Line #35 TroubledProduction/AnimeAndManga


1	%% NOTE: Real life examples only. In-universe examples go on TroubledProduction/FictionalExamples.
2	%%
3	%% SECOND NOTE: Examples are alphabetised by title. Please add new examples to the appropriate place in the list.
4	%%
5	TroubledProduction in Anime & Manga.
6	----
7	!!Series with their own pages
8	[[index]]
9	* ''TroubledProduction/NeonGenesisEvangelion''
10	[[/index]]
11
12	----
13	* ''Anime/Berserk2016'': According to an [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2017-07-07/what-the-heck-happened-to-berserk/.117834 article]] by Callum May (''The Canipa Effect'') on ANN, the show was plagued by behind-the-scenes production difficulties. May's English article is based on information from a Japanese article in the January 2017 [[https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01IP5I24C/ issue]] of ''CG World'' Magazine, which Kim Morrissey (Frog-kun) [[https://twitter.com/frog_kun/status/883469670648471553 translated for him.]]
14	** The idea of making a CG ''Berserk'' anime came from producer Tetsuro Satomi of LIDENFILMS. He reached out to Studio GEMBA, which was established in 2006 as a subsidiary of Digital Frontier. They had previously done supporting work on various shows, but they'd never handled principal animation production for a show before. The president and staff of GEMBA were concerned that Satomi's proposal was a very tall order, but ultimately they agreed to do it as a joint project, with LIDENFILMS producing and studio Millepensee creating the 2D.
15	** The director chosen for the ''Berserk'' project was Shin Itagaki, who was more well-known for directing lighter fare such as the RapidFireComedy ''Manga/{{Teekyuu}}''. He had at least directed ''Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries'' (2007), so he wasn't a complete stranger to bloody, demon-slaying action. Nevertheless, he had never directed a 3D anime before, and his determination to replicate the unique and highly detailed aesthetic of the original manga held up the start of production, since his vision ran up against the limited capabilities of Studio GEMBA. Production began in the spring of 2015, when they created the first teaser, but it was not until the project was formally announced in December of that year that Itagaki and the staff actually reached a compromise about what the show would look like. Because he wasn't satisfied with the more realistic first version and wanted to get more of a stylized 2D look, they had to scrap all of the assets they had created for the trailer, and in January 2016, they started making 150 new character models from scratch. They started animating in March--just four months before the show was set to air--and things got worse. It turned out that their hardware couldn't handle rendering the highly detailed character models they had created, and since they didn't have time to work out a better solution, their only choice was to simplify the models. They also had to scrap their plans to use a system called Global Illumination to enhance the 3D backgrounds.
16	** Itagaki's request for "touch-up lines" to fill in shadows also created problems. The hatching texture was added in by Millepensee, and the lines were automatically tracked onto the models by Adobe After Effects, but they had to manually apply the texture to any reflective metallic objects like weapons and armor, which made up a huge portion of the assets. Meanwhile the show's overworked technical director, Keita Mizuhashi, had his work cut out for him trying to troubleshoot all sorts of issues. The fact that most of these problems involved multiple teams who weren't working under the same roof made his job that much harder.
17	** Ultimately, says May, the overly ambitious proposal combined with Itagaki's perfectionism and the lack of time to work out the technical issues turned the anime into a production nightmare, and the visuals suffered as a result.
18	* The ''three'' Latin American Spanish dubs of ''Manga/CaseClosed'' have had lots of messes in their productions:
19	** According to the people who worked in the first dubbed version (from the first to the fifth season), which was dubbed by VDI - Point.360 in Los Angeles, California, the entire dub was a complete mess from the start, since many episodes were dubbed in the same day and sometimes by five ''different'' voice directors, who generally ignored each others' work, resulting in inconsistencies like Sonoko Suzuki, a regular, having [[DubNameChange her name changed]] in almost every episode she appeared. This and the series suffering low ratings were the reasons why the series was canceled in Latin America, despite its CultClassic following.
20	** The two first movies were dubbed in Mexico, and while [[SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing the acting itself was pretty good]], the translation was awful, since it not only suffered from the TooLongDidntDub trope (something that ''rarely happens'' in a Mexican Spanish dub), it was later found out the Mexican dub illegally plagiarized a script from a fansub for the translation, causing a quite embarrassing incident with both the fans and the Japanese licensors, and losing the rights to dub any related material regarding the series. The ban was only lifted in 2016, when another Mexican dub company got the rights to dub the [=18th=] movie (''Dimensional Sniper'') and one of the crossovers with ''Anime/LupinTheThird'' for a digital release, and the [=19th=] movie (''Sunflowers of Inferno'') for a theatrical release.
21	** After the incidents with both the Hispanic and Mexican voice actors teams, the series was dubbed for good (from the sixth season onwards) in Chile instead, after a Chilean TV channel specifically bought the rights of the series and the movies [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff due to older Chilean fans's love of the franchise]]. The ironic twist of this, at least in the Chilean Spanish dub of ''The Last Wizard of the Century'', is that this version also has a plagiarized script from a fansub - except, unlike with the Hispanic and Mexican cases, it only happens in the ''subbed version''. Whoopsie?
22	* ''Anime/CodeGeass'''s first season. Creator/{{Sunrise}} was wary of trusting a full series to director / co-creator Goro Taniguchi, thanks to his reputation for perfectionism and his other quirks, so he was only handed 25 episodes to begin with. The staff often had to piggyback off of other parts of the studio that were working at the same time (for example, the ''Geass'' staff didn't even have their own photocopier) and the writers were only three or four episodes ahead of the broadcast, about half the "buffer" that most series have. When the series became a runaway success, things went much better, but fans tend to blame the series' being split in half for the perceived drop in quality in the second half.
23	* ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranxx'' suffered from production delays and series composition mismanagement, especially by the second half of the series. [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2018/anime-expo-news-roundup-day-zero-one-two-headlines/anime-expo-trigger-panel/.133997 In an appearance at Anime Expo 2018]], [[Creator/StudioTrigger TRIGGER's]] panel revealed that the show's pre-production was difficult and that the team had "been through a lot". There has also been substantial speculation that TRIGGER did not get along with [[Creator/A1Pictures Cloverworks]], and the former had to face having storyboards rejected by the producer and director. TRIGGER eventually pulled out of the series entirely after the release of Episode 14, leading many to speculate that the second half was negatively affected because of TRIGGER's departure. Moreover, the showrunners had to [[TheOtherDarrin recast Goro from episode 23 onwards]] after the original voice actor Creator/YuichiroUmehara was hospitalized due to acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. Judging from ''Franxx'' being completely absent [[https://www.st-trigger.co.jp/works/ on TRIGGER's website]], TRIGGER likely called NoTrueScotsman on the series as a result of the adverse relationship they had with Cloverworks.[[note]]For the record, the series ''does'' appear on [[https://cloverworks.co.jp/works/page/3/ Cloverworks' site]].[[/note]]
24	* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
25	** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' got one as a result of CreativeDifferences and ExecutiveMeddling. For one, the head writers, Genki Yoshimura and Atsushi Maekawa, were told to write in their preferred styles, which resulted in the two being unable to see eye to eye on what direction the story would go. While this was happening, the head writer for the [[Anime/DigimonAdventure first season]], Satoru Nishizono, left because [[FranchiseZombie he didn't want a second season to be made]]. This got so bad that much of the staff, including Creator/ChiakiKonaka, were desperate to leave despite being still under contract. Bandai, unwilling to let them leave, gave them their own series, which resulted in the creation of the ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}''[='=]s first AlternateUniverse, ''Anime/DigimonTamers''.
26	* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' was rushed into production following the massive success of ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF'' and was scheduled to replace ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'' after that finished its run on Fuji TV at the very end of June 2015. However, this gave the production staff a mere ''two and a half months'' to prepare episodes when generally anime requires at least ''six'' to have a stable production schedule. Not helped by the fact that much of Toei's animators already had their hands full on their countless other anime, so ''Super'' did not have the necessary amount of animators needed to properly deal with its short production cycle and within 5 episodes the production infamously collapsed leading to the few animators on the series having to rush their work in order to meet the incredibly tight deadlines. Toei would desperately attempt to mitigate Supers production troubles over the remainder of its nearly three-year run, mostly getting it together by the final arc, the Universal Survival Saga.
27	* ''The Dream Machine'', the final movie of the [[DiedDuringProduction late]] Creator/SatoshiKon, has experienced its share of trouble, having gone from production into DevelopmentHell, back into production only to fall back into development hell. First Kon's death from pancreatic cancer put the film on hold to determine the next course of action. Kon's widow and Studio Creator/{{Madhouse}}'s Masao Maruyama said they would finish the film and production resumed. However, at Otakon 2011, Maruyama reported the movie has been put on hold due to financial difficulties. Maruyama is still determined to finish the film eventually, with about 600 shots out of 1500 had been animated at that point.
28	* ''{{Franchise/Gundam}}'':
29	** ''[[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Zeta Gundam]]'', which suffered fewer financial hardships than the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', but both the TV series and its {{Compilation Movie}}s rather infamously suffered complications as a result of the romantic blunders of various men involved in production with at least three voice actresses. [[note]](This had ''huge'' consequences for Four Murasame's new voice actress, Creator/{{Yukana}}, who was accused of [[CastingCouch sleeping with the recently divorced director]] to get the role; this caused her to be subjected to massive bullying from the Gundam fandom and [[StarDerailingRole serious career damage]], [[CareerResurrection until she reclaimed her popularity]] by playing C.C from ''Anime/CodeGeass''.)[[/note]] Most infamous of which was the legendary feud between director and scriptwriter Creator/YoshiyukiTomino and equally self-important mecha designer Mamoru Nagano[[note]]Nagano routinely hated Tomino's style and the direction where he was taking the show, up to the point that ''Manga/TheFiveStarStories'' basically started as his StartMyOwn towards their other collaboration, ''Anime/HeavyMetalLGaim''.[[/note]]
30	** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' also suffered this, partly because of head writer Chiaki Morosawa's battle with cancer during production, which resulted in her turning in scripts in late, which necessitated the numerous {{clip show}}s throughout the series. Making it worse was director Mitsuo Fukuda demanding very specific performances from the voice actors which they found exhausting (specifically, Creator/NaomiShindo [the voice of Cagalli] and Creator/MaayaSakamoto [the voice of Lunamaria]). [[WordOfGod This was confirmed]] by Creator/RieTanaka (the voice of Lacus and Meer) at her [[http://www.animevice.com/news/nyaf08-interview-with-rie-tanaka/78/ 2008 New York Anime Festival appearance,]] as well as by Creator/KenichiSuzumura (the voice of Shinn) in one of his Twitter posts.
31	** ''Anime/GundamBuildDiversReRISE'' was forced to go on hiatus due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, leaving Sunrise unable to air the remaining episodes of season 2 (specifically from episode 19 onwards) until July 2020.
32	* The making of the 1999 film ''Gundress'' was quite a saga, as recounted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqS3U6VEDY here]] by WebVideo/BennettTheSage:
33	** It started when the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu, which was attempting to branch out into anime production as a subsidiary of video game developer Namco, began looking for a creative team to develop a title that they hoped would become a multimedia franchise. The team they ended up approaching, collectively known as ORCA, had only one other anime project to their name -- the notorious flop ''Anime/{{Landlock}}'' -- which Nikkatsu was willing to overlook owing to ORCA's collaboration with Creator/MasamuneShirow on that project. The studio gave ORCA and Masamune a budget of US$5 million, a gargantuan sum by anime production standards.
34	** Things began going downhill when ORCA realized they had no idea what to make a movie about and immediately started to [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants write it on the fly]]. Having no sense of the project's visual direction, ORCA and Masamune simply recycled mech designs from ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' and ''Anime/{{Appleseed}}'', thus defeating the purpose of creating a "new" anime franchise. There was also an apparent lack of communication between ORCA and Masamune on who would be the main character, with [[ActionGirl Yun Kei]] (who Masamune had in mind) ending up being a supporting character in the final product. Michelle, whom Masamune had envisioned as "the cute younger sister with a volatile look in her eyes" was reduced to a generic nice girl.
35	** Much of the budget was spent on hiring screen actors to fill the roles rather than voice actors; Rie Ishizuka, who voiced the protagonist Alissa, was primarily known for screen acting prior to ''Gundress''. The making-of documentary includes an awkward exchange between Ishizuka and director Katsuyoshi Yatabe in which the actress asks what the other characters are like and Yatabe (knowing full well that they are nowhere close to being fully written) tries to deflect by telling her to "feel her way" around the script.
36	** Things got markedly worse when the animation team found themselves struggling with what they were expected to animate, with key animators Koji Watanabe (''Anime/TenchiMuyo'', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'') and Tetsuro Aoki (''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', ''Anime/SamuraiSeven'', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'') giving an unusually frank interview in the making-of documentary complaining about Masamune's weird and impractical mech designs. Masamune himself was aware that his art style was not suited for animation and requested that ORCA modify his designs for the animators. If that interview is any indication, that didn't happen.
37	** Not surprisingly, ORCA began missing deadlines. All of them. Including the legally required wrap date. And because that wrap date couldn't be pushed back, Nikkatsu and Toei released the film -- which was being hyped as a tentpole release with tons of tie-in works and merchandise -- ''[[ObviousBeta with laughably unfinished animation composed of pencil tests]]''. And reportedly, flyers were handed out at early screenings which admitted the film wasn't done but promised to mail moviegoers the finished product on VHS (while refusing refunds).
38	** While what money ''Gundress'' earned hasn't been officially determined, ''charitable'' estimates suggest that [[BoxOfficeBomb the film took back over US$1 million at best]] -- ''[[BoxOfficeBomb not even close]]'' [[BoxOfficeBomb to cover the US$5 million budget]]. Sanctuary, the production committee which oversaw the project, found itself on the hook both for the film's financial loss and for the cost of the aforementioned VHS copies, and ended up suing Nikkatsu for damages. Several members of ORCA, including head writer Junichi Sakai, [[CreatorKiller never worked in the anime industry again]].
39	* The third season of the ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'' anime adaptation, ''[=BorN=]'', had several behind-the-scenes problems. Author Ichiei Ishibumi, director Tetsuya Yanagisawa and screenwriter Takao Yoshioka hit walls trying to work in adapting volumes 5 through 7 of the light novels. Yanagisawa came up with a different story that substantially revised the volumes' plot elements. Ishibumi and Yoshioka disagreed with Yanagisawa over the latter having the final say. After the season was finished, Yanagisawa and Ishibumi went their separate ways.
40	* ''Anime/HorusPrinceOfTheSun'' was being made when Creator/{{Toei}} was restructuring itself to focus more on cheaper productions over lavish animations, and when its animators were starting to unionise. By coincidence, most of the aspiring, "troublesome" pro-union animators were assigned to work at the studio focusing on lavish animations, one of which was ''Horus''. Originally intended to be a two-hour epic, the film was cut down to just 80 minutes as it exceeded its then-standard eight-month production period. When the film was finished, Toei did very little advertising and gave it a theatrical run of only ''ten days''. At the end of it all, Creator/IsaoTakahata was demoted, told he would never direct again, and ''Horus'' became an influential classic widely hailed as one of the best anime ever created.
41	* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'':
42	** The manga suffers from a slow and erratic production, with the series regularly being put on long hiatus on and off since 2006. The reasons for these hiatuses are not always spelled out clearly but are mostly believed to be related to creator Yoshihiro Togashi's poor health. The pressure of creating popular manga has led Togashi to suffer from severe stress and sleep deprivation in the past, though it is unknown if this is related to his current health issues. These same health issues may also be the reason for the temporary decline of the manga's artwork, particularly during the Chimera Ant arc, looking more like rough sketches (though the artwork has since returned to its original high quality).
43	** Similar to the Mexican ''Detective Conan'' movie dubs, the Colombian Spanish dub of the 1999 anime was directly plagiarized from a fansub and suffered from TooLongDidntDub, unfitting for an official dub of a show that doesn't take place in Japan. However, unlike the ''Conan'' dubs, this dub completely got away with the plagiarism, covering the entire TV series as well as the [=OVAs=] and [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff earning the franchise a significant fanbase in Latin America before the 2011 anime popularized it in the Anglosphere]].
44	* ''Manga/HyougeMono'' had a few cases of some behind the scenes drama. It started with the band member of cro-magnon which co-composed the music and wrote the theme song getting arrested on a drug charge suspicion then the original author and the editorial staff [[CreatorBacklash walking off the project]] and asking for a credit change from ''Original Creator'' to ''Original Concept.''
45	* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
46	** One of the reasons for the poor quality of the ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Phantom Blood]]'' movie and why it's [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes never been released on DVD]] was because one of the producers was killed in an accident, and his family pulled the plug on funding, leaving an incomplete, rushed mess of a film.
47	** In a interview with one animator from Creator/DavidProduction, producing an adaptation of ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'' would be the most difficult Part to animate. This is because due to the complexity of the battles and horses playing such a major role, the studio finds it difficult to animate horses in traditional 2D animation and would rather not use CGI.
48	** Creator/HirohikoAraki's author note for [[https://jojowiki.com/JJL_Volume_25#Author.27s_Note Volume 25]] of ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureJoJolion JoJolion]]'' mentions the Covid-19 Pandemic by name, and indicates that many planned subplots had to be cut for various reasons.
49	* ''Anime/KemonoFriends'' faced such enormous issues during its development cycle that its production team considered it a miracle that the show even saw the light of day at all. Despite all of its numerous flaws, the show, much to everyone's shock, managed to become the most popular anime in the Winter 2017 season and one of the most popular for the entire year.
50	** To start off, the staff for the project was composed of only 10 people working on the project for 500 days with an extremely tight budget. To compensate, the director of the project, TATSUKI, put an ''enormous'' workload on himself to ensure that the project would, at the very least, be released. Regardless, all of this left a clear mark on the show as the animation quality was so shoddy that the team couldn't afford to make the bus wheels spin on the opening of the show.
51	** There wasn't enough money to hire the original voice actors from the mobile game and the production team had to make do with a mostly inexperienced voice cast.
52	** The biggest issue of all was that the franchise was proving to be such a complete failure at this point, that the mobile game was cancelled a month ''before the anime was even aired''. The only reason that Kadokawa even aired the anime was that they basically had nothing to lose with the project at this point.
53	* ''Anime/LittleNemoAdventuresInSlumberland'' began as a passion project by Creator/TMSEntertainment founder Yutaka Fujioka around 1977 when he personally flew out to Monteray, California and convinced [[Creator/WinsorMcCay Winsor McCay's]] family to give him the film rights to the ComicStrip/LittleNemo franchise. What began was a long descent into Main/DevelopmentHell. [[https://youtu.be/jhVVi17hz9E This video]] goes into more detail, but highlights include:
54	** Creator/GeorgeLucas being offered to produce the film in 1978, but turning it down because he felt like Nemo didn't have enough character potential to justify a full movie.
55	** TMS flying out 14 of their best animators to train under [[Creator/DisneysNineOldMen Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston]] in preparation for the movie. This event would end up causing Creator/HayaoMiyazaki and Creator/IsaoTakahata to quit both the project and TMS in frustration, leading them to go to Topcraft and make ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind''.
56	** Yoshifumi Kondo, who had produced a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIS2JhWli_A stunning 3-minute pilot film]] in 1984, dropping out of the project and leaving TMS after a serious bout of pneumonia that next year.
57	** The project having no direction to the point where the animators thought the writers were in charge and the writers thought the animators were in charge. It got to the point where the Los Angeles studio was covered in gorgeous concept art and storyboards for a film that was not moving forward. By the time director William Hurtz was brought aboard, they had enough material to make a ''six-hour movie!''
58	** TMS so being wrapped in other projects, such as their commitments to Disney and their film adaptation of the manga ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', that they were stretched thin for resources regarding Little Nemo. Principal animation on the film didn't even begin until June 1988 when production on Akira wrapped.
59	** By the time the film was released, Little Nemo had racked up a staggering ''¥3 billion'' budget (est. $35 million USD). That, combined with being released during a crowded box office season, assured that it barely made one-third of its budget back.
60	* The anime adaptation of ''Literature/LostUniverse'' is a notorious case. The show's budget was already low, but a studio fire resulted in lots of work from the first few episodes destroyed. They had to be reanimated on an even lower budget by a South Korean studio while the rest of the show resumed production. This all occurring during a recession. One episode looked so bad on TV, that it had to be almost entirely re-animated again for home video and re-runs. A second season was also canceled so King Records could make way for more ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'' movies.
61	* ''Literature/MarchenMadchen''. When the anime aired, a lot of people complained about the animation quality, so much so that after episode 8 aired, Hoods Entertainment announced that they would take a break from airing Episode 9 to improve the quality of the anime, which took them 2 weeks. The result? [[FromBadToWorse The quality took an amazing drop, ranging from stilted faces to awkward animations to even the voices not matching the characters, effectively being worse than when it aired.]] [[https://twitter.com/Yuyucow/status/976829455279771648 Thankfully, an explanation soon followed shortly after.]] Sadly as a result, the last two episodes, 11 and 12, were put on hiatus. They did not air until ''over a year later.''
62	* The production of ''Literature/MySisterMyWriter'''s anime adaptation was evidently an absolute nightmare for everyone involved. If the low animation quality isn't a big enough tip-off, compare the credits in episodes 1 and 2, and notice the number of names that appear within the art direction and key animation roles (作画監督 and 原画 respectively). Between those two episodes, less than a quarter of the people in art direction of episode 1 are credited in episode 2, and the key animator for episode 2 not only didn't play any role in the first, but was also singlehandedly managing the second episode's animation in its entirety (the episode's key animation was instead relegated to regular Creator/ToeiAnimation contractor Buyu). Further demonstrated in a later episode in which one of the animators was credited as 正直困太 ("Shoujiki Komatta"). That's not a real person's name - [[HelpHelpTrappedInTitleFactory it instead translates to "We're in serious trouble"]]. The subsequent rants from the animators on Twitter about being underpaid further confirmed the production issues.
63	* ''Anime/NadiaTheSecretOfBlueWater''. Aside from the unexpected decision to extend the show to 39 episodes (hence the Korean-animated filler arc -- so detached from the rest of the show that even director Creator/HideakiAnno declared it all non-canon except for Episodes 30 and 31), there were other problems plaguing the show's production progress. Anno reportedly disliked the original script for the show, and decided to rewrite it from scratch. Furthermore, any "suggestions" from NHK on how to "improve" the show were instantly disregarded, hence the DarkerAndEdgier tone for most of the canonical episodes. Because of Anno's demand for perfectionism, many episodes ran late, with Anno spending more than eighteen hours per day on the show! At one point, after episode 20 was broadcast, it took an entire month for audiences to see the subsequent one. The budget for the show also caused Gainax to lose more than ¥800 million (half a million dollars!) in finances. They were also denied any of the rights. Perhaps because of this, neither Gainax nor NHK worked together on another show. ''Nadia'' is also often pointed to as the cause of Anno's depression and breakdown, which would worsen during the production of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.
64	* For a long time, ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' looked like a happy subversion. Ken Akamatsu wanted to do a shonen action series from the start, but [[ExecutiveMeddling his producers]] wanted a [[HaremGenre harem series]] like his extremely popular previous series, ''Manga/LoveHina''. Akamatsu ''faked'' a harem series, using the first two volumes to lay down characterization, then slowly segue into the fighter series he wanted from the start. Despite the change in direction, the series remained quite popular. However, some three hundred chapters later, the executives tried to take the rights to the series away from him. He responded by ending the series abruptly, with a carefully crafted final chapter that managed to use the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue to [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun make sure no one else could use his series]], only returning to it years later with StealthSequel ''Manga/UQHolder''. Or that's what most fans believe they have managed to put together, anyway. The whole affair remains quite confusing and little has been offered in the way of any official sources or confirmations.
65	* The UsefulNotes/COVIDPandemic caused no end of trouble to many anime productions, delaying releases across the board, though none were as gravely affected as ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'' due to its weekly episode format being closely tied to the games. This led to several months of hiatus during the first year, sudden weekly breaks, canon and filler episodes alike being filled with several animation directors (as opposed to just one per episode) in order to meet deadlines, an overall lack of spotlight for Ash's and Goh's teams, and perhaps many stories from in-game characters - especially Galarian characters - being dropped, causing ''Journeys'' to become the shortest saga among the rest. The most glaring example was the removal of yearly movies after ''Anime/PokemonSecretsOfTheJungle'', which haven't been announced for the past 3 years.
66	** Prior to this, there was ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite''. Between the real-life tragedy that transpired on March 11 of 2011 and the ExecutiveMeddling centered around the marketing of games that were different from prior releases (full-fledged sequels to Gen V's core games and a worldwide release for Gen VI's core games respectively), this series did not have the smoothest production.
67	* ''Anime/PrettyCure'':
68	** ''Anime/SuitePrettyCure'' was to go a DarkerAndEdgier route than ''Anime/HeartCatchPrettyCure'', but then the 2011 Tohoku earthquake caused the show to become LighterAndSofter. In addition, at least one planned episode had to be scrapped because of the hiatus caused by [[BreakingNewsInterruption all Japanese television stations, save for TV Tokyo, pre-empting their lineups for news coverage of said earthquake]].
69	** The ''[[Anime/DokiDokiPrecure Glitter Force Doki Doki]]'' dub suffered from this. ExecutiveMeddling from the first ''Anime/GlitterForce'''s lack of success resulted in Creator/SabanBrands receiving an extremely tight budget, forcing them to remove and splice a bunch of episodes (resulting in the Blood Ring and New Powers arcs getting completely axed) until they met Netflix's bare minimum requirements for hosting. Not helping was Saban backing out of the deal towards the end of production, shelving everything back to Toei (except for ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'') at the last minute.
70	** During the run of ''Anime/HealinGoodPrettyCure'', new episodes stopped after the 12th one due to production delays resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. A "best episode selection" for the show was broadcast in the series' usual timeslot. [[note]] This is a common practice for children's anime in Japan, but it's usually done in between an old show's end and a new show's end, like what happened during the transition from ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'' to ''Anime/KamisamaMinaraiHimitsuNoCocotama'' and from ''Anime/PrettyRhythmRainbowLive'' to ''[[VideoGame/PriPara [=PriPara=]]]''.[[/note]] This also resulted in four to five episodes of the season being cut, making it the shortest season on record (most seasons have 48 to 50 episodes).
71	** On March 7, 2022, Toei Animation suffered a hack due to an employee accidentally downloading ransomware software that affected several shows, including ''Anime/DeliciousPartyPrettyCure''. The show would not air for the rest of that month, with All Star Memories airing in three parts in its place. Even after that, the official return episode was to air on April 17, as Toei rebroadcast Episode 5 on April 10.
72	* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': The series had just aired its 10th episode when the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. Most shows held back a week out of courtesy, but while most shows were returned the following week, ''Madoka Magica'' wasn't. Despite using the time to polish up the final two episodes, the channel that had first air rights to the series refused to air it for nearly two months before relenting and airing the last two back to back.
73	** And before all that, the voice actors [[EnforcedMethodActing weren't told beforehand]] that this was ''not'' a lighthearted MagicalGirl show ([[spoiler:really more of a CosmicHorrorStory]]), and were rather traumatized as a result ([[spoiler:[[Creator/EmiriKatou Emiri]] "Kyubey" [[Creator/EmiriKatou Katou]]]] [[HeroicBSOD broke down crying]] when she found out her character's true nature). [[MemeticMutation Goddammit]] [[Creator/GenUrobuchi Urobuchi]].
74	** Urobuchi originally wanted things just to end with ''[[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion The Rebellion Story]]''. This was denied, and while it helps that he gladly embraced the alternate ending suggested to him for that installment, he ''has'' considered just leaving, claiming to lose control over the franchise.
75	* The original [=DiC/Cloverway=] English dub of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' is the only English anime dub with an entire ''book'' written about its production, titled ''Sailor Moon Reflections''.
76	** The show was licensed by [[Creator/DiCEntertainment DiC]] following a lengthy bidding war with Toon Makers who wanted to remake the show entirely (producing ''WesternAnimation/ToonMakersSailorMoon''). Once they did finally get it, they didn't know what to do with it since they mistakenly assumed they were only distributing it in North America and that an English-language adaptation was already produced. Due to their lack of knowledge of Japanese animation, Carl Macek [[note]]yes, the very same person the {{Macekre}} trope [[TropeNamers is named for]][[/note]] was originally hired to write the adaptation, but was fired early in production due to CreativeDifferences with Andy Heyward ([=DiC=]'s then-CEO). Fred Ladd (a veteran of English anime dubs, with experience going back to ''Anime/AstroBoy'' and ''Manga/KimbaTheWhiteLion'') was then hired.
77	** On the recording side of things, Optimum Productions, a Toronto-based dubbing company, was selected to record the dub, however they ran into issues early on. Tracey Moore, the original ADR director and voice actress for Sailor Moon, quit after 13 episodes due to stressful CreativeDifferences and was replaced with Roland Parliament as director and Terri Hawkes as voice actress (also, Creator/RinoRomano quit his role of Tuxedo Mask around this time as well). Production was so far behind schedule, Hawkes began recording the night she was cast and ended up recording entire episodes in one take. Parliament worked long hours into the night, often slept at the studio, and became ill during production. He also had to deal with angry executives with [=DiC=], who complained about the actors' Canadian accents and told him that the show was "not for fucking Canadians. It's for fucking Americans."
78	** [=DiC=] themselves were also at the mercy of Toei in Japan, who had to approve of each and every change made, often without consulting the series' creator, Creator/NaokoTakeuchi. The episodes were on the air only a couple weeks after being recorded, with 65 episodes being dubbed in three months.
79	** It was canceled on a cliffhanger and couldn't continue at all until 1997 when Creator/{{YTV}} in Canada and Irwin Toy paid to fund more episodes to give it some closure, with Pioneer funding dubs for the movies. For these, Parliament was fired over CreativeDifferences within Optimum and replaced with John Stocker, who was also fired later on. The voices for Sailor Mars and Tuxedo Mask were also recast (though Mars later returned), and Fred Ladd was replaced with writers at Optimum.
80	** ''S'' and ''[=SuperS=]'' had it worst though. [=DiC=] declined to license more episodes, so Cloverway (Toei's then-US branch) stepped in after YTV and Creator/CartoonNetwork ordered more episodes. Cloverway gave Optimum almost complete creative freedom as long as 77 episodes were recorded in four months. This resulted in many voice actors not returning (including Terri Hawkes, who went on maternity leave) and replaced with poor substitutes. Production was ''so'' rushed, that as many as ''11'' episodes were recorded in each 4-hour session with the voice actors recording each line only twice, with the better take used. In addition, the new voice director, Nicole Thuault, could not speak English (only French), and relied on an interpreter to communicate with the actors. The writers at Optimum all worked independently without any kind of "bible" on what the attack names, transformation phrases, etc. were supposed to be, resulting in them changing many times throughout these episodes. Fans could usually tell which writer wrote which episode based on the terminology used.
81	** All of this contributed to an extremely messy dub that's [[BrokenBase very polarizing to this day]]. The dub didn't even cover the final season due to the franchise's legendary [[ScrewedByTheLawyers legal issues]]. It has since been [[DuelingDubs replaced]] with a newer, [[TruerToTheText more faithful]] dub from Creator/VizMedia and Studiopolis.
82	** Even the Viz dub couldn't quite escape this. Around the ''S'' season, the dub was noticeably taking much longer to come out, with very long gaps in between volumes. According to Creator/RobbieDaymond (the voice of Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask), the dub was put on hold at one point for a long time due to a pay dispute with the cast.
83	* ''Manga/{{Saki}}'' switched animation studios roughly halfway through the series, due to Creator/{{Gonzo}}'s financial difficulties at the time. This is a rare occurrence.
84	* ''Anime/SamuraiFlamenco'': While there were a bunch of magazine scans and news updates to promote the show after it was announced, the animated trailer only appeared 3 days before its premiere date. A week before that, there was a pre-screening event of Episode 1 except that there were parts missing which explains the lack of a trailer. When the show actually aired there was [[OffModel an uneven quality to the animation]]. Then, the first version of the second opening became more of a slideshow recapping the first half. The actual second opening came in around Episode 16 which was still just a slideshow of sorts, in the style of the home release covers. The show sold poorly in Japan and was the first domino in a series of events that would eventually [[CreatorKiller lead to the shutdown of]] Creator/{{Manglobe}}, less than two years after the series aired.
85	* ''Manga/ASilentVoice'' deals heavily with ableism in Japan. There were legal disputes over publishing and there was difficulty getting someone to publish it period. One of the reasons is because Japan took issue with its no holds barred portrayal of bullying, and various groups tried to prevent it from being published for trying to expose a side of Japan that it would prefer to sweep under the rug, [[ValuesDissonance namely its backwards treatment of the disabled]], since Japan is largely a conformist, conservative country that prides itself on being dignified and not having its issues out in the open. The original one-shot was created all the way in ''2008'' but the most common version is from 2011. It took another two years for it to become a proper series.
86	* ''Anime/SuperDimensionCavalrySouthernCross'', [[https://www.stuffpop.com/johns-journal/2020/5/16/why-southern-cross-was-cancelled-from-daiper-fetishes-to-rain-boots As explained by Mercury Falcon using the best sources available to him]]:
87	** At first, the series was meant to be a parody of the mecha genre, and so Tatsunoko hired Aki Uchiyama, a character designer that was best known for ''lolicon manga'' (yes, the kind that are of questionable legality). Alongside that, the main PowerTrio was meant to have names of actual historical figures (the finished product still has Jeanne who is a blatant JeanneDArchetype).
88	** Then, after deciding that the series would simply be too risqué, Tatsunoko ordered a massive {{Retool}} which would turn the series into more of a ScienceFantasy anime that was a case of FollowTheLeader to ''Anime/AuraBattlerDunbine'' (and for that note they even hired the character designer that previously worked on ''Dunbine'' to redesign the entire cast, which meant aging up the girls into teenagers).
89	** ''That'' went bust after ''Dunbine'' became an AcclaimedFlop, and Tatsunoko, no longer certain of what to do and with the series' broadcast premiere date quickly approaching, decided to {{Retool}} the show ''yet again'' into its final form [[DolledUpInstallment as part of the Super Dimension franchise]]. This led to a romantic subplot that was hastily written in, the fantasy angle becoming pure science fiction, and a trio of animators chosen to design the mecha for the show as "Ammonite"... which explains some of the rather oddball choices, like for example the Spartas hover tanks ''not even having a canopy''.
90	** Evidence of the hectic production can be seen with an unfinished shot in the opening of Jeanne's Battle Sniper running into battle. The finished shot, which depicted an army of Southern Cross mecha behind her, made its way into the show's alterted form in ''Robotech'' and the DVD version.
91	** 1984 was also not a good year. ''Super Dimension'' toymaker Takatoku went bankrupt just as ''Southern Cross'' debuted and new toymaker Bandai focused on ''[[CashCowFranchise Macross]]'', whose [[Anime/MacrossDoYouRememberLove big screen debut]] was heavily-anticipated. ''Southern Cross'' [[InvisibleAdvertising was short-changed in visibility]], with what little merchandise selling rather poorly or was aimed at kids, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids despite its ample shower scenes and war room chatter in the first half]].
92	** Needless to say, the resulting show was a mess [[UncertainAudience that had no idea who its audience was]] and it ended up [[FranchiseKiller killing]] the ''Super Dimension'' franchise. As a further consequence, [[NoExportForYou the original Japanese version has yet to see a proper Blu-ray release even in its native Japan]].
93	* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' proved a GatewaySeries for anime fans in both its original and altered form as the first part of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}''. But the series suffered from a string of issues, as sources including Mercury Falcon [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poSfKrx-i9g&ab_channel=MercuryFalcon explain]]:
94	** In 1980, Creator/ShojiKawamori and his friend, Kazutaka Miyatake, competed in an internal design contest in Studio Nue for a project called Genocidus (or Project G). Kawamori won the contest, but sponsor Wiz rejected his pitch. He pitched a second series, one featuring a transforming Spaceship (based on a rejected design for the series ''Anime/Ulysses31''), which Wiz approved.
95	** The show, then called ''Megaroad'', was pitched as a parody of popular sci-fi anime, particularly ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam''. Kawamori's proposal featured [[TheNeidermeyer narcissistic Captain]] with a hot wife (which didn't carry over into the end result) and [[BridgeBunnies an all-female bridge crew]] with a chief who fell in love with the hero (which was). When ''Genocidus'' was cancelled in August 1981 due to production issues, ''Megaroad'' was given the full greenlight. Kawamori toned down the goofiest parts of his concept (though some remained) to make the series a romantic comedy, which were toned down further when another sci-fi romantic comedy, ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'' premiered that October.
96	** Originally envisioned for a run of 52 episodes, the complicated mechanical and background designs, combined with Wiz going out of business, cut the series episode count first to 48, then 39 and finally ''23''. The legendary production company Creator/TatsunokoProduction was brought on to assist the relatively small staff of main animation house Artland Studios. Much of Artland's staff protested having to work under character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, a friend of Kawamori's, due to his inexperience.
97	** One of the producers, an admirer of Shakespeare, [[ExecutiveMeddling wanted the show to be called]] ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' and had to be negotiated down to ''Macross'' as a compromise. It helped that ''Macross'' (''makurosu'') was similar to ''Macbeth'' in Japanese (''makubesu'').
98	** The production staff was running behind schedule by September 1982, a month before it was set to premiere. They were forced to premiere its first two episodes back-to-back when the anime of ''Series/WarriorOfLoveRainbowman'', which had the following time slot, was delayed a week due to its own production difficulties. It was so rushed that they only had a looped shot of a flying Valkyrie as its ending (which had the benefit of concealing its nature as a TransformingMecha). The actual ending was simply a live-action segment filmed at Artland.
99	** But the show was a hit upon premiere. And so, NBS requested thirteen more episodes from Studio Nue, forcing them to turn episode 23 into episode 27 and [[PostScriptSeason create the nine-episode reconstruction arc]]. Nue was forced to rely on a host of questionable farm studios who brought in OffModel work, and even at one point managed to get a nearly-completed episode left on a train, nearly forcing a complete redo of the entire episode. The hectic production cycle forced Nue to air Episode 11 [[ObviousBeta in an unfinished state]] and make two ClipShow episodes (14 and 17) to compensate.
100	** And then, the fact that ''Macross'' was a hit and the interesting financial situation between Big West and Tatsunoko caused the production to be troubled long after the last episode went off the air.
101	* American fans were thrilled when Creator/{{FUNimation}} got a hold of the 3rd ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' OVA series. However, Funimation screwed up the contract and only got the rights for the ''first three episodes''. It took a year to renegotiate for the other four episodes and get them out, barely averting a case of TheOtherDarrin when voice actor Creator/BobPapenbrook passed away soon after the release of the series.
102	** Something similar had already occurred when they got back the entire voice cast... except Ryoko, arguably the most popular character in the show. While the details of what happened are kept private, her original voice actress, Petrea Burchard, simply said "we just couldn't work it out." This change remains one of the more controversial aspects of the OVA.
103	* The Winter 2022 anime, ''Anime/Tokyo24thWard'', has shown a lot of problem prior to the show's debut. Its Chief Animation Director, Kiminori Itō, [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-12-28/tokyo-twenty-fourth-ward-chief-animation-director-is-pessimistic-about-the-animation-quality/.181025 revealed his pessimism on the project on Twitter]]. It was announced late and that [=CloverWorks=] are also working on two other Winter 2022 anime shows, ''Manga/MyDressUpDarling'' and ''Manga/AkebisSailorUniform''. And when comparing the quality of two shows with ''Tokyo 24th Ward'', it's obvious that the latter suffers the most. Then, its seventh episode gets delayed for one week and a recap episode was released for the delay of its tenth episode.
104	* Creator/TVTokyo had to suspend the production of all its programming, including all anime, due to the State of Emergency declaration made in response to the coronavirus pandemic and air reruns in their timeslots. The only exceptions to this were ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' and the blocks ''[[Creator/{{Disney}} Disney Time]]'', ''Kinder TV'' and ''Preschool Time'', which feature dubs of foreign cartoons.
105	* After the Kickstarter concluded in Sept. 2014, all news about ''Anime/UnderTheDog'' went totally silent. Four months later in Jan. 2015, it was revealed by Hiroaki Yura that Creative Intelligence Arts was no longer involved with the project and that Kinema Citrus was taking full creative control. Additionally, after the production shakeup, it turned out that costs for producing the project were going to be higher than anticipated, even after raising over 1.5 times the amount of funds for the original Kickstarter goal. One major reason was because they had [[EpicFail failed to take operational costs into account.]] Many of the backers were not amused. It ultimately bit when they turned out to be '''$269,472.32''' dollars in the red.
106	* ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' television series went through several years of DevelopmentHell, in which time the attendant manga series based on pre-production materials was being published, and by the time the series itself made it to air they had to abruptly cut down the plot from their planned 39 episodes to 26, resulting in a very rushed ending that lacked much closure and left several plot threads hanging.
107	* Almost every series of the ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' franchise seems to have a case of this.
108	** It seems to have taken root in the [[Manga/YuGiOh original manga]] when poor Creator/KazukiTakahashi got sick when he was rewriting the Millennium World arc. After the ArcFatigue of the Battle City arc had resulted in reader dropoff, the execs told Takahashi to hurry up and finish the series. Takahashi had to cut down on the subplot he had planned for Priest Seto, where he would have turned on the Pharaoh on his own, as was implied by flashbacks. The series had him simply possessed by Aknadin. This was also where Takahashi got rather ill, which according to him is why Zorc's design is rather...[[GagPenis odd]].
109	** Eric Stuart, who voice directed the English dub of ''Anime/YuGiOhTheMoviePyramidOfLight'' in addition to voicing Kaiba, has said that the entire English dub was recorded from scratch three times.
110	** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' was theorized to have had issues during Season 4 with [[Creator/{{KENN}} Judai's voice actor]], resulting in the season being half the planned length.
111	** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' is the most famous case of this, and had this creep up in the post-Dark Signer seasons. The issues included extensive ExecutiveMeddling from Konami to promote certain cards, and staff being taken off to work on [[Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime the 10th anniversary movie]] resulting in a lot of filler until their return for the big plot episodes.
112	** ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' didn't suffer as much as the other series. But still, official episode summaries [[note]]As in, actually advertised by NAS, rather than the slews of fakes that sprung up during the show's run.[[/note]] during the final arc discussed characters and cards that never appeared in the final product.
113	** ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' had issues with voice actor causing a major character to appear sporadically[[note]]Reiji Akaba's voice actor was busy in other projects, so his character had to be sidelined in one arc.[[/note]], and the [[Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions 20th anniversary movie]] taking animation talent away, throwing off schedules and derailing the planned story. It was later confirmed that head writer Tsumuto Kamishiro wasn't getting his scripts in on time near the tail end of the series, resulting in points where the animators weren't even sure what they were animating, and the much-loathed design of [[spoiler:Zarc-Yuya]] reportedly came about due to an inability to finish a proper design on time.
114	** ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' might even eclipse ''5D's'' considering how early these issues became apparent. It was initially scheduled to begin airing right after the conclusion of ''ARC-V'', only to be postponed by a month, much to the displeasure of the fans who felt that ''ARC-V'' could have used more episodes to tell its story better. ''VRAINS''' premise had also been changed substantially from what the early promotion materials had shown.[[note]]Yusaku was explicitly stated to be ''new'' to ''Duel Monsters'' in the first promotional reveal of ''VRAINS'' and the theme of the series was stated to be "take a step forward and try". In the series itself, Yusaku is an expert Duelist and the biggest case of InvincibleHero in the franchise. It was suspected that the similarity to ''ARC-V'' resulted in this being changed after that series' controversial ending.[[/note]] It then changed directors after only 14 episodes. While this was a positive step, when the series' fourth RecapEpisode was released less than 40 episodes in, the director took to Twitter to apologize for the production issues. On top of that, head writer Shin Yoshida did some writing on another anime series for a time, resulting in ten episodes in the lengthy second season that didn't progress the plot at all. The series was later cut short, with the third season only comprising ''eighteen'' episodes, in which the two primary characters only got a single duel each, and most fans agreed that, despite all getting duels, most of the other characters that season were wasted.
115	** ''Anime/YuGiOhSEVENS'' did its absolute best to avert this. Production was handed off to a new studio, [[Creator/{{Bridge}} Bridge]] over longtime series animators [[Creator/StudioGallop Gallop]], and took a six-month break after the previous series' completion, to the point many have theorized ''VRAINS'' was rushed to give ''SEVENS'' more breathing room. And yet despite all of that, the series was ''still'' hit with trouble, though through no fault of its own: several episodes were delayed due to the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19 pandemic]]; in total the series lost about eight episodes to time off. To the series' credit, it appeared to be unaffected by this for a while but when the final arc rolled around it was noticeably rushed in storyline and several plot threads were dropped or barely elaborated on.[[note]]The final two of the six "Ko" girls were revealed, and they were confirmed to be separate people, but exactly ''what'' they were and why they worked for the BigBad was never revealed, and despite being built up as a mysterious character and antagonists, the sixth Goha Sibling and his minions were dealt with of off-screen by the true BigBad. The BigBad himself also had a lot of aspects LeftHanging despite a lot being revealed about him.[[/note]]
116	** After ''SEVENS'' finished, the effects of the ''UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic'' were still ongoing as production for the next series, ''Anime/YuGiOhGoRush'' began, which meant that it was difficult to hold casting for the series, and the director admitted they got lucky with casting the core cast. Main protagonist Yudias' voice actor also caught COVID during the second arc, resulting in Yudias being transformed into a shirt for four episodes and the plot progressing very little, resulting in the revelations at the end of the arc being much less foreshadowed than Bridge-era ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' had become known for.
117	* All of Creator/ToeiAnimation's shows suffered from this in March 2022 when an employee accidentally downloaded ransomware software from an external website, leading to several premieres of episodes getting delayed. Of note, ''Anime/DeliciousPartyPrettyCure'' was delayed at least a month with ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure''[='s=] movie, ''All-Star Memories'' being released as a three-part "event" through the rest of March and the start of April. The delay lasted until April 17.

Context TroubledProduction / AnimeAndManga