Ask John: How Often is an Anime Aired on Japanese TV?

Question:
How often does an anime get aired on Japanese TV? In other words, would a given anime be aired weekly, daily, or on some other schedule? Also, for anime that run for a longer length of time (like Pokemon, Dragonball, etc), how many episodes are usualy made in one season/year?

Answer:
In most cases, traditionally anime TV series broadcast one episode per week. Anime series targeted at “otaku” viewers are usually scheduled for one or two “kuru,” or 13 week periods. That explains why so many anime TV series have either 13 or 26 episodes. Anime series intended for, or which appeal to Japanese mainstream audiences typically run for a full year of weekly episodes: 52 weeks so roughly 52 episodes. The tremendously popular shows such as One Piece, Inuyasha, and Detective Conan don’t have formal “seasons” when broadcast on Japanese television. New episodes are aired weekly all year around, sometimes for many consecutive years. When these long series are released to Japanese DVD, the DVD series are sometimes labeled with different “seasons.”

The first exception to this typical standard I can think of is the 2001 Figure 17: Tsubasa & Hikaru anime TV series that aired only one 45 minute episode each month for a year. More titles broadcast on atypical schedules followed this precedent. The Ghost in the Shell TV series broadcast two back-to-back episodes each month. The Samurai 7 TV series airs two back-to-back episodes every other week. And the Initial D 4th Stage TV series airs two back-to-back episodes roughly every other month.