

I have been thinking about this for a while, but I haven't really been
watching enough just-released anime to form a picture of what type of series
are broadcast when.

I'm interested to know if publishers pick certain seasons for a show to be
published? Or do they release it as soon as they have the idea, in the nearest
season?

I'm sure there could be lots of reasons for a show to be published in a
particular season instead of another one:

  * Scheduled Christmas Episodes, Valentines Day/White Day
  * School Holidays / School Year
  * Seasonal trends for particular genres
  * Publishers know a similar title / popular title will be coming out

I don't really see any trends with this though.

The answer could be very publisher-dependent, but is there any evidence that
any companies knowingly wait until a preferred season?


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anime-production
Do publishers pick certain seasons for a show to be published?


I think most Publishers dont, since most anime are aired for 3 months and
contain a timespan of way more Tome(like in most School Anime they contain a
whole school Year), but I think there are trends of Genres over the seasons,
for example, most 'Harem' Anime are started in winter/spring and most sport
anime are aired in summer.


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Yes, producers do time their productions but for a variety of reasons.

First of all, anime are released quarterly. This means you have a seasonal
release beginning with winter in January, spring in April, and fall in
October.

To resume it, I would say that usually the biggest blockbusters are released
either in summer or fall, since after a big investment, producers would need
to sell a lot or get big audiences, which is accomplished by releasing the
material during vacations when there would be more people available to consume
the product, as it's usually everywhere. However, this rule is not set in
stone and there are many other factors that influence when exactly producers
decide to broadcast an anime or to release a light novel or a manga.

Right off the bat, if a certain anime season takes place within a specific
season, then the producers will time the release of the production to the
season in question. For example, the second season of _Suzumiya Haruhi_ begins
with a summer festival episode about Tanabata. The next 8 episodes called
Endless Eight are all about the main character being trapped in an endless
summer. The first episode of Endless Eight was broadcasted on June 19 all the
way through August. Since the plot of the episodes revolves around the
protagonist being caught in a time loop because he hasn't done his summer
vacation homework, the 8 endless summer episodes were broadcasted during the 8
weeks of summer vacation.

On the other hand, an anime like _Yuri on Ice_ began broadcasting in the fall
so that the climax of the season would be around Christmas which seems like
something logical for an ice skating show.

Many anime about high school will begin with the school term, that is in April
with spring since this is also the beginning of the Japanese school term.
Almost all high school animes are about club activities (like _Suzumiya
Haruhi_ ). In this way, the first episode of spring coincides with the
beginning of school terms for kids in Japan when they will also, most
probably, join a sport or cultural club. Examples of this are _Hyoka_
(Classics Club) or _Euphonium_ (Band). Spring anime is thus slanted toward SOL
anime or school anime. This gives it in my opinion a more comfy vibe since you
get more comedies.

Likewise, sports anime will be broadcasted in the season when they are played.
Baseball shows will tend to begin in spring or summer. But if you have a very
long story arc like in _Major_ , the show might begin in the fall, so the last
episodes are broadcasted around April when you will have the big tournament.
It makes sense to want to match your "Koshien" episode with the real Koshien.

Since an anime, like a school anime, can span more than one year, the
producers will usually use either the first or last episode to time the
release. Also, it depends on the motives. Beginning a show in spring is
usually adequate to introduce new stories and new characters. Whereas
beginning broadcast in the fall means that the last episode will be
broadcasted during the end of the year, which is a good time to wrap up or
finish a story.

So if an anime covers a long time span but the last episode is set in
Christmas or new year, it's very likely that for this reason alone it will be
broadcasted in fall, rather than spring or summer when you would expect bigger
audiences, since you can still make use of the end of the year holiday.

So in conclusion, there are an infinite number of reasons why producers decide
to release their content in any given season. This doesn't mean that there are
fixed rules as to when an anime of a certain genre has to be released. In
reality, it depends mostly on the story. However, you can see that animators
are really careful to try to time their releases at the best possible time, so
as to cause the best possible impression with the audience and thus drive
higher sales.


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