Using Plex TV Series Agent for Anime

[sawtaytoes]

Server Version#: 1.41.4.9463
Player Version#: N/A

Problem

I want a way to keep the correct per-episode metadata for a given show + movies + specials but define the watch order myself.

Possible solution?

I noticed this paragraph on a docs pages:

Plex Series : The default agent in current Plex Media Server installs. More info on its settings can be found in our Advanced Settings Plex TV Series Agent article. Info on upgrading an existing library to use the new agent can be found here: Migrating a TV library to use the new Plex TV Series Agent/Scanner. By default, metadata gathered will be based on info from The Movie Database, but you can adjust that for the library or a particular show, as desired.

Source: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200241558-agents/

What does it mean I can change the metadata as desired? Does this let me reconfigure how it sets up and orders episodes? If I want OVAs or movies to appear between certain episodes, can I do that?

While this sucks, I’d even be fine with working around it by creating seasons as:

1. Season 1: Part 1
2. Movie
3. Season 1: Part 2

History

I’ve been using anidb with HamaTV and Absolute-Series-Scanner to categorize my anime in Plex since October 2023. I only used the default scanner for about a month before switching.

But even better, if I could choose the episode order and Plex would retain the correct metadata. That’s been my ultimate goal, so I can stop keeping track of a bunch of WATCH ORDER.txt files.

Reasoning

For whatever reason, I found the default at the time (TVDB?) to be pretty bad, and anidb was better (having more stuff), but still sucky because I can’t wishlist anything, and the order is really wonky.

I’d prefer to stop using anidb as a source if Plex was better, but I can’t remember why I chose the Hama and ASS agents in the first place!

anidb through HamaTV relies on Collections rather than Seasons.

That has the drawback of making it difficult to use Plex as Collections aren’t first-class citizens:

1. You can’t search for them.
2. There’s no “Go to Collection” option.
3. You have no checkmark for if you’ve watched everything in a collection which makes it hard to tell if I’ve watched a show in that collection.

Examples of what I’d like to see

I still think collections make sense, for instance, if I have a show Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. I’d put those two in the same collection, but instead of having one 200 episode season, it’d be nice to divide that up by arcs.

In another case, I have 2 seasons of One Punch Man, and each has 6 OVAs that are supposed to be watched between certain episodes. I’d like to put those between episodes even if it messes with the episode numbering so long as the metadata is correct.

[sawtaytoes]

I read some other doc and saw this:

Dynamic Alternate orders

As of Plex Media Server version 1.40.4 (and when using the Plex TV Series agent), it is possible to set the appropriate episode order for a TV series (based on alternate orders available from The TVDB for that series), after it has been successfully matched. This is available from the Advanced tab, when editing the TV show.

Source: https://support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files/

I think that means I can’t choose the ordering unless I add it to TVDB, but then I have to use the metadata from TVDB and not The Movie Database.

Is it not possible to add an .nfo file or something to each directory defining the episode ordering and how I’ve re-arranged them? Something where I can say “episode ID X is now going to be episode 2 from season 3”?

[ReaperSPTN2109]

outside of creating a new ordering on tvdb you can create playlists in plex for your desired watch order while keeping the metadata from which ever source you want to use

[sawtaytoes]

Playlists are even worse than collections to me.

Yes, I can use them to watch a certain order, but they only appear on my account, they’re global, and there’s no “Anime Playlist” library. So it’s more hacky even if it may fulfill that need.

When I watch a show, I don’t wanna go through what is essentially a music playlist or “radio”; I’d like to view the show itself in the order I choose. It’ll make it far less confusing.