Why Weekly Updated Anime And Manga Are Made For Binging
The best way to enjoy manga and anime that are released on a weekly basis may not necessarily be to watch the newest installments as soon as they come out.
It sounds rather counter-intuitive if you think about it. After all, why wouldn't you want to get your fix of your favorite series as soon as possible? While that can be reason enough to watch each new episode or read each new chapter immediately, there are certain advantages to binging.
First, many of the platforms that allow you to legally stream anime(or in some cases, watch manga), charge a monthly subscription fee, at least if you'd rather not have to see ads. If you were to watch a 13-week series starting the day the first episode comes out, you would have to pay for 85 days of access to the service(the first day, plus 12 weeks for each subsequent episode to come out), which would result in paying the monthly subscription fee three times- two if you have a free trial and four if you do not have a free trial and the series takes a week off. On the other hand, it's quite feasible to binge that one series in a weekend, assuming you're able to put two and a half hours aside for watching each day.
Second, being able to watch the next episode/read the next chapter immediately cuts down on the time you have to wait for a cliffhanger to be resolved. Granted, you may end up waiting a long time if you're waiting for the current arc to end so you can binge it, but many long and drawn-out arcs become more enjoyable if they're binged, since they otherwise come off as plodding and poorly paced if you wait each week.
Lastly, waiting until a series has gone on for a little while enables you to have some idea of how good it is, especially for shows that take a little while to truly start getting interesting. For example, Puella Magi Madoka Magica hits its stride near the end of Episode 3, with a shocking twist that establishes the true nature of the series and helps set it apart from other magical girl shows. It helps that Madoka Magica took a hiatus before releasing the final two episodes, giving a further advantage to binge-watchers.
There's no rule dictating that shows have to be binge-watched, but there are more than a few reasons why it can be better to wait to watch a show all in one fell swoop. Streaming technology has offered many opportunities that simple TV broadcasts do not, and the ability to choose when, where and how to watch your series is one of the most important ones.
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