What is anime? - Part II

Anime can appear in a few ways:

• OVA/OAV
• Television series
• Movies

OVA/OAV (Original Video Animation or Original Animation Video, they can be used interchangably) are direct to video releases. They have a fixed number of episodes and thus can limited in plot depending upon how many episodes there are. These vary from time to time for each series, but the more common numbers are 6, 13 and 26 episodes, each running at 20 to 30 minutes. OVA are produced over time and thus has a slightly greater quality in terms of animation style, techniques and quality overall. Yet, due to the duration, it would not be possible to get all the plot details that might have appeared in the manga, if it was there.

The television series are often a stark contrast to OVA's. They are shown at least once a week on Japanese television. Since there is a slight hurry to produce them, animation may suffer as less frames are produced by the key animators. The plot and characters however can be developed much more fully than with OVA's. Some series stretch for many episodes, the longest being 295 episodes. The manga can thus be completely shown onscreen in a case like that. One peculiarity about television anime series is that it does tend to get several chapters of manga in one episode. This means that it can catch up to the manga (if it is still being produced). On these occasions, 'filler' will need to be produced. This is essentially anime that hasn't appeared in manga form, and usually doesn't conform to the plot in any way, even going to such lengths as contradicting it in some ways.

Movies are a special category. They may be linked to an anime series, made to watch before, during, or after the series has finished, or a standalone. Plot from the manga (if any) is reduced dramatically for the movie to fit in the 2 hour limit (the standard length for a typical movie, like in the cinema). They can be done very well, a higher budget generally gives more time to animation using effects and more key frames. To overcome the lack of plot, some movies go straight to the action, with a few notable exceptions, which do take the time to develop the characters before getting on with the story.

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