Question about production length.

[Brekclub85]

Something I've wondered, in relation to the manga-to-anime transition in this:

Are the makers of the anime version aware ahead of time of the manga cases, or do they have no idea about the stories until Gosho writes them?

I've sometimes wondered if Gosho sends a "script" version of each story to the anime staff as he's writing, since manga-based episodes tend to appear about, at most, a year after the manga version is released. Am I right about this, or am I off a bit?

[Wakarimashita]

In his recent interview, Gosho said that in the past, he had already given some of his notes about the 'development' (he uses ä¼

[Brekclub85]

One thing I noticed is how nowadays, everything (unless it's a 1 or 2 chapter story) is at least a 2-parter. In the early parts of the series, 3 and even sometimes 4-chapter long cases would still equal only one anime episode. Currently, everything that's 3 chapters will always be a 2-parter. I wonder if there's a reason for this.

[Wakarimashita]

That's very simple. When the anime first started, the manga was two years ahead, therefore the anime had some catching up to do (since manga and anime in these cases usually have a one year difference) and they did that by making one part episodes out of 3 or 4 chapters (though why they did fillers simultaneously is beyond me). However, now that the anime has a one year gap with the manga (and it's been the case for over 10 years), the producers need to maintain it by making almost every single case into a 2 parter. If they didn't do that, the anime would either have more AOs or would have to end. It's a bit annoying but at least the anime doesn't have 30 fillers in a row and usually the pacing is still decent (exceptions being the London Arc, the Red Wall or Eri's birthday). It could be worse though, just imagine what it would be if the anime had a 1 chapter/1 episode ratio (or even less) which is what anime like Dragon Ball Z or One Piece have suffered or still suffer from.