In a recent post on deluscar, Kai talks about how the order of watching anime with multiple installments can affect our enjoyment of it…
For most anime with only one or two seasons, the obvious order is to watch the seasons and their episodes in the chronology that they’re (typically) broadcast in and released on BD/DVD. Since most anime episodes, even those of episodic slice-of-life series, follow at least some kind of linear narrative, being able to make the most sense out of the story is best done by watching the episodes in chronological order, which most people do. However, it gets tricky when some anime series air prequels after sequels, broadcast episodes out of order, or have OVAs and movies that aren’t released within the chronology of the episodes. This is the case for Kara no Kyoukai, Ghost in the Shell, the Fate series, Haruhi, Index and Railgun, and a number of other anime franchises. How does it affect fans’ enjoyment and overall reception of these titles?
Broadcasting episodes out of chronological order can have the advantage of ending the series with a more interesting, suspenseful story than would be the case if everything was kept in chronology. A “saving the best for last” tactic that could leave a more lasting impression on viewers even if they weren’t able to follow all the details due to the lapse in chronology. This seems to be the intention behind the original broadcast order of the Haruhi episodes and Kara no Kyoukai movies. Another advantage to this is to encourage a rewatch. After getting the impact of the non-chronological order, viewers who liked the series could be more likely to rewatch it to experience it both ways – the more deviant non-chronological order and the more understandable chronological order. And another possible good point of this order of watching is simply to challenge the mind. I know a lot of fans like it when a series dares to be different like this, forcing the viewer to really pay attention to and remember things in order to piece the chronology together on their own.
Of course, the disadvantage to the non-chronological order of watching anime is that it can confuse or turn off viewers who aren’t willing to commit themselves to a series where they have to piece together the chronology themselves rather than the series doing it for them. I think this is also related to the reason why anime with a lot of overarching plots, foreshadowing, Chekhov’s Guns, and what not still haven’t proven themselves popular among the average American viewer. The average American seems to view TV shows, especially animation, as “disposable” entertainment – something to entertain at that moment and then be forgotten about later. This is why a lot of American shows are episodic, not having subtle details that carry on over multiple episodes. So going back to the topic of non-chronological anime, again, the more you require your audience to “figure things out for themselves,” the higher your chances of losing all but the most invested viewers.
Then we have cases like the Fate series and the Bake/Nise/Kizumonogatari series – episodes within a season are more or less in chronological order, but the seasons themselves aren’t, with prequels airing after sequels or something similar. I don’t find series like these having as big of a narrative comprehension issue for casual viewers as the titles where episodes aren’t in chronological order. Usually they’re structured in such a way that one can just watch one of the seasons and understand pretty much everything that happens, with prequels and sequels simply offering more to the story such as giving background on plots or characters that weren’t fully fleshed out in the other seasons. And like with the non-chronological series, these kinds of series have a bit of a bonus for those who decide to watch them after they’re finished airing – they can choose between watching in chronological order or not, or whether they want to watch the prequel before the sequel despite the sequel coming out first. The latter is the case for me right now – after finishing Fate/Zero last month, I’m currently watching Fate/Stay Night for the first time.
When we get down to the series that take place in the same universe but are otherwise independent of each other, the order of watching each season, or even if you need to watch all of them or not, becomes less important. Many of the CLAMP series supposedly take place within the same universe, but for the most part this has no affect on which ones you watch or in what order. Same thing for Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head – I watched the former without having seen or known anything about the latter, and I didn’t feel like I missed anything. In some cases, the universes are a little more woven together, like with Index and Railgun. But still, each can be watched independently without any major lack of understanding. For Railgun, it’s just “if you want to know who those random cameo characters were, watch Index,” and for Index it’s “if you want to see more of these characters outside this plot, watch Railgun.” Other than that, these types of anime are separate series and order doesn’t matter, which is what separates them from series that are truly sequels and prequels to each other.
And lastly we have the cases of “retellings” where two or more anime series, or an anime series and a movie, are telling the same story independent of each other. With these, order is even less relevant and you don’t even need to watch all the installments unless you want to. Should you watch the first Fullmetal Alchemist series before Brotherhood? It doesn’t matter which you watch or in what order – it simply depends on the opinion of who’s giving the recommendation. Should you watch the Evangelion series first or the new movies? Same as with FMA; people will recommend either one but it doesn’t matter much in terms of understanding the story.
Overall, I personally prefer watching things in chronological order because I’m not very good at remembering a lot of details in anime. I can just about manage when complex series are aired in chronological order, so when complex series are out of order, I start to get confused ^^,,, But order isn’t a big enough issue for me to be a deciding factor in whether I’ll watch or enjoy such series. I just have to give my brain more work ;)
*Announcement*: Tomorrow (Tues. the 31st) I’m planning to move my site to a new host. I’m hoping it will be a smooth transition, but there’s a chance the blog may go down temporarily or have some bugs for a while. Hopefully not though, and it should all be fixed before too long. It also might take me longer than usual to reply to comments on this post. I’ll be sure to keep Twitter updated with the host change progress!
Like you I tend to prefer to watch things in chronological order, but I also like to take into account the intention of the creators. For instance the Bake/Nise/Kizumonogatari series to me should be watched in the order in which it was released, otherwise some things are spoilt by watching prequels before the series itself. This is of course a moot point once you have watched it the first time.
I am in a quandry with “retellings” as often they stand as completely separate entities. I mean I consider FMA and Brotherhood to be separate series. I have watched Brotherhood without finishing FMA and loved it and now I feel ambivalent about watching the rest of FMA since I know how wildly it deviates.
You’re right that spoilers are a good reason not to watch prequels before sequels, like with Bake/Nise/Kizu and the Fate series. But if you don’t mind spoilers in that regard, then it can be interesting to watch it in chronological order and see how events from two different seasons play out in a linear narrative.
Also agree that retellings should be considered separate entities and order isn’t really an issue for them.
I prefer chronological. While things may be more complex and that complexity intrigues some people, however, when I review books and/or anime, I need to these to be in chronological order, so I can make an accurate judgment as to whether I can recommend it to people or not. Stories that are independent of each other but take place in the same universe can easily be noticed, so there is no issue with those.
As for your remarks about FMA and FMAB, I think that the order does matter a bit. The Rush Valley episodes do not really matter that much, as FMAB’s is closer to the manga, but I think that people should watch the first half, at least, of FMA before going into FMAB. Once they depart from the same beginning, then it does not really matter which one is watched.
For me, chronological order isn’t really necessary for judging the anime as much as it is to enhance my understanding of it. I can enjoy the reaction creators are going for if they release a series out of chronology, but usually I can comprehend and appreciate a story better if things are in order.
You’re right that they kind of rushed through the first half of FMA Brotherhood in order to get to the manga-only material. In this case, it would technically be best to watch the first half of the original FMA first and then Brotherhood from that point in the story onward. But generally speaking, retellings can be watched independently of each other.
I prefer chronological order as well. While I can keep track of details pretty well, I do not like over-complexity simply for the sake of it. Baccano! is a good example of one I disliked simply because of all the jumping around it did. I watched Haruhi in the chronological order, but I understand why they did the episode shuffle when airing it. The main arc was pretty important and after that, it was just side stories. It could turn people off the show after the main arc is done so early. Which is probably the case with Hyouka. The first arc looks like the main arc. It was great! but after that, the other arcs feel like short stories, and not as impactful. Sword art online is going another way with mixing short stories before the main story really starts. So it can end where the main arc ends. It can mess some things though, and reduce some dramatic impact (the main story of SAO actually starts 2 years after their entrapment, the short stories are before that)… They both have their pros and cons I guess…
So, I personally prefer chronological order. Too much jumping around without little reason or purpose can really turn me off a series.
Yeah, there is a disadvantage to showing the “good stuff” first and ending the series with a less stellar story arc, as you mentioned with Haruhi and Hyouka. What some series do, especially when the anime is going to end before the manga is finished, is to keep most of the episodes in chronological order and then pick an exciting story arc (out of chronology) to end the series with, like they did with the Fruits Basket anime and Sankarea I think. It usually angers fans of the manga though XD
Ahh, I noticed I didn’t touch on the subject of retellings, and you indeed make a good point. Though for retellings, it’s still better to watch them by release. I can understand for FMA but as for Evangelion, it seems like the movies are going for a slightly or perhaps very different (hard to say since the movies aren’t completed yet) approach from the series, and watching the series first will be a good idea since one can “gather information” before watching a revamped of the show.
In my opinion, I think the way the studios release their anime, be it chronological, or non-chronological, are structured in a way for consumers to enjoy the best when viewed accordingly by their own release dates. And yes, this includes Haruhi too.
For retellings, I would say that if you really want to fully experience the setting, characters, and story of a title, watch all incarnations of it (so watch both FMA series and the Evangelion series plus the movies). But if you just want one “interpretation” of it and don’t care to see everything, then just one is fine as far as comprehensibility is concerned. Just depends on what you want =)
It really depends on the anime for me. If it’s a gag anime like Lucky Star or Azumanga Daioh, missing one or two episodes and then going back again probably wouldn’t confuse me much. Although with the advent of the internet, I never scramble my episodes even if it’s that kind of anime.
For series that take place in the same universe or “multiverse” like your example with CLAMP stories, yes, watching/reading their series in order of release isn’t necessary, but it would probably add to the experience even more. For CLAMP, this applies a lot with Tsubasa and xxxHoliC since they make DIRECT crossovers with Drug Drop and Cardcaptor Sakura later in the story, though they aren’t major. And for people who have watched those series beforehand, the direct cameos are, well, MAJOR FANGASMIC. xD I’d call it supplementary material – not required, but highly recommended.
For the most part, I do prefer chronological order. I mean, unless a prequel was released as a gaiden or something, I can never understand why anyone would start off at a continuation. A video game example, I can NEVER understand the reasoning whenever someone says that they played the third Phoenix Wright game before they played the first and second. They might have not known that it was a continuing story instead of a self-contained set of visual novels, but common sense should always assume the former, just to be careful (or, at the very least, look it up). That’s just purposefully running into confusion and dampening the impact of the story. It’s like watching a parody of a show you never watched (I’m pointing fingers at many YGO Abridged fans who miss the point of that parody series entirely).
I agree with Kai about FMA and Evangelion. I don’t think FMA should be considered a retelling but a completely different adaptation that follows the manga, and thus a different story altogether with similar characters, so it shouldn’t matter which order you watch the two FMAs in. I mean, even the beginning had a rather different purpose in both, as some details in the first FMA were changed from the manga to support their original story in later episodes. However, with the Rebuild movies, where the aim is to see how Anno handles NGE without his depression and really is sort of a retelling, watching the original first may add to the experience and add in missing details. This also falls into what I call “supplementary material”.
“Supplementary” is a good word for multiple anime that take place in the same universe, like you said about CLAMP series. Not necessary to see them all, but you can get the “full” experience of the universe if you do. It could vary though, for example, the first handful of episodes of FMA Brotherhood are sort of condensed versions of the first 13-ish episodes of the original series, and the first Rebuild of Eva movie is a condensed version of the first 6 episodes of the TV series. But after that both titles diverge from their predecessors. So to a point they can be called supplementary until they become a totally different take on a similar story – it’s tricky XD
And LOL, I don’t know why you’d watch a parody of a series you never watched either – I’m glad I watched the dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! or I wouldn’t be able to enjoy YGO Abridged!
Regarding Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head, I’ve seen both and they have nothing to do with each other despite some summaries saying that they’re related.
Like I commnted in Kai’s post, I prefer to watch things in the order that they are released. This lets me see each series or episode as the writers had intended and usually gives me the most enjoyment. I find watching shows in any other order dulls the impact of the story.
Yeah, saying series take place in the same world when they literally show no relation to each other just serves to confuse people XD That’s how I felt when I hesitated to watch Steins;Gate because I hadn’t seen Chaos;Head. Glad I decided to watch it anyway though.
I get what you mean about getting a better impact from a title if you watch it in the order the creators intended, but which creators – the anime or the author of the original source material? For example, the early stories of the Haruhi novels, and the 2006 airing of course, were out of chronological order, but the order was different between the two (the first novel is the entire Melancholy story arc and the second is the Sigh story arc). But if you’re an anime viewer, then I guess you’d go by the order the anime creators give you. I would say watch a series the first time the way the (anime) creators intended, and if you liked it enough, watch it again chronologically to better understand the story.
Just to clarify, the writer of the visual novel stated that they both take place in the same universe and I believe in one of the Stein;Gate visual novels, there’s a minor crossover with Chaos;Head.
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The first time I watched Saki, I was really bored and just loaded in episode 21 that was the most recent one at the time, without knowing what the series was all about. After watching I thought “That’s cool, I want to understand what’s going on”, so I watched ep 20 afterwards. Rinse and repeat, and I watched the whole series backwards. Fun times.
Heh, I don’t think I ever chose to watch a random episode of an anime I never saw before XD The only times that happened was at the anime clubs at my schools, where I’d come in on a random episode or a random series they were showing at that time. Though I don’t recall liking any enough to start watching on my own…except for Macross Frontier, but I had already been watching that mostly in anime club already =P
Always release order for me. I tell people this all the time about Darker than Black for example, where most say watch Gaiden ( ova series set after season 1 but released before season2) before Gemini. Often the thrill is wondering howthings got to be the way they are. Then when you watch the chronologically earler work ( but released later), you have better appreciation for the character and more “aha” moments. I mean wish id watched fate /stay night, then seen fate/zero. Now i dont even feel like watching fate/sn.
Heh, I’m actually the opposite in that I prefer chronological most of the time. I wish I had watched Gaiden right after season 1 of Darker Than Black instead of after season 2 because I would have been able to understand what was going on a lot better (the whole thing with Hei and Yin in season 2 just had me scratching my head the whole time and it was distracting). And now I’m watching Fate/Stay Night for the first after watching Fate/Zero first and I’m quite enjoying it. But that’s just me =P
I strongly prefer to watch a series or franchise in chronological order unless there is some reason why I may wish not to. If there is something odd about it, such as prequels being released after the primary story, I’ll probably go with the chronological order of release rather than watching the story in chronological order. I figure since that was the way the creators released them, I might as well watch them in that order.
I enjoy watching mind-bending films that are occasionally non-linear in their plot, so I enjoy plots that are difficult to understand. As such, I wouldn’t mind watching a non-linear anime, but I struggle to think of one that isn’t Haruhi.
The only other non-linear anime I’ve watched that wasn’t divided by seasons was the Kara no Kyoukai movies. They may not technically count because they were movies released a few months apart from each other, but I watched them in their release order rather than chronological order and got a similar feeling of (not necessarily bad) disjointedness as when I watched Haruhi for the first time.