Bookends / Web Animation

• Animated Spellbook's Longerform Campaign Journal starts with the villain Shifty Wick in danger of being killed by wolves, and the party choosing to save him. The third episode ends with wraiths attacking the cave Shifty Wick is hiding in, and the party needing to decide if they're going to help him.
• BagelBoy's Meme Man saga began with "sitt", wherein Meme Man sits in a chair in an overly-dramatic manner. "riddle of the rocks 2" ends with him taking another "sitt".
• Deliberately invoked by Pencil in The Stinger of the final episode of Battle for Dream Island:
  Pencil: Wouldn't it be weird if the very first and very last spoken words of BFDI were the same?
  Match: Yeah!^note This being the very first word in the very first episode of BFDI.
• Bowser's Kingdom episode 1 ends with Mario beating up Hal and Jeff because a Shy Guy betrayed them and The Movie ends with Mario and Luigi beating Hal and Jeff because Steve betrayed them.
• Broken Saints begins and ends with a voice-over monologue by Shandala, starting with "I dream". Both start off much the same, but grow gradually different to reflect the change from the beginning and ending of the story.
• DEATH BATTLE!:
  • Hulk VS Broly both start and end on the planet Broly was on with him enjoying his time with some deers.
  • Meta-one. Season 7 starts and ends with a Marvel character losing via total disintegration. It's Miles Morales and the Hulk respectively.
  • Killua VS Misaka has Misaka firing a Railgun at both the start and end of the fight. Killua catches the one at the beginning, but he's immobilized by iron sand when Misaka fires the one at the end, and is promptly reduced to Ludicrous Gibs.
  • Meta-one: Season 10 starts and ends the same way, the Marvel character winning against their opponent with the loser having No Body Left Behind. It's Ant-Win winning against The Atom and Galactus winning against Unicron respectively.
• At the start of Dick Figures: The Movie, young Red says "Cuz I'm AWESOME!" and he and young Blue high-five. At the end, old Red says "Cuz we're AWESOME!" and he and old Blue high-five.
• The first qualifying race of the 2022 hololive Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Cup took place at Sunshine Airport, which is the same track used during the final race of the championship which Nekomata Okayu won.
• The Strong Bad E-mail "theme song" from Homestar Runner actually begins and ends with Strong Bad singing "When E-mail Comes to Town, It's Like a Rainstorm in your Browser."
• Lackadaisy features multiple sets:
  • Barring The Stingers, the story opens and closes on Lackadaisy Speakeasy's doors and stage, preceding and following characters' glamourous Fantasy Sequences. It begins on Lackadaisy's doors opening to reveal its empty stage, with the curtain rising on violinist Rocky performing a glittery, golden, lavishly staged Disney Acid Sequence, eventually revealed as his Daydream Surprise while neglecting lookout duties on a bridge. It ends with the band beginning to play as Lackadaisy's owner Mitzi shuts her eyes, envisions her husband's hand on her shoulder, then opens them to reveal they've filled with stars. A wash of glitter reveals her gold-hued fantasy of the stage and speakeasy filled with people, and the camera pulls out until the speakeasy doors shut.
  • The Stingers also mirror the opening in different ways. The first has sparks from Asa Sweet's cigar float downward during a Fade to Black to the sounds of smouldering ash, while the earliest moments of the opening have glowing dust motes floating into a darkened frame as a distant train horn blows. The second, a double-still of a horrified Wick Sable, mirrors the sepia-tint and faux-scratched film initially seen on the Lackadaisy stage before color fades in and the curtain rises on Rocky.
• The story of Lucky Day Forever starts with 514 falling for the Whites' propaganda and ends with Sasiadka falling for the Whites' propaganda. This is a way to show that the Proles want to stand out like the Whites.
• In Mario Brothers, the series starts and ends with the same scene of Mario running from something.
• The first and last episodes of the multi-website collaboration The Most Amazing Story Ever Told are made by Goonland, and both involve the main character floating in an inner tube in the water.
• Red vs. Blue:
  • The Blood Gulch Chronicles:
    • This story arc ends very similarly to how it begins. In the first episode, Grif and Simmons stand on Red Base, Simmons asks Grif "Do you ever wonder why we're here?", leading to Grif going on an incredibly long speech about the meaning of the universe before Simmons explains that that wasn't what he actually meant, all while the Blue Team spies on them from the cliffs. In the final episode, this scene happens again, only this time it's reversed, with Church and Caboose standing on Blue Base, Caboose asking the question, Church going on an incredibly long speech about what it means to hate someone before Caboose explains what he actually meant, all while the Red Team spies on them from the cliffs.
    • Simmons delivers both the first and last line of this arc.
  • The Recollection:
    • The first appearance of South Dakota in Recovery One ends with Washington pretending to shoot her in the head. Her final appearance (chronologically) in Reconstruction ends with Wash shooting her for real.
    • Every chapter of Reconstruction begins with an audio transmission from the Director or the Chairman to each other. The final chapter ends with a monologue from the Director.
    • Reconstruction begins with a soldier looking at the dead body of a Freelancer as the camera panned up in Valhalla, showing a huge number of characters (so many that the creators actually had to run several games and use split-screen to get that many). Revelation ends with a soldier looking at the body of Agent Texas in Avalanche and the camera pans up to show a similar shot.
    • The final scene of Revelation acts as this to the entire series up to that point, with the Blue Team in Blood Gulch talking about how the Red Team got a new Warthog.
  • In a strange example of this, a flashback in The Project Freelancer Saga reveals that the Meta's rampage began at Sidewinder, the same place it would end, as well as begin the same way it ends, with a Freelancer being thrown off a cliff.
  • The Chorus Trilogy:
    • A rather tragic example brought on by real life events, the second episode of the arc ends with a tribute to former Achievement Hunter contributor David Dredger, while the final episode is dedicated to Monty Oum.
    • The final episode of the arc has one for events all the way back in Season 1. In Season 1, when Church "died", his last words to Tucker are "I just want you to know... I always hated you the most.". In the final episode of Season 13, as the Reds and Blues prepare to make a Last Stand, Church's last words to them before making his Heroic Sacrifice is "I just want you guys to know, out of everyone I've ever met... I hate you all the least.".
    • Both the trailer for Season 13 and the final scene of the season are stills of characters in action as Church monologues over them.
  • The Shisno Paradox ends on one that calls back to both the first episode of the season, where two characters begin to have the "Do you ever wonder why we're here?" conversation before the camera pans up, and the first episode of the series, with the Blues spying and, of course, "Do you ever wonder why we're here?".
• RWBY:
  • The song "From Shadows" is a powerful song with hard rock and metal elements as the singer speaks of revolution — of the down-trodden rising up from darkness to take back what's rightfully theirs. However, the introduction and close bookends a song of revolution with a slow and lonely piano solo.
  • In "Lessons Learned", the first and last shot of the scene of Winter tutoring Weiss is of a caterpillar, which acts to identify the progress Weiss is making in developing her Semblance. The scene starts with Weiss's lack of faith in her Summoning ability while the caterpillar crawls alone in view of the camera. The scene ends with the caterpillar being stopped by a tiny summoned sword as Weiss and Winter depart, unaware that Weiss has started to manifest her ability.
  • The "beginning" of the opening act in the machinations of the villains' occurs in the pilot episode. The show opens to a narration by a mysterious woman that ends with a male narrator refuting her darkness by expressing faith in a "smaller, more honest, soul". The same episode quickly reveals the male narrator to be Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy. The next three volumes consists of Ruby and her team trying to develop their skills at Beacon Academy while also trying to figure out what the villains are up to. Volume 3 closes with the same mysterious woman narrating a response to Ozpin's pilot episode objection; as she announces the close of the first stage of her plan and her intention to begin "the end" of Ozpin.
  • Volume 7 starts with the protagonists approaching the floating city of Atlas in a stolen Manta-class airship. It ends with the protagonists flying away from the floating city of Atlas in another stolen Manta-class airship. The same number of people are on board the airship on both occasions. Together, the two scenes open and close the volume's over-arching themes. At the beginning of the volume, the passengers include Qrow and Oscar and the group doesn't know who else they can trust. In the finale, the passengers include Pietro and Penny instead of Qrow and Oscar, and they're back to not knowing who else they can trust.
  • Neo's first introduction to the heroes consists of her grinning with a curtsy as she mockingly rescues Roman by vanishing and reappearing elsewhere as she flees the scene. Volume 9 sees her repeat the gesture. At the end of the volume, after she's been freed from Demonic Possession, she forever says goodbye to Roman before giving the heroes a respectful curtsy and smile before vanishing into the Tree for Ascension. Her character arc thus completes its cycle from her being introduced as an antagonist to departing in a way that gives her closure from that life.
• The first scene of There she is!! is Nabi being harrassed by Doki at a drink machine. The final scene is Nabi wiping racist graffiti off of it while sharing a drink with Nabi.
• The Twins (2022): The film starts and ends with Lake being late to class and Lucas informing Mrs. J about it. However, by then, Lake has replaced Lucas after his death, as indicated by his messy hair, the broken glasses, and zipping up his backpack to hide his toy car.
• Wendell & Wuggums: "Tiki Trouble" starts with Wendell and Wuggums doing jujitsu on an inflatable clown. It ends with Kiki Kerwa becoming an inflatable doll for Wendell and Wuggums to practice jujitsu.

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