View Full Version : What to do with gaps in your anime viewing?
Triton86
03-20-2009, 01:46 PM
What do you guys do in regards to continuing a series after long breaks?
Do you:
a. Simply proceed to watch the next episode that you haven't seen yet.
b. Or do you go back and watch previous episodes again to refresh what has happened up to that point?
It always happens to me that I'll just stop watching a show midway, and months or even a few years later, I'll have an interest to keep going again. If it takes longer than a year for me to get back into a show I didn't complete, I almost always consider watching the show again from the beginning.
If the case has to do with some release date thing, then I will recap only a couple a few episodes prior to the stopping point before continuing.
The Great Bear
03-20-2009, 01:47 PM
No hard and fast rules. Sometimes I will backtrack and start over again from the beginning. Other times, I'll just pick up where I left off. Depends on how much I remember of the part I have watched, and whether I feel the part I have already watched is worth watching again.
joelgundam01
03-20-2009, 01:52 PM
No hard and fast rules. Sometimes I will backtrack and start over again from the beginning. Other times, I'll just pick up where I left off. Depends on how much I remember of the part I have watched, and whether I feel the part I have already watched is worth watching again.
Same with me! It really depends on the title and the viewing situation.
Betenoire
03-20-2009, 01:55 PM
No hard and fast rules. Sometimes I will backtrack and start over again from the beginning. Other times, I'll just pick up where I left off. Depends on how much I remember of the part I have watched, and whether I feel the part I have already watched is worth watching again.
Seconded. Although on occasion I'll just go back 1 or 2 ep, sometimes at 2x speed, to see if that jogs the memory and brings me back up to speed with the situation.
Garasharp K7
03-20-2009, 01:59 PM
Most of the time I just pick up where I left off. But if a few years have passed since the last viewing -which rarely happens - I'll go back to the start again.
And now I remember that I started Hakugei several months ago, and I should get back to it. Same goes for Crest of the Stars too. Trouble is, I can't remember where I left off with those shows. :)
Betenoire
03-20-2009, 02:21 PM
And now I remember that I started Hakugei several months ago, and I should get back to it. Same goes for Crest of the Stars too. Trouble is, I can't remember where I left off with those shows. :)
In regards to Crest. The horror, having to go back and watch this gem of a show from the beginning :P
Suwako Moriya
03-20-2009, 02:37 PM
It's a case by case basis. Sometimes I'll start over and other times I'll start from where I left off. It depends on the length of the gap, how much progress was made before, etc.
something
03-20-2009, 02:42 PM
+1 for another 'depends' answer.
I've done both. When I paused Solty Rei for about two months halfway through, I just picked up with the next episode. Same with a couple month gap when I first watched Cardcaptor Sakura. For a theoretical example, if I ever pick up Shugo Chara again to watch season two I'll just start on the next episode rather than rewatch anything.
I think if the gap is much longer than that (like the time difference from when something aired and when it comes out on DVD), I'm apt to rewatch the whole previously watched portion. I saw 13 episodes of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann when it first aired. I didn't see more until it was licensed and released by Bandai late last year. Naturally, I started from the beginning. So too when I marathoned Fullmetal Alchemist a few weeks ago, I started from the beginning. I had seen about 10 episodes back when it aired in late 2003, and as that's a damn long time ago, I started from episode 1 with the DVDs. Situations like this will be exceptionally rare in the future, though, as I no longer stop watching a newly airing show just because it's been licensed.
So:
If we're talking a time difference due to slow fansubs or temporary lack of interest or distraction from other shows (usually a few weeks or months), then I jump into the next ep.
If we're talking the difference between an initial airing I didn't see all of and the R1 DVD release (many months to years), I'll be much more likely to rewatch from the beginning.
Isuzu Inugami
03-20-2009, 02:51 PM
Carry on with the next episode. If I really don't remember what was going on (or more likely, forgot exactly where I was), I'll go back an episode to get back in the swing of things.
I'm a depends person too.
No, wait. That doesn't sound right. :blush:
What I mean is that my decision depends not only how long the time gap has been since I saw the last watched episode but also on whether I have the already seen episodes available so that I can watch them again if I need / want to. A large percentage of my anime watching is through Netflix rental which can occasionally lead to huge time gaps between disks. But I don't have the disks to start the series over again to refresh my memory. I could, of course, rent the series over again from the start. But if it took me a long time to get (for example) disk 4, I'm not going to risk another long wait to get disk 4 by starting the series over or even by requeuing disk 3.
Betenoire
03-20-2009, 04:40 PM
I'm a depends person too.
No, wait. That doesn't sound right. :blush:
Sometimes when you post too much info just leaks out. *Ducks*
What I mean is that my decision depends not only how long the time gap has been since I saw the last watched episode but also on whether I have the already seen episodes available so that I can watch them again if I need / want to. A large percentage of my anime watching is through Netflix rental which can occasionally lead to huge time gaps between disks. But I don't have the disks to start the series over again to refresh my memory. I could, of course, rent the series over again from the start. But if it took me a long time to get (for example) disk 4, I'm not going to risk another long wait to get disk 4 by starting the series over or even by requiring disk 3.
Use to happen to me when I checked things out from my local library. In that case I just tried my best to cope. It could totally kill the mood but I didn't see any reasonable alternative.
Worse is getting a following disk before it's predecessor. Because of the reserve list I got the second disc of the second Fushigi Yugi before the first, so I couldn't watch it and had to re-reserve.
Worse is getting a following disk before it's predecessor.
I had that happen to me as well. Since then, I've learned to keep any in-progress series way down on my (sizeable) queue. Then I move up the next disk once I've watched its predecessor. I only keep completely unwatched series near the active 4 or 5 series I'm watching. That way if Netflix jumps beyond the actively watching titles in my list, it'll likely land on the first disk of a new series.
Dack Ralter
03-20-2009, 05:58 PM
Another vote for "it depends". For series with long gaps (Welcome to the NHK, most recently) I have to go back and watch at least one or two episodes (usually fast forwarded, like a previous poster mentioned). My memory just ain't that good...
For plot-light shows, I usually just start it right up.
HitokiriShadow
03-20-2009, 06:13 PM
It depends, mostly on the amount of time that's passed. If its a few months, I'll probably just jump in unless it was a series where remembering details were really important (like Mouryou no Hako, not that I'm ever going to actually be able to finish it).
If its more than about five or six months, well, that's usually when I just stop caring. But if I do go back to it, I restart from the beginning.
Glamrgrl104
03-20-2009, 11:33 PM
It depends if I am busy with other things I will watch one or two episodes and then when i am free finish the disc. The most time I have a backlog is three weeks due to school and finals lol
More often than not, I just start at the beginning.
I tend to forget really easily, so it's just easier for me to just go back to the beginning.
Unless it's a crappy show, and I just want to be done with it.
Betenoire
03-21-2009, 12:27 AM
More often than not, I just start at the beginning.
I tend to forget really easily, so it's just easier for me to just go back to the beginning.
Unless it's a crappy show, and I just want to be done with it.
You could just not finish it :). Not that I can recall personally putting this into practice, but the theory is sound:bigsmile:
Buckeye
03-21-2009, 01:13 AM
Usually I just continue on. But if I need a refresher, then I will resume viewing by starting with the last episode I saw before continuing the series. But most of the time I just press on.
Prede
03-21-2009, 03:10 AM
No hard and fast rules. Sometimes I will backtrack and start over again from the beginning. Other times, I'll just pick up where I left off. Depends on how much I remember of the part I have watched, and whether I feel the part I have already watched is worth watching again.
Yeah I'm the same pretty much. If I remember a lot of the show I'll just pick up where I left off. If I've forgeten a lot of it then I'll re-watch the show.
I do this way too much. I hate a really bad habit of starting something then never watching it all, waiting to buy the rest of the DVD's or something down the road. I have so many incomplete series that I have to finish one day. I have 79 series "on hold" (http://myanimelist.net/animelist/Prede&status=3&order=0) right now, and I wish to complete most if not all of them one day. Many I haven't seen in years (so far a few series on my list I started 5 or 6 years ago and still haven't finished). Also out of the 20 shows I'm "currently watching (http://myanimelist.net/animelist/Prede&status=1&order=0)" I know I'll end up putting at least a few of them on hold for another day (more like another year).
Also I almost never have a backlog, or if I do it's one or two series max. Useally I'll have a few DVD's of a series and never finish buying it, or watch like half of it on TV or VOD and never finish it there, but I plan to buy the DVD's one day... My veiwing habbits are odd. I wish I had a lot of new stuff waiting to be watched, but sadly I end up plowing though my DVD's pretty fast, and then going months without seeing something new that's not on VOD , TV, or legal streaming sites. I wish I had more money to spend on anime...
Arnold
03-22-2009, 06:40 AM
Usually I'll start all over again. It's hard for me to get back into a show's rhythm after being removed from it for a while.
Njr Scrawl
03-22-2009, 08:12 AM
Depends on whether the last episode before a break ends on a cliffhanger. If it does I rewatch the story leading up to it. Otherwise I continue anew.
Garasharp K7
03-22-2009, 09:51 AM
And now I remember that I started Hakugei several months ago, and I should get back to it. Same goes for Crest of the Stars too. Trouble is, I can't remember where I left off with those shows. :)
In regards to Crest. The horror, having to go back and watch this gem of a show from the beginning :P
I may well have to, since it's actually been close to three years since I last watched Crest of the Stars. And to think Banner's been sitting in the backlog all this time as well. :)
Hakugei was the one on hold for over six months.
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