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Why are some animes so short?


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2Real



Joined: 12 Dec 2005
Posts: 249
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:03 pm Reply with quote
From the shows I have been watching, and have watched, I notice a trend that most animes are around 25 episodes.

Is there a real reason for this, or just more of a coincedence?

Also, these shows are usuly the ones that have a more of an open ending. Most the these shows don't have a sequle as well. They just throw in a movie or an OVA. Do they just purpusly have an open ending to let the viewer come up with their own "fairy tale" ending, or is it more of a budget issue, hence the 25 episode thing.


Last edited by 2Real on Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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jousha



Joined: 16 Jan 2006
Posts: 205
Location: the floating world
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:08 pm Reply with quote
I think the 25-ish episodes is because of a full season. I think, but I'm not quite sure.
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camelot187757



Joined: 11 Dec 2005
Posts: 426
Location: The Nacirema Dream (17 and counting Asuka)
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:18 pm Reply with quote
May depend on the intended view times. For the Boondocks and South Park which debut new episodes once a week, their seasons are only 15 and 9-11 respectively. I think that if the anime debuts a new episode everday for 5 days straight then maybe a season for anime in Japan is only about 5 weeks of viewing.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 08 Dec 2003
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Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:19 pm Reply with quote
jousha wrote:
I think the 25-ish episodes is because of a full season. I think, but I'm not quite sure.

Most anime are aired weekly in Japan. One season contains three months, which is about 13 weeks, so most TV anime have 12-14 (one season), 24-26 (two seasons), or 50-52 (four seasons; one year) episodes.

Oh, did I mention that there are four seasons and twelve months in a year? Cool
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:53 pm Reply with quote
One other reason is that much anime exists as glorified advertising for their respective manga, so it makes some sense to cut the anime story off midway so that people go out and buy later parts of the manga. I think that explains some shows like Fruits Basket (though I hear that the manga writer had some sort of sickness or hand injury) being only 26 episodes when the manga has a lot more story left to tell. Also, I read somewhere that with the recession in Japan, budgets have dropped, and thus many series are getting only 12-13 eps.

My first series was Sailor Moon, so in the beginning I expected long lengths from shows, but over time, I grew to appreciate the 24-26 episode package--you get a substantial story, with some amusing filler/sidestories, and it stops before it gets tedious. Learning to appreciate 13-ep series took a little longer, but there are some great ones in that length as well.
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Fui



Joined: 12 Dec 2005
Posts: 339
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:33 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
From the shows I have been watching, and have watched, I notice a trend that most animes are around 25 episodes.

Yep, it's a season. That's pretty damn long though...it's 6 months (new episodes are released once a week as you know).

I sometimes ask myself, "Why are some animes so long?" They often just get tons of fillers and become not worth watching and erased from my memory 12 seconds after the episodes end. Bleach has been doing pretty well though, until that last hour-long special that was extremely disappointing. Let's just put 30 minutes of flashbacks... You never see that kind of BS in 1-season series.
26 episodes is a perfect amount IMO. Elfen Lied did an excellent job with only half a season. FLCL was pushing it at 1/4...(I personally didn't like FLCL but I'm in the minority). DBZ, Pokemon, and Naruto are going way overkill at the 150+ mark. I'd rather get into a new anime and have a new experience rather than be fed the same regurgitated material over and over again.

Quote:
What are some animes so short?

...please tell me you know the difference between "what" and "why." Confused
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Azathrael



Joined: 12 Sep 2005
Posts: 745
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:08 pm Reply with quote
I thought you'd mention something about the 13 episode series. I know some anime are intended to be purely fanservice - Xenosaga is one of them I think. There are some odd ones out there that have a weird # of episodes. I think those are budget-related but it's always more than one factor so who cares. -_-;
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Digital Dreamer



Joined: 21 Dec 2005
Posts: 287
Location: Sydney, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:16 pm Reply with quote
2Real wrote:
From the shows I have been watching, and have watched, I notice a trend that most animes are around 25 episodes.

Is there a real reason for this, or just more of a coincedence?

Also, these shows are usuly the ones that have a more of an open ending. Most the these shows don't have a sequle as well. They just throw in a movie or an OVA. Do they just purpusly have an open ending to let the viewer come up with their own "fairy tale" ending, or is it more of a budget issue, hence the 25 episode thing.
It's really no different to the USA where you have 24 episodes for per season on any show that is shown once a week.

I am quite sure that Japan has simulare syndications rules that a TV show needs to have X number of episodes for it to gain a regulare weekly / bi-weekly TV spot.
And this would over a 6 month or 1 year worth of TV viewing.

As for why some shows finish open ended. Very likely that the TV studio or the production studio feels that the series was not bring in enough money to make it worthwhile to continue on to a second season. This is when a show gets "AXED". It's happens a lot in japan just like i happens a lot in the west.

Now whether or not the TV show gets an OVA to finish things off is purely dependant on the demand of the fans and whether or not the studio sees it some thing that would be commercially viable.
Eg. Example of this happening in Japan was Key The Metal Idol. The TV series was 13 episodes. And if finished off with 2 OVAs. (Not sure why they did this?)
Example of this happening in the west is FarScape Season 4 finishing off with the PeaceKeeper Wars Mini Series.


Some OVA are also there to test the viewers to see if a TV series will be vaible.
Eg. Burn Up W OVA --> Burn Up Excess TV,
Battle Athlete OVA --> Batlle Athlete Victory TV,
Tenchi Muyo OVA 1,2, Specials --> Tenchi Muyo TV
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DarkTenshi90



Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 440
Location: Nebraska
PostPosted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:42 pm Reply with quote
I acutally like anime when they're shorter, it saves me cash. Laughing, but anyway, there are longer anime series I enjoy, but I prefer series around the 26-episode ranger... though, I am a fan of Bleach, FMA, and Naruto... one of the few series that I like even though they're pretty lengthy in episode count.

Also, another reason as to why they maybe short is because either there's a low animation budget, or, that's where the story ends... kinda self-explanatory.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
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Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:41 am Reply with quote
The 26-episode seems to be the standard range, and for some series is considered one season (Fushigi Yuugi has two seasons, each with 26-episodes).

Anime often seems to actually end their stories, which is actually one of the things I like most about anime.
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zhir



Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 353
Location: Nampa, ID, USA
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:38 am Reply with quote
There is a growing trend of 13 epp anime.
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Digital Dreamer



Joined: 21 Dec 2005
Posts: 287
Location: Sydney, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:47 am Reply with quote
I like the shorter ones and I am more likely to watch the entire series.
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Urb'



Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 54
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 5:34 am Reply with quote
I am quite partial to the 13episode series, its long enough to show the characters and the story.
I also find some of these shorter series are more of the serious, the tone of these anime give an impact more intense as intended, to drag the same story out over 24 or 52 episodes wouldnt be good if the series made you feel sad.
Thats why i guess the more lively/action series are the type that go from 26+ episodes, because they give a positive response from the viewer, the viewer wants to watch to get the happy feeling, and so theres the demand to keep continuing this trend.
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darkhunter



Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2992
Location: Los Angelas
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:31 am Reply with quote
zhir wrote:
There is a growing trend of 13 epp anime.


12-13 episode and 24-26 episode are the norm nowadays. There are definitely longer running series which are usually series like Gundam and any Shonen Jump title that will do extremely well in the rating. Shonen jump series already have proven fanbase from all the shonen jump reader.

Also keeping it 13 or 26 episode long let new anime to hit the scene. Because there are only limited amount of station and air time for anime, we can't have all current show to be going on forever. It makes it run, then a new anime comes out.

There are definitely many other reason such as production cost, manga fanbase of series, material (manga volume) available for adaption and so on.
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Zalis116
Moderator


Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6900
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:00 am Reply with quote
Digital Dreamer wrote:

Eg. Example of this happening in Japan was Key The Metal Idol. The TV series was 13 episodes. And if finished off with 2 OVAs.


Actually, Key the Metal Idol was a completely OVA series:

anime#843

The last 2 just happened to be movie-length (90-min or so).
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