

Recap episodes are pretty common in anime. Every so often there will be an
episode (or multiple episodes like in [One
Piece](https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Enies_Lobby_Arc)) that brings the
audience up to speed on presumably a lot of material. In the past few years
I've noticed that even 1 cour anime will have a recap episode somewhere in the
middle (between episodes 4 - 6), and recently there have even been shows that
are 1 cour with 2 recap episodes(thought the title escapes me at the moment).

I've never seen a positive fan reaction to a recap episode, so why are they
still so common? Are they a hold over from the days before Video on Demand
(VoD) through The Internets? Or is it just another [filler-related
solution](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/24283/why-make-filler-
episodes)?

Recap episodes are different than recap OVAs for the purpose of this question.


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anime-production
Why are recap episodes so common?


Recap episodes may or may not have an actual purpose. From [this
article](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2017-12-08/.125006), which
I recommend reading, recap episodes may have a purpose for long running
series.

> If the show has taken an extended detour into filler sub-plots, for example,
> a recap episode reminds everyone of where the main story is at. It can also
> catch newcomers up on the story.

Most of the time, however, they are just an indication of a problem within the
anime staff. To quote,

> A recap episode, generally, means they finally didn't make it. Some
> insurmountable challenge has come up, someone has dropped the ball,
> something just couldn't happen on time.

In short, _it's just so that they can have something to broadcast, and it was
not originally supposed to be aired, had they been on schedule_. From that
same article, this has a number of consequences. For one, since TV broadcast
time is booked on advanced, there can only be a set number of episodes, _which
cannot be changed_. Recap episodes would take up a slot of the set number of
episodes, and the remaining episodes would have to be compressed in order to
finish the story within the number of episodes they were given.

On the viewers' side, you have to admit, it somewhat annoys you, especially if
it happens after an episode with a really good cliffhanger.


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