A beloved anime series, more often than not, often has a lot of hard-working people behind it, all doing their part to help tell a story. Unfortunately, the people behind the scenes often find themselves working a lot harder than usual because of various problems developing during the production. All kinds of things can happen, from creative differences to budgetary shortcomings.
Some anime manage to rise to the occasion and craft a story that still leaves an impression on the viewer without them ever realizing there was anything wrong behind the scenes. In fact, some anime might use those limitations to hone their craft and make a unique series with its own style.
10 Berserk: The 3D Animation Might Have Been A Little Much
The 2016 3D Berserk series’ first problem was that the studio contracted to work on it hadn’t worked on a production’s principal animation before, eventually agreeing to a joint project. This would become a recurring issue, as even the director hadn’t worked on a 3D project before, causing too much to be asked of the studio.
The hardware the studio used would prove unable to even render the original character designs. The issues escalated to the point where animation didn’t start until mere months before the show was set to air.
9 Code Geass: Things Were So Bad The Crew Didn’t Have Their Own Photocopier
When it comes to Code Geass, there are many stories about problems behind the scenes, especially early on in its run. Writers were often only a few episodes ahead of their broadcast and supplies were so scarce the staff didn’t even have their own photocopier at one point.
Added to this, stories abound over issues with the voice actors, from the cast not getting along to them taking pleasure in seeing certain characters, like Lelouch, suffer on-screen. The various narrative avenues the anime took, like a time skip, were also believed to be forced on the showrunners by higher-ups.
8 Dragon Ball: Dragon Ball Super Had A Rushed Production
It often gets lost on international viewers that an anime might end up airing its different seasons or follow-up series directly after each other, as was the case with Dragon Ball Super, which unfortunately had to be rushed to take Dragon Ball Z Kai‘s place on television.
Unfortunately, Toei Animation was already working on other projects at the time, giving the series only a few months of pre-production time. Allegedly, one episode was only given around two weeks for production before airtime.
7 Evangelion: Debates Over What The Series Should Be Caused Production Delays
Evangelion would see a complicated production even early on: the series was allegedly intended as a sequel to Nadia: The Secret Of Blue Water, but the rights could not be secured. There were also debates over the series’ format, with it being considered for a standalone film or OVA, before settling on an anime series. These debates factored so heavily into production that that only two episodes were finished three months before the series was to air on television.
Problems would continue throughout the series to the point where Episodes 24 and 25 would be forced to take on a minimalist approach. This, in turn, sparked rumors of the studio suffering budget issues.
6 Nadia: The Secret Of Blue Water: An Unexpected Increase In The Episode Order Was Just The Start
Somewhat fitting given its influence on the similarly plagued Evangelion, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water also endured problems behind the scenes. Various issues caused delays, from a last-second decision to extend the series from 26 to 39 episodes to the director sometimes wanting scripts to be rewritten from scratch. Because of this, episodes ended up airing late; it once took a month for a new episode to come out after the previous one.
5 Kemono Friends: Early On, The Anime Had A Staff Of 10 Working On It
Kemono Friends ended up becoming a sleeper hit, but it had a lot going against it during production. Early on, there was a staff of only ten people who worked on the project for 500 days on a small budget. To ensure deadlines were met, the cost-cutting measures got so bad that wheels couldn’t be animated in the series’ opening.
There were also a few issues with the transition from a mobile game to anime, such as being unable to afford the original voice actors and the game being canceled before the anime was even aired.
4 Fruits Basket: The First Anime Saw A Lot Of Creative Differences
The 2001 Fruits Basket anime endured a conflict of creative differences behind the scenes. Issues included debates over the voice actors, character designs, and the series’ focus on comedy. These issues are rumored to be the reason the series lasted a single season in spite of its popularity.
In 2019, a second anime adaptation of the series, noted to be more faithful to the original manga, was released, lasting for three seasons.
3 Death Note: Two Characters Ended Up Getting Mixed Up By Accident
When it came to Death Note, the editor had mixed up Near and Mello’s original character designs, which eventually caused their personalities to be rewritten to suit their new designs. Originally, “Near” had been intended to be a darker character with “Mello” being much calmer and younger. By the time the designs were approved, it was too late for the switched labels to be corrected.
2 Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Lack Of A Budget Made The Showrunners Get Creative
Revolutionary Girl Utena is renowned for its unique style, especially in its anime incarnation — much of which is actually owed to the series’ modest budget. This included its focus on dialogue, silent scenes, and reused stock footage, which gave way to multiple clip shows and even shadow-puppet sequences.
1 Magical Princess Minky Momo: Things Got So Bad They Killed Off The Main Character
Magical Princess Minky Momo was originally a magical girl series about a pink-haired princess from the land of fairy tales who travels to Earth so that its people can regain their hopes and dreams. When a sponsor pulled funding due to low toy sales, however, it was decided to have the main character, Minky Momo, die by getting run over by a truck. During the crash, it’s soon revealed that the truck was carrying toys.
This didn’t mark the end of the series, surprisingly enough, as Minky Momo would eventually be reborn as the biological daughter of the couple she was staying with.
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