With several anime such as NieR: Automata Ver1.1a and Ayakashi Triangle announcing indefinite delays, some anime directors accused Aniplex of mismanagement.
While anime delays aren’t all that new, many fans were caught off guard when multiple shows got indefinitely delayed in a short period.
Almost all of these delays were said to be caused by an increase in COVID-19 infections among each show’s staff, though it seems that there’s more to this than just COVID, as mentioned by some anime directors.
Anime Director Speaks Out Against Aniplex
For starters, SaeKano director Kanta Kamei shared a couple of interesting tweets on his personal Twitter account following the NieR: Automata and Ayakashi Triangle anime delays.
He specifically mentioned how he already notified an Aniplex producer about his concerns with putting up new anime in the Winter season.
This is because many staff members might get burnt out, not to mention that Lunar New Year in February means there are lots of outsourced Chinese animators on holiday.
However, these comments were supposedly rejected.
While anime shows are still primarily worked on by staff members based in Japan, most of today’s big titles cannot be finished on time if not for outsourced animators from other countries such as China.
From the looks of it, the recent Lunar New Year holiday period and the massive COVID spike in China meant that production of several ongoing anime titles could not continue.
Given this, it makes sense that the delays were blamed on the ongoing COVID spike.
Though based on the ex-staff comments, that’s not the only reason for the delays.
ALSO READ: NieR: Automata Ver1.1a, Ayakashi Triangle Delayed Due to Aniplex Production Chaos
Aniplex Mismanagement: Why Winter 2023 Anime Titles Are Delayed
Even before the recent Winter 2023 delays, Sword Art Online director Tomohiko Itou already mentioned production mismanagement within Aniplex in a magazine interview.
There, Itou said that Aniplex works on too many titles at one time. Combined with the company’s high standards of quality, there are animation studios that can’t meet the demands.
This has resulted in anime shows being passed to A-1 Pictures. Because of this, some A-1 Pictures titles get delayed for quite a while.
Take for instance Lycoris Recoil, an anime that was supposed to be released in Fall 2021.
Of course, not every show is affected by this. Demon Slayer is consistently good because of the time and money that’s put into it, as well as the expertise of the show’s staff.
Sadly, not all anime projects are given the same resources.
As there’s no timeline yet for the return of the recently delayed shows, it’s likely that discourse about the unfair practices in the anime industry will continue in the coming weeks.
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READ NEXT: When Will the NieR: Automata Anime Be Dubbed in English?
Sources: Kanta Kamei Twitter account, Daily Shincho
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