Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Anime Series So Short These Days?
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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Which was the other episode that didn't have one? Cause I'm pretty sure every episode aside from the finale at least had a scene with villains who hadn't attacked yet scheming, and they always did that while bathing, for some reason. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Yeah, true, I didn't do my due diligence on that list at all. 91 Days will almost definitely end conclusively. And there are a couple of other slice of life shows that also ended satisfyingly(though sol is sort of cheating in this regard).
Lol, this sounds like a real gem. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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I think it was episode 6 when they fight the one winged angel. I have this vague idea of thinking it was the second time there was no bath scenes when I watched the last one.
As long as it is entertaining it does not have to be a masterpiece for me to keep watching :p And the op song is catchy. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13555 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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The 11-13 episode trend has been going on for years. From a business standpoint, it makes more sense. I hope "91 Days" does well in sales because I would like a few OVA episodes (at least 2) or an entire 2nd season.
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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You thinking like a spin off or something? I can't imagine them going beyond where this conclusion seems to be headed. In fact, I think 91 Days is honestly one of the better examples of a one cour show utilizing this length in a decent while. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5317 |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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It's more like a 300 page novel though. I think that 10-26 episodes is excellent length. It's much longer than a film allowing for additional complexity but shorter than Western TV shows which tend to last 4,000 minutes but to be 90% filler (or more accurately, Western TV is essentially a sequence of unrelated stories that happen to occur with the same set of characters, almost impossible to find a TV show that lasts 5,000 minutes and has a continuous plot in the west (well, Babylon 5)). Hence, for me its the ideal length at 300-700 minutes to tell a story.
And some do, like Grave of the Fireflies. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4575 |
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The fun thing with the Star Wars example is that the original 1977 film, which started everything off, didn't have much in the way of what most of us would call "world-building" either. Of course there's the legendary title crawl, which gives a neat 90 seconds of background exposition (while also hearkening back to the sci-fi serials that largely inspired Lucas), but there are few to no moments in the film itself where people sit around and infodump about the general setting of this galaxy far, far away. For a film that founded a franchise which has pulled in tens of billions of dollars over the decades, it's remarkably restrained in that regard, and I think it's part of what makes its appeal so timeless. The Lucas of years past did a fantastic job of employing the old adage "show, don't tell," and by and large I think Abrams did as well with The Force Awakens. One of the most egregious sins of the prequels (and there are so many to choose from) is how much they engage in telling instead of showing: just think of how many scenes consisted of two characters standing around talking to each other about events that happened elsewhere. So yeah, just a fun comparison point. In general even many of the anime series I love tend to fall into the "tell-don't-show" trap more frequently than I'd like. I think most of that comes down to the medium's manga roots: that sort of thing works just fine if it's in word balloons, or on the pages of a novel, but it's just not meant for a filmic medium in general. I've found that the most skilled anime directors are those who implicitly understand that. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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Could also be chalked up to the unwillingness of the Production Committee to change things (like dialogue) much. Or just the general difficulties of adapting, especially if they're on a tight timeline. On the other hand, it's not like examples don't abound here in the West. The Doctor explains to the Companion... the Science Officer explains to the Captain... The Detective explains to the the Lieutenant... They're all just explaining to us the viewer. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5920 |
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This show and don't spend anytime telling or setting up routine tended to lead to things getting thrown in that looked awkward in retrospect. Like Vader being Luke's father. |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4575 |
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Yeah, examples abound in fictional media everywhere, but I'm firmly convinced that anime has elevated the act of a character saying "As you already know..." and then proceeding to spew exposition that literally everyone in the room has known since birth to a special art form. It's just...stop, writers. Please. (Shounen in particular is an odious offender here.)
Now see, I'm not saying that a narrative shouldn't spend any time whatsoever establishing itself. It's more about how the narrative does it. Film and television are visual media, and so the "show" part of that phrase means that they should take advantage of that fact in their world-building. When possible, the actions of characters on the screen, or the details in the background of a shot, or even the design of the props and costumes, should all take a role in establishing what the film's world is and how it works. Obviously things like expository dialog and flashbacks are important tools too, but they shouldn't be used to the exclusion of everything else. To go back to Star Wars, we don't need to hear characters drone on and on about how bad the Empire is, or see extended shots of how it came to power. We have the imposing design of the Star Destroyer in that legendary opening shot. We have the iconic Stormtrooper armor, or Darth Vader's own mask. We have the classic proper-British-accent-as-movie-villain that the Imperial officers all use. We have the single line about "the Emperor dissolving the Galactic Senate" that conveys background without really requiring any elaboration. What we don't have, and what we never needed, are minutes' worth of parliamentary procedure and votes of no confidence. *gag* Regarding Vader, that moment didn't have any obvious foreshadowing, but it also didn't take away from anything that we'd seen in the original film. If you stop and think about it, Luke barely interacts at all with Vader over the entirety of the first movie. He sees him kill Obi-wan from a distance, and he's attacked by him during the Death Star trench run without even knowing who's doing it...and that's it. All we have to go on is Obi-wan's word that Vader killed Anakin Skywalker, but there's nothing to back that up. So when the massive reveal hits, the first-time viewer is utterly stunned (oh to be able to see that for the first time again), but they would have no real reason to say, "Man they really pulled that one out of their asses." I've heard people argue back and forth ad nauseam about whether or not Lucas intended for Vader to be Luke's father from the beginning, but regardless, the twist still works in context, and I think that's what makes it so timeless. |
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Ouran High School Dropout
 Posts: 440 Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA |
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...Late to the discussion, as usual. Oh, well.
Since becoming an active otaku back in the late '90s (VHS, anyone?), I've seen it all: OVAs, the old-time 24-26 episode single-season series, and some of the real long-runners: Fushigi Yugi, Cardcaptor Sakura, FMA, Ranma 1/2, etc. And for much of it, there have always been shows I desperately wanted more of, and (less often) others I thought simply dragged (*cough* Takahashi *cough*). And after all these years, with changes in the industry and in my own tastes, I've come to a realization. A lot of stuff is always going to be "unfinished" (however you define it). It's been that way for decades, so just roll with it. The real question is: did you enjoy the ride while it lasted? Did you like the characters? Was there a solid story for them to support? Was the production blessed with decent animation, striking visuals (where appropriate) and an engaging score (a sensitive point for me)? If so, I'd deem that anime "a success". $0.02 deposited. |
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