Forum - View topicAnime series cancelled during their run (whether it be by fan revolt, controversial content, et al.)
|
|
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
garfieldelric
 Posts: 8 Location: Seattle area |
|
|||
|
https://soranews24.com/2020/02/08/monster-girl-brothel-anime-interspecies-reviewers-tokyo-tv-broadcast-cancelled/ - Hi, all. I haven't posted in here in almost 13 years! That changes NOW.
The latest news of the Interspecies Reviewers being canned due to its rather controversial content had me thinking: What anime titles have been cancelled in the middle of their run in Japan because of, say, fan revolt, controversial content, et al.? I'm just curious which anime got the axe in the middle of their runs before their completion. Go on ahead, post away! |
||||
|
||||
yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
|
|||
|
Last season's Hoshiai no Sora ("Stars Align") was horribly mistreated by its production committee. Originally scheduled for 24 episodes, it was axed after 12, leaving some large unresolved plot threads and an enormous cliff-hanger.
|
||||
|
||||
Beltane70
 Posts: 4016 |
|
|||
|
Anime series being cancelled during their run isn't that rare, actually. Most of them were just simply cancelled due to poor ratings.
Probably the most famous case of this was the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series. Originally set to be 52 episodes, it was cut down to 39 episodes due to poor ratings. The staff was able to get an extension to produce an additional four episodes to give the show a proper ending. |
||||
|
||||
|
Nom De Plume De Fanboy
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Posts: 641 Location: inland US west, pretty rural |
|
|||
|
The 1996 Birdy the Mighty OAV was being released on VHS tapes, two episodes per tape, and after two tapes, at the end of the first story arc, they just quit, leaving spoiler[a Big Bad just wandering about]. I assume that release model just didn't make enough money, what with the JP bubble economy being over.
As an aside: in the US, only the first two eps got released on DVD, so I had to buy the last two on tape. This and the Dirty Pair movies are the only anime tapes I ever bought. Spaceship Agga Ruter, a 1998 porn but with some wit and sort of a plot, was released one ep per tape, and after four eps also just ended. With a next ep trailer teasing that the next stop was going to have a Space Elf. At least there was a North American DVD with all the eps on it. I have never suffered from the syndrome to "go to Japan and sell them my perfect idea for an anime", but if I ever got a million billion bucks, I would like an ending to Agga Rutter.  
|
||||
|
||||
Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10099 Location: Virginia |
|
|||
|
Nom De Plume De Fanboy wrote:
U.S.Manga Corps issued all four episodes on two DVDs. The first is titled Birdy The Mighty Double Trouble and the second Birdy The Mighty Final Force. |
||||
|
||||
|
Nom De Plume De Fanboy
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Posts: 641 Location: inland US west, pretty rural |
|
|||
|
I stand corrected. I just never could find it back in the day.
I see it on ebay now, but asking for crazy prices; although with the option of making a "best offer" bid. |
||||
|
||||
|
AkumaChef
Posts: 821 |
|
|||
Indeed. There are countless OVAs from the 80's and 90's which followed various popular manga then simply stopped being made because they weren't financially successful. Some got later reboots, most didn't.
And ironically the exact same thing happened to After War Gundam X: planned for 52, low ratings got it cut to 39. There were other kinds of issues that plagued shows too, like how Bubblegum Crisis was planned to be much longer than the 8 episodes it got, but legal disagreements between Artmic and Youmex resulted in it being cut short. |
||||
|
||||
|
Beltane70
Posts: 4016 |
|
|||
|
It was only after its three compilation films that Gundam gained the popularity that it enjoys today.
Space Runaway Ideon also shared the fate of being cancelled during its run. The final episodes ends in a narration that explains what happens. Thankfully, it got a feature film to finish up the story, plus a compilation film. |
||||
|
||||
|
doctorx0079
Posts: 55 |
|
|||
And a popular line of model kits, since 1980. |
||||
|
||||
|
Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6903 Location: Kazune City |
|
|||
|
It's not as common these days, as many shows that would've been longer in the past get split up into shorter distinct seasons. Instead of planning a 26-episode series, they might produce it as two separate 13-episode series, and if the first season fails miserably, the second gets silently canceled and we're none the wiser. Some past examples:
Vision of Escaflowne TV -- originally slated to be ~39 episodes, but got cut back to 26, perhaps because the Japanese audience was in "Post-Evangelion Mecha Fatigue" at the time. The ANNCast on the series points out how it's very tightly-woven and grippingly paced for the first half, but then the second half (after the truncation decision came down) is just all over the place. Still good, just not as good. Shingu: Secret of Stellar Wars apparently suffered a similar reduction from 3 cours to 2 cours. Final Fantasy Unlimited got cut from ~50 episodes to 25, an event attributed to the box-office failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Squaresoft cutting budgets in response. Kind of a shame, as the series had improved on its inconsistent beginnings and had a pretty decent arc going. But then the ongoing "Ocean Puzzle" mechanic dumps the protagonists straight into the main villains' lair at around ep 21, and things get messily random in a hurry. IIRC 2 of the "Great 4 Generals" villains get hastily disposed of or shuffled away. El-Hazard: The Alternative World was supposed to be 26 episodes, but it evidently crashed and burned, got cut to 13 episodes with a mostly-nonsense ending, and permanently imploded the entire franchise along with it. |
||||
|
||||
|
Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10099 Location: Virginia |
|
|||
|
Ranma 1/2 TV was cancelled after the first 18 episodes. They got enough advance notice of the cancellation that they skipped three episodes to the advent of Shampoo and gave the show an ending. This brought enough attention that they were able to restart the show a month after the last episode. Technically all episodes beginning with #19 are Ranma 1/2 Netto-hen. The series is listed in the encyclopedia here as having two seasons, one of 18 episodes and one of 143 episodes.
The skipped episodes were eventually run as episodes 25 to 27. |
||||
|
||||
|
Beltane70
Posts: 4016 |
|
|||
It's a shame, too, since I actually liked the art style of those first 18 episodes better than the rest of the series. |
||||
|
||||
|
garfieldelric
Posts: 8 Location: Seattle area |
|
|||
I know, but I'm looking for examples that were cancelled because of more unusual circumstances (fan revolt, controversial content, those things). |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group