While thinking back on all the anime series I was ever obsessed with, or in other words, all the anime I had ever considered my favorite at some point in time, they were all ongoing series. I know it’s natural for fans to obsess over new and popular series rather than old ones that have ended, but for the me the trend has been very consistent…
My first big obsession, Pokemon, was ongoing back then and is still ongoing now with no sign of letting up. My next favorite, Tenchi Muyo!, was ongoing during my years of obsession with anticipation of new manga and the 3rd OVA that didn’t come out till years later. Similarly, my longest anime obsession, Inuyasha, didn’t die down until the anime had ceased to be ongoing and the manga was heading in that direction. My current favorite, Haruhi, is obviously still ongoing, and a few lesser favorites like Lucky Star, Kannagi, and Angel Beats! are in limbo.
Again, I know it’s normal for ongoing anime to attract a lot of attention because they have that element of surprise and speculation that completed series don’t. But even so, the majority of hardcore fans I’ve met don’t consider ongoing series amongst their all time favorites, and it’s even rarer that one would take someone’s #1 spot. For me on the other hand, an ongoing series was always my #1 favorite during my now eleven years of fandom. In fact, ten out of the fifteen anime I currently consider favorites are ongoing (bolded below):
Angel Beats! (I know a second season/series will come)
Azumanga Daioh
Cardcaptor Sakura
Chi’s Sweet Home (The manga is still ongoing)
Death Note
Evangelion (The new movies revived it)
Inuyasha (I know Inuyasha is no longer ongoing but I count it because it was ongoing for the five years I was obsessed with it)
Kannagi (When the manga resumes, the anime will follow)
Lucky Star (I don’t know about the manga but I know there will be new anime one day)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (It will be a sad day for me when this one’s no longer ongoing)
Naruto (When will this one end?)
Noir
One Piece (And this one?)
Pokemon (This one ain’t never going away!)
Wolf’s Rain
I’m sure every fan has gone through at least one period in time where they were obsessed with a particular ongoing series. But again, from what I’ve seen most fans don’t usually have a lot of them amongst their all time favorites for extended periods of time. For me, while I love Death Note, Wolf’s Rain, and the other completed anime on my list, they have never been in my #1 spot, or even #2 or #3.
It’s not just ongoing anime that are always amongst my favorites. Most of my favorite characters are also from said ongoing series.
So the point I’m trying to speculate on is why my anime favorites are always ongoing. The main reason I can think of is the obvious – when a series is ongoing, it’s always offering something new, which makes it exciting. You don’t know what’s going to happen or not happen in the series, and that keeps your interest and ability to continually ponder about it with fellow fans. I know Haruhi and Pokemon are always offering me new things to look forward to, whether it’s new games for Pokemon or new novel or anime material for Haruhi. Watching the Naruto characters grow and mature all these years makes them seem like old friends, and I’m continuously looking forward to a second series of Angel Beats! and the continuation of the Kannagi manga. But, while I still love Azumanga Daioh, Cardcaptor Sakura, and my other completed favorites, they unfortunately can’t offer this kind of excitement. After several years, I’ve already done all I want with them and the only way I can feel that excitement again is while I rewatch them or if a friend of mine watches them for the first time and we can discuss them.
For why I like characters from ongoing series, the reason’s a bit more complicated. When characters are from a story that isn’t completed, they have the appeal of being open-ended and more realistic in the sense that we can’t predict their future. Will their relationship with another character change? Will they suffer certain hardships and realizations? Will their outlook and personality develop? What new situation will I see them in next? Just as we follow the lives of real people and see what’s new with them and what happens to them over periods of time, we can do the same for these characters. In a sense, we’re following their lives in real time, whereas, for characters from series long completed, their lives have already been laid out and finished.
To put it simply, it looks like I’m the kind of fan that desires things to look forward to in my anime and characters. But am I wrong in feeling that having ongoing anime as your favorites is uncommon, or are there many other fans like that too? Perhaps I should divide my favorites into “most loved,” which would include my ongoing, exciting favorites, and “most respected,” which would include the completed series that lack the novelty but are not any less for it. Or maybe there’s no point in that at all since I’m just a victim of the part of human nature that leans towards what’s continually exciting over what’s finished.
Of course for a ongoing/currently airing series the obsession will always be stronger as new material is being released frequently. Whereas older series that you’ve completed, you already know the characters, their stories, and the events that happen, so it’s not as exciting as it used to be.
Though most of the series I watch are ongoing, I loooooooove going back watching older (or more recent) series that I’ve never seen before; like Bebop, Gurren Lagann, Slayers, and Utena.
In terms of ‘most loved’ and ‘most respected,’ the series that I tend to respect and give my ‘head score’ to are also the ones that I love the most. And my favorite characters change..usually they’re from series that I’ve watched most recently. I.E. Utena and Homura are my favorites right now, whereas three years ago it was Kyo Sohma and Li Syaoran. Of course my love for them hasn’t diminished.
And here’s a small list of some favorites:
Bleach, Cardcaptor Sakura, Cowboy Bebop, D. Gray-man, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kuroshitsuji, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Rurouni Kenshin, Soul Eater, Yuyu Hakusho
Only 5/11 of them are ongoing. Also, clearly I am quite a fan of the classics.
I too love going back and rewatching completed anime that I particularly like. Though unfortunately with my limited free time, I only have motivation to do this for ones that I especially loved upon first viewing.
Actually, for the past three or so years, my list of favorite characters and series has been pretty much the same (with the exception of Angel Beats!) But go back seven or eight years ago however, and it would be vastly different. I think everyone experiences their favorites changing as they discover new anime and characters. That’s one of the things that makes the fandom so much fun =D
ps I emailed you a while ago, but you haven’t responded; have you decided whether or not to feature aimless on your blogroll? I don’t mean to sound impatient or greedy; just curious.
Hmmm, interesting premise for a blog post. I’m not sure if ongoing is a draw to me or not since I’ve never really thought about it before.
List of favorites:
ARIA the Animation, Natural, Origination – Three seasons of awesomeness.
Lucky Star – You say you think there’ll be more, but I’m not so sure…
xxxHOLiC – Despite the seemingly random plot twists introduced by CLAMP, I still find it fun in all the tidbits we learn not only in following seasons, but in connecting shows like Tsubasa Chronicles, Kobato., etc.
Seirei no Moribito – 1 season of greatness. Balsa is my hero.
Kemono no Souja Erin – Another 1 season, same author as Moribito
Mushishi – Perfect length at one season of 26 ep
Nodame Cantabile – Three seasons. Even though I professed to never wanting it to end, and I faithfully followed each season, anime and live action versions, I really think the anime lost control at the end and tried to cram too much for a closing.
Azumanga Daioh – Again, another show that had just the right length.
Hana Yori Dango – A fairly long anime of 50 episodes. Even though there’s an anime movie, I don’t count it as ongoing b/c the movie is set in a completely diff. world. I also watched all LA versions (Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean).
The only pattern I guess I see is that for the most part, I tend to prefer the plots of one season shows. I like an author who can create a masterful story in the confines of 12 or 26-some episodes, and doesn’t get long-winded on us and end up pushing into other seasons. Emphasis on character and not plot usually is the exception for me. I fell in love with ARIA’s world and characters, that I was okay with the episodic slice-of-life and wasn’t so worried about a plot.
Thanks for the interesting read; I had fun considering my own favorites and any patterns there might be with length and continuations.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the post.
Anime that tell a complete story in just 12-26 episodes are indeed quite different from long-running ones that go on for hundreds of episodes, at least in terms of the goals they’re trying to meet with their characters and plots. I think each has its own advantages; for the shorter ones, no episode is dispensable, but sometimes they’re forced to cram too much into too few episodes or leave a lot of loose ends because they didn’t have time to address them. Long-running anime rarely having this problem, but instead they tend to drag subplots on for too long or have too many filler stories.
I would have to answer in the negative. My favorite anime and characters do not have to be ongoing to be my favorites. I actually like series that have a concise ending, where they conclude everything. I kind of dislike series that leave too many things unanswered (I’m looking at you Claymore!). So my favorites are from all kinds:
Clannad
Kannon
Angel beats
They all had a classic book ending, so I don’t think we’ll see anymore (are you sure about angel beats? It ended pretty conclusively).
Saber marionette – This also ended without any way to make more. Great ending too.
Gundam 00, Gundam SEED – I know they can make more gundam, but each story is separate and had its own ending.
I also do like the ongoing ones like Haruhi for example. So there is no rule. I like the anime for what it is. But there is something to be said about the length of the series. I cannot name a 12 episode concluded series that I would consider my favorite. I guess it takes a few more episode before it can grow on me.
It’s interesting that the three you listed (Clannad, Kanon, Angel Beats!) are all anime by Visual Art’s/Key/Jun Maeda. Clannad and Kanon are based on visual novels and they each end with one of the routes of the main heroine being completed.
New AB! anime is more or less a rumor now but it will probably be a retelling rather than a continuation. What I mean by “ongoing” doesn’t necessarily mean that the story itself is ongoing, but rather, the franchise if you will. For example, the new Evangelion movies are remakes of the original TV series, not continuations of the story, so the franchise and not the anime series is what’s ongoing.
Oh, and the reason Claymore ended the way it did is because the anime creators made up their own ending rather than create tons more episodes to follow along with the original manga. They made the anime have an open-ended ending so fans can continue the story through the manga.
Ongoing vs. ended doesn’t quite fit the kinds of anime I like. For me, it’s more like this:
1) “continuous/ongoing”: new seasons being produced in quick session, like Naruto, Bleach, etc. featuring the same cast and more or less the same storyline.
2) “active/open”: the series, or rather the franchise, hasn’t ended definitively, but the next installment might involve the same story world but with a different set of characters or be reboot/retelling of the original. The time between installments might be a few or several years. Examples: Last Exile aired in 2003, and its sequel is coming out in late 2011 with a new cast. Appleseed’s OVA was in 1988(!), it was rebooted with two films (2004 and 2007), and will be rebooted *again* with the spring 2011 13-ep series.
3) “concluded”: the series has ended and another season or sequel looks highly unlikely. Like you said, Cardcaptor Sakura ended nicely with the last movie, nor do I see Noir coming back despite its open-ended last episode.
I’m too lazy to do 10, so of my top 5 I’d say this:
1) Planetes: concluded, and very well too.
2) ARIA: active. Ended on a definitive note, but has room for a new cast in a possible sequel.
3) Ghost in the Shell: active. No new movies or SAC seasons coming out soon, but it’s only a matter of time since it’s such a popular world/cast.
4) Natsume’s Book of Friends: active. Nothing on the horizon after the second season, but at some point an OVA or film might appear since the manga is still ongoing.
5) Samurai 7: concluded. You can’t take too many liberties when you’re working off Kurosawa’s film.
Interesting way of categorizing =D The “continuous/ongoing” group would pretty much be dominated by a few giants like Bleach, Pokemon, and One Piece, while the majority of anime seem like they’ll be in the “active/open” group. If its original source material has ended, there’s been an anime version of said ending, and there hasn’t been anything new from that series in many years, only then would I feel safe putting it in the “concluded” category. So yeah, CCS, Noir, and my other favs AzuDai and Wolf’s Rain, would be in there. But like Last Exile, Appleseed, and many others, you just never know when they’re going to revive a supposedly finished series =)
hmm … for me, ongoing series usually AREN’T my favorites. Most of the shows I fangasm over are ones that I stumble over and watch in their entirety in just a couple days, like Time of Eve or Kemono no Sousha on Crunchyroll. When I have to wait a week in between episodes, I have more difficulty remembering what happened last week or who the characters are. Even for shows I like a lot, I’ll lose interest from week to week if the last episode wasn’t the best, or if there’s a delay, or in between seasons. You mentioned excitement as being the main reason you like ongoing series, and I guess excitement is why I like completed series. I lose excitement waiting for episodes to come out, but if I watch 10 episodes in a row, my excitement builds to higher levels with each 25 minute stretch and, strangely, can last for months or years after I’ve actually finished the series.
Granted, sometimes I think a series is over, only to find out a year later that there is a second season coming out. But, if it’s one of my favorite series, I’ll wait until the whole second season is available to watch in one go before I watch any of the episodes. Spice and Wolf is a good example … I loved the first season, but when Funimation started to release Season 2 on Hulu, I decided to wait until all of it was out. I just couldn’t bear the thought of watching half of it, loving it, but then forgetting details from the earlier episodes that would negatively impact my viewing experience for future episodes. I actually haven’t even started Season 2 yet, because I haven’t had a couple of days off in a row to devote to it yet.
The only exception to my preference for already-concluded anime would be my all-time favorite, Maria-sama ga Miteru … I fell in love with this while the first season was being aired, and fell in love more and more with each episode and each following season. In fact, after learning that it was based on a light novel series, I started learning Japanese just so I can read them one day, because translations and summaries just aren’t good enough to sate me :).
This appears to be your first comment on my blog. So welcome~ =D
There are many fans like you who prefer watching an anime “marathon-style” after its finished airing rather than wait week each week for the new episodes. I think that’s a more effective way of doing it actually in terms of experiencing the anime as a complete story. I also have trouble remembering what happens in previous episodes week by week – it would probably be better for me to adopt your method of watching series all at once, however I enjoy following episodes of new anime in real-time and discussing them with fellow fans =)
Thanks for the welcome! Gratz on getting me to post instead of lurking, like I usually do ;-).
I’ll have to concede that discussing episodes with fellow fans while they air is an aspect I hadn’t thought of … in college, I did enjoy watching shows, both anime and live-action, with my roommates, and that social aspect does nudge me over some towards the ongoing anime side.
I am kind of the opposite here. I do have more excitement because of the “newness” of a show but I still think that each show has a different degree of first impressions. For example, I’d say that DN is superior to Clannad with respect to how much more initial exitement it caused in me. For some it may be hard to remember/quantify this kind of excitement but I think it’s achievable, even if only at some vague level. I also think that newness is secondary because if the story is not interesting or the characters are not to my liking, then I will not continue watching it. The initial excitement is caused precisely because of what the anime is and even though I now know what it is, I still enjoy and appreciate it for that reason alone.
I would add that my initial excitement now turns into a kind of “nostalgic exitement”. I’d rather not rewatch a show to death and loose this, which is why I do not watch an anime again until a few years later. I must be rather forgetful too because once I have decided to rewatch it, the show feels a bit fresh again. It’s weird. I think the key here is that this nostalgia has a powerful hold on me that it rivals the “freshness” feeling itself. Kind of like… looking back at an old part of your youthful past. Even though you know what happens, it still has this powerful and priceless hold on you. Anime that transcends the present is intrinsically great.
This is just my view, I hope I’m not sounding like some elitist >_< There's definitley a place for new anime and maybe some are meant to be temporarily enjoyed. And like you said, there are good things about both of them.
You’re right that for ongoing anime, if the story isn’t interesting at first, no one can tell you “it gets better later” because that “later” part hasn’t even aired yet. So unless you have an aversion to dropping anime like I do, ongoing series run the risk of losing potential viewers if they don’t grip them early on.
You’re not alone in feeling a sense of freshness when rewatching an anime. For every anime I’ve viewed at least a second time, my experience watching it is different because I’m a different person at that time and have most likely forgotten many details in the anime. In most cases I enjoy them more the second time around because, already knowing what’s going to happen, I can “study” them better during a rewatch. Right now nostalgia only applies to anime I watched back in high school, like Digimon and Slayers. But as I get older more and more titles will become nostalgic XD
I’m not much of a ‘favorites’ kind of person, it’s like picking between family members to me really. But I think it’s obvious, for all the reasons you stated, that ongoing series hold a lot more appeal and so are more commonly favorites of people.
Most of the series I really love though are finished I think. I watched them almost all while they were coming out but now they’re over but I still love them just as much. I guess I don’t think about them as much though since I’m not getting new stuff from them all the time but whenever I do think about them I always feel that warm fuzzy feeling and really want to rewatch some episodes *feels like rewatching ef now just from talking about this* ^^
I sometimes have trouble picking one favorite anime or character over another, but there have always been a few I can for sure call “favorite” XD
For my old favorites like Wolf’s Rain and Noir, since they haven’t offered anything new for years, I too tend to put them in the back of my mind more than others. I forget details and start considering whether they’re still my favorites anymore. But when I rewatch them, that “warm, fuzzy” feeling comes back and I’m in love all over again ^^
The only ongoing anime I follow is Gintama, most of my other favorite shows are 26 episodes or less. Gintama is my favorite anime, though.
I’ve heard good things about Gintama. I’m sure it’s something I’d like but…don’t think I can pick up another long-running series right now =P
Well. I only started watching anime and reading manga i think… 2 years ago. So I’m still pretty new to it and there aren’t any series that are ongoing that i watch sadly. I try and catch Naruto though. And i really don’t think Pokemon or Naruto is going to end any time soon.
bye.
–End–
I’m sure Naruto will end one day, but since Pokemon revolves around a game franchise rather than a manga narrative…I doubt it =P
Yep that’s interesting point and in that case Bakugan and that one anime with tops shouldn’t end either.
bye.
–End–
Even if it’s not ongoing, you find a way to make it ongoing. How? You read fanfics and doujin and anything else you can get your hands on. So the answer to your question is YES.
‘Tis an interesting way of thinking about your favourites! Unfortunately, whether or not a series is ongoing has never really been a factor in determining how much I like the series… things like plot originality have always taken priority for me. Mind you I’d LOVE for them to make more of some of my favourite series (even if it’s just one more season, just so I can fall in love with some of the characters all over again xD), but since the majority of my favourites are of the ’12/13 episodes’ type I guess I’ve kinda gotten used to just having a simple, photo album-like memory to remember them by…
I’m not a fan of long series. But if it’s an anime I like, then of course I will always hope for more to come (Angel Beats! has to be at the top of my list right now). If not, I can always read the manga, I guess. That’s interesting that you like continuing series, perhaps because they offer more. But somehow, I just like to have closure in my series. Some anime like Bleach and Naruto tend to drag on for too long.
I actually prefer series with definitive endings. Sometimes on-going series get lost and characters act…out of character. Series with set endings know they only have so much time to develop characters and tend to use the time well. On going series have a lot of episodes that wouldn’t be missed with character development if they were just dropped. Bleach, I’m looking at you.
The continued content is nice. I wish my favorite anime Eureka Seven would start up again, but a part of me also doesn’t want to see it ruined. (The movie wasn’t meant to be a part of the universe). But sometimes a series is best when it just ends while you love it.