Screw that, it's too damn long!

You guys do know that anime is already plural, right? Haha...

You won't catch me watching some ridiculously long anime series, mainly because most of the long-runnning anime are usually shonen series'. I'm not a fan of that genre anymore, since I feel like I've grown out of it. I prefer shows with plenty of depth and drama nowadays, so I usually stick with the 10-40 episode seinen series'.

Well, I do sometimes revisit old shonen anime that I grew up on, like all the Mecha shows and db series', but purely because of nostalgia.

I like short things, as in 1–6 episodes or 1–4 volumes. To date, I've never finished an anime longer than 24 episodes, or manga longer than 4 volumes. Evidently, even normal lengths are off-putting to me. Only LoGH is of such particular interest to me that I intend on finishing it despite an 110 episode total.

Shortness in an anime is annoying. :c But length in an anime is off-putting.

However I prefer long anime's. It keeps me occupied through dark times. :)

Longest I have gotten is 24 episodes. I HATE DEATH NOTE!!! :C

I'll watch anything as long as is it is quality stuff. I don't give two ****s about the length as I feel that I can watch anything as long as it interests me. One Piece hasn't bored me yet. Not even after 600 episodes. And neither has shows like Gintama which have 250+ episodes. In fact, these two are the best anime I've ever seen. The "Best anime" tag is subjective and people can point out a number of faults in One Piece which are largely absent in shows like, say, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. But I regard the series with which I've had a more fun and have had a better emotional connection with the characters as the better one. I feel that long-running shows have this advantage over short ones - characters get more time to shine. I feel like I have more of an emotional connection with characters like Sakata Gintoki from Gintama than someone like Lelouch Lamperogue from Code Geass.

I don't understand how people can just "drop" a series because it is too long even though they've seen like 120 episodes and are enjoying themselves. I mean, as long as you're enjoying the experience, who the hell cares? Nobody's forcing you to get "caught up" with the show. You can watch things at your own pace - one or two episode per day is manageable by most people. Again, I don't get why people are so obsessed with getting "caught up". I mean, honestly, waiting for episodes to come out weekly is a pain in the ass. You'll know that the feeling is pretty excruciating when you get caught up. People should just enjoy the experience while it lasts.

That said, I do feel that the makers of One Piece are milking it to a degree (not the mangaka; the anime company - Toei). They could've easily fit the contents of those 600 episodes into 300-something episodes. The current episodes are following a one chapter per episode pacing which is just plain horrible. Each chapter is like 17-18 pages long and an episode being stretched out using a single chapter just ends up with the anime having horrible pacing. I feel that 2-3 chapters per episode is the ideal pacing. Gintama's been doing things right when it comes to that. I mean, sure, it goes on breaks. But at least the animation is amazing and the show doesn't suffer due to bad pacing.

Anyway, my point is - why bother thinking about length if you know you're in for a wild ride? Some stories are meant to be long. Just enjoy the hell outta it instead of worrying about crappy stuff like length. Of course, if you're short on time then it becomes a sort of problem. But then again, you can just watch an episode or two a day instead of watching 5-6. Most people do have that much time with them.

Gym Leader Rozu said:

Shortness in an anime is annoying. :c But length in an anime is off-putting.

However I prefer long anime's. It keeps me occupied through dark times.

Longest I have gotten is 24 episodes. I HATE DEATH NOTE!!! :C

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Umm, what's with all those contradictory statements? :p

Length in a series primarily just delays me from picking it up. If it becomes available in English via cable/satellite broadcast, then I'll just go ahead and start watching it then, particularly if it starts from the beginning. If you were to go to my MAL link in my signature, you'd see that I don't find length particularly off-putting. 5 of the series I'm watching are longer than 50 episodes, while there are another 5 that are part of a larger series that extends to at least 30 episodes in length.

I'm also reading through several series that are actively running or are at least 100 chapters in length and are completed.

Length will only put me off if my plate of series I'm working through is quite full already.

It's daunting to me, but mostly because I know my attention span on something is a finite thing, and if something is long (let's say more than 100 episodes), I fear that I might never finish it because of getting bored at some point. Even more so if it somehow contains boring filler somewhere in the middle.

If it's broken up somehow, then it's not nearly as bad - but if it's one long continuous series of anything with 100+ episodes, it's going to make me balk at even considering watching it.

I don't mind lengthy anime. I mean, I caught up with Naruto and even came to love the fillers because it helped me learn more about my fave characters. Now I'm so annoyed by having to wait for new episodes, so I'm letting them pile up again @.@
If an anime is good, length doesn't bother me at all.

I'd say yes.
50 episodes (with plenty of filler) is my limit, otherwise I'll just quickly lose interest in the plot; interestingly, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood's 64 episode count is the only exception (lack of/low number of fillers, most likely). Then again, I rarely watch anime with more than 30 episodes, seeing as the longer ones that catch my eye are mainly 2 cour (24 - 26 episodes) anime.

I don't know a lot of anime, but I still avoid the few of them that I know (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece) because they're too long. I read the manga version. It's still short, but it still gets through the talking pretty fast. All of the talking bores me to death. I'd be fine with watching anime movies because they aren't cut in the most exciting parts and get to the point. The latest One Piece movie was pretty good.

In the hands of a talented staff, a longer running anime can be great. Sadly, those are far and few. I think the problem with those shows is that they are eventually forced into filler or unreasonable padding of stories to stay ahead of their source material. I've always felt that's the reason Bleach was cancelled, it just had no idea what to do with itself towards the end there. The only super long running anime I've managed to keep up with are One Piece, Pokemon, and the entire family of Dragon Ball shows. Of those shows, One Piece is the one that delivers on such a consistent basis, and that's definitely thanks to the grand scope that its world is built with in mind.

I think the ideal length for an anime is about 52(ish) episodes. That's four Japanese TV seasons and whether it's a year-long show or intermittent, that should be enough to tell a story if you're capable of making full use of the episodes. 13 episodes is very short and an overwhelming majority of anime that attempt that length have these inconclusive endings, many of which are never followed up on. 26 episodes is a little better, it's plenty of time to tell a reasonably satisfying story without the filler that will invariably plague those longer running shows, but, for me, I always end up feeling like I could do with a little more.

I made a goal to watch all episodes of detective conan 4 years ago.

I'm on episode 110. Only 600 to go...?

Oh yeah! Detective Conan has been going on for more than 20 years and they keep coming up with new episodes. It's a wonderful anime but it's just never-ending. And how would they end that anime, I wonder? Would the ending be really predictable and cheesy?

Same goes for Gintama. Even though it hasn't been around that long it's still one of the longest animes out there! 300+ episodes. That is quite a lot. And I'm still not sure whether i totally understand Gintama still...

I actually prefer watching series that are already completed. I would much rather know that there's a dozen episodes of a series available for me to watch in a single day, whenever I want, than being able to communicate with a fandom about a single episode released weekly.

So it's not the length of an anime that bothers me, but only if it's content feels like it's being watered down. Which in many cases, means fillers. But even non-fillers can bore me, with Naruto being an example.

Why do these shows have to be so damn long?

I think it's a matter of whether or not I joined the series when it first aired (or earlier on) as opposed to later.

For instead, Shippuden is pretty long, yet because I grew up watching the original Naruto series, and then started watching Shippuden, its length didn't bother me.

But for something like One Piece... even though I've heard many friends recommend it, starting now is too discouraging.

I find it daunting to begin a 100+ episode series, so I rarely give them a decent chance. A good series like One Piece or Gintama will pull me in and distract me from doing my other responsibilities. In the past, I've started and finished series with ~50 episodes on the weekends before school days. Totally irresponsible of me. I cannot be left alone with such dangers! :P

I'm kinda lenient on this, but I can hardly stand long anime. I went through both Fullmetal Alchemist series unscathed, but I just don't have the time to catch up on anime like Bleach or One Piece that have a zillion episodes. I'd rather stick to the manga.