Aion
Time-Traveller
Watching Phantom made me think about the titles I've found easy to blaze through over a day or two. In most cases, I struggle to watch more than five or so episodes in one sitting, but certain series are able to hit the imaginary switch in my brain that enables me to keep going as long as time/my eyes allow.
Basilisk is a decent example. Because its story takes place over the course of a few days and death is always around the corner, it's hard to stop watching. There's a non-stop flow from episode to episode as the numbers of ninja on both sides decrease and the story edges towards its conclusion. Most anime have events play out over a lengthy period of time, so having so much occur over the space of a few days made it different.
Kaiji's another good example. Its story focuses on a series of 'games' where the contestants lives are on the line. Outside of the first game - which plays out over four hours (in-anime) and takes around eight episodes - the remaining games all occur during one rather hectic night. Every episode ending on a cliffhanger as the psychological duels continued to twist prevented me from stopping with ease.
And, as I mentioned at the start, Phantom also made me enter 'marathon mode' yesterday. It's actually slow-paced and its story plays out over many years, but crime drama where there's no true 'good' and lots of death is gripping when done right, and Phantom was executed superbly. Each of the three arcs slowly build towards their respective conclusions, making sure the viewer is emotionally connected, and my desire to see the climaxes of each of the arcs made boredom an impossibility. Linking it into Basilisk, no-one being safe from death kept me on my toes throughout.
Other titles I marathoned include Berserk & Gungrave (both similar shows I watched in one-sitting) and Maison Ikkoku (2x 30 episode marathons.) Looking back further, Naruto is probably another I watched a lot of all at once, back in the goold ol' days of Narutardism. Getting into it when 60-70ish episodes were out made it kinda hard not to!
Basilisk is a decent example. Because its story takes place over the course of a few days and death is always around the corner, it's hard to stop watching. There's a non-stop flow from episode to episode as the numbers of ninja on both sides decrease and the story edges towards its conclusion. Most anime have events play out over a lengthy period of time, so having so much occur over the space of a few days made it different.
Kaiji's another good example. Its story focuses on a series of 'games' where the contestants lives are on the line. Outside of the first game - which plays out over four hours (in-anime) and takes around eight episodes - the remaining games all occur during one rather hectic night. Every episode ending on a cliffhanger as the psychological duels continued to twist prevented me from stopping with ease.
And, as I mentioned at the start, Phantom also made me enter 'marathon mode' yesterday. It's actually slow-paced and its story plays out over many years, but crime drama where there's no true 'good' and lots of death is gripping when done right, and Phantom was executed superbly. Each of the three arcs slowly build towards their respective conclusions, making sure the viewer is emotionally connected, and my desire to see the climaxes of each of the arcs made boredom an impossibility. Linking it into Basilisk, no-one being safe from death kept me on my toes throughout.
Other titles I marathoned include Berserk & Gungrave (both similar shows I watched in one-sitting) and Maison Ikkoku (2x 30 episode marathons.) Looking back further, Naruto is probably another I watched a lot of all at once, back in the goold ol' days of Narutardism. Getting into it when 60-70ish episodes were out made it kinda hard not to!
