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I remember back when the 17th series of Ojarumaru was fresh out of the oven, the 5th episode was originally scheduled to air during the week of April 1, 2014, but actually didn’t air until May 19 of that year (https://www.nhk.or.jp/anime/ojaru/story/series17/01.html). That always preplexed me because it seemed like NHK E-Tele was skipping that episode for seemingly no reason. There must’ve been some serious chaos going on behind the scenes. Perhaps the team working on that episode was so behind schedule that the episode simply needed more production time.

Quote:

If all hope is gone, and it looks like there's no possible way a master tape will get to the TV studio in time, the show producer will grab an editor and slam together a recap episode.

Why not rerun an episode instead of slamming together a recap episode? I’m asking this because, considering how easily disposable recaps are, wouldn’t it be a little easier for the TV network to just rerun an episode so that the studio shows wouldn’t have to spend a little bit of their budget on a recap?

Referring to recap episodes as a "nuclear option" that does more harm than good made me remember Wolf's Rain and the 4 straight recaps and the subsequent OVAs to make up for it.

OjaruFan2 wrote:

Quote:

If all hope is gone, and it looks like there's no possible way a master tape will get to the TV studio in time, the show producer will grab an editor and slam together a recap episode.

Why not rerun an episode instead of slamming together a recap episode? I’m asking this because, considering how easily disposable recaps are, wouldn’t it be a little easier for the TV network to just rerun an episode so that the studio shows wouldn’t have to spend a little bit of their budget on a recap?

Darling in the Franxx had an interesting idea of creating 2 cast interview episodes, which did not require a single person from the production to work on it, That said that could have been planned in advance, to give the production a break.

OjaruFan2 wrote:

Why not rerun an episode instead of slamming together a recap episode? I’m asking this because, considering how easily disposable recaps are, wouldn’t it be a little easier for the TV network to just rerun an episode so that the studio shows wouldn’t have to spend a little bit of their budget on a recap?

I think the reason has to do with the contracts with the TV networks. They are supposed to receive something new for a certain number of weeks, so a mid-season rerun might not be acceptable. One of the reasons some long-running shows resort to filler episodes is because their time slots are on a use it or lose it system. I don't know that the same applies for late-night anime since those time slots are purchased by the production committee, but it at least indicates the networks aren't too keen on reruns that weren't at least cleared in advance. A recap is technically new, especially since many have some sort of framing device woven throughout. Since the decision to do a recap can come down to the last minute, I imagine networks would be even less pleased to get a last minute call saying they needed to replay last week's episode.

One thing I have noticed lately is that we'll see shows that were perhaps planned for 12 episodes, have a recap episode labeled as something like episode 6.5, and then still end up with 12 real episodes at the end. Goblin Slayer did that, which leaves me curious on how that works. Does the animation studio have to find a way to stretch the thin budget even thinner to get one more episode done? Does the production company chip in a bit more so people aren't turned off by getting 11 episodes instead of 12? (I'm assuming the studio is left holding the bag) What about the TV networks that planned on one show taking the same spot on their schedule for 12 weeks that now runs into week 13?

Speaking of anime showing what it's like to make anime, Paranoia Agent had an episode that shows an extreme case of a production going down the tubes. It almost feels like it was written by having every member of the staff contribute one horror story and mashing them all together. Schedule slipping, a rushed delivery by taxi, a completely useless production assistant gumming things up, some poor sod of an animator dropping dead, just everything going wrong.

Dumas1 wrote:

Speaking of anime showing what it's like to make anime, Paranoia Agent had an episode that shows an extreme case of a production going down the tubes. It almost feels like it was written by having every member of the staff contribute one horror story and mashing them all together. Schedule slipping, a rushed delivery by taxi, a completely useless production assistant gumming things up, some poor sod of an animator dropping dead, just everything going wrong.

Any time I see a questions like this, I always think of that episode. It's probably because I didn't know that things came down to the wire like that until I saw it.

Are you sure that general statement of all recap episodes in the middle of the series are intentional due to delays and meansrewrites In the remaining episodes to compress it? As an example I'd like to think some shows were only ever intended to be 12 episodes but they threw a recap episode in the middle cover the 13 week airtime slot. And not done due to time constraints.

Some of them are planned. I remember Re: Creators was very insistent that their mid-run recap was planned, but I'm sure it still serves the same purpose, it's just a planned buffer/catch-up time rather than an unplanned one.

I remember one of the simulcast episodes for Seraph Of The End had no voice layover at all, it was all music (can't remember if it had sound effects or not). It obviously got fixed a short time later, but it was actually pretty interesting to watch.

Also Paranoia Agent's episode with the production studio freaked me out so badly when I was younger, but now I adore it, the horror is so dang GOOD.

OjaruFan2 wrote:

Why not rerun an episode instead of slamming together a recap episode? I’m asking this because, considering how easily disposable recaps are, wouldn’t it be a little easier for the TV network to just rerun an episode so that the studio shows wouldn’t have to spend a little bit of their budget on a recap?

I suspect that it's a matter of the animation studio saving what face they can; as bad as showing a recap episode is, they'd look even worse if they gave the impression that they were so screwed they couldn't even manage to throw a recap episode together.

Greed1914 wrote:

I think the reason has to do with the contracts with the TV networks. They are supposed to receive something new for a certain number of weeks, so a mid-season rerun might not be acceptable.

Nah, that wouldn't be it. The production has basically purchased the timeslot, it really isn't the TV station's problem what the production provides to fill it.

Dumas1 wrote:

Speaking of anime showing what it's like to make anime, Paranoia Agent had an episode that shows an extreme case of a production going down the tubes. It almost feels like it was written by having every member of the staff contribute one horror story and mashing them all together. Schedule slipping, a rushed delivery by taxi, a completely useless production assistant gumming things up, some poor sod of an animator dropping dead, just everything going wrong.

Probably not far from the truth. I suspect that with that, Shirobako, Animation Runner Kuromi, and everything else that's ever shown anime production, they've drawn heavily from collective experience and exaggerated a few things here and there for comedic or dramatic effect.

Yttrbio wrote:

Some of them are planned. I remember Re: Creators was very insistent that their mid-run recap was planned, but I'm sure it still serves the same purpose, it's just a planned buffer/catch-up time rather than an unplanned one.

Back when most shows ran for two or more cours, recap episodes were generally planned to happen at the start of a new cour. Any that happened at any other times would be the result of screwups. In more recent years, even with multi-cour series, the number of "we screwed up" recaps in single cour shows has left the audience pretty down on them altogether, so planned recaps are now pretty rare.

OjaruFan2 wrote:

I remember back when the 17th series of Ojarumaru was fresh out of the oven, the 5th episode was originally scheduled to air during the week of April 1, 2014, but actually didn’t air until May 19 of that year (https://www.nhk.or.jp/anime/ojaru/story/series17/01.html). That always preplexed me because it seemed like NHK E-Tele was skipping that episode for seemingly no reason. There must’ve been some serious chaos going on behind the scenes. Perhaps the team working on that episode was so behind schedule that the episode simply needed more production time.

Quote:

If all hope is gone, and it looks like there's no possible way a master tape will get to the TV studio in time, the show producer will grab an editor and slam together a recap episode.

Why not rerun an episode instead of slamming together a recap episode? I’m asking this because, considering how easily disposable recaps are, wouldn’t it be a little easier for the TV network to just rerun an episode so that the studio shows wouldn’t have to spend a little bit of their budget on a recap?

I wonder that too as some stations in Japan rerun older shows and episodes but they don't do this at all for anime that's currently airing. I see this often for weekly shows as the seasonal ones are often finished even before the first episode airs in the scheduled timeslot. This is why I think if some shows like One Piece or even Detective Conan were seasonal instead of weekly, that the quality of them would improve a lot more than they are now. My take is that they simply just do things that way out of convenience and well, it's not a good thing.

Shows here in the States tend to air reruns when they can't air new episodes of something because of events (i.e. sports, awards shows, etc.). Most shows I watch are seasonal and don't air year round such as a lot of the reality shows and even animated ones nowadays like South Park.

Ziko577 wrote:

I wonder that too as some stations in Japan rerun older shows and episodes but they don't do this at all for anime that's currently airing. I see this often for weekly shows as the seasonal ones are often finished even before the first episode airs in the scheduled timeslot. This is why I think if some shows like One Piece or even Detective Conan were seasonal instead of weekly, that the quality of them would improve a lot more than they are now. My take is that they simply just do things that way out of convenience and well, it's not a good thing.

No, actually a few shows re-run episodes on sister channels around a few days after it airs.

And it goes without saying that seasonal shows are better quality (well, for the most part), cause even if the entire season isn't completed before the show airs, it's still a lot less episodes to make.

One Piece used to take breaks a lot, averaging only about 40 episodes per year before it was moved to it's current sunday morning timeslot, which is a primetime slot that doesn't allow any breaks other than the ones already planned. This is why back in the older days One Piece was able to get away with little filler and still have good pacing, and the art and animation was better. This is also why Dragon Ball Super got some very badly animated episodes like episode 5, cause that timeslot taking a break (or even recap episodes) just isn't allowed. Toei animation directors have even said their scheduling is so insane they just simply don't have time to tidy everything up.

And Detective Conan often re-run remastered episodes of the ones that originally aired in HD, so they already have a lot of weeks with no new episodes airing.

But they don't do long-running anime because of convenience. In fact, it's inconvenient if anything. They do it, because they want to keep pushing those shows. Nowadays, very few shows have long-running anime, and the ones that are the ones the publisher's are really trying to push. There a lot of benefits (mostly financial) of continually keeping an anime on tv (with new episodes all/most weeks). Unfortunately, quality isn't the top priority for a lot of shows (that's not to say the people actually working on the show don't do their best, but the people at the top's priority is money).

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