Show ONA as ONA instead of OVA

[Kcchouette]

Hello

When searching for Sakamoto Days, we receive using the kitsu endpoint 4 results:

• Nichijou as TV
• Sakamoto Days as OVA
• Sakamoto Days Part 2 as OVA
• and a movie

The kitsu endpoint displays them as ONA (..."subtype": "ONA"...)

Is it possible to show it as ONA on the searching list?

From my research, it seems related to this line:

trackma/trackma/utils.py

Line 131 in 062faf6

ONA = OVA

Thanks

[FichteFoll]

Is the distinction between ONA and OVA actually important or does it only need to be different from TV, Short, Movie? As in: sould we just create a joined "ONA / OVA" type or do you specifically want to distinguish between an ONA and an OVA? I'm mainly asking because this is also what AniChart does.

(Although AniChart also includes "Special" in that list, which makes no sense to me.)

[Kcchouette]

@FichteFoll

• about AniChart, it seems to not list anime Sakamoto Days in spring / summer 2025
• For me, ONA is different to OVA. As Netflix & disney will have more and more animes, maybe should we merge ONA with TV?

But I think we need to display the merging in any case (by displaying for eg "ONA / OVA" instead of "OVA" only)

[FichteFoll]

Merging ONA with TV does seem more natural than with OVA, indeed, though at this point I'd probably prefer to keep the categories separate since there does seem to be some nuance in it and I'd rather not overrule whatever the various platforms decide respectively.

[z411]

I totally agree about showing the difference, but regarding merging ONAs with TV - I feel like an ONA in practice works more like an OVA than a TV show.

An ONA is similar to an OVA in the sense that they have the freedom to choose the show length (anything from a single episode to an arbitrary number), the distribution channel (often independent, many of them were distributed even through their own Youtube or Niconico channels), the episode length (anything from a few minutes like Teekyuu to ~an hour), and the schedule (not necessarily weekly, can be very arbitrary). The only difference that I can see is that OVAs are physical and ONAs are digital.

A TV show tends to have their length restricted by cours (multiples of 12), they're tied to the TV station itself, its regulations and its schedule (often strictly weekly), and episodes are mostly required to fill a 24 minute slot. Then they're distributed physically later as BD volumes.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[FichteFoll]

Sounds accurate to me. For various reasons, including the ones you mentioned, I am strongly in favor of just adding a separate type for ONA (see #784).