Original video animation (?????·???·??????? ,Orijinaru bideo animeshon?), abbreviated
OVA (??????/??????? ,obuie or ovie?) (and sometimes as
OAV), is a term originating from
Japanese animation (
anime) for
animated films and series which are made specially to be released on
home video formats. The majority are released
direct-to-video, without prior showings on
TV or in theatres, however, there may be very rare occasions where, for example, the first part of an OVA series is broadcast for promotional purposes. OVA titles were originally made available on
VHS, later becoming more popular on
LaserDisc and eventually
DVD.
[1]Like anime made for television broadcast, OVAs are broken into episodes. OVA media (tapes, laserdiscs, or DVDs) are usually sold with just one episode each. Episode length varies from title to title, and might be anywhere from a few minutes to two hours or more. An episode length of 30 minutes is quite common, but this is by no means the rule. In some cases, the length of episodes in a specific OVA may vary greatly (in GaoGaiGar FINAL, the first 7 episodes last around 30 minutes, while the last episode lasted 50 minutes; the OVA Key the Metal Idol consists of 15 separate episodes, ranging in length from 20 minutes to nearly two hours each.) An OVA series can run anywhere from an episode (essentially a direct-to-video movie) to dozens in length. Probably the longest OVA series ever made was Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which spanned 110 main episodes and 52 gaiden episodes.
Many popular series are first animated as an OVA, and later grow to become popular television series or movies. Tenchi Muyo!, for example, began as an OVA but went on to spawn several TV series, three movies, and numerous other spin-offs. Other OVA releases are made as sequels, side stories, music video collections, or bonus episodes that continue existing TV series or films, such as Love Hina Again and Wolf's Rain.
OVA animation is well regarded for its high production quality. OVA titles generally have a much higher budget per episode than that of a TV series; therefore the technical quality of animation is almost always superior to TV series; occasionally even equal to that of animated movies.
