abstract
| - Anime aired from around 11 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning, occasionally indicated by the odd-looking "22:00-27:00" annotation. They are almost universally watched by an older male audience, and often mocked by any shows aired earlier. This sounds like a rather strange time to broadcast a show that's trying to make money, but it works for several reasons. These kinds of time slots are usually bought by production companies (generally a span of three months, called a cour) who end up as their own sponsor. This is cheaper than depending on someone else's advertising money. These shows have a strong, if unusual, Merchandise-Driven concept that help pay for themselves. This is supplied by the often small but dutiful fan base. The TV station gets to fill an otherwise crappy time slot. This also creates the infamous tendency to neuter, literally or figuratively, the broadcast in an effort to get you to buy DVDs; recent shows may not even supply the 'full' finale. In fact, many small companies don't even release OAVs anymore unless they've done a TV run, just to make sure their audience wants them. However, how much Fan Service the show actually provides can vary quite a bit. Interestingly, distribution in the fansub community largely removes this time restriction, as does DVR technology (which allows people to set their TV to record a show at, say, 3 a.m., and then watch it twelve hours later). An unexpected demographic can take interest in a show, or a larger fandom is created for a series that originally had a much smaller one. See also Watershed, Safe Harbor. Examples of Otaku O'Clock include:
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