Italian anime openings are probably the most underrated key aspect of Italian culture. Even people who study Italian language and culture at university don’t know anything about Italian anime openings. How do I explain to foreigners that very few things bring Italians together: food, the World Cup and Italian anime openings.
This probably needs a better explanation: Italy is the Western country with the highest distribution of Japanese anime series, which have shaped the childhood of Italians since the 1970s. Italian anime openings are unique because they’re actually original songs purposefully composed for each anime that ever aired on television, and they used to be sung by the same two singers every single time. Sometimes they do concerts where they sing Italian anime openings, and you can find plenty of grown ass people who still remember the lyrics after all this time.
I’mma re-reblog this for an addendum: thanks to this proliferation of (sometimes ancient*) animes, lots of Italian have a oddly specific knowledge of little known (even in Japan) anime. Ask somebody in Japan about Ai Shite Knight; ask an Italian about Kiss Me Licia. Fettine panate.
While in the USA anime got suddendly popular in the 90s with Sailor Moon and Dragonball, we already were a nation of weebs. Oh, obviously Dragonball and Sailor Moon were really really popular also here (is Dragonball still airing?), but we were already masters in the art of the “cartoni giapponesi”. And we also imported American (and French, and…) animation, because we liked eveything.
Fact is, anime in Italy was a cheap investment, and for kids. As they were for kids, they were all dubbed, since the 70s (the sub scene will come much later). And you can’t have a dubbed anime without a nice freshly made Italian exclusive opening! And that’s when the craft of the opening was born. Most will remember Cristina D’Avena and Giorgio Vanni (because for a time they were the only ones still working); the ones with access to regional channels will probably add I Cavalieri del Re and Le Mele Verdi; the oldest… well, I really hope they’d say the Oliver Onions, because they were the best.
With the death of many regional channels, the dearth of anime on the more popular national channels, and the end of an era of taking risks on many inexpensive but odd cartoons, I think this culture around Italian openings is coming to a close. Too bad.
Also, we still don’t know who wrote and sang Urusei Yatsura’s opening. One of the greatest mysteries of all time.
* Ancient = when I was 7 years old in the ‘90s I watched an anime where the Beatles were still together.
I can 100% vouch for this, I was a kid in the 80′s and some of the anime I watched was from the 60′s (like Kimba The White Lion by Tezuka).
Also excuse me but if we’re going to bring up Oliver Onions we cannot overlook this masterpiece
(I cannot stand Giorgio Vanni either but I also think it’s because I was already too old to absorb his openings uncritically when he started working. This said, the old openings from non-Fininvest anime were generally better imo, they had more oomph, possibly with the exception of some VERY early Cristina D’Avena like Nanà Supergirl or Creamy Mami)
Fun fact: The music for the German opening for Attack No.1 was the Italian opening for Mila e Shiro (Attacker YOU!) with a new text. That’s also where Kozue’s German name comes from.
Even more obscure fun fact: in Malta, a tiny island nation just south of Italy, local television sucked so hard that most children watched Italian television instead (except for some of the more well-to-do/avant-garde who got cable TV in English ).
Hence, a significant chunk of Maltese children who grew up in the 80s and 90s, can not only speak Italian, but have a knowledge of Italian anime songs that competes with any Italian child of the same age. (Hence why I always listen to sigle on Youtube whenever I need a dose of childhood nostalgia).
Most Italian people I meet have no idea that a huge chunk of their childhood experience is shared with another country in this way. From my end, whenever somebody asks how on earth I speak fluent Italian, I usually just shrug and say ‘Dragonball’…..and that’s always super fun.
I don’t know if anyone pointed this out already, but I’d like to add something about Ai Shite Knight that tells you just how deeply Italians absorbed some ‘non mainstream’ anime to the point that we consider them part of our own culture:
Ai Shite Knight became so popular in Italy in the 80s that once all the original 42 episodes were aired, Italians just couldn’t get over the fact that the anime ended and voiced their need to have more. As the series wasn’t popular in Japan and there was no way the Japanese would make another season of the anime, Italy decided to make a 4 seasons long live action series inspired to Ai Shite Knight. Yes. Italians made 144 live action episodes, about 25 minutes long each, where Italian writers and actors gathered together to give a rather unsuccessful japanese anime a sequel. Of course the result wasn’t the most epic thing you could see (imagine having to fit Japan into the surburbs of Italian city Milan!), but nonetheless it got extremely popular and successful! The “Fettine Panate” (’cutlets’) meme that was mentioned originates from these sequels, as there was a scene where the characters repeated those words a bit too much. The main character, Licia (Yaeko/Yakko), was played by Cristina D’Avena, the woman who had sang the Italian opening of the anime (as well as countless other Italian anime openings, and we still love her a lot! <3).
Another anime that is very well known and considered part of Italian anime culture is Lupin The Third (by mangaka Monkey Punch). Its italian opening songs are among the most well known and the series was so successful that there are arcs of the manga created by Italian authors and officially recognized by Monkey Punch (Lupin III Millennium, Lupin III ~ Alis Plaudo [written by Italians, drawn by Monkey Punch] and Lupin III - Il violino degli Holmes). I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve read that one of the reasons why the fourth Lupin The Third anime season is set in Italy is because of the long-standing friendship that ties this series to Italy. Said anime season was also broadcasted exceptionally on an Italian national TV channel dubbed in Italian before its Japanese release.
Last but not least, Italy also has a deep love for ‘The Rose of Versailles’ (Berusaiyu no Bara), better known among Italians as ‘Lady Oscar’. This is one of the anime that has been broadcasted most often on Italian channels, to the point that basically every generation of kids from the 80s to at least the early 00s remembers it and considers it part of their childhood. These shows are such a big part of Italian pop culture that I think most Italians know at least one of them and know, at least roughly, the plot and/or characters. Even those who have no interest in anime, even those who are now in their 50s … If you mention one of these series, they will most likely know what you’re talking about. Although to a far lesser extent than the aforementioned series, it’s interesting to note that Doraemon became pretty popular in Italy, despite being generally not much well known outside of Japan and outside of the anime fans Western community.
