What determines if a show will be around 12 or 24 episodes long?

[MasterVampire]

I usually perfer anime series that are around 22-24 episodes long.
I feel like you get to know the characters and world alot better.

But what determines how many episodes a series will be?

Like for example some of those more fanservicey shows are usually short ones insted of 22-24 episodes long.

Why is this?

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by MasterVampire

But what determines how many episodes a series will be?

Mostly:
How much source material there is. How popular the source material is. Can an entire story arc be told in 13 eps?
How much risk the production companies want to pick up. What the production committee's expectations for the title are. (They can always come back and do more if a show does well.)
Secondary:
If sales matter, previous sales of similar titles.
If ratings matter, how long the broadcaster is willing to give it a shot.
If the show is connected to another project like a movie or a game.
What time slot they are able to get.
Staff schedule (Does the director have another project next season?)

Like for example some of those more fanservicey shows are usually short ones insted of 22-24 episodes long.

Why is this?

Something like... Because you can't show skin without a story for 24 episodes and expect it to not tank. 12 episodes, you can get usually a certain minimum.

[Sackett]

Depends also on what kind of story they want to tell.

Take Madoka Magica. Sure it could have been expanded and told in 24 episodes. Develop the characters a bit more.

But they wanted a very tight story with all the pieces fitting together, and 12 episodes was perfect for it.

Cross Game on the other hand required a full development of the characters and watching them change over a period of 3 years. It required 50 episodes.

[Om Nerabdator]

Originally Posted by bayoab

Mostly:
How much source material there is. How popular the source material is. Can an entire story arc be told in 13 eps?

i dont think they care about fitting a story arc into 13 eps cause mostly they cant just look at all the other 12 eps series that have come out lately almost all of them are rushed and they leave out so much stuff its almost impossible to make a 2nd season.

Just look at the Zero no tsukaima series, the anime left out so much stuff from the light novels that this last season is gonna be cut to shreads....

Its all about saving money in japan now not about making a good anime series that at least need 24 eps.

[Vexx]

Recently, economy slump has been driving many of the decisions to do 12 rather than 24 even if it would help the series. Fewer producers can get the green light for 24 episodes. So the creative "12 eps + 2-5 OVAs or DVD additionals" is becoming typical.

[Ichihara Asako]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Recently, economy slump has been driving many of the decisions to do 12 rather than 24 even if it would help the series. Fewer producers can get the green light for 24 episodes. So the creative "12 eps + 2-5 OVAs or DVD additionals" is becoming typical.

Or the winning move of Fate/Zero and do a 13 ep run, end on an absolutely mindblowing cliffhanger and go on break for a season to let fans stew.

Can't say I'm keen on the practice myself, especially when a Fate title (or any TM stuff, really) is a cash cow, there's no reason for them, in this case, to hold back the capital investment to do it properly.

I can, however, understand it for random fanservice shows with no story. Run a single season, reap what cash you can and move on. That's perfectly fine as with no story to follow people can just go on to the next thing without issue, but anything with story should tell it properly.

All in all it's an unfortunate state of economics.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Ichihara Asako

Or the winning move of Fate/Zero and do a 13 ep run, end on an absolutely mindblowing cliffhanger and go on break for a season to let fans stew.

Can't say I'm keen on the practice myself, especially when a Fate title (or any TM stuff, really) is a cash cow, there's no reason for them, in this case, to hold back the capital investment to do it properly.

I can, however, understand it for random fanservice shows with no story. Run a single season, reap what cash you can and move on. That's perfectly fine as with no story to follow people can just go on to the next thing without issue, but anything with story should tell it properly.

All in all it's an unfortunate state of economics.

yeah, 12 eps for "generic choose the girl but we're not really going to" series. But I can count quite a number of series in the last couple of years that had decent source material but were poorly served with only 12 eps to work with, forcing drastic cuts to available story material (or they chose a manga/LN to adapt far too early in its release cycles).

[Kyuu]

Money Money Money. As much as many of us DL online, these episodes aren't free. Um, duh, Kyuu...

There's always that uncertainty regarding a project's success. Naturally, the popularity of a printed work may give an indication to potential success. Of course, that's not a guarantee either.

[Kotohono]

Certain time slots limit the number of episodes, for example Noitamina A slot series will almost always be 11 episodes per cour.

[speedyexpress48]

Also some really anime will go on and on and on until the end of time, like Naruto and Bleach...

(Exaggrating, but you know what I mean.)

[NeoChan]

1st Popularity- will this anime be a hit compared to the novel/manga sales?
2nd Budget - will our present budget keep up or the investors plus advertisements
3nd Plot - short plot equals short anime unless putting up fillers and fanservices.