Ask John: Are There Any Hour Long Anime?

Question:
Are their any hour-long anime?

Answer:
Excluding theatrical features, made for TV movies, and direct to home video releases, of which there are an uncounted number of 60 minute long examples, I can only think of two anime TV series that had hour long episodes. Gainax’s 12 episode long Anime Ai no Awa Awa Hour was an anthology TV program aired 2 episodes of Oruchuban Ebichu, an episode of Ai no Wakakusayama Monogatari, and an episode of Koume-chan Ga Iku! each week. The 13 episode long Figure 17: Tsubasa & Hikaru anime TV series aired one hour long (roughly 45 minutes plus commercials) episode a month beginning in May 2001.

There have been numerous anime TV series that had hour long specials, including One Piece, St. Tail, Rurouni Kenshin, GTO, Naruto, Kanon and many others. But in most cases these hour long specials were one time only specials or actually two separate episodes broadcast back to back.