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gszr89 t1_j5dypub wrote

For COVID? So they produce episodes like weekly/monthly? Why didn't they make all the episodes in advance?

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King_A_Acumen t1_j5eap98 wrote

This does not usually happen with Anime productions due to the terrible scheduling that production committees force on the studios. There are times when some episodes are finished hours before the broadcast in Japan. Usually studios hope to be 2-3 episodes ahead.

According to insiders the production for Nier has been a shitshow, Covid is a mild impact and not in Japan for animators, the problem is due to the bad production they have outsourced a lot to china, which has been hit hard by Covid.

Even Mappa with Chainsaw Man were offering double in order to get Chinese animators to work on it to get it across the finish line, which is sad because it was supposed to be Mappa's new studio and new method which ended up not having a great schedule, which is why fight animation continued to struggle.

Very few studios get to usually command enough time to properly make episodes such as KyoAni or Ufotable.

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LadyLazaev t1_j5epqnq wrote

I didn't see any struggle in Chainsaw man at all.

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King_A_Acumen t1_j5etzuu wrote

You can see from them relying on straight CG more often in later fights in addition to going from 1 ADs to multiple ADs per episode.

The choreography was much worse compared to shows like Demon Slayer, Bleach or even JJK from Mappa and the fights simply didn't have that level of hype you would expect from such a show.

Mainly due to Mappa not extending any of the fights and struggling to convey how Fujimoto used manga pages in fights to the anime medium and the simple lack of 2D at times.

Aki v Katana Man Link (watch from here to 1:18)

Honestly, a fan managed to convey the speed and feel of the fight in this cut better (keep in mind, it's 1 fan vs a team of animators + cg + music and voice): Link

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mysidian t1_j5g6sl3 wrote

What is an AD?

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DoubleA77 t1_j5g9ad1 wrote

Animation Director. They are basically in charge of making corrections and ensuring that the animation is on model and consistent throughout the episode. Typically you would expect 1-2 per episode but when all of a sudden that number jumps up it can be a sign that the production is struggling and they are having to bring in additional people just to keep up with the schedule.

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gszr89 t1_j5eblfe wrote

I thought it was something related to ongoing long series, I guess they have a really strict schedule. Maybe they should really rethink the whole system and just give more time to the studios. Anyway, for me Chainsaw Man has one of the best animation of last year, I didn't see any struggle. Some issues in the rhythm maybe, that could have been solved with few more episodes but that's fine.

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nekowolf t1_j5kvy6n wrote

People should watch Animation Runner Kuromi.

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marioquartz t1_j5e3h6h wrote

Is both. They make 2 or 3 episodes in advance at the same time. They start months ahead. But they end the last one one month / weeks ahead of the end of the series.

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bravetailor t1_j5kq1fs wrote

I've heard of rare cases where anime episodes are delivered to networks only hours before airing

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gszr89 t1_j5kq61s wrote

It should not work that way...

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rangerxt t1_j5hato3 wrote

so they can stay meta and insert pop culture references

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