How Long and How Much?

[Nightwing03]

I was just wondering about this when i remembered when bleach had like 8 fillers in a row. How long does it take to make one episode of an anime and how much does it cost? I mean honestly, filling up 1/2 the show with fillers is just bad...

Oh and if this tpoic has been done before, just redirect me to that thread.

[Folken Fanel]

When did Bleach ever have 8 fillers? The only filler episode I remember is the one involving Don Konochi and the Karakura Superheroes in the middle of the Soul Society arc.

Concerning your main question though, I'd say that before a series begins to air the animators get three or four episodes done, then churn them out at on a weekly basis once the show gets going. I don't have any idea on how much it costs, but animation quality definetly plays a big part in determining how much money is spent per episode.

[Zero Revenge]

When did Bleach ever have 8 fillers? The only filler episode I remember is the one involving Don Konochi and the Karakura Superheroes in the middle of the Soul Society arc.

Concerning your main question though, I'd say that before a series begins to air the animators get three or four episodes done, then churn them out at on a weekly basis once the show gets going. I don't have any idea on how much it costs, but animation quality definetly plays a big part in determining how much money is spent per episode.

The whole Bounto Arc was filler. Semi-entertaining filler, but filler.

[Nightwing03]

There were tons of filler i think around ep 130(?) i can't really remember.

[Chris]

It's not just a matter of how long it takes. In the case of long-running anime based off of long-running manga like One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, etc, it's an issue of catching up to the manga. When the anime adaptation is too close to the manga, they usually either stretch out the manga story, add some filler, or do both. Hence the ridiculously long fillers of Naruto, or lots of fillers tossed around in a series like D.Gray-man.

[NewtypeS3]

And then we've got the occiaional case where an anime is so desperate to catch up with the manga that they skip storylines...
...only to turn those skipped arcs into filler when they get 'too close' to the manga's current arc.

In fact, a perfect example of this would be InuYasha, where they skipped the 'Peach Man' story arc in the manga and later turned it into a Filler Arc much later and still heavily changed and abbreviated things.

Besides, not all Filler is bad. A fair percentage of the Dragonball Z filler was done pretty solidly, for example.
Especially that driving episode...

[X10A-Freedom]

At the last anime con I was at I was talking with Greg Ayers (ADV voice actor) and I made a comment that $30 dvds with three episodes on them was whats killing the U.S. anime market and he said that to make a episode it costs $150,000. Now i'm not sure if thats dubbed or not or if thats just what it cost in Japan its just what he said.

[Zero Revenge]

At the last anime con I was at I was talking with Greg Ayers (ADV voice actor) and I made a comment that $30 dvds with three episodes on them was whats killing the U.S. anime market and he said that to make a episode it costs $150,000. Now i'm not sure if thats dubbed or not or if thats just what it cost in Japan its just what he said.

$150,000 for 1 episode? That's ridiculous. I doubt these American Voice Actors are getting paid that well. (if he indeed meant for the American Anime Industry, not Japan's.)

[X10A-Freedom]

Thats what I thought at first to but then I thought about it and a average movie is about one and a half to two hours long and costs a few million bucks so even if a episode cost that much a 26 episode(13 hours) series would cost $3,900,000 and in hollywood some actors make more than that for one movie and theres always prodution staff to think about and licenseing costs and if he was talking dubbed that means two voice actor casts to pay.

[Koshernova]

This is also why many mecha/sci-fi anime, incidentally, rarely have filler episodes. Generally speaking, they begin as anime projects, and are planned out from the outset to have a certain amount of episodes. It is in the rare occasion of poor plotting due to chance (such as staff problems in Gundam SEED DESTINY) which have a hand in creating filler episodes and clip shows. In anime based on long-running manga that is yet to be concluded filler is, however, quite inevitable for the most part.

[NewtypeS3]

Then there's the sad exceptions to those as well, Kosh.
As you listed Destiny, Wing was also a victim of behind-the-scenes goofups, giving us two clip episodes rather than animated Episode Zero.

Meanwhile, Love Hina wound up doing some insane filler as well. Despite being a 26-ish episode anime, the creators still found a way to have two or three filler episodes and screw up major events - finally cramming almost half of the manga into two hour-long-specials and a 3-episode OAV.

Really, Filler is something depressing when it comes unexpectedly... or uselessly...

[Quiddity]

At the last anime con I was at I was talking with Greg Ayers (ADV voice actor) and I made a comment that $30 dvds with three episodes on them was whats killing the U.S. anime market and he said that to make a episode it costs $150,000. Now i'm not sure if thats dubbed or not or if thats just what it cost in Japan its just what he said.

And U.S. shows cost far, far more ^_^ Many shows have cast members who make that entire amount just for their services on a single episode And you can get an entire season for the price of 2-3 DVDs from an anime show. I wouldn't so much say that it is $30.00 for 3 ep anime DVDs that killed the industry, but rather those prices along with far too much stuff being brought out at once and a general drop in quality in the shows all put together that killed the industry.

Anyway, don't want to drag the thread off topic so I'll stop with that.

Obviously Seed is a big one around here; the anime that really stands out to me regarding filler was Nadia. Pretty good show for the first 20 episodes or so then it because absolute garbage for a good 10-15 episods before wrapping up. Similar to Dunbine the show had a very good final 4-5 episodes, but having 10+ crappy ones before that really upset the balance of the show. Anyone know exactly what was going on there? AFAIK it was not a manga-based show.

[X10A-Freedom]

I know there are good deals thats what I buy but I was saying they aren't always for the series you really want too see or get. Bandai does have their collections for $20-$30 but they also charge $25-$30 for a dvd of seed destiny. sorry off topic

Speakin of a series catching up to the manga we should watch out for the new naruto episodes there already close to the part where they started the series(if your not caught up with the manga or show that comment did make perfect sense) so in the next few months we'll have to see if fillers as stupid as the bounts pop up.

[Arsarcana]

At the last anime con I was at I was talking with Greg Ayers (ADV voice actor) and I made a comment that $30 dvds with three episodes on them was whats killing the U.S. anime market

In Japan, you can and will find $50 dvds containing one or two episodes. Yes, those are usually just the first disc in a given series but they do charge more over there on average even when you get three or four episodes per disc. Of course, the Japanese populace being both more anime-friendly and used to high dvd prices, this doesn't hurt their sales as much as you'd expect.

[NewtypeS3]

Of course, we've even got an anime company trying to bring over Japanese Pricing and Japanese Content. Say hello to Bandai Visual, where it's 40-50 bucks a disc, no dub and only a smattering of extras.
I don't mean to complain, but once you compare that to the rest of the American Anime market... much less the American DVD market... BV looks insane.

[J-Lead]

Of course, we've even got an anime company trying to bring over Japanese Pricing and Japanese Content. Say hello to Bandai Visual, where it's 40-50 bucks a disc, no dub and only a smattering of extras.
I don't mean to complain, but once you compare that to the rest of the American Anime market... much less the American DVD market... BV looks insane.

Their excuse for that is "Oh, there's a niche fanbase, and that's our target." I can't see the logic behind that, but if they think it'll work, then fine. Let em' learn.

[ths1138]

In Japan, you can and will find $50 dvds containing one or two episodes. Yes, those are usually just the first disc in a given series but they do charge more over there on average even when you get three or four episodes per disc. Of course, the Japanese populace being both more anime-friendly and used to high dvd prices, this doesn't hurt their sales as much as you'd expect.

You can find entire series with just one or two episodes for the entire run of the series, not just the first or last disc. Examples would be Macross Zero that have 1 episode per DVD for about $50 per DVD, or FMP with 2 episodes per DVD at $60 per DVD. The typical pattern is that mecha anime DVD titles tend to be expensive ($60) with few episodes (1 - 3), shounen anime DVD titles tend to have average pricing ($40) with average number of episodes (4), and shoujo/comedy titles with cheap pricing ($20 - $30) and large number of episodes (4 - 6).

- ths1138

[Nightwing03]

*sigh* i knew this thread would get off topic eventually, i was actually asking how much money it takes to make episodes & how much time. I'm trying to find that out to see why they some manga based animes need so many fillers. I don't really care about DVD prices or anything like that.

[Kavik Ryx]

Sometimes it's because the anime catches up too quickly to the manga, and they are forced to put in a buffer, before the manga actually continues the story. Also, when a show appeals to children it is easier to slip in a lot of episodes that take the plot nowhere fast. Filler is pretty similar to the monster of the week formula. The series can have more episodes even if the story has no progression. Why do you think Dragon Ball Z had over 200 episodes.