An OVA: What Is It?
If you’ve been an anime fan for a while, you’ve undoubtedly experienced the impulse to watch every episode of a series, no matter how short. When you look for the watch order for a certain anime, a list of episodes, films, and so-called OVAs appears. What distinguishes an OVA from other kinds of episodes?
Special episodes created apart from the remainder of the season’s episodes are known as Original Video Animations, or OVAs. Occasionally, they differ from typical episodes in length. Some OVAs are even longer than full movies.
The fact that OVAs are designed for home video media like DVD and Blu-ray adds even more uniqueness to the genre. Consider them as extra episodes that viewers of the TV broadcast are not privy to.
However, OVAs are now more widely available thanks to streaming services, which are becoming more and more practical. OVAs for anime are sometimes available on streaming services such as Crunchyroll.
Usually, the same crews who create the main series also create the OVAs. Thus, you should anticipate the same level of animation, visual design, voice acting, and music. The majority of the time, nevertheless, the events in OVAs have no bearing on the primary plot. These are merely ancillary tales that expand the world a bit and provide fans with further context for the beloved characters.
What Distinguishes OVAs From OAVs and Specials?
There are more forms of irregular episode formats besides OVAs. It’s likely that you’ve also heard about OAVs and Specials. What you need to know to tell them apart is as follows.
OVAs are sometimes known as original animated videos, or OAVs. OVAs and OAVs are exactly the same thing.
Specials operate quite differently. OVAs are eligible for special classification, but not the other way around. The primary distinction is that specials can air on TV, but OVAs are created for home video formats.
Do I Need to Watch OVAs?
You may be thinking if watching an OVA is worthwhile if it doesn’t impact the main plot now that you know what one is.
The answer to that, though, varies. To what extent did you enjoy the show? Are OVAs considered canonical? What is the duration of your anime watching?
You shouldn’t bother with its OVAs if you didn’t enjoy the main series. Essentially, what you’ll be getting is more of the same. Go ahead and do it if you liked it. The characters are all present, even though it isn’t canon, and you get to see more of their experiences.
Unless you’re watching a very long program, modern anime seasons don’t require much time commitment—about 1-2 OVAs are all that are produced each season.
However, not all OVAs are canonical or unrelated to the story. A number of older anime were only available as OVAs. OVAs containing the first two seasons of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime were published between 1993 and 2000. While the second portion was released on VHS and DVD, the first part was only available on VHS and Laserdisc.
This is because corporations didn’t even bother with television broadcasts for certain anime because the VHS was such a popular medium in Japan. I think it’s obvious that those days are gone. These days, very few, if any, complete series are created as OVAs.
