

Anime seasons are _generally_ 12/13 episodes long. There are quite a number of
exceptions though, where more or fewer episodes are fitted into the same
timeslots. Most notably, however, a season can have 11,12 or 13 episodes a
season. I've seen this discrepancy occur regularly.

I would have thought that keeping the episode amount standard is good for
keeping the seasons aligned -- 52 weeks in a year / 4 seasons in a year = 13
episodes per season. The variant I see most is 12 episodes at a time or 12
episodes with a bonus DVD-only OVA. What do they do with the 1 week gap?

Do stations plan their seasons far enough in advance to make it even out
overall? What if a show is cancelled?

**Why does this anomaly exist?** Surely it makes it awkward to schedule TV.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-14T18:28:46.523
28020
2016-01-10T22:50:09.003
2015-12-14T19:25:13.027
8486
1530
question
anime-production
Why don't anime seasons have a standard amount of episodes?


This seems to happen in most regions. The typical reasons I've seen given are:

  * shows don't all start on the same day or even the same week
  * sometimes airtime slots are occupied by sports, seasonal, or other non-regular programs
  * networks may choose not to broadcast new episodes on holidays with historically low viewership
  * shows are sometimes only given an awkward number of slots [like SuperGirl here](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cbs-adds-7-more-episodes-005636930.html).

I would also hope that some studios choose to show more or less episodes to
ensure they have the right pacing and tell the whole story without an
obnoxious amount of filler.

I imagine networks know pretty far in advance what their lineup will look
like. Pilot episodes or other proposal material is submitted to the network
far in advance for them to review before agreeing to broadcast. It is also
important to remember that a large portion of every day's slots belong to re-
runs so cancellations just call for more of those.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-14T18:55:58.660
28021
2015-12-14T19:05:17.663
2015-12-14T19:05:17.663
1870
1870
28020
answer


Actually, anime airing is usually divided in 4 "seasons" each year, following
the earth's seasons. TV schedules get defined only close to the start of next
season, and usually there are shows which were supposed to air that won't or
they might get delayed.

Also, most of the time shows don't start airing on the same day/week within a
season, and might get a one-week break during the season (i.e. non-planned
event on TV, holiday in Japan).

To answer your question, anime TV scheduling isn't done that much in advance,
and is honestly a complicated mess. TV networks won't plan a year ahead
because they still don't know which series they are going to air and when they
will be ready, so having a different number of episodes per show doesn't
really screw up their scheduling.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-14T19:00:47.210
28023
2015-12-14T19:00:47.210
19591
28020
answer


As you say, there are enough weeks in a year for there to be four 13-episode
parts. This is true, and each of these parts is a season. However, there
aren't always exactly 13 days of each day of the week in season. For example,
the summer 2016 season (July-September) will have 14 Saturdays.

As to why shows go for 12 or 13 episodes, it's generally something the anime
production companies decide early on in creating an anime (a few months prior
to the show airing). Different studios and shows will have their reasons, but
either way, there we are. Unless we were there when the decision was made in
some board room, we don't know why a show got 12 episodes over 13.

When the planned season where the show will be airing is about to start, the
anime production companies will call the TV stations and ask for time slots.
(Generally, TV stations themselves aren't involved in producing anime, only
just putting them on TV.) For example, one will call to say "we want to air a
show on Saturday nights at 24:30 for the next 12 Saturdays". Another will call
asking "we want to air a show on Thursday nights at 24:00 for the next 13
Thursdays". Whether or not they get the slot depends entirely upon whether or
not someone else took it yet (and if the price for the slot is worth it).

Anime TV scheduling is competitive, as is a number of things in the anime
production world. Anime production companies will try to be as quick as they
can about getting a TV slot, but it usually isn't until relatively close to
the start of the anime season that TV stations get a full schedule figured
out. TV stations can count on their slots being filled, though, with the wide
amount of anime coming out each season nowadays (and they can always rely on
reruns otherwise).

So, to sum it up, anime production companies know from early on how many
episodes they want. How they decide that is dependent upon the show. When it
comes to the TV stations, they just offer up the time slots, that's it. The
anime companies take them as soon as they can, for as many nights as they want
them.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-12-16T10:27:57.603
28060
2015-12-16T10:36:33.743
2015-12-16T10:36:33.743
16539
16539
28020
answer