Along with the recap, this makes the "opening part" much longer, even cutting
from the usual ~24 minutes of actual episode time.


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2012-12-12T10:21:35.327
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answer


They simply wanted to change things up because _One Piece_ had been on the air
for so long. The theme songs are meant to be catchy little jingles by famous
artists in Japan. _One Piece_ had basically surpassed a whole generation of
people, so there is really no need for two anymore.

They need a longer opening sequence to either re-familiarize long term viewers
or new ones who hadn't seen the first 500 episodes. _One Piece_ started
simulcasting around "Thriller Bark" arc, as mentioned most people don't sit
around to watch. Maybe if it was on actual Japanese TV where there's another
show they want to watch next, but not with simulcasting.

And finally, there had been too much filler, so they tested out a huge
anniversary opening before making this change. During this anniversary event,
they remade the classic "We Are" song, animated all the cover stories. This
marked the beginning of the change and there hasn't been an ED since. The way
opening and ending credits are handled is also 100% artistic.

Take _Supernatural_ for instance, whose opening credits basically consist of
what happened so far mixed with music in a huge montage of previous episodes
then throwing you right into the action, or sleepy hollow whose opening
credits don't happen until 15 minutes into the episode.

The whole thing is practicality and art. There's no actual rules that say this
is how OP and ED should go. As long as the actors are credited, that's all
that matters.

I suggest you look up some different shows and see how OP and ED are handled,
like some different ones.

You'd be surprised how versatile it all is, especially in other countries
(such as Korean dramas, which don't technically have OP and ED as far as i can
tell)


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answer


**It's to increase ads revenue** and reduce production cost at the same time.

Historically, this happened _at the same time_ when the timeslot for _One
Piece_ on Fuji TV was moved from Sunday 19:00 JST (Golden Time, the Japanese
equivalent to [prime time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_time#Japan)) to
Sunday 9:30 JST (Local Sales Time -- timeslot for procuring program sponsors
at each broadcast stations [[Japanese
Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AB%E6%9E%A0)])
on October 2006. The reason for moving the timeslot was said due to the
removal of anime timeslot during Golden Time and replaced by variety shows
instead (in-effect until now).

It also went into some structural changes:

  * **Before episode 279** : OP (1:50) - sponsor (10s) - CM - A part - CM - B part - ED (1:10) - preview (30s) - sponsor (10s). Total time beside main content and CM = 3:50 minutes
  * **Episode 279-283 (morning timeslot, no ED)** : OP (1:50) - sponsor (10s) - CM - A part - CM - sponsor (10s) - B part - _Mugiwara Gekijou_ (extra from manga, 2:45-4:25) - preview (30s) - end card (5s). Total time beside main content and CM = 2:45 + extra = 5:30++ minutes
  * **Episode 284-now** : OP (2:30) - sponsor (10s) - CM - A part - CM - sponsor (10s) - B part - preview (30s) - end card (5s). Total time beside main content and CM = 3:25 minutes

However, since the duration of the main content (A & B part) didn't change,
the remaining time was added for CM. Also, since the ED removal, the main part
starts around 9:35:40, so there were around 3:10 minutes of CM (minus the OP)
before the viewers can enjoy the story. It's also said that the CM between A &
B part was also lengthened to more than 3 minutes.

The reason why the duration of the CM was increased was said that it's harder
to receive sponsorship on morning timeslot compared to Golden Time (less
viewer → fewer ads revenue)

* * *

Source:

  * [Japanese Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ONE_PIECE_\(%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1\)#%E6%94%BE%E9%80%81%E6%9E%A0)
  * Yahoo! Chiebukuro (Japanese): [1](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1056305710), [2](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1069010995), [3](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1074398245), [4](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q10117589510)


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