Soap Opera (TV Series)

Description
Soap Opera is an anime series that, as you may have guessed, revolves around the daily lives of the same main group of characters. Most notably Takashi Miyake, Dr. James Yamazaki, and his daughter, Ayumi. The series is available to watch on Amazon Prime, because what do they not have on there, Hulu, Netflix, Funimation, Crunchyroll, and somewhere on the backend of Tubi. It often pokes fun at English-dubbed anime (in the dubbed version), anime in general, and soap operas, while somehow keeping the characters fleshed out. The English dub was purposely made to seem like an abridged version of the original show.

The series ended its run with 34 episodes.

Format
The show does not have seasons, though Amazon and Tubi would lead you to think otherwise. Instead, the only way to keep track of the show is through episodes, much like an actual soap opera. The reason for this was "to give it a smoother transition from episode to episode. Season counts can get more annoying than episode counts. Technically, we'll always be on season 1." Most streaming platforms respected this during the show's run.

Concept
The show's origin can be traced back 12 years before the first episode premiered. At that time, the show's creator made an animated short film, which aired as a MICROWAVE SOUP COMMERCIAL. This advertisement featured early versions of Ayumi and Takashi. After a long decade of looking for work, he finally decided that he wanted to revisit these characters, seeing potential in them. The funny thing is that he included the soup commercial with the show on every streaming service. Because it wasn't too far off from the final version of the show, that "pilot" is considered canon. In honor of the ad that started it all, the characters frequently eat microwave soup throughout the series.

Dr. James Yamazaki
James is a local therapist and widowed father of three children: Ayumi, Sachiko, and Seiichi. The joke is that he has the most American first name ever.

Ayumi Yamazaki (Yamazaki Ayumi)
18 year-old daughter of Doctor James Yamazaki and his first born. After the tragic death of her mom, she serves as a mother figure to her younger brother and sister. She has a passion for digital artwork, hoping to one day be a character designer.

Takashi Miyake (Miyake Takashi)
Takashi is 19 years old and living in his own studio apartment. He frequently visits his family whenever he can, as well as his best friend, Ayumi. He met her at age 15, during a therapy session on "Take Your Kid To Work Day." The reason he went to therapy is because he lost his cousin that year.

Sachiko and Seiichi Yamazaki (Yamazaki Sachiko and Yamazaki Seiichi)
Ayumi's younger siblings; sister and brother, respectively. They are fraternal twins, who are both 10 years old, and WAY too proud to be.

Bernard
Bernard only exists to be a friend to the main characters. He usually gets himself involved in dumb B-plots, or "Classic Bernard Shenanigans." His character may be expanded upon in greater depth as the series progresses.

Episodes
See Soap Opera (TV Series)/List of Episodes

Film
After the show ended, its production company "Bossco Animation" started a film studio that produces animated movies. A project titled, "Soap Opera: The Movie" was one of the first on their catalog.

Sequel Series
After the movie had proven successful, the creator of Soap Opera announced that he would be partnering with Kyoto Animation to make a "more direct" continuation to the original anime, in celebration of its upcoming tenth anniversary. This meant that the anime would premiere 2 years from the date of its announcement. Further details, such as title and plot, remained unknown at the time.