Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-1512913-20141002122335/@comment-25503798-20141005174534

Elveonora wrote: they use stock footage during scenes that matter and use good artists and animators for the damn freaking openings rather than the episodes themselves ._.

The opening sequence is not only the window that introduces and potentially sells the series to the viewer, but it's something that you're gonna watch multiple times over the next 6 months, so of course they want it to look good. Having the actual episodes to look consistently like the opening would be impossible for multiple reasons, like limited budget and shortage of talented staff on hand (you can't have the same good animators make every single episode, because it takes a lot of time and effort to make one).