Pezz wrote:what is an OVA? is it like a movie? if so, can you watch an OVA without knowing anything about a series and still enjoy it?
In Read or Die's case, the OVA set is a standalone set of three 30-minute episodes, with a sequel TV series (R.O.D. TV), so you can and should watch the OVA series without having seen anything else.an old post of mine answering a similar question wrote:OVA (Original Video Animation) and OAV (Original Animation Video) are interchangable terms for anime that is released directly to video or DVD without a broadcast or theatrical showing first. Either is acceptable; I personally prefer using OVA.
OVAs are frequently stand-alone sets. They can also be linked to existing TV series or movies to provide a continuation of the series (like Steel Angel Kurumi), a prequel to it (the first Rurouni Kenshin set), or an alternate telling of it (Rayearth or Kimagure Orange Road).
In the heyday of OVAs (mid-'90s), they often had better animation than TV series, since they had a higher budget per episode, though not as high as a theatrical movie. With the advent of computer-aided animation, that's changed somewhat, and it's harder to tell whether something is an OVA or TV series from the animation quality.
OVAs can have widely varying episode counts as well. Three is a very common number, though I've seen as few as one (Chrono Trigger) and as high as 13 (Original Record of Lodoss War). US releases of OVA sets are often of the entire set on one DVD (longer sets usually get released on two), while Japanese releases are usually one episode per DVD (more if it's an older one getting rereleased on DVD).
