Why 26 episodes?

-Reda- · Post by **-Reda-** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:59 pm

Does anyone know why tons of animes come out to 26 episodes? I've always wondered about that...did a group of people just get together and say:
"26: Thats an awesome number, lets do that many."

Any input on this would be most helpful!

Cornwiggle · Post by **Cornwiggle** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:05 pm

Many of them now are going for 24.

But I don't know the answer to the question, it pissed me off years ago that it had to be 13 and multiples of 13...

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:05 pm

perhaps something like this:
1 episode per week
26 weeks = .5 year.
a nice and even split.

another common episode count is 13 (which seems to follow a similar logic)
less common, but still shows up every now and then is 50 episodes.
almost a year...but gives the people in the studios 2 weeks off (probably for holidays)

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:19 pm

This is the concept of cours (the quoted text is posted by a member from that fansub forum everyone knows about

).

cours / kur (pronounced similar to "Coor" as in the beer "Coors" without the "s" sound)

The lingo "cours / kur" (written in romanization as "kuuru") is a lingo used in the entertainment industry to denote 3 months of air time. In English, it would closely mean "seasons." However, there is a slight difference between broadcast "seasons" used in America versus the "cours / kur" that is used in Japan. Then again, an American "season" roughly mean 24 episodes so the term cannot be used equivocally as well.

The origins of the word "kuuru" is believed to come from the French word "cours" or the German word "kur." Loosely, they both mean the English word "course" and "cure" respectively, meaning "time of course needed for cure/treatment." Although there is no true answer which one is correct, I tend to use the German word "kur" when I write it. Hence from down on, I'll use "kur" as my preference.

Obviously, it's a pun in the entertainment industry. A kur is necessary to see if the show is going to be interesting, and the "treatment" (grabbing viewer ratings) during the "course of run" (airing time of 3 months) becomes a factor whether the show will be continued or dropped for more "cours/kur." However, this doesn't hold true for most anime shows airing late at night since they are slotted to be 1 or 2 kur from the start anyway.

1 kur means 3 months. Hence some shows may have 12 episodes, some may have 13 episodes, and rarely some have 14. There is no specific number of episodes for 1 kur. It's a relative estimate of a division of TV shows into 3 months blocks. While kur maybe similar to the term "season" used in American TV industry, it is somewhat different. A "season" in Japanese entertainment lingo would be "ki." Hence, I would call a kur a subdivision of "season" So let's use this in anime terms.

Shingetsutan Tsukihime had 1 kur totalling 12 episodes
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien had 1 kur totalling 14 episodes
Shakugan no Shana had 2 kur totalling 24 episodes (1st kur: 1-12, 2nd kur: 13-24)
Mai-Otome had 2 kur totalling 26 episodes (1st kur: 1-13, 2nd kur: 14-26)

Getting it? Now let's move on to what I mean by kur as "subdivision of seasons."

Rozen Maiden had 1 kur totalling 12 episodes (1st season)
Rozen Maiden ~traumend~ had 1 kur totalling 12 episodes (2nd season)
Full Metal Panic! had 2 kur totalling 24 episodes (1st season)
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu had 1 kur totalling 11 broadcasted episodes (2nd season or not, depends on how you look at it)
Full Metal Panic! the second raid had 1 kur totalling 13 episodes (3rd season, some prefer to consider Fumoffu as separate and this as 2nd season)

Cobi_321 · Post by **Cobi_321** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:40 pm

I usually lose interest by 13 so anything past 20 is hard for me to care about. Maybe anime episodes are like voltron. The more you kookup the better it gets... Or you get to many that you can't recognize what it once was at the start.

Malificus · Post by **Malificus** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:44 pm

Cobi_321 wrote:I usually lose interest by 13 so anything past 20 is hard for me to care about.

That'd kinda prevent you from seing a lot of good anime. :/

meleechampion · Post by **meleechampion** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:21 am

Cobi_321 wrote:I usually lose interest by 13 so anything past 20 is hard for me to care about. Maybe anime episodes are like voltron. The more you kookup the better it gets... Or you get to many that you can't recognize what it once was at the start.

Are you serious? Wouldn't you GAIN interest in seeing the end of the series if you've watched half of it already?

-Reda- · Post by **-Reda-** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:04 pm

meleechampion wrote:
Cobi_321 wrote:I usually lose interest by 13 so anything past 20 is hard for me to care about. Maybe anime episodes are like voltron. The more you kookup the better it gets... Or you get to many that you can't recognize what it once was at the start.
Are you serious? Wouldn't you GAIN interest in seeing the end of the series if you've watched half of it already?

That wasn't the case when I watched BlackCat...I got up to 20 and went "This sucks, why bother" and stopped watching it then and there...that series sucks haha

Krisqo · Post by **Krisqo** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:20 pm

Cobi_321 wrote:I usually lose interest by 13 so anything past 20 is hard for me to care about. Maybe anime episodes are like voltron. The more you kookup the better it gets... Or you get to many that you can't recognize what it once was at the start.

God help you with those 70 episode and the rare 200+ series o.O

EmilLang1000 · Post by **EmilLang1000** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:49 pm

Cobi_321 wrote:I usually lose interest by 13 so anything past 20 is hard for me to care about. Maybe anime episodes are like voltron. The more you kookup the better it gets... Or you get to many that you can't recognize what it once was at the start.

You HATE Sazae-San (1830 episodes, aired from 1969-present). That is all.