Oh wow, A Place Further than The universe did it again... I can't believe after episode 12, they had enough to make another exceptional final episode, I didn't cry this time (Ha! how do you like that Madhouse) but it was great... Truly great from start to finish.
Marchen quality and problems has been so bad it might be even cancelled in the climax ! https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2018-03-27/marchen-madchen-anime-episodes-11-12-fate-still-to-be-announced/.129592
Look
"Our source explained that the situation was chaotic ever since the start of production. “From the beginning up to now, four members of the production crew have quit, including the original production desk for the series and the settei manager.” The specifics about the situation boggle the mind, as episode 6 for example changed hands three times before its broadcast, and it wasn’t until the broadcast of episode 7 that they found a production assistant who could handle the management of #9. “None of the production assistants besides Kitamura, who had transferred in from 3hz, even had any experience in TV anime,” they added, which illustrates just how stacked the odds were against them; keep in mind that production assistants face perhaps the most stressful role in all of anime, so doing it for the first time on a show with no time whatsoever and lacking in manpower is simply suicidal. When asked about what led to such an extreme situation, they wanted to choose their words carefully while still pointing the finger at those who allegedly caused this massive mess. “While I wouldn’t say that (Masaru) Nagai [CEO of the studio, animation producer and planning member in the series] is the sole one to blame, the main problem lies with Hoods Entertainment” isn’t a statement open to interpretation, and they took that accusation further by adding that their decision to offer very low rates even by this industry’s standards might have been the final nail for a rushed, understaffed project.
After noting that it was quite hard to discuss these matters with Nagai to begin with, as it had become a regular occurrence for him to scream at others during meetings, they explained how the hands-on staff tried to remedy this: “By autumn 2017 we were already worried that the broadcast could be in danger, so Kitamura, as production assistant, came up with an outsourcing plan that was then rejected by the CEO for financial reasons. By late January, the CEO finally approved the subcontracting proposal, but at that point we were running so short on time that no studio was willing to take the offer. Even after that, the CEO planned to continue delivering unfinished episodes so as to make broadcast, but the distribution side [NBC Universal?] forced us to postpone it for two weeks.” The fact that they were granted a brief break might very well be the one positive development in their report, but of course even that had to go wrong: “By episodes 6-7, the burden on series director (Shigeru) Ueda was so strong he ended up stepping down after #8. On top of that, right before the delivery deadline for episode 8, we lost contact with the production desk, so in the end we spent those two weeks mostly sorting out the production situation for the episodes still remaining.” Perhaps now you can understand why, despite the best efforts by the staff, the break to improve the quality of the animation didn’t have the desired effect.
The consequences of all this on the creative team have been devastating as you might expect, to the point of the regulars having to risk their health to try to keep the project afloat. “The problems began from the very first episode, as the key animation from outside the studio turned out to require many complete retakes. The quality of the drawings for episode three was so low that the episode directors and supervisors had to correct essentially everything (this marked the start of the severe delays). Even the storyboards for that episode were late, as they had to be redrawn by (Hisashi) Saito, since the original director fell sick, and his replacement was an assistant without any experience in episode direction.” Even the mess regarding the credits has its roots in these production issues: “As the production grew more chaotic, episode 7 ended up being broadcast without consulting the studio members about the credits (the animators at the studio were so occupied with episodes 6 and 8 that no one was available to act as animation director, so they had to resort to falsely crediting someone for the episode). As a result, (Kiyoshi) Tateishi [the only supervisor credited for episode 7] only corrected about 20 cuts – everything else was either fixed by the key animators themselves, done uncredited, or went through entirely uncorrected.” In the end, they conclude that while lack of personnel and production funds were pointed out as issues, that hid the root of the problem: “Ultimately, many of the problems we faced could have been quickly resolved with action on the part of [animation producer and Hoods CEO] (Masaru) Nagai.” The structural problems affecting anime production are obvious, but in this case, the behavior of certain individuals can be faulted just as much. And that’s the kind of truth that tends to get silence"
Is like a Shirobako movie
last edited at Mar 27, 2018 12:38PM
