Ask John: What’s the Point of DVD Exclusive Episodes?

Question:
I watched the DVD only episode of Moon Phase and while the rest of the series was good stuff, the DVD episode was a horrible pile of garbage. Totally stupid, totally pointless, totally irrelevant to the plot. I’m willing to bet DVD only episodes of other anime series are the same way, though I don’t want to sound ignorant since the only DVD only episode I’ve seen is Moon Phase, and companies only started doing this with newer shows in the digicel era, as far as I know. What’s the point of doing this? Do these kind of shows really sell any better when Japanese companies create one more episode to be added to the DVD release, even if the episode is just totally pointless random irrelevant filler?

Answer:
Home video exclusive episodes, technically OVAs, but not specifically marketed as OVAs, have been around for at least twenty years, and possibly much longer. Television series episodes including Dirty Pair episodes 25 & 26 and Rurouni Kenshin episode 95 are home video exclusives by default. They were created for television broadcast, but never aired. Series including Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 and Wolf’s Rain have DVD exclusive episodes, seemingly by circumstance more than design.

Home video exclusive episodes differ from OVAs because OVAs are episodes produced specifically for commerical sale while home video exclusive episodes are intended as “free” bonus episodes for consumers that purchase series’ home video releases.

The phenonemon of creating home video exclusive episodes specifically as a marketing device may have started in the early 1990s. Each of the 16 VHS/laserdisc volumes of the 1989 Patlabor television series included a bonus home video exclusive episode. The final three episodes of the 1994 DNA2 television series were released as bonus episodes on the series’ home video release. A very amusing, and exceedingly rare home video exclusive episode of the 1997 Maze Bakunetsu Jiku television series was distributed to consumers that purchased the series’ entire home video release. And the 1998 Banno Bunka Neko Musume television series was extended by two home video exclusive episodes.

The phenonenom of DVD exclusive episodes does seem to have become slightly more common in recent years with series including Onegai Teacher, Onegai Twins, .Hack, Elfen Lied, Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~, Sola, the first Ah! Megami-sama TV series, Getsumen Toheiki Mina, Kamichu, and Gift ~Eternal Rainbow~, among others, getting additional episodes created or reserved exclusively for their home video release.

These additional episodes may be frequently produced because they’re quick and easy to produce. While a studio is already working on a title, filming one extra episode requires a relatively small amount of additional expense, time, and effort. Bonus episodes are also an attractive marketing tool. They make consumers feel like they’re receiving added value in their purchase, and they may attract sales from consumers that only watched the series’ TV broadcast.

In most cases, demanding that home video exclusive episodes maintain the quality and integrity of the core series, or expecting home video exclusive episodes to significantly contribute to a series’ continuity or plot may be an unreasonable demand. First, home video exclusive episodes are usually intended to be bonus episodes, thus they’re often irreverant or inconsequential. After all, if the bonus episodes were directly relevant to the series’ primary story or character development, the episodes would be part of the normal TV broadcast instead of being supplements.

In effect, it’s unwise to expect too much from home video exclusive episodes. Sometimes, such as the Onegai Teacher bonus episode and Moetan episode 6, home video exclusive episodes are more risque than the regular TV episodes. The Getsumen Toheiki Mina bonus episode was a side-story depicting events from the TV series from a different character’s perspective, allowing viewers to see something different and amusing. The Ah! Megami-sama bonus episodes allowed animators to illustrate stories that couldn’t fit into the TV broadcast. The Tsukuyomi bonus episode was just an excuse for the animators to be bizarre and goofy. These bonus episodes can be enjoyable if they’re consumed with a proper state of mind. These episodes usually don’t cost extra, so they are genuine bonus content. They may be designed to boost sales, but viewers purchasing anime series are probably fans of the show beforehand.

Article revised on September 24th, 2007