Poll: Ideal length for an anime series's run?

[Your once and future Fanboy]

really depends on the type of anime, shonen stuff like Naruto,Bleach or Dragon Ball have that ability to continue to eternety and back because the story isnt even on the top 5 priority list for the creaters, and all of them are just based on the same formula; enemy shows up, enemy stronger than hero, hero must become stronger, hero defeat enemy, the next challanger appears after filler. Im not saying that the shows are bad but with that formula they can go on forever, and the main character must die at the end or the fanboys will rage for more (like when Dragon Ball Z ended, and they made those shitty movies and that god awful Gt series).

but shows that are a little more serious in nature, i.e Cowboy Bebop, Monster, Samurai Champloo, cant be too long, the story and the full charactization of the characters must be show in a pase that tells you everything but you only see the full picture right towards the end, and it must therefore be short but sweet.

at the end i want to mention shows like Lucky Star, where you dont want it to end, the characters are fully shown from the start, and you just love them. and for them to just have 26 episodes and an OVA, its not fair, Lucky star should be like Bleach with seasons in double didgits. Im sorry, i just really want see more from that show.

 

[jboking]

26 - 51 is ideal. when an anime starts to drag on past 51 everything starts to get convoluted and even more unbelievable than it was before. Which for some animes, says quite a bit.

 

[Shockolate]

Most of the really good (and often under rated) ones are between 20-30 episodes.

I don't mind how long it is, as long as it's awesome and can keep my attention.

 

[lwm3398]

130. Decent enough time to get to know the characters, include all the ideas and good bits, while still giving the viewer a feeling of closure and satiation. You can fit in deaths and relationships or whatever without having the series much too long.

 

[moose_man]

2-3 seasons, depending on quality and content. I'm looking at you, Naruto!

 

[RandV80]

really depends on the type of anime, shonen stuff like Naruto,Bleach or Dragon Ball have that ability to continue to eternety and back because the story isnt even on the top 5 priority list for the creaters, and all of them are just based on the same formula; enemy shows up, enemy stronger than hero, hero must become stronger, hero defeat enemy, the next challanger appears after filler. Im not saying that the shows are bad but with that formula they can go on forever, and the main character must die at the end or the fanboys will rage for more (like when Dragon Ball Z ended, and they made those shitty movies and that god awful Gt series).

but shows that are a little more serious in nature, i.e Cowboy Bebop, Monster, Samurai Champloo, cant be too long, the story and the full charactization of the characters must be show in a pase that tells you everything but you only see the full picture right towards the end, and it must therefore be short but sweet.

at the end i want to mention shows like Lucky Star, where you dont want it to end, the characters are fully shown from the start, and you just love them. and for them to just have 26 episodes and an OVA, its not fair, Lucky star should be like Bleach with seasons in double didgits. Im sorry, i just really want see more from that show.

This sums it up nicely, you really need to look at the type of anime you're watching and categorize them.

There's the typical 'shounen' series like DBZ/Naruto/Bleach/One Piece that just continue on forever in the formuliac fashion you outlined above, re-occuring enemies surrounded by filler. There always seems to be a lot of animosity towards the filler, but personally I think that's misdirected. Since these series follow a weekly manga, it creates a problem in that an 18 page comic runs at a very different pace than a 22 minute animation, and you can't let the anime overpass the manga. IMO opinion whats worse than filler arcs is the built in filler to the 'canon' storylines, lengthy recaps, excessive flashbacks, overly drawn out combat, that the animators have to use to try and stretch out each single episode.

Then of course you have the story driven series that are intended for animation, with a start and a finish. Here 26 episodes usually does it, but if they can go 50 then that's perfectly fine. Though sometimes they have a distinct start & finish, like a Cowboy Bebop, but other times they end but leave things open for more, like one of my old favourites The Slayers which has four 26 episode seasons, each with a distinct start & finish.

Then of course the character based series mentioned above that have no real underlying story and you never want to end, like Azumanga Daioh. It's nice when they keep going though eventually they get stale... another old favourite Ranma 1/2 was great and ran 7 seasons but started to get old around the 5th season.

 

[MellowFellow]

26 or 51 is fine with me and is usually the right amount, but my only exception is One Piece, I just love that show. One Piece is the only anime I really watch that has more than 51 episodes.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

As long as less than 5% is filler, I can bear 51-100. I prefer anywhere between 25-50, depending on story and what not. My ideal series length is 31 episodes. Don't ask me why. I don't know.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

If Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team taught me anything, it is that it is bad for an anime if it is too short. This is not to say that 08th MS team was bad (far from it), but the main romantic plot really felt rushed and convulted as a consenquence of the limited number of episodes. As such, I do not think 12 episodes is a good length, although it sometimes works just fine.

On the other hand, though, shows that last 200+ episodes tend to lose track of what made them good to begin with and turn increasingly sour the more they last. There are exceptions, of course, but shows that last that long usually start running out of ideas towards the end.

As such, I think 26-51 is an ideal length, preferably longer then shorter. Not only does that allow characters to undergo their full development, it also allows for a sufficiently long story with a satisfying conclusion.

 

[dthvirus]

26 is fine. Hayate no Gotoku did well with 52 + 24 though. I'd say whatever fits the plot.

 

[Steeveeo]

It really depends on how good the series actually is. However, there are some limits to it:

Anything over 50 episodes is getting just a tad stale by the end.
Anything over 100 episodes is just too damned long.

And most times, anything under 15 episodes leaves me feeling cheated, with a couple exceptions (like FLCL).

It seems to be that the best animes I have seen are at or under 50 episodes, so I'm voting for the 51 option.

Some examples of good ones with 50 episodes or less:
- FLCL
- Ergo Proxy
- Eureka 7 (subjective, I like it, some don't)
- Soul Eater (although the ending was crap)
- s.CRY.ed
- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (from what I have seen)

 

[dalek sec]

For me I don't mind if the series ends either after 25 or 50 episodes depending on the storyline and how it all plays out. Anything after that just feels too long for me unless you can make it work.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

As many as it needs.

 

[Marter]

I'd say 25-50, depending on how much story there is to flush out.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

26 seems to be the area of magic numbers. However, that is not to say that some anime aren't suited to go as far as the hundreds. After all, Yu Yu Hakusho was a little over a hundred episodes long and it was glorious.

 

[Hurray Forums]

It really just depends on the anime. Some have complex enough stories and enough going on to support a bazillion episodes, others are simple enough that 12 episodes can be plenty to wrap everything up and anymore would be overstaying their welcome or lead to pointless filler. So, I don't know, I guess I would have to judge each anime individually to come up with an answer rather than making a sweeping statement about all of them. I've enjoyed stuff ranging from 6 episodes total all the way up to the hundreds.

 

[Castratikron]

if it goes beyond 50 ish it sucks FLCL is the greatest anime ever and its only 6 episodes