eyecatch

English

Etymology

Calque of Japanese アイキャッチ (aikyatchi), itself from English eye + catch.

Noun

eyecatch (plural eyecatches)

1. A scene or illustration used to begin and end a commercial break in a Japanese television program.
   • 2007, E Taylor, “Dating-Simulation Games: Leisure and Gaming of Japanese Youth Culture”, in Southeast Review of Asian Studies, volume 29, page 197:

     Tootemo! Pheromone has an "eyecatch” between each scene consisting of still shots of the characters in a short, flashy animated sequence, much like anime episodes use to signal commercial breaks.

   • 2010, Ronald Wayne Rodman, Tuning in: American Narrative Television Music, page 55:

     Another use of music in the extradiegetic space is with the bumper (sometimes called an eyecatch or just a bump), which is a brief text occurring during commercial breaks in the middle of a program.

   • 2012, Heike Hoffer, Aesthetics of Destruction: Music and the Worldview of Ikari Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion (Masters Thesis, University of Arizona):

     "Tokyo-3" is heard twice in the series, both times directly before the internal eyecatch. The final chord of the track rings into the eyecatch, allowing the music to transcend the visual boundaries of the story and makes clear how powerfully Shinji has been affected by his new environment.

   • 2014, Dani Cavallaro, Anime and the Visual Novel, page 230:

     In the show, the flow of the action is periodically halted by an eyecatch displaying one or more of the main characters, frequently in a fan-service mode, uttering the single word "Tsuyokiss" in a variety of tones and inflections.