Forum - View topicSeparate seasons vs. separate series?
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cardcaptormanda
 Posts: 237 Location: United States |
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I’ve been wondering lately…how is it determined if something is another series, or simply another season (for the encyclopedia)?
It doesn’t really seem to be consistent…like, Mermaid Melody Pitchi Pitchi Pitch Pure doesn’t have it’s own entry, and is instead just included on Mermaid Melody Pitchi Pitchi Pitch’s page. ARIA The ANIMATION and ARIA The NATURAL are in the same situation. Yet in the case of Rozen Maiden and Rozen Maiden: Träumend, they both have their own entries, and the same goes for Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's. These are just 4 examples, but there are actually dozens of these situations in the encyclopedia. If Nanoha and Nanoha A’s are separated, then why not ARIA and ARIA NATURAL? It just seems like there’s no set of criteria for this, and it’s been bugging me. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Personally, I've always found this an interesting situation as well. Maria-sama ga Miteru and Maria-sama ga Miteru ~Haru~ will be split up, but Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex and Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd GIG will be merged into one.
It's not up to me, but I think what might be a good idea would be to only merge seasons if they aren't given different titles. Examples being Big O and (so far, anyway) the second seasons of Genshiken and School Rumble. The second seasons in these instances aren't given unique titles, so they could be merged into one entry with the first seasons. But for things like MariMite & MariMite ~Haru~, GitS:SAC & GitS:SAC 2nd GIG, Rozen Maiden & Rozen Maiden Träumend, etc., they should be made separate entries. Given that they're labeled with unique titles, it's suggested that they're being identified and marketed more as sequels than second seasons, and probably should be treated as such. |
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cardcaptormanda
Posts: 237 Location: United States |
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I agree with that reasoning; I think the "different title" thing would be a good rule to follow in most cases. ARIA The ANIMATION and ARIA The NATURAL are just as much separate series as MariMite and MariMite ~Haru~ are, so why would only one set of these get two entries, while the other is merged into one entry?
Can any of the encyclopedia staff clear this up for me, or maybe even fix the problem? It really bugs me when things aren't uniform (I can't be the only one  ), and it can also be confusing. This seems like a big enough inconsistency that it shouldn't just be left alone or completely ignored.
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Agreed. However, it's rather rare for any sequel having the same title. Like Rozen Maiden: Träumend and MariMite ~Haru~, the second series of School Rumble is named School Rumble Nigakki, and I expect Genshiken would receive a new subtitle for the second season as well. Big O is one of those rare kinds. Hey, even the three Banner of the Stars were separated.
Fortunately, they were not merged; they were just not yet submitted by any user before I (or any other Encyclopedist) added the second season.
I would like to keep their uniformality as well. Personally, I'd like having them separated -- this would make episode counts (for TV series) and premiere dates (for movies, like the three new Zeta Gundam movies) much much easier. However, just like Nagisa said, it's not up to me. Dan is the person who makes the final decision when it comes to the structure of the Encyclopedia. |
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3783 Location: Montreal |
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And the final decision is: separated is best.
If there's a break of several months between two "seasons", then it's really two series. But even with no major break between seasons, it turns out that for long series the production credits can get impossibly long and ugly if you try to cram information about that many episodes under one encyclopedia entry. So it's better to do it as separate entries. But we still have historical (a.k.a. "legacy") issues to consider; for example Big O should probably have been 2 different series but by now information about the 2 seasons is all mixed together and trying to split it would create more trouble than it would solve. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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ARIA The NATURAL is now separated as an independent entry (I'm an ARIA junkie, so it's on my top list
 ). Next: Pichi Pichi Pitch, but I know very little about it. Anything else?
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cardcaptormanda
Posts: 237 Location: United States |
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THANK YOU!
 This situation has been bugging me for while, but I've never spoken up about it.
I'm not sure about this one...but what about the upcoming "second season" of Ah! My Goddess TV? Not only does it come nearly a year after the first season ended, but it's got its own name and all. |
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
Posts: 3783 Location: Montreal |
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Just to clarify, I told dormcat it was ok to split Aria. But if the two series were too intertwined they wouldn't get split. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Michi had completed the seemingly impossible task to separate the original Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, so I have little worry about The Big O. The only issue (probably this "legacy" issue you mentioned, I presume?) is that most users wouldn't come back and re-evaluate the separated title, as we can see the original Yu-Gi-Oh! (not yet licensed) has been watched by 1233 users, while the (in)famous Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters has been watched by mere 370 users.
Um, eh, I already splitted Aa Megami-sama: Sorezore no Tsubasa. 
I just remember another good reason to keep them separated: in some rare cases, different seasons are animated by different studios (like the case of Full Metal Panic!), with different cast/staff, or licensed by different licensers. Clustering the cast/staff/companies list with precision tags ("first season, eps 1-13" "second season, eps 14-26") would be very annoying. Furthermore, if they were separated, users need not to change the state of a complete series from "seen all" back to "seen some" just because a new season comes out. Simply add the new season to "want to see" should be fine. |
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wao
Posts: 224 |
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If you would separate the Ghost in the Shell TV series, I'll change all the episode director/storyboarder/script/animation director credits to fit it properly if you'd like, since I added them in...
Actually I wish it would get separated, there isn't enough space in the precision to write all the credits for some of them (like Yoshiki Sakurai...) |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Yes... GitS... that would be the biggest headache.
 Not to mention the third season is coming out.
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
Posts: 3783 Location: Montreal |
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Yes, that is *exactly* the kind of problem I'm worried about. There might be a dozen other problems that pop up when splitting a series. For example all the news articles about Big O 2 have green links to anime #231 because at the time of writing it contained both seasons. If Big O 2 becomes a separate entry, then all those green links become incorrect. The same problem applies to all the websites on the internet that link this particular entry. The idea here is to preserve backwards compatibility. Also it causes management headaches because all the information ends up duplicated in the database; once marked as false and once marked as true. |
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
Posts: 3783 Location: Montreal |
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That's ok because it's an upcoming anime and doesn't have a lot of information yet. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I think this thread should become a good place to discuss whether a series should be separated or merged, for it looks like they should be determined on individual basis (sigh).
While we are on this topic, I've found another similar problem: one Japanese title being divided by licensors into two, such as Magic Knight Rayearth 2 and Peach Girl: Change of Heart. Suggestions? |
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GoodLuckSaturday
 Posts: 567 Location: Indiana |
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I'm still in the middle of the first season, but I have watched an episode of PURE and I do believe the information regarding PURE in the original entry is correct for a separate entry. It ran for 39 episodes, had different themes and so forth. Also, is there enough of a difference yet to warrant a second entry for Tsubasa Chronicle? |
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