

Possibly related to working conditions reform in recent years, which unfortunately new PM Mrs. “discard work-life balance” Takaichi is trying to dial back. It might be also harder to get enough manpower together now that more shows are made each season.
Spreading production out in time probably let them get more done in house and get a more consistent and higher quality output too.























According to JP wikipedia, its meaning is closer to a quarter (of a year). So for weekly anime 12 to 13 episodes per cour is correct, though there are both shorter and longer exceptions. For something like NHK’s daily drama I believe they still call a show 2 cour even though it has 150+ episodes.