Why are there so many short animes?

[RonDrakenfan17]

I've just realized how many short animes there are.
The ones I've gotten into any ways

Flame of Recca
Kenichi the mightiest Disciple

There are others but it makes me sad cuz I just get into them and there cut short

 

[MonkeyFunk]

Those had 42 and 50 episodes respectively, so they're not that short. I haven't seen them - were the storylines cut off or something, like with Berserk? If not then I'd say they had pretty good runs.

 

[Xerostyle]

I'm pretty sure those series are "short" because it's too expensive to let shows go on as long as Naruto and Bleach unless they know they can get a certain amount of viewership.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Considering most anime averages about 12-13 eps, you probably should have chosen better examples...

 

[Light Lucario]

I don't think that those series are short. Kenichi has fifty episodes, which is a pretty good run. Even though I'm not too familiar with the series, having forty-two episodes isn't really that short either. While a lot of the more well known anime, mainly most of the SJ series and Pokemon, have over a hundred episodes, that isn't the case for every series out there. A lot of the series I've seen or heard about are usually between twenty-six to fifty-two episodes.

Most series can't continue for hundreds of episodes due to money. It's also possible that a series can conclude its story within the "short" amount of episodes given to it, so there wouldn't be a need to continue it on even further.

 

[Daxdiv]

I say budgetary reasons and probably being able to tell the story they can within that time frame.

 

[miraimike]

Hm, with most of the stuff I've seen over the past few years, a traditional season ranges anywhere between 26 and 52 episodes, while an OVA usually tends to be anywhere between 3 and 12 episodes. Some shows, usually based on a long running manga or novel series, break that threshold and last multiple seasons. It's all based on economics and whether a series can maintain their advertisers.

There's a notable exception to that, though: Legend of the Galactic Heroes was never massively popular, yet it amassed over 150 episodes by going straight to OVA, which is not usually the format for long running shows.

 

[Taekmkm]

The average anime is now about 13 episodes, with waiting on sales to greenlit more.

 

[ensatsu-ken]

History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi and Flame of Recca are short? Was the question, more specifically, meant to be: "Why are so many anime based off of manga cut short?" Because if that's the case, then it would make sense, since both of the 2 aforementioned anime were ended without covering even half of the material from the respective manga series' which they were each based off of. However, for anyone who considers those to be short anime when compared to most other anime, it should be known that most anime in general are either 12-13 or 24-26 episodes long, with the 100+ episode series being in the minority in comparison (there are still a ton of long-running series, but not nearly as many that I'm aware of).

 

[Desensitized]

I guess anime that end before the manga does just don't have high enough ratings to continue. It's a shame about Recca, as the anime ends right before the manga gets really good so maybe viewers didn't get the appeal by the 40 episode mark. Kenichi was probably too much like the manga (it probably could have used a more mainstream approach) so it might not have hooked enough people.

It's hard to say, but it is a shame.

 

[RonDrakenfan17]

Yah, I wanted to see more of both series.
They were both starting to get real good

 

[SigmasonicX]

I guess anime that end before the manga does just don't have high enough ratings to continue. It's a shame about Recca, as the anime ends right before the manga gets really good so maybe viewers didn't get the appeal by the 40 episode mark.

There's also the fact that it was a bad adaptation in general and had pretty bad animation.

For the topic creator, I highly recommend that you start reading the manga from the start of the tournament. The anime cut out a lot of scenes from between the matches, and even cut out an entire fight at the end. Plus, the fight between Recca and Kurei in the tournament is completely different in the manga.

 

[ensatsu-ken]

Kenichi was probably too much like the manga (it probably could have used a more mainstream approach) so it might not have hooked enough people.

Actually, the anime for Kenichi moved at a faster pace than the manga by cutting out some of the shorter stories from the manga (along with a lot of ecchi, which I really liked, but the sad thing was that the anime still had too much fan-service for my liking). It also changed quite a few things around, like in the beginning of the anime Kenichi goes to Ryozanpaku right away whereas in the manga he doesn't go there until after he wins his fight with Daimonji (the change was obviously done to start things off much faster in the anime). So, if anything, the anime did have a more mainstream approach. I just don't think that the sereis has the proper mainstream appeal to begin with, which is why it probably never became too popular (at least as far as the anime goes).

 

[Taoku]

With the majority of late-night anime ranging from 12-26 episodes, it's only natural that the amount of series mounts up because they are replaced more frequently. Animes airing in the morning or primetime are replaced less frequently because they have a larger episode count, Sazae-san being the longest. Late-night anime depends more on mercandise sales for them to become profitable since the ratings will not be as high.