The first opening theme video of Hime‑chan’s Ribbon has three different versions. The differences are not that complicated. Basically, the question is, who is on the bicycle in this scene (around 1:00):
Version A: Daichi is pedaling, and Himeko is standing on the rear end of the bike with her hands on his shoulders, as in the first picture above. Pokota is sitting on her left shoulder. This version was used only for the first two episodes.
Version B: Interim version while preparing the new version.
Version C: Himeko is pedaling. Pokota is still sitting on her left shoulder, as in the second picture above. This version was used for a long time starting from Episode 8 (or 9).
Version A
Version C
Version B
The confusion is, which episode should come with which version of the OP—TV, LD, DVD, and fansubs handle this matter differently:
| First Aired | LD | Tomodachi | DVD | Honobono | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ep. 1 | A | C | C | A | A |
| Ep. 2 | A | C | C | A | A |
| Ep. 3 | B | C | ? | B | A |
| Ep. 4 | B | C | ? | B | A |
| Ep. 5 | B | C | ? | B | B |
| Ep. 6 | B | C | ? | B | B |
| Ep. 7 | B | C | ? | B | B |
| Ep. 8 | C? | C | ? | B | B |
| Ep. 9 | C | C | ? | C | C |
When this show first aired, they originally used Version A. However, they soon decided to modify this scene. The reason was not officially announced, but it is generally believed that it was because the way Himeko is on the bicycle in Version A is a bit dangerous, and they didn’t want children to immitate it. Note that in Japan it is basically against the local law (such as the Tokyo Municipal Ordinance) for two persons to ride one bicycle, although generally people don’t respect this regulation. It is unknown who actually said that Version A was inappropriate—parents of the children watching this show, someone from the TV station, or maybe some sponsor.
Version A only appeared in the first 2 episodes. Version C is the updated version, which was used in Episode 8 (or 9) and later, and was used for every first‐season episode in LDs. In other words, Version A and B were once superceded by Version C. Episode 1 fansubbed by Tomodachi had Version C opening too.
Version B was interim. Apparently the animators had to modify this scene all of a sudden, and were given only a short amount time. They used some scenes from Episodes 3 and 4 as a quick replacement, while they were retaking the opening film. The new version first appeared in Episode 8 (or 9).
This also explains why the OP for Episodes 1 and 2 on DVD is lower‐quality. When making the DVDs, they decided to change it back to how it had originally been shown because many fans wanted to watch the “legendary” Version A. Therefore, they had to use the very old film to restore the replaced scenes.
It appears that the DVD company made a small mistake in their efforts to re‐edit the OPs: they used Version B for Episode 8. This is yet to be confirmed, but according to several sources, including ja.wikipedia, originally Episode 8 was the first episode with Version C. On the DVDs, the first episode with Version C is Episode 9, which is off by one. Episode 8 with Version B only exists on the DVD. To make the confusion complete, we (honobono) mistakenly used Version A for Episodes 3 and 4. Episode 3 with Version A and Episode 4 with Version A only exist in our fansubs.
We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the fans of this show. Although we sometimes replace things like a title logo on purpose, Version A OP in Episodes 3 and 4 was an unintentional mistake.
On another note, animators sometimes change their OP clip by their own will. For instance, Tsukuyomi OP was slightly changed for each episode.
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