Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Did So Many OVA Series End Prematurely?
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
|
|||
|
I miss the OVA days, when there was the same volume of crap, only it averaged 50 minutes instead of four hours.
|
||||
|
||||
Shiflan
 Posts: 418 |
|
|||
There certainly were a few Cyberpunk OVAs from that time but that's only a small slice of the pie. I am a fan of that genre and I can only name 7 OVAs between the 80's and mid-90's that I would call "cyberpunk": -Bubblegum Crisis (+ its spinoffs AD Police and Bubblegum Crash) -Cyber City Oedo -Angel Cop -Appleseed -Battle Angel Perhaps there are a handful more that I missed or are debatable as to whether or not they are "cyberpunk"....but out of the hundreds of OVAs made that's a small drop in the bucket. By the way, if anyone remembers anything they consider to be an old-school cyberpunk OVA please let me know and thanks in advance. |
||||
|
||||
falcon.punch
 Posts: 693 |
|
|||
|
My Favorite 90's OVA were the Cyber Formula. While more mature and edgier in tone (especially the SAGA and SIN ones). They have one of the best things in music.
I miss the OVA format too. Albeit in the Classic way. |
||||
|
||||
|
HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
|
|||
There's certainly: Tank Police Black Magic M66 I'd say Genesis Survivor Gairarth and Iria are debatable, but in a similar vein to Battle Angel. I'm sure there are more that I can't remember offhand EDIT: OH, and of course: "Arimtage III" |
||||
|
||||
|
Cptn_Taylor
Posts: 925 |
|
|||
Oh man, this one and Ai no kusabi were great OVAs from an animation standpoint. It's a tragedy it had to be yaoi material. Especially Blue Wolves, it was like a hardcore mecha series. Earthers fighting an instoppable enemey from the outer solar system. |
||||
|
||||
MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5317 |
|
|||
Well there were quite a few that weren't Cyberpunk, but they had the same setting like Psychic Wars and Demon City Shinjuku. The earlier days of the OVA boom had some of the best titles, say mid to late 80s. Actual there was this one title, I can't remember the name, and it never came over to the west, but it was sort of like the founding father to this sort of style and theme, all I can remember is this couple went to a cinema and afterwords some monster or demon attacked the city (sorry I saw it a few years ago), I think it came out in 85 or 86. |
||||
|
||||
Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
|
|||
|
I think the best, or at least the most productive of anime companies what pumped out quite a collection of OVAs was AIC If one looks at their back catalogue it highlights so many of the titles mentioned here and several more not mentioned here. Sadly they don't seem to have kept their creative finger in the anime pie since 2012 like they did back when. I think many OVAs were also pilots to see what would spark a big enough fire of fans to invest more money into and it really was one of the best formats for the VCR and early DVD age, but I also feel it could just as well run on streaming services too if given the chance.
|
||||
|
||||
Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
|
|||
|
So, on average, OVA series got a budget higher than a TV series, but lower than a movie? Seems a bit odd, considering that TV show ran for at least a cour (so ±12 episodes), while most OVA series that I know of had a runtime of about ±40 minutes (or 2 TV episodes), and they were pretty much depended on rentals, whilst TV shows had peripheral sources (toys, commercials, etc).
|
||||
|
||||
|
John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
|
|||
Yes, that's correct, assuming we're talking about per runtime budget. (Obviously the total budget of a 26 episode series would be greater than a few OVA episodes.) In the age of the widespread OVA that we're talking about, almost all anime TV series were at least two cour, and almost all of them were aired during normal TV watching hours, not late after midnight. The production was lower quality partially because many of them did not live off of home video sales, yet they faced the same kind of time and budget pressures as TV series today. (There was less fixing things up for the home video release than today; though there were some notable "less censored" versions, you didn't have the kind of fixing slapdash animation.) OVAs were overall a premium product with a premium price and budget. They also didn't release until they were done, as seen by efforts like Giant Robo. Modern late night one cour TV series have essentially replaced the OVA; most of them are basically infomercials for an OVA product, by the old standards. A lot of them are "try one cour, then a sequel if it sells well" too. The equivalent of old time TV series are those series that broadcast during normal waking hours today (which includes NHK productions like Log Horizon or Ultimate Otaku Teacher as well as weekend productions like Saturday morning Shonen Jump, the latest Mitsuri Adachi work like Cross Game, or long running standbys like Sazae-san, Chibi Maruko-chan or Meitantei Conan.) *Nothing* pulls in the ratings like the TV shows of the time did; the much diminished Sazae-san and Detective Conan ratings of today are much lower than things like Yawara-chan and Ranma 1/2 pulled. Ordinary Japanese people recognize shows like that, or Touch, or Kimagure Orange Road, etc. in a way that late night shows tend to draw a blank. (Attack on Titan being an exception.) |
||||
|
||||
EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
|
|||
Although Dragon Half had only a "test run" from its comics, there wasn't much more to do, as the manga artist had a run-in with jail time, and by the time he was out, the comic publisher had moved on. Ah, what could have been. 
(Although they do slip in a fourth-wall joke about one character's manga plotline being completely removed from the OVA, giving him no reason to be on the show.) Also, for years, there was the fan frustration that the original Oh My Goddess OVA couldn't be done as a series, because the detailed animation couldn't fit to a TV schedule. Eventually, we did get two or three series taken straight from the comics with distinctly inferior animation, where they didn't have to worry about Urd and Beldandi's hair, and, well...it just wasn't quite the same. Not sure whether Elf Princess Rane was simply a case of the director moving on, but the two-ep. Shines man OVA was very definitely a flop at home, in its original Japanese. Whereas with the dub, it was another story, literally and figuratively. 
|
||||
|
||||
PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
|
|||
|
Bubblegum Crisis was supposed to run 13 episodes, but was canceled after 8, mostly due to rights issues. It did eventually get revived as the 3-episode Bubblegum Crash, which is supposedly an abridged version of the planned ending to the original Crisis. However, it was confusing, it had inconsistencies and it raised more questions than it answered. There's also a 3-episode prequel called A.D. Police Files, which is more standalone, and not tied to the main plot. Then it got rebooted a decade later as a 26-episode TV series that told a complete story (and had it's own spinoffs), but even that was supposed to get a second season, and didn't.
Megazone 23 wasn't supposed to get a sequel, but it was so successful, it got three additional episodes. Of course Tenchi Muyo spawned a whole giant franchise. I wish we had something like this today, where anime is only made for home video/streaming with self-contained stories, and no worries with sponsorship/merchandise. |
||||
|
||||
DaisakuKusama
 Posts: 85 |
|
|||
I think Giant Robo has got to be the poster child for waiting for the last episode to come out. Two and a half years! I am truly envious of those who are discovering it for the first time on dvd, without the agonizing wait for that final episode. Meanwhile, most of the Macross stuff (after the original series and DYRL) was OVA. Macross II, Macross Plus and Macross Zero were all released as OVA's and are actually worth your valuable time, especially the latter two. Macross Plus, IIRC, was supposed to be five episodes, but was shortened to four, possibly for budgetary reasons. I have fond remembrances of Gall Force. If you can find it, many of the standard tropes of later anime (such as laser beams firing at 90 degree angles) originated in Gall Force. |
||||
|
||||
|
Sharkacon
Posts: 28 Location: The Glendeasy, AZ |
|
|||
|
Awesome article.
I didn't get into anime until just a few years ago, so I've always wondered what the deal was with OVAs. They've always seemed like webisodes to me, but dating back to before that was even a thing. |
||||
|
||||
AnimeAddict2014
 Posts: 925 |
|
|||
|
3x3 eyes
alita etc.. let's hope Ushio to tora did well so we can get more of these ova coming back also i heard psyren is a good manga series. it is completed as well but no anime version for it? |
||||
|
||||
Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
|
|||
|
*cries about Princess Rouge
I WANT TO KNOW THE ENDING!!! Once did a search on the "original story creator Aoi Takeuchi". Couldn't find crap......  I'm quite bitter about Elf Princess Rane and Shinesman as well; though at least the latter has a manga....still, it was the dub cast and witty script that made the OVA a solid hour of comedy gold.
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group