クールkuuru
Quick definition:A cour is a block of roughly three months of anime broadcasting, usually about twelve or thirteen episodes, and it is the basic unit by which Japanese television plans and schedules its series.
Meaning
Cour refers to a three-month slot in the Japanese television calendar, which is divided into four seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn. A series that fills one slot is called a one-cour series and usually has twelve or thirteen episodes. Longer series are described by the number of cours they occupy, such as a two-cour series with about twenty-four episodes.
The system affects how fans talk about anime. A season of new releases arrives every three months, and fans follow the lists of shows and discuss which to watch. Some series continue across cours, with a short break between them, while others end after one.
Because a cour is set by the broadcast calendar, planning a story around it can force writers to compress or stretch material. A series adapted from a long manga may cover only the early chapters in one cour, and a sequel in a later season picks up where it ended, which is why fans often talk about anime seasons as well as cours.
Origin:Cour is a French word meaning a course or a series, borrowed into Japanese as kuuru, written in katakana. Japanese television adopted it for the quarterly broadcast cycle, and the word entered English-language anime fandom to describe the same unit. In Japanese the word is easily confused with the word for cool, because both are written the same way in katakana.
Example:A fantasy adventure announces that it will run for two cours, so fans expect about twenty-four episodes, with a short break in the middle. A comedy appears for a single cour of twelve episodes and then concludes, while a long fighting series continues for many cours.
Did you know?Anime seasons are named for the months in which they begin, with winter starting in January, spring in April, summer in July and autumn in October. Fans often write new-season guides at the start of each one, listing what is coming.
