While the concept of sagas and stand-alone stories is not new, both are used in animation.  Sagas allow for a plot to develop over the course of the show’s season or in some cases lifetime.  A stand-alone show has a story whose plot is normally just for a single episode, with a completely new plot ready for the series next episode.  Which is the better style?

Almost all Japanese animation today is a variation of sagas.  Most episodes have a foundation that was laid in the previous episode.  Some of the best examples of sagas in Japanese animation are Dragon Ball Z and Mobile Suit Gundam.  Both of these shows are sagas which are extended out over seasons.  In both shows, the new seasons continue the basic story from the previous season, even though in most cases a long period of time in the story has passed.  In addition, new characters may become the focus while returning characters may see their roles change.  The Mobile Suit Gundam sagas are a very good example of this.  In the original series, the story focused on the crew of an experimental warship known as White Base and its ace pilot Amuro Ray, as well as he nemesis Char Aznable.  In the sequel Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Amuro is reduce to a semi-reoccurring role later in the series, while the captain of the White Base and Char Aznable (under a different name) become major suppoting charcters for the new main character Kamille Bidan.

American animation has taken more of a stand-alone style.   New plots can be used without back-story, such as the Looney Tunes cartoons.  In the series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, essentially every episode was a stand-alone episode, with both heroes and villains appearing for single episodes, though mainly it was the villains whom changed every episode.  There was never continuity with those shows.  It is still a practice used in animation today in shows such as Family Guy.  In the episode “Spies Reminiscent Of Us,” Stewie comments on how his brother Chris was in Africa as an exchange student with an elephant herd and if it was just a “bit.”

Both sagas and stand-alone stories have their advantages and disadvantages.  I personally enjoy the concept of a plot expanded through several episodes and allowed to develop, but I am not against stand-alone either.  Which is the  better version for animation?