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Notes:

  1. Series of movies fall under 'movies' eg MCU, The Godfather, Frozen, etc.

  2. Movies that are released as '[sequels to series instead of adaptations from scratch](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/66540/whats-up-with-anime-movies-that-are-really-sequels-to-series-instead-of-adaptat)' I guess fall under 'movies' in this post. But maybe we can just ignore these movies.

* * *

There are lot of Western live movies, Western live series, Western animated
movies and Western animated series. I don't see any particular bias to certain
categories.

When it comes to anime, I notice there are lot of anime series but not really
a lot of anime movies.

I checked out MAL just now

  1. [Top Anime](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php)

  2. [Top Anime by Popularity](https://myanimelist.net/topanime.php?type=bypopularity)

They're mostly series. Many of the 'movies' on the list are actually '[sequels
to series instead of adaptations from
scratch](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/66540/whats-up-with-anime-
movies-that-are-really-sequels-to-series-instead-of-adaptat)', except notably
Kimi no Na wa.

To clarify, there are 2 cases I guess here, but maybe it's the same answer for
both:

  * **Case 1** \- There are some anime movies that are anime originals. But it seems (ok actually I'm not sure for anime originals) **anime originals are usually anime series instead of an anime movie**. Why is this the case?

  * **Case 2** \- There are some manga (or novels / light novels / visual novels / drama CDs / etc) adapted to anime movies (or series of anime movies) instead of anime series (which may or may not have movies that are '[sequels to series instead of adaptations from scratch](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/66540/whats-up-with-anime-movies-that-are-really-sequels-to-series-instead-of-adaptat)'). But it seems the **adaptation is usually going to be an anime series instead of an anime movie/s**. Why is this the case?

Guesses:

  1. **For either case** : Maybe there's a kinda compromise in that many anime series are **pretty short** (obvious exceptions are Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, etc) compared to Western series which sometimes go on for more than 5 seasons even if they still suck eg Once Upon a Time. Like many of these 'series' are actually better classified specifically as ' **miniseries** ' or something. In this way, maybe there are about the same amount of anime series and anime movies if miniseries were counted as movies.

    * Eg We might consider Death Note, Hellsing, Lucky Star, Erased / Boku dake ga Inai Machi, The Quintessential Quintuplets, School-Live!, NTR: Netsuzou Trap, Cowboy Bebop and Future Diary as miniseries.

    * Ah I found this indirectly thanks to Dimitri mx ♦: [Why is it so rare to see new long running anime series these days?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/34250/why-is-it-so-rare-to-see-new-long-running-anime-series-these-days)

  2. **For case 2** : Maybe manga is usually made with expectation of anime SERIES, not MOVIE/S adaptations? As for the few cases of manga that becomes anime movie/s (WITHOUT or at least before there's an anime series adaptation), I guess it might be the same reason as why some manga are adapted to anime series initially and then later there may be movie adaptations that are '[sequels to series instead of adaptations from scratch](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/66540/whats-up-with-anime-movies-that-are-really-sequels-to-series-instead-of-adaptat)'.


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anime-production
Why are anime mostly series instead of movies?


The short version is because the people involved in paying to have the anime
made benefit more from doing TV shows, since

  1. they use anime as ads for the things they sell and

  2. an unknown title will reach more people as a TV show.

If you want the long version, keep reading.

**Context about the industry**

The anime "industry" uses a production committee system. This means that
various company come together to each fund a little bit of the anime. And each
company gets some value out of this. This way the risk is spread around a
bunch of companies.

As a consequence a few anime not selling very well or being poorly received
isn't an existential threat to anyone. On the other hand, if you strike gold
everyone wins.

There are exceptions to this approach, like Studio Ghibli swimming in money
and just doing their own thing. Or KyoAni being part of the production
committee to have more freedom, risk and reward.

But generally it is the production committee who takes all the financial risk,
so they are the ones deciding what anime they want made, how to make it and
who is going to make it.

The anime studio itself is just receiving a fixed amount of money to make the
anime. Whether the project fails or not is not really their concern in this
scenario.

**Why TV shows are more common**

A big participant on the production committee is usually the publisher of the
manga or Light Novel. Their biggest interest in this whole thing is to market
the source material. They want you to get hooked with the anime and they want
anime to not really resolve the story, so that you will then go out and also
pay for the source material.  
From their point of view they want as many people as possible to see this
anime.

Movies have a larger barrier to entry. You have to visit a cinema and pay a
ticket fee. You also need to advertise that your movie even exists. TV Shows
on the other hand just get a TV slot. Anime fans will naturally get to know
about this new anime and can watch it relatively frictionless.

Other participants on the production committee might be more interested in
selling figurines or the soundtrack. Most of them have in common that they
don't actually care that much about selling the anime itself. The anime is an
ad that people need to see to become interested in the things they actually
want to sell you.

**Why anime movies exist at all nowadays**

You might have noticed the trend that most anime movies in the past decade
(the 2010s) are either the
[continuation](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/66540/whats-up-with-
anime-movies-that-are-really-sequels-to-series-instead-of-adaptat/66544#66544)
or [summary](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/13887/why-change-an-
anime-series-into-a-recap-movie) of an already popular franchise or made by a
studio specialized in making family friendly content or trying to become
something like that.

There's no such thing as an Akira or Ghost in the Shell of the 2010s.

The reason is the same as what I outlined above. The production committee has
no problem milking a popular franchise. It makes the franchise stay relevant
and will therefore keep people interested in purchasing what they are actually
trying to sell.

At this point the continuation movie doesn't need to convince people to see
it. There are already enough fans interested. They can also later be shown on
TV! If the franchise is generating enough money this is simply win-win.
Especially if you are short on source material for a popular franchise. A
movie won't eat as much available story and keep everyone interested while
stalling for time to get more source material.

But taking the risk of making a movie out of an unknown franchise and
advertising it seems like a bad idea when you could go for the cheaper
alternative instead.


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Alternative albeit indirect answer:

It's been pointed out to me that this happens in Western animation too
actually.

So I guess my initial assumption is kinda wrong:

> There are lot of Western live movies, Western live series, Western animated
> movies and Western animated series. I don't see any particular bias to
> certain categories.

I have a feeling the animated series : animated movies ratio is much larger in
Western compared to anime.


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