Roy Mustang wrote:I'm sorry to say this, but that bug me a bit. If you want buy me the dvd's or send me rent dvd's of Bleach and Prince of Tennis, I'm not going to sit down and watch them or have the time to watch a 100+ eps show.
I will only go pass my 65 ep rule, if the story is good, but not when it over 100+ eps.
Col. Roy Mustang
Fish and Chips wrote:26 is the standard episode count for a season. Longer series are few and farther in between by comparison; not to mention the majority of the time the reason they're so stretched out is because they have no plot to speak of in the first place. Naruto. 220 episodes. Plot? I want to be the best ninja. One Piece. 319 episodes. Plot? I want to be the best pirate. Prince of Tennis. 178 episodes. Plot? I want to be the best tennis player. A bare bones premise and a lot of recycling of the Shounen formula will get you a long series, complete with capitalist commercialism and decidedly lower animation budgets. I cut One Piece some slack because all it's fans never claim it's anything that it's not, but my example remains true. Naruto is annoying, and Prince of Tennis is dull.
And there are certainly exceptions to the rule. I'm fairly certain Monster could never have been condensed down to 26 episodes (though possibly 50~). But the point remains that after a given period of time, these titles run out of steam, and are continuing more for the financial success of the producers than the quality of the story. I've never met a single person who liked the last arc of the Kenshin Anime.
Not to mention the majority of us Anime collectors are not independently wealthy enough to collect these mountains of DVDs, if we even have the free time to watch all these shows in the first place.
Length should never stand-in for quality.
Whoa. Back up. I think my little add-in comment got understood.
I did not say: "All long series are great."
Nor did I say: "Anyone who doesn't watch long series is stupid."
I didn't even say:"Prince of Tennis is my favorite series ever. And it's the most exciting series ever." (Cause it's not and it isn't).
What I simply meant was that those people who have only see series that are 26 episodes long should branch out more. Series with very large casts of characters can not be crammed into 26 episodes. Or they can but then they just don't show everyone or the end of the series (Fruits Basket is the most obvious example I can think of at the moment.)
There are lots of good series that are 26 episodes long. There are also lots of good series that are longer then that. There definately comes a point where too many episodes = not a good thing, but the same thing could be said for too many volumes in a manga series.
I have watched many series that were longer then 26 episodes and loved them. I would cry if they tried to cram Kyou Kara Maou into 26 episodes. Tsubasa Chronicles, D. Gray-man, Whistle, Saiunkoku, Honey & Clover, Fullmetal Alchemist, Getbackers, and Eyeshield are all series that are longer then 26 episodes that are worth watching (I'm counting second seasons as one whole series).
I don't think a series should automatically be written off based on the number of episodes in the series. I will definately agree that the longer series can start to get dull, but they can still be addicting and enjoyable to watch if the characters are interesting enough.
I mentioned Prince of Tennis in my first post because the story IS dull. But the fans watch it because they love the many, many characters, all of which have unique personalities and are brought to life quite nicely. It's definately NOT the best series ever but it's not the worst either.
