

Split-cour airing format is a noticeable trend in the anime industry recently.
Unlike most multi-season shows that are aired two or more seasons in
succession, split-cour shows have a break in between that usually lasts **3
months** (1-cour). However, these cours are produced as a _single product_
over the course of several months, not two _separate_ anime, per se. For more
information on cours and split-cours, [this
question](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/7977/what-is-a-cour) might
help.

Recent examples of anime that followed this format are:

  * Space Dandy - **Winter 2014** [break: Spring] **Summer 2014**

  * Hitsugi no Chaika - **Spring 2014** [break: Summer] **Fall 2014**

  * Aldnoah.Zero - **Summer 2014** [break: Fall] **Winter 2015**

  * Tokyo Ghoul - **Summer 2014** [break: Fall] **Winter 2015**

Some upcoming anime that are announced to be split-cour are Durararax2, F/SN
UBW, and the Grisaia VN franchise, though I'm not really sure. Anyway, as the
title states: I want to know what was the first anime that used this format of
having a 3-month break in between cour/s.


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question
anime-production anime-history
What was the first anime that used a split-cour format?


Based on an [AniDB search](http://anidb.net/perl-
bin/animedb.pl?type.web=1&type.unknown=1&type.tvspecial=1&type.tvseries=1&type.ova=1&type.other=1&type.musicvideo=1&type.movie=1&type=2&show=animelist&orderby.name=1.1&orderby.airdate=0.1&noalias=0&langid=2&eps.min=10&eps.max=28&do.search=Search&adb.search=%28%20%29&page=0)
(details below), I'd wage that first such series was
[**Fate/Zero**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fate/Zero_episodes). It
started airing on 02.10.2011, had 1 cour break after episode 13 on 25.12.2011,
resumed on 06.04.2012 and finished on 24.06.2012.

I ran an advanced search based on following criteria:

  * ( ) characters in title (AniDB marks cours by putting year date in parentheses)
  * must be a TV Series
  * between 10 and 28 episodes (your definition, as I understand it, requires "regular" cour formats)
  * first episode already aired

Because of deficiencies in AniDB search engine, I could not specify several
useful indicators, such as sequel-prequel relation. So I sorted results by air
date and examined each individually.

There are older series that aired with a split, but you requested it to be
exactly 1 cour (3 months) long. Notably, [Mobile Suit Gundam
00](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_00) is described by
Wikipedia as having been planned from start to end before airing:

> The staff, consisting of over 300 people, spent roughly two years planning
> the series.

However, the split took 2 cours, from 29.03.2008 to 05.10.2008. If not for the
3 months condition, I'd say that this was indeed first series to air in split-
cour format.

Another case is
[Major](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_%28manga%29#Episode_list), which
also had longer split (from 10.06.2006 to 06.01.2007) yet aired before Gundam
00. However, at the time of airing, it was not a "finished product" but
ongoing adaptation of still unfinished manga.


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answer


White Album was technically a split cour, way back in 2009


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answer