Kyoto Animation: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Westlo

Would you rather they churned out a Haruhi ever year and than you'll have a 5 year or longer wait for the final one?

That's a strawman argument. Nobody here was asking for a Haruhi anime every year.

What's to stop that from happening again? What if novels 12+13 come out to finish the series in 2016, I'm sure you would love a 6 year wait for season 4 anime...

Do you really think that everything currently left to adapt in the Haruhi novels can be covered in a lone Season 3? Man, I seriously hope KyoAni doesn't try such an approach. The anime adaptation would feel insanely rushed if they try that, imo.

There's easily enough Haruhi novel content left (right now) to cover two more seasons worth of content, going at a good pace.

So even if the novel series isn't finished until 2016, the following would be ideal in my view:

Haruhi Season 3 - Fall 2012

Haruhi Season 4 - Winter 2014/2015 (2 years and one season after Season 3)

Haruhi Final Season - Summer 2017

Those would make for reasonable gaps even in your "next/final novel not out until 2016" scenario.

Originally Posted by fertygo

bingo.

blablabla... Its almost guaranteed there will be another haruhi anime, maybe not next year or even 2013, but they will make it regardless.

What's the friggin rush anyway?

Interest in a property often declines over time without anything new to sustain it.

For example, by the time InuYasha: The Final Act came out, I just didn't care any more. Over that five year gap I had simply moved on, and InuYasha was a fading memory for me.

There is more guarantee in KyoAni will animate all of haruhi book than Shaft will animate all of the rest monogatari series.

I disagree. If SHAFT and Shinbo are anything, it's very prolific (arguably too much so, even). If KyoAni is anything, it's the very opposite of prolific.

[Random32]

Originally Posted by DemiSoda

Why not? Kyoani has excellent directorial and animation staff and they have a good track record when it comes to adaptations. The problem lies is that they do not try hard enough and more importantly don't do enough.

Studios like Production IG, Madhouse, Bones, Gainax etc also make slice of life and moe shows too. Heck, even the hated DEEN and J C Staff diversify much more than Kyoani does (too bad their adaptations tend to fail a lot of the time).

They don't do much, that is exactly why they are awesome with what they do do. KyoAni is very much a quality over quantity studio. That is exactly why everyone wants [insert series here] to be adapted by KyoAni and exactly why the chances of it happening in the near future hover near zero.

I would love for KyoAni to do LB!, planetarian, and Rewrite, but I don't want them to work on my desired anime alongside 5 other projects.

[bhl88]

Key and KyoAni think too highly of themselves (Key wants KyoAni to do their work and KyoAni wants 1-2 projects a year).

[fertygo]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Interest in a property often declines over time without anything new to sustain it.

For example, by the time InuYasha: The Final Act came out, I just didn't care any more. Over that five year gap I had simply moved on, and InuYasha was a fading memory for me.

Yeah because the 30k sales for the BD-BOX (Which is the best of all time), the movie is big hits both in disc and theater, about an million copies sales with just 2 novel volume is a sign of declining interest.

Its not like Shana that its novel keep declining in interest.

Most big hits releasing their sequel on haruhi timerange anyway (3-4 years)

Bake just airing next season + movie in 2012, its annual schedule for Gundam, Geass still waiting and so on.

[Proto]

Whatever people. I'm for one I'm excited about KyoAni's next project.

[/thread]



...

[brocko]

As much we'd all like a steady flow of Haruhi content, KyoAni isn't exactly the most flexible of studios when it comes to anime production. They have a strict production limit and they strictly stick by it.

In order to meet Triple_R's hypothesised schedule above, they'd practically have to be working on Haruhi non-stop (assuming a 2-3 year project cycle). That's a lot of their time and attention devoted to the one single franchise alone. They might not want to work on Haruhi for that long of a stretch and instead want to branch out into completely new or their other existing franchises (Key, K-ON, FMP and w/e properties they manage to add to that list) in between.

For all we know their plan with Haruhi may very well be an uber long term one, spanning across multiple decades. Or maybe even having a single season within the near-short term could be cutting it a little too close for comfort for their overall plans and direction of the franchise. Perhaps they actually wanted to churn as much Haruhi out asap, but are just stuck waiting in line. We simply just don't know enough to determine what is and isn't a good pace to meet whatever intentions they may have for the franchise.

This is why I mentioned earlier that if there was going to be a relatively long downtime then it'd be good if they'd look into animating the Haruhi Theatre acts into OVA's to keep interest afloat somewhat.

I'm just thankful Haruhi hasn't really become a by-product of any bigtime production hell yet (see TvTropes for some examples) and/or unfortunately mis-treated like Nadesico and Berserk where fans were just left hanging in what looked like an eternal limbo for over a good decade (atleast Berserk had the manga going for it is now picking itself back up with the reboot movies, but Nadesico however is still stuck in the ruts... =/)

[AbZeroNow]

After thinking about it yesterday and before I heard the news of Kadokawa's denial(which can be interpreted many ways but more on that in a minute), I was wondering to myself if KyoAni was planning on doing a 2 cours for when they'd pick up Haruhi again. After all, season two of K-ON was two cours, Nichijou was two cours. Then I thought to myself that two cours would basically animate everything that has yet to be animated(give or take Rainy Day). There is potential for Tanigawa to also fill in some small gaps in his next novel as well. I mean, we never did read about what Kyon did for White Day did we? Or we could get more details on that bean-throwing festival that was briefly mentioned in Intrigues. So I wondered to myself if new Haruhi is on the waitlist for KyoAni if they intend to do 2 cours. In which case, I think waiting until 2013 could be beneficial.

As far as Kadokawa goes, I think Aya Hirano's secret project is for them(hence the "can't talk about it") and the Kadokawa rep basically said "lawyer's truth"(i.e what's true for that moment in time). I would definitely take what the rep said to the reporter as "we have no plans to air a third season today". And it very well could be interpreted as "Oh, Aya Hirano is so totally not doing voice work for a third season of Haruhi as we speak and hey...look over there".

I am definitely going to look for clues in December(on the 18th, the 24th and the 31st) as well as certain dates in January and February where we could get another "tease".

Also, them saying they have no plans to air it over TV doesn't preclude them from doing another movie and some OVAs. And I also agree that some OVAs like more Haruhi-chan or a Yuki-chan web series or Haruhi Theatre would help to fill in the waiting time.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by fertygo

Yeah because the 30k sales for the BD-BOX (Which is the best of all time), the movie is big hits both in disc and theater, about an million copies sales with just 2 novel volume is a sign of declining interest.

My argument wasn't that Haruhi is enduring declining interest right now.

My argument was a very clear but general one: Interest in a property often declines over time without anything new to sustain it.

In other words, lengthy gaps between new content offerings can and often do hurt over time. Some fans grow impatient, and move on to other properties, forgetting about the property that has had nothing new in what feels like ages.

Haruhi is obviously not there yet, but I think it might be if we're having this same conversation in two years time.

Most big hits releasing their sequel on haruhi timerange anyway (3-4 years)

That's incorrect, as I pointed out before on this thread with numerous examples. The standard time gap for prequels/sequels for big name anime franchises with yet-to-be-adapted anime material is roughly two years. Bake only finished airing slightly over two years ago, and it's about to have more content coming out this Winter 2011/2012 season.

I'm not sure why you're even mentioning Geass, as its a completed anime original story. Most Gundam narratives complete themselves in several cours spread out over a fairly short time-frame.

If the Haruhi anime and novel narratives were completed, most people wouldn't be wondering when more would be on the way, because its canon narrative would be done.

Originally Posted by brocko

As much we'd all like a steady flow of Haruhi content, KyoAni isn't exactly the most flexible of studios when it comes to anime production. They have a strict production limit and they strictly stick by it.

And that's the problem. They should become more flexible and prolific, imo. Their strict production limit has made it a mixed blessing, at best, for one's favored source material property to be handled by Kyoto Animation.

[brocko]

Their quality over quantity mantra is certainly a double edged sword, but they are moving towards being more flexible and prolific as desired. Albeit just very slowly, which is evidently enough to test some peoples patience (of course YMMV depending on person to person). The fact that they've been making films for the past two years further holding up their TV series output doesn't really help the issue either.

Anyway I've made a quick Gantt chart timelining each of their series from air-date to end-date. Wiki didn't have an exact release date for Munto 2 so i just randomly slabbed it somewhere near the start of 2004 lol

From this you can see that after Haruhi 2006, all of their TV series with the exception of the 1st K-ON! season (and probably haruhi 2009 due to technicalities) have all been 2 cour in length. The period leading upto 2009 must've also been rather hectic as there were a number of overlapping projects, even if a few of them weren't legitimate full-fledged productions (Munto and Haruhi 2009 heavily reusing old material and the Haruhi webshorts being something they did on the side), the work still does stack up in the end. Ever since then they've produced a film and a 2 cour lengthed show for a both fairly consistent 2010 and 2011.

Throughout the years you can see that they've increased their production outputs from back-to-back 1 cour shows (Air - Haruhi2006 period) to back-to-back 2 cour shows with shorter gaps in between (Kanon2006 - Clannad) to handling film production alongside a 2 cour show (2010 - 2011 period).

[rulfo]

Originally Posted by Random32

I would love for KyoAni to do LB!, planetarian...(snip)

Don't remind me.

I've been clamoring for that ever since that stupid rumor came out.

Frankly that's as far as I go with that, they can do whatever the hell they want and I'll still be watching it for own personal interest.

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by bhl88

Key and KyoAni think too highly of themselves (Key wants KyoAni to do their work and KyoAni wants 1-2 projects a year).

*cough* Beats! *cough*

Anyway, I don't want them to do "Little Buster"

And, damn KyoAni just isn't smart enough. Why they do a mystery genre when all of their rivals are also doing it?

Well, 2011 is a tough year, and it will keep going further. If they can't become pinnacle in the next 2 years, then seriously they gonna die. I wonder what Ishihara has been thinking in these past year?

[Tempester]

Originally Posted by all_flying

And, damn KyoAni just isn't smart enough. Why they do a mystery genre when all of their rivals are also doing it?

More like, why not? KyoAni's projects so far have shown little diversity compared to other studios, and this project shows that they are probably making an effort to expand their horizons. If Hyou-Ka turns out to be really good and successful, then that will be a good thing, would it not?

Originally Posted by all_flying

Well, 2011 is a tough year, and it will keep going further. If they can't become pinnacle in the next 2 years, then seriously they gonna die. I wonder what Ishihara has been thinking in these past year?

We only know of one of their projects for the following year. We don't have a clue whether Hyou-Ka is going to smash records or fail. The sky isn't falling.

[Skane]

Originally Posted by Tempester

~~ And that moronic politician has nothing to do with this thread or discussion, so leave him out of this.

Tatsuya Ishihara

Cheers.

[Tempester]

Originally Posted by Skane

Tatsuya Ishihara

Cheers.

Welp. Thanks for the enlightening info. That was incredibly stupid of me.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by all_flying

Well, 2011 is a tough year

Nichijou didn't do great but...

From ANN:

According to Otaka, K-ON! earned 316,310,000 yen (about US$4,054,000) on 137 screens during the December 3-4 weekend.

And there's still Blu ray sales coming up.

[bhl88]

Originally Posted by all_flying

Anyway, I don't want them to do "Little Buster"

Lol we'd be stuck with: KyoAni did CLANNAD, Kanon and AIR

Anyway... Here's hope that it'll surpass the best film out there... If it gets past the 1 trillion yen mark that is.

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by Tempester

More like, why not? KyoAni's projects so far have shown little diversity compared to other studios, and this project shows that they are probably making an effort to expand their horizons. If Hyou-Ka turns out to be really good and successful, then that will be a good thing, would it not?

Well, I don't know. Their project is always shady (both K-ON! and Nichijou just came out of nowhere). And that Hyouka novel, I can't get it anywhere on the net. So, there is really no original impression or whatsoever.

Originally Posted by totoum

Nichijou didn't do great but...

From ANN:



And there's still Blu ray sales coming up.

Let's hope that it will cover their annual budget.

Originally Posted by bhl88

Lol we'd be stuck with: KyoAni did CLANNAD, Kanon and AIR

Well, that is not my point. There are rumors going around that KyoAni will do "Little Buster". If they answered those blabbing, it would be too boring

[Skane]

The only KEY project I want KyoAni to animate at this point is Planetarian.

Hope.

[Tempester]

Originally Posted by all_flying

There are rumors going around that KyoAni will do "Little Buster". If they answered those blabbing, it would be too boring

I don't consider the announcement of a project that has been eagerly awaited from fans for several years to be "boring", but that's just my opinion.

Originally Posted by Skane

The only KEY project I want KyoAni to animate at this point is Planetarian.

Hope.

A Planetarian adaptation would be one of the best things from KyoAni I could conceive of. I'm really pessimistic about it being adapted though, since the recent interview about Key adaptations by KyoAni didn't even mention Planetarian. It seems that Key only has their eyes on Little Busters, or maybe Rewrite as well, getting animated. It's a huge shame, really, since Planetarian is my most favorite Key work.

[Ithekro]

Well, Planetarian would only get them sales from one BR/DVD while Little Busters or Rewrite would get them lots of BR/DVD sales from all the episodes needed to tell those stories. Planetarian is...well different and short.

Also not a lot of characters to cash in on.

(From the KEY point of view, how much do they sale that game for verses their Visual Novels?)