13 26 52+

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13 26 52+

Postby Sukunai » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:32 am

After watching anime for years, I have realised, nearly all of the shows I have fond memories of are actually either old series in the case of long duration ep runs like Ranma, Urusei Yatsura, KOR or Sailormoon to name the easy ones, or generally 13 or 26 ep duration series in the case of more recent shows.

I've actually discovered that I can really like the short run series if they don't try to hard to go longer than they ever could.
I find I have liked a lot of 26 episode series that had a finite story to tell and were not planned to last indifinitely.

Just curious if others have a preference for duration with the shows they like, or if it even matters at all.
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Postby AaronAMV » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:08 am

Lol, you just noticed? :o

Anyway, I tend to go more to the shorter series because... They're shorter.
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Postby Immorrel » Sat Sep 06, 2008 1:42 pm

It really depends on what I'm looking for. You have the Naruto/DBZ/Ranma type of series that don't seem to end. I enjoy them but the formula tends to get old, however cool they are. Then there are the ones like Full Metal Alchemist, where it's up there in episodes but it isn't the same formula over a number of seasons. It has a truly epic story that needs that much time to properly tell it. Next is your series like Full Metal Panic/Zero no Tsukaima where they have multiple seasons that aren't the same formula from season to season. And finally you have the one shots. There either a series (26 or less episodes), or a movie that tell it's story and is done.

Each of them have things that make them enjoyable, but I can't really say that one type is better than another. I enjoy all of them equally, it's usually just a matter of what I'm in the mood to watch.
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Postby Jasta85 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:09 pm

i prefer 24-26 ep series, 12-13 eps makes the show feel too short, it's even worse if it's a good show as i feel like i was just getting into it when it ended. i also do like the really long series as it gives you more time to get attached to the characters (if they are likable that is).
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Postby xexyzl » Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:07 pm

The only bummer I find with ~26 episoders is the "turning point" that typically occurs halfway through, completely changing the the tone of the series.

Evangelion being the most obvious example.
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Postby Jasta85 » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:31 pm

xexyzl wrote:The only bummer I find with ~26 episoders is the "turning point" that typically occurs halfway through, completely changing the the tone of the series.

Evangelion being the most obvious example.


i would say death note had the biggest turning point in any series i have seen, but that doesnt always happen, some series are pretty smooth all the way through.
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Postby Pas » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:36 pm

24-26 = best

12-13 can be good, but more often than not there's not enough time for the story to be told properly, many side characters just get ignored after the second half etc and it has to speed things up.

52+ is well, just too long really. The only one of these I can remember really enjoying was Eureka Seven.
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Postby OropherZero » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:27 pm

I agree that 24-26 is ideal.

Maybe 12-13 if they do a movie length finale or OVA but generally these have really rushed endings or don't have good pacing.

This is also why a lot of anime feature films like Sword of the Stranger and Origins suck so much, not enough time to drive out the story and characters.

50-52 is a bit much all at once but if its split into seasons like Code Geass, Gundam 00 they are fine.

Yakitate Japan was 69 episodes and I thoroughly enjoyed it right until the end :D
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Postby Vivaldi » Sat Sep 06, 2008 10:41 pm

OropherZero wrote:
This is also why a lot of anime feature films like Sword of the Stranger and Origins suck so much, not enough time to drive out the story and characters.



I rather liked sword of the stranger, by this logic all feature films suck because they're so short.
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Postby OropherZero » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:32 pm

nah romance and drama ones are fine. Girl who leapt through time was good and so are Miyazaki and err 5cm per second guy. But the action ones really take a beating.

Sword of the Stranger had the worst plot and characters I've seen in a long time.
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Postby Ishbalan » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:20 am

I tend to get turned off by anime that are 52+ episodes. With the exception of Monster (74 eps), the only anime series I have watched over that length were either airing on Toonami/Adult Swim and I loosely followed them, or Naruto and Bleach.

Generally for me, its the shorter the better, and the newer the better.
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Postby CodeZTM » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:50 am

Pas1990 wrote:24-26 = best

12-13 can be good, but more often than not there's not enough time for the story to be told properly, many side characters just get ignored after the second half etc and it has to speed things up.

52+ is well, just too long really. The only one of these I can remember really enjoying was Eureka Seven.


Generally the formula for awesome. The only argument that I'd have to make for 52+, is with second seasons for awesome seaons like Code Geass and School Rumble, when we need moar awesomeness. :O
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Postby BasharOfTheAges » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:32 am

OropherZero wrote:Yakitate Japan was 69 episodes and I thoroughly enjoyed it right until the end :D
x2

Also, what i've seen of D.Grey-Man seems to break the typical mold of "high-action, high-energy, and high-stress only for a short while near the end of the series." It's a long one (still ongoing I think) that seems to climax as often as a string of OVAs.
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Postby Sukunai » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:32 am

I can only compare a 13 ep show with a great book. It's only one book but can be a great read.

26 feels like a good trilogy. And anything past 52 gets to feel too much like it has Jordanitis :) It rarely gets pulled off well by shows that stick around to long.

Much as I hate to admit it, but even some of my greatly liked shows jumped the shark half way through their lifespan.

The best "story" driven animes I have seem to be 26 shows.
BGC 2040, Noir, Madlax, Blue Gender.

Most slapstick animes eventually end up running out of material after 26.

Some animes are too gag driven. After 26 shows, it's too much like retelling a joke too often.

I also find some shows are doomed to be finite. If a high school drama finishes a school year in a season, then you've basically established how many seasons you can hope for.
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Postby BasharOfTheAges » Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:15 pm

To add to that - most 12-13 episode series are 7 or 8 episodes of character development (usually following a predictable pattern) followed by 4 to 5 episodes of the actual plot or substance. It's a full-length OVA with enough prelude so that you don't have to learn anything about the characters while the real meat of the story is delivered. There are some series that get the pattern right and start with a story that expands (backwards, in production) to encompass all the time they can be given on a short contract, and then there are others that feel like the story isn't building to anything and WHAM you have a 3-episode OVA style tangent at the end with characters that you just happen to know.

Too many short series feel like tangents at the end for me to take the format seriously more than a handful of times.
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