The nightmare of every anime fan is “recap” episodes without new content. But why do these annoying episodes exist at all?
Anime fans sometimes have a hard time. While streaming platforms like Netflix or Disney+ usually release their series “all at once”, anime are most often still released on a weekly basis and are tied to the airing on Japanese free TV.
It takes 3 months, 6 months, or – for particularly large anime – even longer for a series to be fully available.
It’s particularly annoying when a week is wasted by a “recap episode” and you get nothing new to see. But how does this actually happen?
Recap episodes – The scourge of modern anime
What is a “recap” episode? “Recap” is the abbreviation of the word “recapitulation” and means something like “summary” or “review”. In such an episode, the plot of the previous episodes is summarized and the events are explained again in fast-forward.
Usually, such an episode contains no new scenes at all, just mostly clips and audio from the previous episodes, sometimes supplemented by a few written texts. Occasionally, there is also a new narrator voice that summarizes and accompanies the events.
These “recap” episodes do not count as a full-fledged episode of the storyline due to their content. A recap episode that summarizes the plot of an anime up to and including episode 7 is usually named “Episode 7.5” to clarify that it is not episode 8.
Sometimes these episodes are also referred to as “specials” and contain short interviews with the voice actors of the protagonists, who provide some background information about their work and preparation for their role.
Many fans see recap episodes as a nuisance or even a waste of time, as they contain no new information and do not advance the storyline.
Why do these recap episodes exist? This is primarily due to the production of anime. If an anime series is to be aired from January to March, that does not mean that the entire series has already been fully produced by the airing date of the first episode.
In many studios, anime is often “stitched together with a hot needle” and is often only completed a few days before the airing.
This makes the production of anime series particularly susceptible to illnesses. If one or more animators are absent, it is often difficult to compensate for it with the rest of the team.
Often, however, there is a contractual obligation to fill a specific broadcast slot with the airing of an episode, in which case a “recap” episode is quickly put together using existing material.
Moreover, animators and illustrators often suffer from a very high workload.
This is further complicated by the fact that illustrators and animators in many cases do not receive a fixed hourly wage for their work, but are compensated differently. Often there is a payment “per frame” or less frequently “per second of footage”.
This creates a dilemma for the animators, who want to create particularly many frames (quantity brings money) but also want to meet the high demands of elaborate series and simply deliver good work (quality brings little money and costs a lot of time). Combined with high time pressure, the potential for problems is large.
That they often work as freelancers and have to constantly seek new jobs increases the pressure even more.
An exciting video on the subject has also been shown by Ninotaku:
Are there “good” recap episodes? However, even if this is more the exception, there are indeed “planned” recap episodes. This is especially often the case when it comes to longer series.
Such planned recap episodes are rarer, but they can often be recognized by their production effort and often still contain some scenes of new footage.
One of these rather positive examples is the “Death Note” episode 26. Although a large part of the content of the episode clearly meets the “recap” criteria, the episode also serves as an explanation of what knowledge the detective and the police have gathered so far about the incidents and what conclusions can be drawn from it. Nevertheless, the episode contains new scenes and logically follows the end of the previous episode.
In most cases, however, recap episodes are due to problems in the production process.
So the next time you are annoyed by a “recap” episode, always remember: That was probably a conscious decision to ensure the quality of the next episode.
Why anime often have long, silly names, we explained here.
How do you feel about “recap” episodes? Are they just annoying? Or is it sometimes nice to get a summary again?
