I remember running home from the bus so I could catch the beginning of my favorite anime series. Since public transport served multiple small villages in one route, what would be a 15-minute car drive back from school turned into a 45-minute ride. The walk to our house was steep but, thankfully, short.
I had to do this run many times because in the early 2000s, there were many good anime shows on German TV—and they all lasted for quite some time. Pokémon is still going 25 years later, although Ash finally found what he was looking for after some 20+ seasons. Digimon‘s first two seasons were connected and both had over 50 episodes. Yu-Gi-Oh! ran for over 200 episodes.
The same applied to other, non-drawn German classics. Das Traumschiff, “the Dreamship,” boasts over 100 movie-length episodes since 1981. Fabrixx, a show for kids showing them how teenagers handle their problems, also hit the screen more than 200 times. And don’t get me started on Hollywood blockbusters.
The Marvel cinematic universe was just getting started. Harry Potter turned into eight movies. The Lord of the Rings got its trilogy, and so did many other franchises, from X-Men to the Matrix to the Star Wars prequels. Spider Man, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean—I could keep going.
Back then, I never knew when a story would end, but I always trusted it would be resolved. 20 years later, I expect everything to end as soon as it stops playing, mostly because the film industry has stopped committing to anything, let alone epic sagas. Sometimes, I don’t let myself enjoy a show or movie to the fullest because I’m harboring these doubts. “This might get canned anyway, so don’t get too excited.” I know many film fans feel the same. It’s a sad state of affairs, and it does take away some of that magic that makes you want to race home as soon as you get off the bus.
On paper, axing a show must always make sense to executives. “This is what the numbers say.” The story they don’t tell is one of redemption that gets you loyal fans for years because you actually saw something through. If there was a movie studio people could rely on to finish its shows, I bet that studio would receive a massive following. But with most studios instead canceling even the shows they previously already committed to, that’s not where the world is headed.
Writing a trilogy of novels. Drafting a multi-season show. Committing to posting one blog a day or one song a week. These are big sacrifices. If feedback is instant, why bother deciding in advance? Why not just double down on the hits? Because sometimes, hits take time to ripen. The pizza gets crispy at the end.
Even if only your 12th book is a hit, your then-publisher can still reissue all of your prior works. But if you quit after the first one, you’ll never know.
Dare to make big commitments. They’re as scarce a resource as they’ve ever been—yet they might be exactly what we need to make us run home with excitement, ready to discover the next chapter.
