| If you're accustomed at watching/reading reviews of anime, it's sure you encountered this argument: "Has an episodic format so it gets boring after awhile". In all years that I've been watching anime, this hasn't occurred to me ever, in any case for me is more entertaining if there's a new situation in every episode than just following the same thing for god knows how many. Of course,this involves a certain variety in all cases and a little bit of re-inventing itself. What do you think? Do you find episodic anime to be boring after a certain time? |
 One man is no more than another, if he do no more than what another does. |
| even within episodic series there is variety in quality at best every episode is a new and interesting situation (dae le mushi no tabi yujincho?) at worst, the same "just following the same thing for god knows how many" applies (AKA "just pick a girl already you gosh darned amnesiac twat" (nisekoi)) |
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romagia said: at worst, the same "just following the same thing for god knows how many" applies (AKA "just pick a girl already you gosh darned amnesiac twat" (nisekoi)) And that's why I said that it must involve a certain variety. |
| One man is no more than another, if he do no more than what another does. |
| Depends on the anime, but for the most part, I don't really find them boring since they can vary the stories per episode. Dirty Pair, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, and several comedy anime are pretty varied, so I don't find them boring. However, anime that use the same formula for the majority of their episodes like Jigoku Shoujo can get rather tedious to watch... |
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| Going to have to go with the generic answer and say "it depends". I agree with you though. I find that "monster of the week" shows are exceptionally entertaining when done well and there's at least a few reoccurring characters that I can attach to. I also especially like when a show just seems like random episodic shenanigans, and then it turns out they were all connected somehow in an overarching plot line~ |
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| Depends... it works for some, as long as they keep an interesting subplot running and have character development. Doesn't for others. |
Darek said: Also a lot of reviewers and reviews on MAL are either shit or Utter Shit so yeah... Ignore most of them. I wasn't referring to MAL, but agreed. |
| One man is no more than another, if he do no more than what another does. |
| Episodic shows are only boring if they are repetitive, which they don't have to be. A structure of a show doesn't determine if it's good or bad. |
Darek said: yeah I edited it and added that 90% is shit overall Yeah, I wrote it before I saw that. Anyways. |
| One man is no more than another, if he do no more than what another does. |
| I love episodic shows, Onihei last season was a good episodic show and the quality was constant for all of them. Master Keaton is an another good show. Good episodic manga/anime can achieve more in a single chapter/episode in term of storytelling and character development than a lot of shows with a classic formula. |
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| Hmm I always feel I am the odd one out here. While there are a few episodic shows I enjoy, a lot of them tend to bore me much quicker. Don't really know why, but that is the case for me. |
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| Nope. Mostly I don't mind episodic shows at all nor care but I think the major reason is that I'm so used to it thanks to hours of watching episodic adult comedy cartoons (ie Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Futurama etc) |
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| Formulas become boring if they lack flexibility and variation. Cowboy Bebop runs on the formula of, "The crew of the Bebop chases a profitable bounty, but lose it because of some unforeseen circumstance." Thing is, every bounty and adventure that chases each bounty that the episodes all feel wildly different. In contrast, "Fist of the North Star" follows the much more narrow formuala of, "Bad guys abuse villagers. Ken shows up and kills them a whole lot." This lack of variation is why I found the series boring following part 1. |
| "Bang." -Spike Spiegal "Everything... is connected." -Lain Iwakura "Life is too short to watch bad anime. Long Live the 1st Episode Drop." -InkSpider "Anime fans make me embarrassed to be an anime fan." -InkSpider |
| I really don't like episodic shows, and the main reason is because I feel like watching is a waste of time if most of the episodes have little to no relevance to the overarching plot. If there isn't a big, main goal that the story is following or working towards, then the series gets boring to me. The only good episodic anime I have seen is Cowboy Bebop, but even that could have been much better if it weren't in episodic format, at least in my opinion. |
 What's the difference? |
| If they do it right like Kekkai Sensen and Cowboy Bebop then no, it's not boring. |
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AntwanMantilla said: If they do it right like Kekkai Sensen and Cowboy Bebop then no, it's not boring. I wouldn't say Kekkai Sensen is episodic, unless you're talking about the manga, in which case, i don't know as I haven't read it. |
| One man is no more than another, if he do no more than what another does. |
| depends on the show. panty & stocking is a the pinnacle of fun and good times, for example. |
"I came here to sniff Madoka panties and kick witch ass and I am all out 'doka panties" - Homora Akemi |
| They can be good, but I think a lot of fans detest them because most popular anime--particularly commercial shounen like Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach--tend to have serial structures. |
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| Nope, not at all, if someone ever considered it garbage then either they just watch a bad show or they themselves suck ass |
 (っ◔◡◔)っ 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓪 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓯𝓾𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 ♥ |
| it's all depend... it does however easier to get burned out... |
 "If taking responsibility for a mistake that cannot be undone means death, it's not that hard to die. At least, not as hard as to live on." |
| Yes, unless each episode has spectacular writing. |
| Be thankful for the wisdom granted to you. |
| It depends on the anime. Mushishi is episodic and its one of my favorites. |
| depends, arguably like 1/5 of my top 25 are episodic, |
| It's good that Slop leveling won the CR awards with such a power gap, Gaijin Weebs don't deserve good anime. Not after what they did to frieren, kusuriya, and many others |
| I think it depends on the genre of the show, the number (and variety) of writers involved, and the episode length. The 1/2 hour sitcom is a staple of many Western television stations (especially in the United States of America) and writers have managed to hammer out a very solid and effective formula for story-beats. Similarly, many of the episodic anime I enjoyed, such as Patlabor and Dirty Pair felt as though they, too, had an overarching design philosophy behind their episodes. Nevertheless, I don't think that most episodic anime are quite as strong as their Western counterparts. Part of the reason for this, I feel, is that very few of them have a perfect 1=1 equivalency as sitcoms. There's a sort of je ne sais quoi about anime that makes the 1/2 hour episode less-than-ideal--perhaps it is characterization, situation, or some other factor. I think that many of these episodic anime might be stronger if they had been full-hour episodes. The occasional 45-minute and 60-minute OVA definitely play a role in forming this impression of mine. I would compare many anime to episodic Western 1-hour programs (Star Trek and its spin-offs come to mind, for example) in depth of characterization, tone, situation, and ultimately feel as though the 1/2-hour discrete, bite-sized narrative to be somewhat less satisfying than a full 1-hour episode. |
| I'm watching Jigoku Shoujo atm and it repeats itself over and over again but I don't really find it boring as the situations are more than enough to entertain me |
| the problem is the repetiveness of the whole thing not whether or not it is episodic kino no tabi has an episodic formula but the great variety in themes between episodes manages to keep the constantely repeated premise always fresh and exciting it also happens to not have stock characters to avoid the issue of episodic shows getting boring |
Crosswastaken said: It depends, some series do it really well, some don't. You could apply that to any genre/story telling style. Yeah I agree, that's how I see it too. |
| I care more about characters and their interaction, so the structure (episodic or not doesn't really affect me too much). Although I could see how an episodic would feel dull if it is somewhat formulaic and someone tries to binge watch it. Though I don't bine watch, so that problem isn't particularly applicable. |
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| Episodic series mainly revolve around the same idea but shown in different scenarios. I do understand that it can get boring if you crave for a sense of overall progression in the show. Personally, it doesn't bother me as long as each episode delivers something interesting. |
| I used to think that, but I've been mostly watching semi-episodic mahou shoujos for eight months now and I've been enjoying them, so I guess I was wrong. Cowboy Bebop is semi-episodic and it's great. I'm still not sure whether I would take to fully episodic shows with no progression of time. I like to see character relationships and such develop over the course of semi-episodic stuff. There often is a background plot in semi-episodic stuff too; it's just not necessarily directly dealt with in every episode. |
TripleSRankMay 1, 2017 9:15 PM
| No. Each episode is always its own story, even in non-episodic anime. Episodic anime just let you watch things in any order. If the anime is filled with great stories, it doesn't need a gigantic climax. It has enough worthwhile parts already. |
| WEAPONS - My blog, for reviews of music, anime, books, and other things |
| I'd say hating episodic shows is a tendency that shows up amongst battle shonen fans and manga purists; the kind of people who try to make you believe their fav is good if you skip 200 eps and read the manga to get the "true" ending. They're obsessed with "the plot" and sticking to it at all cost, and the quality of what doesn't stick to it doesn't matter to them: it's filler shit. It's also a problem of attention span and seeking instant gratification IMO. One user said it here: if it's not tied to "the main plot", it's a waste of time for him... Isn't watching anime always a waste of time Oo? It's funny because I watched Blue Gender recently (but it could have been any mediocre-to-fine anime to be honest) and one of my main complaints was that everyone in that show is obsessed with the plot. Le plot le plot le plot, can't take 2 mins to eat something or have a random discussion, gotta advance le plot, guys! It made everything seem sooooo flat. Characters had no personality and it was impossible to care for any of them; the action failed to feel tense because the pacing was so uniform and boring, and it crushed any chance the show had to talk about anything interesting. Can't care about the theme when you're busy writing le next plot development! I know you're all gonna bitch that Ergo Proxy's pacing sucks and I partially agree, but I'd take its Slice of Life episode over le plot any day @_@. |
Prophetess of the Golden Era  |
| Not at all. An episodic formula can even being more fresh, since the plot of the day changes constantly and doesn't gets stale like could happen to a non-episodic series. That is one of the reasons why I liked Space Dandy that much, each episode (except the last one of the second season), offered a new, exciting and ridiculous adventure who made the series avoid a tiring path. |
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doctor who is episodic and is considered by MANY if not MOST people one of if not THE best show on the planet.  also this girl deserves her own post she is fucking gorgeous and has the best voice, most adorable scottish accent, and best personality. |
removed-userMay 2, 2017 4:24 AM
jarring said: doctor who is episodic and is considered by MANY if not MOST people one of if not THE best show on the planet. also this girl deserves her own post she is fucking gorgeous and has the best voice, most adorable scottish accent, and best personality. Its ranked #97 on imdb so id say youre rather wrong |
 Oshii is probably the only director that loves dogs. He thinks he's a dog himself. That's right, its slime! It will dissolve your clothing slowly before my eyes! |
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