Anime fans love short and sweet series that pack a lot of fun into just a handful of episodes, such as No Game No Life and Gurren Lagann. Those anime prove that a series doesn’t need 100+ episodes to be a fine piece of entertainment. Still, the anime medium sometimes needs a few hundred episodes to fully entertain fans, and certain kinds of stories simply don’t work if they’re in a 12-episode frame.

Length alone does not mean quality, and more of a good thing is dependent on the actual quality of the anime in question. Some anime could afford to trim the fat, but others are great series specifically because they are lengthy. True, some of these marathon-length anime are bloated with filler episodes or have sluggish pacing in some arcs. But overall, these anime absolutely needed lengthy runtimes to flesh out an epic story in an expansive setting, and the end results are simply stunning.

Detective Conan Has Been Delivering More of a Good Thing For Decades Now

Some anime are properly lengthy because they’re telling a saga-like story that can’t be crammed into 12–24 episodes. Other anime prove that being long is a great thing simply because they’re episodic adventures that never fail to deliver stellar entertainment. Detective Conan, also known as Case Closed, is a popular example of the latter strategy working in a big way. The premise is simple: Conan Edogawa is a young man in a kid’s body, one who solves one mystery after another.

Detective Conan‘s mystery stories are always creative and fun, scratching the Sherlock Holmes itch in anime form to provide some mental exercise for anime fans who want it. This has been a winning formula since the manga launched in the mid-1990s, and it works just as well in anime form, even after all this time.

Attack on Titan’s Best Mysteries Were Properly Unraveled Over Time

Fighting monsters is a premise that can work in short and sharply paced anime, such as Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, but the Attack on Titan anime handles things a little differently. Attack on Titan focuses on more than sheer combat with the blade-slinging soldiers and the various Titan Shifters, since it’s also an epic story with breathtaking mysteries and expansive worldbuilding. The mystery of the world beyond the walls shouldn’t be settled in just 24 episodes.

Instead, Attack on Titan wisely plays the long game without letting the story drag too much, striking a fair balance. Attack on Titan keeps viewers engaged with its cool combat while gradually unraveling the most serious enigmas and epic plot threads, leaving fans wanting more with each episode. Thus, the massive Rumbling on Eren’s part feels like the culmination of a great struggle, and not just some contrived power-up.

Gintama Needs Room to Pay Homage to Popular Shonen Anime

From the very start, Gintama has been a love letter to the shonen anime world while also having some cool plotlines of its own, making it feel like two anime in one. Of course, parody is possible in a lean package, such as the short and sweet KonoSuba and Gurren Lagann, but that’s not the only way. Since Gintama has plenty of material to honor and make fun of, it’s only right for the anime to be lengthy.

Gintama rewards viewers’ patience with each episode and season, as its huge popularity and fan base both show. This silly yet excellent shonen anime earns its length with each off-beat story arc or adventure, allowing it to tease viewers about the shonen “big three” over and over. The anime even has a few movies and light novels, and it wouldn’t have earned them by being a short and forgettable comedy title.

One Piece Would Simply Not Work as a Short and Sweet Anime

If any anime deserves to be a sprawling juggernaut, it’s the One Piece anime. Even the most passionate fans won’t deny that the pacing is sometimes sluggish, such as in the Dressrosa and Wano Arcs, but overall, it’s essential for One Piece to be a marathon of an anime. That’s partly because One Piece goes wonderfully deep on the worldbuilding, such as the Grand Line’s islands and the world’s history.

One Piece thus gets ever stronger over time as the world’s many layers build upon each other, something that would be underwhelming or even impossible under 100 episodes. One Piece keeps improving its combat system, character designs, and emotional stakes over time, meaning fans would be missing a lot if One Piece were short and sweet. Nothing like the Wano and Egghead Arcs would have felt the same if One Piece were 100 episodes or shorter.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Used Its Runtime to Explore Countless Cool Stand Designs

Since there is no central storyline to the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime, it’s perfectly fine for this title to march onward for almost 200 episodes, with even more on the horizon with Steel Ball Run. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an anthology that always hits hard with its great humor and Stand battles, so fans will never complain about leaving one arc behind for yet another.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is another example of an anime that keeps getting better with the benefit of time, making room for author Hirohiko Araki to keep refining his vivid imagination with Stands and character designs. The anime first hit its stride in the Stardust Crusaders Arc, then peaked with Diamond is Unbreakable while still delivering the goods in Golden Wind and Stone Ocean.

Hunter x Hunter Gradually Shifted in Tone While Also Expanding the Nen Combat System

Hunter x Hunter is an anime where the journey is more entertaining than the destination, so no one will mind if titles like Hunter x Hunter leisurely explore their own world without a major endgame goal in mind. The characters of Hunter x Hunter often have open-ended goals aside from Kurapika, so it simply feels right for Gon’s and Killua’s Hunter adventures to take them all over the place.

The Hunter Exam was a good start, followed by popular arcs like Yorknew City, Greed Island, and most of all, the Chimera Ant Arc. These arcs may not have that much of a connection, but they all contribute to Hunter x Hunter‘s sense of whimsical adventure while also allowing the Nen battle system to flesh itself out naturally. None of these vibes would work even half as well if Hunter x Hunter had sharp pacing and focused on a clear endgame goal.

Pokémon Has Always Been About the Journey Rather Than the Destination

Even more so than Hunter x Hunter, the famous Pokémon anime is about the joy of exploring the world rather than defeating a demon king or saving the universe once and for all. Even Ash Ketchum’s stated goal of capturing all Pokémon and becoming a Pokémon master is fairly open-ended and has no real sense of urgency to it. So, Ash is free to wander the world of Kanto and beyond at his leisure.

Pokémon started off with that tone, and the multi-decade franchise has kept it up ever since. Fans expect Pokémon to remain this way, an open-ended journey where finding new Pokémon and battling with new rivals is far more important than claiming some big prize at the end. Still, the Pokémon does have some sense of progress, such as Ash claiming gym badges and evolving his Pokémon into newer forms.

Naruto Gradually Expanded Its Cool World and Jutsu Combat System

The three members of the shonen “big three” all benefit from their impressive length so they can deeply expand their combat systems, worlds, and network of characters. Naruto does its part too, gradually filling in the gaps of Naruto Uzumaki’s shinobi world with one arc after another. That includes the samurai-dominated Land of Iron, the sandy Land of Wind, the struggling Land of Rain, and even an island that may remind viewers of Skull Island.

It’s true the Naruto anime sometimes drags its feet even if fans cut out the filler, such as padding scenes in the Chunin Exam Arc and the overstuffed Fourth Great Shinobi War Arc. Those arcs could use some trimming, but overall, Naruto deserves to be longer rather than shorter. Its cool world, themes, characters, and jutsu are too rich for the kind of pacing Demon Slayer and Fire Force have.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is a Leisurely Exploration of Rimuru’s New World

By nature, isekai anime are open-ended and focus on exploring the new world, but those isekai anime also need to deliver on the quality side of things. Some isekai anime waste their premises and end up rather short, failing to get renewed for more seasons in a timely manner. Then there’s That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, one of the best and longest isekai anime adventures out there.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime may hit all the familiar isekai anime beats, such as an OP protagonist and fantasy elves and monsters. The difference is how That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime does this better than most isekai anime in terms of worldbuilding, character writing, combat, and certainly humor and drama as well. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime can’t be short like KonoSuba — it needs all this room to truly take viewers to another world, and the results are worth any viewer’s patience.

My Hero Academia Juggles Serious Societal Themes With Compelling Character Arcs

My Hero Academia was clearly meant to be bigger and more epic than competitors like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, and the anime definitely earned its impressive length over time. While My Hero Academia did feel generic at first, the anime kept improving its character designs, Quirk battles, and its societal themes to justify its many seasons. My Hero Academia is now about to get its eighth and final season, and it deserved to go that long.

Fans could argue that some short arcs or scenes could have been omitted to streamline things a bit, but otherwise, My Hero Academia is a long anime at heart as it fleshes out the wondrous yet flawed world of pro heroes. There are many student heroes, pro heroes, and villains to represent the many nuances of good vs evil, a story that wouldn’t have felt half as impactful if it were short and sweet.