I feel like I've been burned too many times on things like Berserk and Vagabond, where the author dies or just gets too sick to keep going and the story is left without resolution. Hell, even with things like HxH and Houseki the authors taking extended hiatuses is just so painful. It's starting to feel like it's less worth picking up older continuing series or even newer ones without knowing if things are at least gonna wrap up relatively soon, or at the bare minimum not require another 500 chapters to address plot points.
Would you rather have shorter stories if it meant you got a guaranteed finished series instead of watching something go on for a thousand chapters only to have it all get cut short by something unexpected?
Vagabond has an ending, there was an exhibition about it
Adrian Bennett
The longer running the series, the more likely it would have a bad ending. Berserk was already showing its cracks with Guts powering up massively and fighting against high fantasy monsters that pop up like mushrooms with ease.
Jack Perry
Don't be an asshole, user.
Angel Bailey
>Should authors and artists not dedicate their life to what they consider their magnum opus or life's work because I don't like it? Beyond fucking stupid
Adam Turner
Yeah I got tired of being invested in series that never end and everything I start these days has to be finished
Generally I like when a series can resolve in 50~200 chapters or 26-50 episodes. However I make exceptions if the series is good enough, in those cases I can usually find some level of satisfaction by just enjoying the ride even if it's unfinished. Nowadays when it comes to anime I mostly watch originals, old shows that are complete and standalone films since those are always complete stories. Manga I'm more flexible with because its not as much of a time commitment to read, but I'll drop a series pretty quickly if it feels like it's going nowhere.
Jackson Young
shorter abrupt cut off > slowly dying
Nicholas Russell
No series should last for more than 5 years. The longer something lasts, the more the quality decays.
This is an impossible ideal. An author can't actually "dedicate their life" to a work because on their lifetime they will change as a person, no longer thinking the same as when they started it. This cause the quality to become inconsistent. No actual magnum opus has consumed the author's life, they're all snapshots of the author's mind during a specific moment of their lives. And more pragmatically, there's really no need for a story to take that long to tell, a story isn't better or more memorable simply by being longer. Most of it will probably be dispensable fluff anyway.
Noah Gomez
I don't see any reason to not prefer something getting finished in a reasonable timeframe The longer something drags on, the higher the likelihood the of the author being kill or just them getting tired of it
Isaac Hernandez
This. You can tell certain long running iconic manga are totally different stories now. HxH particularly reeks of actually being several different manga crudely stapled together instead of one manga. Even plain BOREDOM can cause this to happen. Can one truly write the same story for, say, 30 years?
Such projects also don't consider the artists physical and mental faculties either. What the fuck does an artist do when they hit fucking 50 and their work is still half done? They are physically crippled from a grueling 24/7 work schedule hunched over a desk. No movement for 20-30 years. Constantly catching near deadly flu, as seems to be the trend with manga artists. What's going to get you first just after 50? Heart attack? Death from sheer overwork? Your body just giving the fuck up? Even if those don't get you, you spend decades to get halfway in to a story and think you'll somehow finish NOW? 10 years flies. Then you are 60 pushing the same work schedule. Except none of these people make it to 60.
Actually absurd.
Robert Foster
If I like it I don't care if it's long or unfinished.
Justin Hill
>Would you rather have shorter stories if it meant you got a guaranteed finished series instead of watching something go on for a thousand chapters only to have it all get cut short by something unexpected?
YES. The best stories are sweet short and to the point. You dont need 20 years of bullshit 3/4 of which are just filler garbage that do nothing. Tell a story and get out and make something new. Long running shows tend to drag on forever simply to milk revenue. We need more demon slayer or FMA where it just has a story to tell and fucking ends.
Michael Adams
Stories should have an end. When they come to an end gracefully is the best. I make fun of boomers who watch tv shows that've been running for over 20 years. It's not about the story anymore when it goes on too long, just the money. Also, if I really enjoy an author's work, I would like him to show me his skill in different settings. Why be satisfied with just 1 long masterpiece?
Jose Wright
>No series should last for more than 5 years Depends on the series
Grayson Kelly
I disagree, this happens a lot of course but it's not guaranteed. If the author CAN keep the same quality then by all means keep going. >a story isn't better or more memorable simply by being longer. It isn't better or more memorable simply by being shorter either.
Bentley Turner
I agree with the overall point, but for monthly series especially 5 years is quite a low number. Not every work has to be some distilled, boiled-down storytelling exercise where ONLY the pure essence of the theme is thrown at you. Some stories are interested in having characters, world-building, multiple timespans, etc. and there's nothing wrong with it in terms of entertainment.
Wyatt Sullivan
>Berserk was already showing its cracks with Guts powering up massively and fighting against high fantasy monsters that pop up like mushrooms with ease Speed reading retard. It's shown time and time again that him fighting those demons was actively destroying his body and to say wearing the Berserker Armor is "Powering up massively" shows that you completely missed the point of the Armor in the first place.
Leo Butler
I'd say 8 to 10 years should be the max, 5 years is pretty low but a decade is fine for a continuing story, one work shouldn't dominate the majority of your life
Dylan Young
Read American comics, the stories last like 30 issues at most and have actual satisfying conclusions
William Walker
I agree. All the long running shows peak early or in the middle. You never hear people say that the final act of a long running series was the best part, because it never is.
