Anime has a lot of examples of works that have gone on for way longer than they should have. Shonen anime especially is known for putting out work that became very popular leading to continuation with no end. From Dragon Ball to Naruto we see some of the most popular and influential series either only recently ending or never ending at all. Why is it that so many anime get into this situation?

That Sweet Sweet Green

The first reason is the most obvious and the most cynical, money. If an original piece gets enough recognition it is bound to make money, especially make money in merchandise. A company who owns the anime rights to a wildly popular work has a vested interest in that work continuing to put out new material that keeps interest. They also want to see new characters and redesigns of old popular characters that can be used in the merchandise. While a Goku action figure will get great sales on its own, a new God Ki Goku figure is bound to have a resurgence in sales.

Merchandise is often where all the real money comes from anyways. Take a western example for a moment. The rights to the Spiderman films are owned by Sony which they gained while Marvel was selling of things to keep afloat. Marvel still retained rights to comics and merchandise of Spiderman. Now Marvel is owned by Disney, and Disney by far has the better part of this deal as the merchandising rights allows them to profit directly from any new design of Spiderman Sony makes even if the movie isn’t itself a success. Now see how owning both the media and the merchandise can lead to an even greater increase in that sweet sweet money?

Too Slow for Viewers

However it isn’t entirely or always a money driven situation. Sometimes an anime goes on for a while as it waits for new material from the manga it is based on. Naruto was going through this situation for a while which is where the rise of the dreaded filler comes in. Stuff that has no baring to the overall plot of a series but is used to keep space while official work is being made. A series stretches on for years as it waits for the totally normal creative time of its source. A lot of the time this material is of such a poor quality its adds to the stagnation of the content as a whole as a series becomes associated with these poorly thought out one offs.

Naruto, for example, was notorious for having so much filler at such inopportune moments. A huge battle for the life and death of the world would be unfolding, then the focus would cut to see what was going on with side characters, most didn’t care for, were up to. This made an already insanely long series feel even longer as such large breaks were taken in the focus of the series.

Overwhelming Success

The filler and the difficult length can also be attributed to the original creator being overwhelmed by their work. A small series with new ideas and fresh perspectives can only be that way for so long as it keeps going for years longer than a fresh starry-eyed writer may have originally envisioned.

Toriyama has been making content for longer than many of us have been alive. When the original Dragon Ball was being released it had campy ideas and interesting power advancement that has come to characterize the series as a whole. Now however the series has gone through multiple iterations with brand new content being released at this very moment. Many have commented on fractured storylines and plot ideas that contradict but this is understandable when you think that the original Dragon Ball was released 32 years ago. Toriyama isn’t directly writing the work of Super at this point but his creative influence is still there and it shows that his work is strained.

Thank You Plague of Gripes. She was worth it

It's Also Our Fault

A series is not always at the behest of its creators and publishers. The biggest factor in the length and continuation of a series is an outside one, fan demand. Something would not continue on as long as it did if there was no one to consume the content. If money is such a huge factor then there being people to consume the content is the direct control of that. Consider again Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Super started in 2015 with the past years content being remasters of old content or simply an adaptation of side works. There was obviously fan demand for a return of original content to the series which is why we saw its return. This new series has its flaws to the cannon but it is being watched and enjoyed which shows why it continues to be put out. Naruto Shippuden ended March of this year but it was almost immediately followed by the continuation of its story with Boruto. There is still people looking for content and publishers are happy to oblige.

Why a series continues can be attributed to many factors and it is different for each piece but something wouldn’t continue if it wasn’t worth making. A lot of us are into that, we want to see more of these characters and what they can accomplish. Some of us are tired of these works falling into the same traps of the past. Maybe we look to the new shonen series like My Hero Academia to lead us to a better tomorrow. Though I am sure we will see these series go on for a long time to come. Guess I will wait to see how the final battle of Zoruto: Naruto’s great grandson ends and how the anime landscape looks then.

What do you think? Anime too long? Do you even watch that kind of stuff anymore? Let us know in the comments!