Why 26?

[jon_jinn]

it just hit me that there are a lot of animes that are 26 episodes long:
Samurai 7, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Witch Hunter Robin, Wolf's Rain, and many others. Is there a reason why they're all 26 episodes long or is it all just a coincidence?

[Puritan]

Divide 52 weeks by 2. I think its because a season is half a year and they generally show one episode of a show a week.

[Tommy]

It`s because February 6th is the day the Japanese will use anime to brainwash Americans to taking over the world for them. It just makes mw wonder why a year is never mentioned.....

Nah, I`m just playin.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Is it me, or the animes that are 26 episodes are usualy the best out there?

[Tommy]

Exluding Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach of course.

[meboeck]

There are also a number that are 52 episodes, notably Full Moon wo Sagashite. They are two seasons as opposed to one. Many live-action shows follow the 26 episode per season thing as well.

[jon_jinn]

yeah. i guess i know why FMA was 51 episodes. if they played one episode a week, then it would be a whole year for the series to end.

[Kawaiikneko]

well most American shows follow the 26 rule as well.. actually the number of episodes for a show usually falls between 24 and 26... *shrug* It's not like its exclusive to anime.

[Tenshi no Ai]

well most American shows follow the 26 rule as well.. actually the number of episodes for a show usually falls between 24 and 26... *shrug* It's not like its exclusive to anime.

Yeah it's true... just thinking how some are aroudn there. Although lately anime has had a 23-27 season range, it seems (sometimes 13, so a quater of the year long).

[meboeck]

(sometimes 13, so a quater of the year long).

A lot of networks seem to be going to 13 episode mini-seasons instead of actually going for a whole half a year at a time.

[jon_jinn]

i don't really enjoy short animes like that. i mean, the series starts off so well but it ends horribly because there aren't very many episodes.

[Tenshi no Ai]

i don't really enjoy short animes like that. i mean, the series starts off so well but it ends horribly because there aren't very many episodes.

There are exceptions. Haven't seen too many 13 eppers (only 2 now that i think about it: Air and Haibane) but Haibane can make a HUGE exception for a short series not being good. In 13 short eps, it was able to cover so much, and everything you needed to know!

There's also the becoming popular 6 eps a series. FLCL for the big example. Already one studio made 2 animes (one after the other so sort of like a "12 ep series") and they were Shinigami no Ballad and Hantsuki. Also in the short ep length Hantsuki covered quite a bit and Shinigami... well, it's one of those "no beginning no ending" series as a sort of Chronicle that'll keep going on...

[Arnobius]

13 ep= 3 mos
26 ep= 6 months
39 ep= 9 months (Nadia was 39 eps. I think Macross was too)
Longer than that is multiple seasons usually

There are some odd size ones, like Sailor Moon (season 1=46 eps)

American cartoons tend (or used to anyway) to be 13 weeks x 5 eps/week = 65 episodes minimum. This is why Carl Macek had to combine multiple series to get over that 65 episode minimum to televise Macross

[jon_jinn]

There are exceptions. Haven't seen too many 13 eppers (only 2 now that i think about it: Air and Haibane) but Haibane can make a HUGE exception for a short series not being good. In 13 short eps, it was able to cover so much, and everything you needed to know!

There's also the becoming popular 6 eps a series. FLCL for the big example. Already one studio made 2 animes (one after the other so sort of like a "12 ep series") and they were Shinigami no Ballad and Hantsuki. Also in the short ep length Hantsuki covered quite a bit and Shinigami... well, it's one of those "no beginning no ending" series as a sort of Chronicle that'll keep going on...

yeah, guess i haven't seen too many 13 episode (or less) animes. but most of the ones i HAVE seen don't really to be all that entertaining.