History TroubledProduction / AnimeAndManga

** 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'', ''Anime/{{Bleach}}'', ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'') and Tetsuro Aoki (''Anime/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 them for the animators. If that interview is any indication, that didn't happen.

** 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'', ''Anime/{{Bleach}}'', ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'') and Tetsuro Aoki (''Anime/MyHeroAcademia'', ''Anime/SamuraiSeven'', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'') giving an unusually frank interview in the making-of documentary complaining about Masamune's weird and impractical mech designs.

** 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 Nue rejected the pitch. He pitched a second series, one featuring a transforming Spaceship (based on a rejected design for the series ''Anime/Ulysses31''), that the studio approved
** 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 an all-female bridge crew with a chief who fell for the main 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, ''Mannga/UruseiYatsura'' premiered that October.

** The production staff was running behind schedule by September 1982. 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.

* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' had shades of this phenomenon. Originally envisioned for 48 episodes when the show was first greenlit, one of the financial backers went out of business, forcing a cut to 23 episodes when a new backer was found but did not have the money to fund the original 48. But the show was a hit upon premiere. And so, to bump the episode count up, they brought in legendary production company Creator/TatsunokoProduction. ''They'' foisted upon Studio Nue 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. 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. Even the title was due to ExecutiveMeddling, as one of the producers, an admirer of Shakespeare, wanted the show to be called ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', and had to be negotiated down to ''Macross'' as a compromise.

** 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 Japanese version has yet to see a proper Blu-ray release]].

** 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.

* ''The Dream Machine'', the final movie of the [[AuthorExistenceFailure 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.

* 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 [[AuthorExistenceFailure passed away]] soon after the release of the series.

** 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 put promised to mail moviegoers the finished product on VHS (while refusing refunds).

** 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 away" around the script.

** 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.

* The 2001 ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' anime was full of this. Though Creator/NatsukiTakaya's hand injury allowed her to become involved in the adaptation, she experienced CreativeDifferences with director Akitaroh Daichi. It wasn't renewed for a second season since Takaya was [[DisownedAdaptation dissatisfied with how that version turned out]] and Daichi made it clear that he would never work with Takaya again. Eighteen years later, Takaya became the chief production supervisor for a TruerToTheText anime adaptation by Creator/TMSEntertainment.

* The ''three'' Latin American Spanish dubs of ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' have had lots of messes in their productions:
** 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.
** 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 [[WhatAnIdiot 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.
** 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?

* ''Franchise/PrettyCure'':

* The 2001 ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' anime was full of this. Though Creator/NatsukiTakaya's hand injury allowed her to become involved in the adaptation, but she experienced CreativeDifferences with director Akitaroh Daichi. It wasn't renewed for a second season since Takaya was [[DisownedAdaptation dissatisfied with how that version turned out]] and Daichi made it clear that he would never work with Takaya again. Eighteen years later, Takaya became the chief production supervisor for a TruerToTheText anime adaptation by Creator/TMSEntertainment.

* The 2001 ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' anime was full of this, as Creator/NatsukiTakaya not only was more involved than other authors in it (since she had a hand injury that forced her to take a break from drawing the manga), but she had huge CreativeDifferences with the director Akitarou Daichi. A second season never happened since Takaya was [[DisownedAdaptation very unhappy with how the anime turned out]] and Daichi made it clear that he would never work with Takaya again. In 2019, Takaya would eventually become the chief production supervisor for a TruerToTheText anime adaptation by Creator/TMSEntertainment.

* The 2001 ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' anime was full of this, as Creator/NatsukiTakaya not only was more involved than other authors in it, but she had huge CreativeDifferences with the director Akitarou Daichi. A second season never happened since Takaya was [[DisownedAdaptation very unhappy with how the anime turned out]] and Daichi made it clear that he would never work with Takaya again. In 2019, Takaya would eventually become involved in a TruerToTheText reboot anime by Creator/TMSEntertainment.

** 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). 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). Then even ''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 the 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''.

** 1984 was also not a good year. ''Southern Cross'' was given [[InvisibleAdvertising a lack of promotion or merchandise]], as ''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. What little merchandise came out sold rather poorly or was aimed at kids, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids despite its ample shower scenes and war room chatter in the first half]].
** Needless to say, the resulting show was a mess and it ended up [[FranchiseKiller killing]] the ''Super Dimension'' franchise.

** 1984 was also not a good year. ''Southern Cross'' was given [[InvisibleAdvertisting a lack of promotion or merchandise]], as ''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. What little merchandise came out sold rather poorly or was aimed at kids, [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids despite its ample shower scenes and war room chatter in the first half]].

** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure2020'' got delayed after it's third episode aired due to the coronavirus pandemic. Reruns of ''Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro'' ran in its' timeslot instead.

** The 2020 ''Anime/PrettyCureAllStars'' movie, ''Pretty Cure Miracle Leap'', was delayed from its March 2020 release due to the Coronavirus outbreak as many people were urged to just stay indoors and avoid going out to large gatherings.

** In certain locations the 10th episode was ''also'' delayed (though there was an internet livestream on Website/NicoNicoDouga) and was aired with the other two episodes. Note that none of this seemed to hurt the ratings (there was even a ''newspaper advertisement'' for the last two episodes) and the episodes even managed to have a MeaningfulReleaseDate.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. CreatorBreakdown and severe depression on behalf of Creator/HideakiAnno, [[Creator/StudioGainax Gainax's]] shifty accounting practices ending in their CEO being arrested for tax fraud, a mostly-finished script for the second half of the show having to be completely rewritten because of a plot point being [[RealLifeWritesThePlot too similar to the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attack]], sponsors pulling out in droves once the show dove off the deep end... Yeah, it's amazing that they even ''managed'' to finish that show, even with all the budget-saving LimitedAnimation at the end. Do we have another candidate for the ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' of anime?
** [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2018-03-02/the-indestructible-studio-gainax-part-iii/.128475 On top of all of that, Gainax was just coming out of its worst financial period,]] made notable that at the time of ''Evangelion'''s production, there were only ''three'' employees, due to a lack of making anime from the last few years (as almost the rest of the previous staff had left to form other studios such as Creator/{{Gonzo}}), resulting with the vast majority of animation done at Creator/TatsunokoProduction, which ended up with a lot of production issues even before the infamous second half. [[ItWillNeverCatchOn Reportedly, the producers even claimed it was a miracle]] [[SleeperHit that the anime was even a success]].
** The third ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' movie was hit with this was well. In addition to massive script rewrites and some very unpopular creative decisions, Anno had ''another'' CreatorBreakdown while working on it. In interviews, he revealed that working on the series again had brought back his serious bouts with depression, and that he'd often go for long periods of time without even showing up to the studio. He credits his friend Creator/HayaoMiyazaki and working on ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' for helping him through this troubled period and his eventual CreatorRecovery.
** Incidentally, that ''Shin Godzilla'' gig led to the fourth and final ''Rebuild'' film, ''Evangelion 3.0+1.0'', rotting in DevelopmentHell, with its release date (initially in 2013) being repeatedly pushed back or revised. It wasn't until ''2019'' that the first ten minutes of ''3.0+1.0'' were finally screened, thus tentatively confirming a 2020 release date... just in time for the [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic coronavirus pandemic]] to postpone the release until January 23, 2021, ''[[ScheduleSlip nine years]]'' after the release of the previous ''Rebuild'' movie, and then beyond. It '''''FINALLY''''' released on March 8, 2021.
** The English dub for the third ''Rebuild'' movie has suffered its own share of problems. Creator/{{Funimation}} had originally announced that that the dub would be released on DVD in February 2014, but Khara's dissatisfaction with the job they did led the company to re-record the entire thing and push back the release date to February 2, 2016.

* 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. This resulted in an extremely intelligent and popular series known for its AmazonBrigade and ridiculously badass ten-year old protagonist. 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.

** 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 Michelle (who Masamune had in mind) ending up being a supporting character in the final product.

** 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 earning the franchise a significant fanbase in Latin America before the 2011 anime popularized it in the Anglosphere.

* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' 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).

** ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' seems to not suffer from this as much as the other series, as its not as rushed or deal with any drastic changes as it went on, but it got to the point in the final arc of the series where legitimate [[note]]as in, actually advertised by NAS, rather than the slews of fakes that tended to spring up during the show's run[[/note]] episode summaries discussing a "Barian observer" named Alco and a card called "The Closed Eight" were shown, but never appeared in the final product.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' had some of the same issues as ''5D's'' with a voice actor causing a major character[[note]]Reiji Akaba's voice actor was apparently busy in other projects, so his character had to be sidelined in one arc.[[/note]] to appear sporadically and The Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions 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.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' might even eclipse ''5D's'' in terms of this due to how early these issues have become apparent. For starters, 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 some fans who felt that ARC-V could have used more episodes to tell its story better), and its premise had 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]] Even more, it changed directors in Episode 14 (which has since been theorized to have been due to the first director steadying the series until the new one could take over). The new direction was a positive step, but when the series' fourth recap episode (Episode #38) was released, the director took to Twitter to apologize for the production issues and reassure the fans that they would allow them to steady the series. 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, resulting in a third season with only ''eighteen'' episodes; primary characters Yusaku and Ryoken only got a single duel each, and it was generally agreed that despite all getting duels, most of the other characters that season were wasted.
** ''Anime/YuGiOhSEVENS'' did its absolute best to avert this, handing off production to a new studio (Bridge over longtime series animators Gallop), showing some very tightly written scripts in its initial episodes, and taking a six-month break after VRAINS was rushed to 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; it was delayed for five weeks after the fifth episode aired due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then delayed ''again'' for a month after the ninth episode aired.

* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' has a serious case of this that seems to have taken root when poor Creator/KazukiTakahashi got sick when he was rewriting the ''Millennium World''. The ArcFatigue of the Battle City arc had resulted in reader dropoff, resulting in the execs telling Takahashi to hurry up and finish the series. As a result, 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 he got rather ill, which according to him is why Zorc's design is rather...[[GagPenis odd]]...)

** ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' is the most famous case of this, and had this creep up in the post-Dark Signer seasons. Among the issues that came up included extensive ExecutiveMeddling from Konami to promote certain cards, staff being taken off to work on the 10th anniversary movie resulting in a lot of filler to wait for them to be back for the big plot episodes, and real-life issues that ranged from the major female character's actress having to take time off to be married thus demoting her to extra, to another female character's voice actor being fired after, of all things, being linked to a cult that forced the series to also remove any and all supernatural elements from the series.[[note]]The series had already been shifting to a more sci-fi atmosphere, but the controversy certainly accelerated it.[[/note]]

** ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' had some of the same issues as ''5D's'' with a VA causing a major character[[note]]Reiji Akaba's voice actor was apparently busy in other projects, so his character had to be sidelined in one arc.[[/note]] to appear sporadically and The Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions 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.