The Long, Dark Night of Long-Running Series – This Week in Anime

With One Piece about to stop continuous broadcasting, Chris and Coop talk about how logistics have changed.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.

Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.

Full Disclosure: Coop regularly collaborates with Discotek Media and MediaOCD, having provided copy for the recent Blu-ray release of Shin-chan, as well as the Blu-ray and streaming releases of Urusei Yatsura (1981). His opinions given here are purely his own and do not reflect those of his employers.

One Piece is streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix. Ganso! Bandori-chan, Ultraman, and Kamen Rider Geats are streaming on YouTube. Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray is streaming on YouTube and Prime Video. Urusei Yatsura (2022) is streaming on HIDIVE. Urusei Yatsura (1981) is streaming on Crunchyroll. Yashahime, Gintama, Attack on Titan, DIGIMON BEATBREAK, Precure, Demon Slayer, and Dragon Ball are streaming on Crunchyroll. Macross 7 is streaming on Hulu. Detective Conan is available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix. Kamen Rider Geats is streaming on Tubi.

Coop


If that’s the case, it sounds like this January will be a great time to get into the Super Sentai serie—

When it rains, it pours, Chris. Unsubstantiated rumors and leaks from children’s magazines aside, it seems we’re finally nearing the end of some long-established Japanese media traditions. In the case of anime, it’s the yearlong, 50-episode runs of yore!

Hey, at least my GOAT Ganso! Bandori-chan is still set to run for a full year. That’ll be nearly an hour of anime once the shorts are all over!

All joking aside, it does feel like the end of an era. One Piece has become a certified institution, whose sheer length, due to airing virtually continuously since its 1999 debut, is the stuff of legend. This is a show that got to switch from SD to HD resolution mid-run. Yes, it’s still going, but turning it from an ongoing opera into another modern-style, seasonal-installment anime feels like it signals the last wave in a sea change in how shows like this are done nowadays.

It’s even crazier to think that 26-episode runs are becoming rarer and rarer these days as well. Most of the time, production teams opt for two separate seasons of 13 episodes rather than running the entire series at once. The recent return of Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray is a great example of just that!

I can’t argue with the buff b-ball honse.

It wasn’t even clear whether they were calling it the Second Cour or the Second Season of the show, that’s how fuzzy the distinction has become. We’re just here to get dunked on.

There have been anime of all lengths for a long time, even longer than One Piece has been on, but that show still, until this announcement, reflected the sensibilities of that bygone era. So many anime across the decades, especially in the shonen adaptation subcategory, thrived on that weekly, ongoing model. Ranma 1/2, Dragon Ball, Naruto, series of this ilk all ran nearly unbroken for years, maybe occasionally with a timeskip-imposed title switchup here and there.

That’s the sea change I was talking about, and it’s neat how you can see it in direct comparisons between the OG and shiny modern versions of shows like that. Anime adaptations of Takahashi’s series are particularly known for their mammoth, triple-digit episode runs of antics and will-they-won’t-they romance. But where something like InuYasha could run unbroken for years, its sequel series Yashahime had to break up its airing into 24-episode chunks over the course of a couple of years.

Given the quality of Yashahime, maybe that’s a blessing.

Since I’m intimately familiar with the original Urusei Yatsura series to the point of requiring a disclaimer at the top of this column, there’s an interesting shift in adaptational approaches to be noted between the two anime interpretations. I’d personally describe the original series as a project that started as a straightforward enough adaptation of the manga before fully turning into freeform animator jazz—think The Simpsons but even further out there. Meanwhile, the new series is a “greatest hits” celebration of what makes the manga so beloved. Of course, there’s plenty of love for the OG sprinkled in, but the new series is its own tiger-striped beast.

Akin to my conversation with Lucas on Chainsaw Man, I see so many delicious cakes to take a bite out of with Urusei Yatsura.

The original Urusei Yatsura even launched a few careers for some of those who got to play in its miles-long sandbox. This leads me to a point of comparison regarding those old, ongoing adaptations and what’s being lost in the move to new, tighter, more adherent anime versions: filler. Hold on, I’ll let the folks from Gintama (ironically, it’s own example of a consistently broken-up, zig-zagged airing) explain.


Four million views on that old upload because it’s still the most succinct way to sum it up. Anyway, with even One Piece having more time to play keep-away with the manga’s pacing, it does mean the age-old tradition of “filler” in anime adaptations might truly be dead. That honestly feels weird! Alongside the weird question of whether that’s even a good or bad thing!

Personally, I find filler to be a lot like the bread you use to make a sandwich. Sometimes the bread-to-meat ratio is too heavily weighted in favor of bread, which might be a chore to chomp through. Other times, the bread is so good that it enhances the meal. Then there are times when there isn’t enough bread to hold the whole thing together. For example, even though it doesn’t really add to the overall narrative, there’s a reason people love this:


And we’re talking about a series that became infamous for padding out its many battles. However, when the topic of shows that use “filler” to their benefit comes to mind, I can’t help but think of a certain wacky guitar man…

Macross 7 is my personal favorite for its effective use of slower moments to build a greater world. This series isn’t an adaptation, but it uses its opening season’s worth of episodes to ensure that the viewer is intimately familiar with its cast. From small things like the crazy straws Basara keeps in his fridge, the friction between the four members of Fire Bomber, or the constant confusion folks have over a guy flying into battle with only a six-string on his back. 7 is infamous for the slice-of-life pacing that kicks it off, but it feels all the more impactful once viewers hit the full thrust of the plot at play. Also, shout-outs to the flower girl.

Macross 7 is an older show itself, but with the age of ongoing shonen adaptations like One Piece now soundly over, I suspect that Basara and the bunch’s definition of “filler” will become the dominant one: slower, episodic entries, nonetheless deliberately pacing out the show. It’s not as if this wasn’t how a bunch of folks were already (mis)using the term.

But as you indicated with your Dragon Ball driving school example, there are places for filler in its original sense of “extra non-manga material made to fill time.” Don’t get me wrong, a lot of it does question the necessity of running these shows continuously. Bleach‘s nearly year-long Bount Arc was exhausting in a show that had to go to the filler well too much already. I have to question the decision-making process of having the original Naruto anime pad out so much of its end with episodic filler. But then I don’t know anyone who isn’t happy to make a little time for One Piece‘s G-8 Arc.

As with so many things, it depends on how you do it. And how long it overstays its welcome.

Absolutely. There are cases where the filler strengthens the core material, making that killer all the sweeter. However, there are others (like your Bleach example) that have me asking, “Is it worth the trouble for everyone involved on the production side?” It’s no secret that working conditions for animators have been notoriously poor for years, long before we had to sit down for a chat anytime MAPPA is brought up. There’s a nonzero possibility that the end of nonstop productions like One Piece will get us a little closer to this…

However, the situation is significantly more complicated and institutional than that, varying from studio to studio.

One Piece was already a place where the cracks were starting to show. Just last year, the anime put its run on pause to air a special and a remastered version of a previous arc to play catch-up in the background. Filler in its purest form, even if, as usual, some parts were nice.

Basically, One Piece finally figured out what so many modern adaptations like My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, and SPY x FAMILY did years ago: the pipeline for production is simply untenable for a continuous release. Doesn’t mean it’s not going to have some crunch getting it all out there, but hopefully the staff won’t be crushing themselves getting out-stretched-thin episode-length adaptations of single chapters

Going back to the earlier mention of Super Sentai, this trend is also seen in tokusatsu. Although the initial reasons for the shift allegedly differ, the Ultraman series has mostly run in 26-episode seasons since 2013’s Ultraman Ginga, which was 12 episodes long. From the outside looking in, Tsuburaya’s general strategy appears to be producing a new show that airs for half a year while securing their time slot with a digest series in the off-seasons.


Smart plan in my book, even if broadcast television isn’t exactly relevant these days.

Given my opinions on how the latter parts of some Reiwa-era Kamen Rider shows have gone, I would not complain about Toei‘s own toku ventures ending with some room to breathe.

Now, that isn’t to say that today’s anime don’t have their own ways of dragging things out, even with non-continuous airing schedules. The adaptation of Demon Slayer has become notorious among some for its decompressed pacing, as those involved in the production do their level best to squeeze as much blood from the stone of what was a comparatively brisk shonen manga.

This also includes interstitial movie releases and subsequent double-dipping with cut-up TV airings, and I gotta wonder if they’re looking to pull this same maneuver with another megahit and that Chainsaw Man movie you and Lucas talked about earlier this week.

Publishers and producers are always looking to get some extra out of a piece of art they’ve turned into a popular product. They’ve just figured out how to use things like that previously used recut model to do it without having to make and air a new episode of anime every week. Still, it requires some sense of continuity, which is how you end up with things like Attack on Titan‘s hilariously appended refusal to end for so long.

You can understand why they might want to keep these balls in the air as long as possible. As you and I have covered before, a follow-up taking too long or not capitalizing on hype properly can be fatal to a would-be big, long-running franchise.

That’s certainly a lot of One Piece cakes all at once.

Given some of Oda’s character designs, I want to say that you’re awfully brave running an unfiltered image search for “One Piece cake”.

You know… That’s a great point I didn’t stop to consider when making that jokey observation.

It’s been around long enough that you gotta familiarize yourself with these things! At least you’ll have extra space to catch up now. While I am curious about how I might have to explain to future generations how shows like One Piece became so long, it’s not as if the structure is going away. Detective Conan is still a holdout, having run even longer than One Piece and showing no sign of slowing down. It even still utilizes filler, which isn’t too hard for an episodic mystery series (that still purports to have an ongoing plotline).

There are other institutions like Chibi Maruko-chan, Anpanman, and of course Sazae-san that probably aren’t going anywhere, but those are exceptions that absolutely aren’t beholden to the rules of modern anime. And given that One Piece switching from its kid-friendly morning timeslot to a more otaku-targeted evening airing was another part of this story, it makes sense to acknowledge long-running kids-and-family shows like that. Being a Sunday-morning revival of a classic is a big reason why Dragon Ball Super managed to run for multiple years in the 2010s, and even the past couple Digimon anime hung out in the same time slot for a year-and-a-half each. We’ll see what that says for DIGIMON BEATBREAK‘s run.

As your opening comment about Super Sentai indicated, being an ingrained kids’ series in Japan might not necessarily guarantee constantly airing continuations.

No, siree, there’s a whole universe of heroes (and rapidly shifting market conditions) that any long-running series has to contend with. Well, at least we can hope they go out on a WINNING note if and when the time comes.

To be sure, as of this writing, the news of Super Sentai going out is still a swirling rumor mill of possibilities that now sounds like it might be more of a rebrand. But it still shows that anything is possible, even if these kids’ shows aren’t dominated by One Piece anymore. Pretty Cure is one of those with its annual resets that’s still going strong. And others fly under the radar of mainstream weebs like the Pretty Rhythm franchise, which it turns out has been running nearly unbroken since 2011!

That feels like an especially valuable point, given I know many tend to associate this long-running model with shonen action adaptations geared toward boys. Long-running shojo and girl-geared anime have their own place in history, of course.

True, that’s an audience regularly overlooked in favor of shonen titles that seem like a “safe bet” to the suits. Which is funny considering the many, many, many times I’ve been around femme and AFAB fans who’ve set their wallets completely on fire because they’re going to buy any shojo merch they can get their hands on. Whether it’s manga, Blu-rays, figures, or fan products, they will shell out.

And it seems like they’ll be some of the last ones standing when it comes to long-form anime on TV for the time being. Part of me does feel like I’ll miss the era of reliably running adaptations, but as we covered here, there have been a lot of ups and downs to that model. And I’m not going to deny that a more concentrated approach makes it easier for me to be caught up on something like Chainsaw Man compared to if it had a 30+ episode extra arc in the middle where Denji and Power fought a group of C-list anime original Devils. So maybe this is for the best.

Not like slowing down is going to make it that much easier to catch up on One Piece at this point anyway.

Too much cake, too much cake…