Name: Anonymous 2005-03-22 22:02
Compare a one hour TV show in the US to a half hour anime episode. The one hour show will have plenty of time to develop setting and characters, almost like a miniature movie. It can spend minutes on setting mood, or it can drag on just for the sake of filling up one hour.
Half hour anime eps tend to fill everything up within their alloted time, which is a good thing, but in the case of long drawn out multi-season series, why not tell the story in one hour instead? The breaking up of half an hour every episode can be jarring when the story could be told in longer sections. The downside, like US shows, is that entire episodes may just fill an hour because it has to, wheras a half hour filler episode is much more bearable.
Shows that could use one hour episodes include slower paced series, or series that drag on forever with no end in sight, such as Dragonball Z and Inuyasha. Others, such as Rurouni Kenshin or perhaps Gundam, could use one hour to further develop plot, mood, and characters without resorting to frequent episode breaks.
Half hour anime eps tend to fill everything up within their alloted time, which is a good thing, but in the case of long drawn out multi-season series, why not tell the story in one hour instead? The breaking up of half an hour every episode can be jarring when the story could be told in longer sections. The downside, like US shows, is that entire episodes may just fill an hour because it has to, wheras a half hour filler episode is much more bearable.
Shows that could use one hour episodes include slower paced series, or series that drag on forever with no end in sight, such as Dragonball Z and Inuyasha. Others, such as Rurouni Kenshin or perhaps Gundam, could use one hour to further develop plot, mood, and characters without resorting to frequent episode breaks.