55361


I'm not sure why there is a 12-13 episode trend going on. I've watched plenty
of good anime especially this season, they just end prematurely. 12-13
episodes don't really feel like a season, more like half a season, and almost
all of them had no issues with the source material (ironically, some anime
that I watched that lacked light novel or web novel and were based on video
games or visual novels had more episodes like 24-50).

Types of anime I came across:

  1. Has source material, web novel, light novel, even manga. For some reason, instead of just increasing the anime episodes, tries to fit as much as possible into those 12 episodes, ends up with a mess, i.e. _Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou_.

  2. Has source material, but for some reason, instead of beneficially using those 12-13 episodes, chooses to progress the story very slowly and throw in some fillers, which leaves the anime ending prematurely. Series like _Overlord_ season 2, _Maou-sama, Retry!_ , _One-Punch Man_ season 2, _Death March_ end so prematurely that's it's very unfulfilling for the audience. The problem is the fact that most of these shows are not going to be one piece nor are they consistent. They go on a 1-2 year break, then they might not even get picked up later. We've seen it happen with some other successful animes in the past 2013-2014)


CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-18T23:50:21.530
55328
2021-11-29T03:13:45.713
2021-11-29T03:13:45.713
2516
49997
question
anime-production
Why so many anime these days end prematurely?


Seeing 'these days' in the question makes me feel old already... this has been
the case for quite a while now.

# The short answer

Simply because it's been that way for a while now, and the industry has
settled their practices to go along with the broadcasters schedules to
maximize profit.

# The long answer

Note: A lot of my input here is based simply off years of watching anime and
the industry, these are my personal observations dotted with editorial input I
have also seen through the years.

A good insight into how the volume of production of anime has been handled
over the years comes from [Justin Sevakis' (now defunct) ANN Q&A corner
_Answerman_ back from
2013](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2013-09-13) and [again in
2016](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2016-09-26/.106891) (thanks
[ahiijny](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/55328/why-so-many-anime-
these-days-end-prematurely#comment69325_55361))

> Scott asks: _Something I've noticed recently is it seems it's much, much
> more common to see shows being only[one cour or split-
> cour](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/7977/what-is-a-cour) rather
> than two or more cours compared to like a decade or so. Why is that?_
>
> Back when most anime was actually aired during human waking hours and TV
> networks actually paid for the honor of broadcasting them, TV anime was
> beholden to its sponsor. This was often a toy company, or a candy company,
> or even a record label. The sponsor would commit a large sum of money up
> front to produce the show, and the anime producer would make it, often
> integrating that company's products into the show itself.
>
> This way of doing business, where all that money was guaranteed up front,
> was very slow to react to market forces. Sponsors wanted to get their
> branding out for as long a period as possible, so naturally they'd want to
> back a long-running show that would stand the test of time. But if the show
> bombed, and it often did, the lead time for making anime was so long that
> work had already started on the second or even third seasons before everyone
> realized they had a big ol' dud on their hands. The sponsor might want to
> pull out and stop wasting their money, but with so much of the work already
> done, they'd still have to pay to finish months worth of anime that nobody
> would watch. It was a huge waste of money.
>
> Now that late-night anime is the norm, the TV networks treat the shows like
> infomercials, and production committees making them are mostly interested in
> selling DVDs and character goods. Since most TV anime are now essentially
> glorified OAV series, the producers no longer feel the need to plan for a
> show to be ridiculously long without knowing if it'll be a hit. So this way,
> they plan shows a season at a time, wait for them to air, and see if they
> hit. If they hit, THEN they'll do a second and third season. It's just a
> whole lot less wasteful that way.

This still holds true today. Nowadays, these sponsors' shapes are in the form
of ~~[fidget spinning evil masterminds](http://hoshiiro.jp/)~~ production
committees and the schedules much more tightly controlled by having networks
be part of them. [A lot of anime nowadays is produced this
way](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nhT1ebLxejyagiiLET8ajDu9CnHaTrhsRsjNdiRfur0/edit#gid=1961048431)
ever since the start of the millenium. Your _Arifureta_ example is made by a
committee composed of [Overlap](https://over-lap.co.jp/lnv/) (Mixed Media
planning and publishing), [Hakuhodo DY Music and
Pictures](https://www.hakuhodody-map.jp/) (Production and distribution),
[FuRyu](https://www.furyu.jp/) (Games and multimedia content),
[AT-X](https://www.at-x.com/) (Broadcaster), [Sony Music
Solutions](http://www.smci.jp/s/smci/?ima=5115) (Sound), [Tora no
Ana](https://www.toranoana.jp/) (Retailer), [Bandai Namco
Arts](https://www.bandainamcoarts.co.jp/) (Animation) and
[Bushiroad](https://bushiroad.com/) (Promotional items, etc.) Things in
parenthesis are just an educated quick guess on what each party would bring to
the table.

Why production committees? In a word: diversification. Anime in itself isn't a
recipe for profit, so bearing the risk of investment between a bunch of
companies is better if a title flops. Also having companies that specialize in
many different things like music, toy making, casting, etc brings expertise
from many areas when coming together to make what they like to call a "Media
Project". This model has its pros and cons, but it tends to favor the
committee. [Sakuga blog](https://blog.sakugabooru.com/2017/05/02/what-is-an-
animes-production-committee/) has a nice write-up about it.

Now that we know this, back to lengths of cours for series.

What production in cours brings to the table is mostly _stability and risk
reduction_. If _Arifureta_ is truly a flop, economically, the committee will
probably cut their losses and not renew the project for more mixed media
projects and move on. Trying to dedicate resources for a long standing series
with a high risk factor would be silly on a economical standpoint.

But some companies have works that they have faith in their potential or
enough monetary backing to make series that are longer than 1 cour. For
example, Kodansha had quite some faith in _Tensura_ last year to make it a
back-to-back 2-cour series with enough leftover content for another season in
2020 if it did well. From what I've seen, it certainly did. _Overlord_ , _One
Punch Man_ , etc. are in a similar boat, and dividing it into cours gives the
committees flexibility to either drop anime that's doing bad or simply
continue making more with some time in between to recoup and restart media
campaigns, give animators time, plan events, etc.

Of course there are other factors that could affect the length of anime like
how some commenters mentioned supply and demand, waiting to catch up to source
material or even legal issues, but I think the committee/cour structure is the
main reason for this.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-21T03:15:08.247
55361
2019-09-21T03:31:55.340
2019-09-21T03:31:55.340
8266
8266
55328
answer