Ask John: What’s the Longest Delay Between Anime Releases?

Question:
With the new Tenchi Muyo OAV coming out in Japan, how long will it be until it is available over here in the United States?

Another question: has any other series been as long between new material as the Tenchi OAV. How long has it been since the first one came out? I remember it was about six or seven years from when I first saw it, and that is a long time in geek years.

Answer:
We’re sorry to say that there have been no confirmed reports of the new Tenchi Muyo OAV series being licensed for official English language release yet.

It’s a bit difficult to compare the lengths of time that passed between entries in particular anime franchises because it seems a bit technically unbalanced to compare revivals next to sequels. The analysis becomes even more murky with the difficult in distinguishing exactly what constitutes a “revival” as opposed to a new entry in a continuing series. But in “geek years,” as you put it, even a single year is relatively a long time. In fact, on average, anime series that don’t have a follow-up series or movie announced for release within about a year of their conclusion often never get new animation. But that’s not to say that it’s impossible for several years to pass between entries in an anime series. For the sake of convenience, I’m going to disregard distinctions between sequels and revivals and work with only rough, approximate “geek years” and a handful of titles that come to mind.

33 months: Time between the release of Slayers Excellent OAV 3 on March 25, 1999 and the release of Slayers Premium on December 22, 2001.

35 months: Time between the release of Tenchi Muyo in Love 2 (Tenchi Muyo movie 3) on April 24, 1999 and the April 2, 2002 premier of the Tenchi Muyo GXP! TV series.

36 months: Time between the release of Mobile Suit Gundam movie 3 on March 13, 1982 and the debut of the Mobile Suit Z Gundam TV series on March 2, 1985.

48 months: Time between the release of the Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy OAV on January 25, 1990 and the premier of Dirty Pair Flash on January 21, 1994.

50 months: Time between the release of the final Tank Police Dominion OAV on August 11, 1989 and the debut of the Crusher Police Dominion OAV series on October 21, 1993.

51 months: Time between the broadcast of the City Hunter ’91 Final Special on October 10, 1991 to the broadcast of the City Hunter: Secret Service TV special on January 5, 1996.

118 months: Time between the release of the Jubei Ninpucho (AKA: Ninja Scroll) motion picture on June 5, 1993 and the debut of the Jubei Ninpucho TV series on April 14, 2003.

163 months: Time between the broadcast of the final St. Seiya TV episode on April 1, 1989 and the first public premier of the first St. Seiya Hades Chapter OAV on SkyPerfect TV on November 9, 2002

344 months: Time between the final episode of the 8 Man TV series broadcast on December 24, 1964 and the first episode of the 8 Man After OAV series released on August 21, 1993.

Just for reference, The first Tenchi Muyo OAV hit Japanese store shelves on September 25, 1992. The first episode of the third OAV series hit Japanese retail stores on September 18, 2003, a few days shy of 11 years, or 132 months, apart.

[Thanks to Jonathan Hertzog, Luis, and others for reminding me of the lengthy delay between installments of St. Seiya.]