Just another wholesome
Disney mov—
what?!An early scene consisting of mature content used for works of fiction to let the audience know right off the bat that no,
this ain't for kids. The
R-Rated Opening is primarily for dealing with potential
Public Medium Ignorance about genres that are not all filled with family-friendly material, or involve mature "twists" on iconic family-friendly genres/themes such as a
Super Hero film from
The Dark Age of Comic Books, that's based on a
Darker and Edgier Deconstruction of your typical
cape. Having someone
get shot,
die, or even just
bleed on screen will very clearly let audiences know to expect things to get much, much more serious and give fair warning for any parent who didn't pay attention to the
R-rating but saw "cartoony people" in the movie trailer and thought they were taking their kids into some light-hearted fare.
Animated works trying to break out of the
Animation Age Ghetto are a popular source for these. An
R-Rated Opening can set the mood early by openly
subverting standard conventions about the "heavy" material being well into the work and set the tone for the mature territory right where it should be. It can be combined with
Mood Whiplash by starting out with a clichéd light-hearted scene the audience has seen a million times from the genre and completely dismembering it figuratively and literally.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- Tokyo getting destroyed nuclear-style in the opening shot, and then the dogs and the spy getting killed in AKIRA. The spy's death was especially bloody, just to drive home the point that, no, even though it's animated, this is not for kids.
- This trope was cruelly averted by Barefoot Gen, which starts out pretty normal until the bomb hits. However, that could be also an attempt to get the audience to feel the same way the characters do, as the bomb was unexpected by them as well.
- The opening of Karin has a large amount of nudity that has nothing to do with what actually happens in the anime.
- The three thugs getting killed by Guts in the bar scene from Berserk, including one getting slashed in half with his BFS.
- The manga manages to take its opening Up to Eleven and has Guts, in a totally superfluous non-sequitur, sexing up and killing a female demon just to establish himself as a stone-cold Badass, which the aforementioned bar scene does aptly, without flying in the face of his later characterization.
- Lucy's rampage through the lab in Elfen Lied definitely qualifies, with bonus points for taking off her straitjacket so she could be completely naked for her killing spree, except for the creepy helmet.
- Not to mention the nudity throughout the opening theme sequence in each episode.
- The 2003 anime adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist starts off by showing
uDes Spankingsweetbaremaids Da Track MzAzOTo1OjE0 Spanking Sweet Bare Maids R-Rated Opening - Television Tropes & Idioms x y Spanking Sweet Bare Maids Maids Spanking Sweet Bare Maids 1336052206796_R
eDes Spankingsweetbaremaids Da Track MzAzOTo1OjE0 Spanking Sweet Bare Maids R-Rated Opening - Television Tropes & Idioms k b Spanking Sweet Bare Maids Spanking Sweet Bare Maids
search Spankingsweetbaremaids p Track nsearch MzAzOTo1OjE0 p MzAzOTo1OjE0 n Des insearchs Des e Des t
aemspankingi MzAzOTo1OjE0 s
gssearcha Track csearchw1336573972234_Re Track b Spankingsweetbaremaids rsearchmaid
Spankingsweetbaremaids searchesearch 
Track espankingrc1336195795755_Ressearchasearchc Des ssearchasearchch
MzAzOTo1OjE0 spanking Spankingsweetbaremaids 
