There was a time when a 25-episode anime seemed like it was not enough, as longer formats were the norm. More episodes meant more material and that’s exactly what fans wanted from a franchise.
However, as times changed and attention spans thinned, more anime adapted to a shorter format of episode release. Now, 12 or 13 episodes have become the most followed pattern, with some even breaking a 12-episode season into halves for convenience.
This definitely helps the production company to work at their pace, but it also affects the overall storytelling of the anime.
We hardly even get a 25-episode anime now
We all grew up watching long and continuously running anime like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood or Hunter × Hunter. These shows did not care about breaking their releases down to multiple seasons and followed a non-stop release schedule until they either completed the story or reached a particular point in the manga.
In the case of Hunter × Hunter, once the anime reached the 13th Hunter Chairman Election arc, it ended its run. Now, we wait for the manga to pump out more chapters so that there could be another season for the anime.
However, almost all the recent shows are choosing a 12-episode layout instead of the more common and accessible 25-episode anime design like Toradora!. There are a number of reasons for this, including production constraints, market strategies, and, most importantly, a diminishing attention span of the audience.
I think normalizing the loss of the 50-episode anime format is pretty bad actually.
— APin (@APin235) March 23, 2025
Loss of 50 episode anime? Even 25 episode anime are rare these days
— Nobu (@Nobu__11_) March 23, 2025
I agree but explaining why it’s happened in the current anime climate isn’t exactly normalizing it either. We want them back but i understand why it’s not done any more, which sucks.
— Jack (@Faithinmyevil) March 23, 2025
In today’s age, when reels and short videos have become the primary source of entertainment for us, longer seasons do not excite us anymore. But we forget that a shorter season heavily impacts the narrative depth of the series and the development of the characters.
Not only that but there are such long breaks between the two seasons that fans hardly ever remember the limited information they get from the first season before they can start the next one.
The role of the cour system in modern anime production
Nowadays, almost all production companies follow the 1 cour system for their shows. A cour refers to a three-month schedule of anime broadcasting where a single cour will have 10 to 13 episodes.
Based on this pattern, previously, we would usually get a 4-cour anime with more than 50 episodes, which later became a 2-cour arrangement with a 24 to 25-episode anime. And now, 1-cour has become the norm, with some even following a split-cour format.
Attack on Titan broke its final season down into many parts and followed a similar kind of structure, which left many fans dissatisfied and disgruntled. This approach definitely helps the studio maintain quality, but it also interrupts the flow of the story.
It is undoubtedly true that a shorter format is becoming more popular because of its efficiency. There is also a high chance, that fewer franchises would follow a longer pattern. However, by choosing an easy way out, is the anime industry not sacrificing its best storytelling tool?
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
