Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - What's the Deal with Extra-Long Anime Premieres?
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malvarez1
Posts: 2150 |
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I might be in the minority, but I don’t get the big deal. If it’s a show you were already hyped for, why would you care? If it’s a show you weren’t hyped for, I guess this changes nothing. And if you were on the fence….wait for reviews and then binge it…which is kind of what you would have done with the premiere, but on a large scale.
And if you’re watching a double length premiere and it sucks…just turn it off. No one can force you to watch the entire thing (unless it is your job). |
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bassgs435
 Posts: 377 |
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Ragna Crimson's problem is apparently that the whole thing is manga accurate. A longer first chapter that ends where episode 1 did. You could argue for cutting it to fit into a normal length episode, but you risk angering manga fans. And if we're going to keep as it was in the manga, separate into 2 episodes is also an issue because episode 1'd end before Ragna gets his power from his future self and saves Leo, so it leaves you with the girl having lots of death flags. Honestly, feels like a better justification for a longer premier than Frieren. As I agree that Frieren's first episode (as presented by CR) is strong enough of an opener. and the episodes are separate enough that it doesn't feel like a continuous narrative that needed it like Ragna Crimson or Oshi no Ko
Another weird case is Apothecary Diaries. They waited 2 weeks to air episodes 1, 2 and 3 together. When they could've aired episode 1 2 weeks ago, and episode 2 last week. But nothing. A delatyed and longer premiere |
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TheSleepyMonkey
Posts: 960 |
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More like an Aniplex thing. Because you know... Aniplex leads the production for all three, and LiSA works under Sony Music... |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4665 |
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I just hope that productions use the extended premieres wisely. It gets viewed as a sign of confidence in the show itself, but I think it risks ending up as a trend that means nothing. Oshi no Ko used it effectively, especially since the story lent itself to it. If that longer premiere is just multiple episodes airing back-to-back, then it's not so special. I also wonder how it might affect production schedules. If the extended premiere of an anime is really just episodes 1-3 stuck together, and episode 4 is now scheduled for the week of what is normally episode 2, it could throw off an already precarious schedule.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2316 Location: Online Terminal |
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It's a discussion about shifts in culture, both as a viewer and a creator. As far as the latter is concerned, it's possible one or two things are happening: The first is that studios are trying to front-load their schedules so when the inevitable production delays happen, the finish line is that much closer than it would've been normally. (I also wonder cynically if labor costs are the same whether the first episode is 20 minutes or 90 minutes.) The second is that, as mentioned in the column, streaming allows creators to not adhere to 20- or 40-minute episode structures. This is resulting in production teams either choosing or not knowing how to edit their episodes down to more conventional sizes. We may have a reality where a "series" is just a handful of mini-movies of inconsistent length which may be great for artists but lousy for humans who want routines and potentially unfair for labor. |
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TheSleepyMonkey
Posts: 960 |
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I would assume that in these cases, they are naturally given more time to make the episodes, but given the industry's continuous problem of producers giving terrible schedules and studios being stretched thin between multiple projects, it's complicated. Oshi no Ko struggled as it went long with the number of animation directors increasing a lot every episode (final episode had 30 in total) and Ragna Crimson's third episode already had 9 different studios credited for animation direction, which is not a good sign. |
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Dark Mac
Posts: 323 |
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Surprised the article doesn't mention Oshi no Ko being by far the most popular new anime of 2023. People obviously did have time for the extended premiere.
We had that in the 80s and 90s with OVA anime. There's also been stuff like Kara no Kyoukai in that format, or Katanagatari. |
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champeagle3
Posts: 37 |
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MyGO!!!!! appreciate post! I know several people who have since watched the series who said if it weren't for episode three. If only they had jumped on the hype train on the initial run, but glad they're going to be along for the ride for season 2!!!
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2620 Location: Germany |
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Japan is just copying what streamers like Amazon Prime or Max do. 3 in 1 premiers. Perfect for 2 cour shows but less so for 1 cour shows.
Frieren has taken that tille now and it´s another maxi premier. The trend is here to stay as it clearly led to strong ratings out of the gate that didn´t drop. Or it didn´t hinder them. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5513 Location: Iscandar |
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First time I have heard that long premieres are supposed to be related to prestige. This column is becoming more and more useless with every new entry.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18501 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Oh, there's been talk about that association going at least as far back as the Fate/Zero debut. On a separate note, I tend to agree that Ragna Crimson needed the longer debut much more than Frieren did (even if the former case did result in a stretched-out first episode). Frieren's approach and full impact are evident enough from the first episode, with episodes 2-4 only expanding on that.
Had not heard this, and being familiar with the source material, I can't see a good story reason for it; the initial mystery should be coverable in a single episode. This smacks more of being a "prestige" move than any of the other multi-episode debuts. |
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Glordit
 Posts: 689 |
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With Apothecary Diaries, it is more to do with them only getting TV slots from that specific date/time and airing 3 episodes on the same day let's them stay on schedule for the remaining 21 so they end at the end of Winter 2024 instead of running into Spring. I have yet to check the actual TV listings so I'm going on a guess. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18501 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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That would make sense, and doubling up episodes because of potential schedule conflicts has certainly happened before. |
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andramus
 Posts: 193 |
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I read the first volume or two of Ragna Crimson a while back and was looking forward to the anime but was somewhat underwhelmed by the premiere. It was the introduction of Crimson in the second episode that really started to draw me in as a viewer.
I think the animation is subpar but Crimson is an intriguing character and has a pretty good dynamic with Ragna so far. Being extra length didn't make the premiere much better as an episode but it meant I didn't have to wait until episode 3 to meet Crimson. It was back in the 90s that I first started paying attention to TV premieres. I didn't have the internet but various magazines I bought would get me interested in upcoming new shows. The earliest premieres I remember were both double length. They were the pilots for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. To this day I feel like Lois & Clark is my favourite TV pilot of all time. I've probably watched it about 10 times. |
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Juno016
 Posts: 2436 |
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I remember Madoka Magica was placed on hold after the March 11th disaster, cut off after episode 10. Several weeks later, as people recovered from the disaster, they finally aired the whole series on television as a marathon again and then finished it off with its final two episodes back-to-back, not because that's how it was planned, but because they had time to "finish" them both (albeit with some big rushed scenes, like the choppy TV version of Walpurgisnacht getting thrown back by missiles, which was hard to understand until the disc release fixed it). Honestly, context of the tragedy of the disaster aside, I think the show itself benefitted from both episodes being played together, and now I see most long premieres kind of like that.
It is weird when they just haphazardly release episodes together that don't have a full story arc in them together, though. |
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