(L) Kissdum Engage Planet

[BluWacky]

So, out of almost nowhere this show's actually getting an April start date (Tuesdays from the 3rd). Let's see what facts we have so far (can't find a thread for this show, apologies if there is one!)

Official website - http://www.kissdum.com
TV Tokyo website - http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/kissdum

Studio: Satelight (Aquarion, Macross Zero, Noein, Arjuna etc.)
Director and Original Concept: Yasuchika Nagaoka (the Seikai series)
Character Designs: Sushio (Gainax key animation alumnus, this may be his first character design job?)
Mecha Design: Shoji Kawamori (ZOMG fangasm, has designed most of the best mecha ever)
Design Work (i.e. all the other machinery): Yasuhiro Moriki (another Seikai veteran)
Music: TWO-MIX DELTA (the kings of 90s cheese (Gundam Wing in particular) updated for a new millenium)

Announced seiyuu:

Shuu Aiba (lead character, hotblooded mecha type no doubt) - Daisuke Ono (KyoAni stalwart having played Yukito in Air and Itsuki in Haruhi amongst others)
Shuu Nanao (his elder brother) - Yuuichi Nakamura (only had a big role in Muteki Kanban Musume before in anime, and he's voicing a lead in Ookiku Furikabutte this season; he played Rufus in Valkyrie Profile 2, though)
Yuuno Rukina (head scientist, keeper of the Book of Death) - Nana Mizuki (kickass seiyuu of various different roles, although she'll always be Rue-chan to me...)
Noa Rukina (younger sister) - Aya Endo (no really good roles before although she's a lead in Lucky Star)

The plot is something like the following:

Originally Posted by From the official website, possible liberties taken

AD 2031. As mankind continues to prosper, grotesque beings called "Hardians" appear. One day, they suddenly multiply and begin to attack humanity! Whilst investigating these Hardians, the NIDF an organisation devoted to defending mankind with fighter pilots such as Shuu Aiba and his coworkers, is embroiled in the battle with the Hardians! Furthermore, what is the secret of the legendary "Book of Death" that Yuuno Rukino, the chief scientist of the NIDF, discovers in her investigations? And what is its connection to the Hardians? Now, the great war upon which human existence is gambled begins...

Mmm, cheese-tastic. I'm a bit unsure about the romanisation of ハーディアン - I think it might be "Hadean" as in "creatures from Hades" (sure, the Book of Death is from Egyptian history, but it still ties in with the death theme). The other Romanisations come from the official website. I hope the Book of Death stuff adds up to a nice plotline to go with the mecha stuff, which I presume will be Kawamori-transformation-tastic (I like the character designs, incidentally!).

[monir]

The year-of-the-Mecha continues. For me, the best part about this show is the animation production company, which is Satelight. They have a very good track record for doing action series. The mecha-genre is a downer, but I'm only speaking for myself. Will give it a try for at least a couple of episodes.

[7Th]

Another Good Looking Spring Anime?! What The Hell?!?!?!

[MrProphet]

Definitely in, although, I did not expect it this soon.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Macross? Huh?!

By the way Monir, why is the mecha genre a "downer". I've said it before and I've said it again, mecha in an anime does not in any way detract from a show by default. If that were the case then all military based anime and anything with machines would be terrible. Unless you are anti-war or something.

[Sonhex]

Gosh, much sooner than expect and yes, another quality show for Spring. I don't know what to expect from this though, but maybe something like Overman King Gainer? Or possibly, hopefully Eureka 7 since Sushio's character designs are rather like Kenichi Yoshida's.

Oh and if anyone wants to know who Sushio is and what work he's done check out this AMV.

[aohige]

Oh, what the devil?
You guys haven't heard the news on this anime yet?

I came here thinking the thread will be all over the news.

Here's the story....
First, animation studio Satellite's staff posted on BBS that this anime is way behind schedule, and they had to restart the entire project over on 2/9/07.

Then the real BOMB got dropped two weeks later...
Yokou Koube, who's an animator of the Satellite studio staff for Kiss Dum posted this following post on his own blog.

Two month till the series starts, and the director hasn't even finished the conte for the first episode. The series's concept is all in the director Yasuchika Nagaoka's head, and he wouldn't talk with the staff on the details of the series, saying "I know how it's supposed to go, don't worry."
Then the director decided this isn't gonna work out, and ran away from the project.

No one in the staff knows the full story or the setting of the story, so it's a major panic. It's little more than a month away until the first episode airs, and they lost the original creator.
The ROUGH SKETCH (conte) of the first episode isn't even finished yet!

Koube goes on to gripe that he wishes they would have simply canceled this project and forget about it... but It seems the show already has sponsors and schedule, so they have to push forward and air it....

They asked Koube to be the substitute director, but he declined.
So they are going to setup one of the Satellite crew to be substitute director, but Kouda will be doing much of directing work, without being credited.

After this BOMB got dropped, Kiss Dum attracted new type of crowd....
The crowd looking for the next MUSASHI nightmare.

Earlier this week, Kouda saw the panic his post in his blog caused, and deleted the message from his blog, and apologized for it.
So the truth is up in air right now... If in fact Nagaoka did leave the project, then this anime is DOOMED....
and so is Nagaoka's career for at least five years.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by aohige

Oh, what the devil?
You guys haven't heard the news on this anime yet?

I came here thinking the thread will be all over the news.

Here's the story....
First, animation studio Satellite's staff posted on BBS that this anime is way behind schedule, and they had to restart the entire project over on 2/9/07.

Then the read BOMB got dropped two weeks later...
Yokou Koube, who's an animator of the Satellite studio staff for Kiss Dum posted this following post on his own blog.

Two month till the series starts, and the director hasn't even finished the conte for the first episode. The series's concept is all in the director Yasuchika Nagaoka's head, and he wouldn't talk with the staff on the details of the series, saying "I know how it's supposed to go, don't worry."
Then the director decided this isn't gonna work out, and ran away from the project.

No one in the staff knows the full story or the setting of the story, so it's a major panic. It's little more than a month away until the first episode airs, and they lost the original creator.

Koube goes on to gripe that he wishes they would have simply canceled this project and forget about it... but It seems the show already has sponcers and schedule, so they have to push forward and air it....

They asked Koube to be the substitute director, but he declined.
So they are going to setup one of the Satellite crew to be substitute director, but Kouda will be doing much of directing work, without being credited.

After this BOMB got dropped, Kiss Dum attracted new type of crowd....
The crowd looking for the next MUSASHI nightmare.

Earlier this week, Kouda saw the panic his post in his blog caused, and deleted the message from his blog, and apologized for it.
So the truth is up in air right now... If in fact Nagaoka did leave the project, then this anime is DOOMED....
and so is Nagaoka's career for at least five years.

This should be extremely interesting. I mean I don't even know what to say. They should definetely have cancelled it though or at least waited rather than gunning ahead. I don't even think Gundam Seed Destiny was boned from the start, that happened part way through.

So let me get this straight though, nobody has any idea on what it's supposed to be about other than the director who bugged out and quit, but they are going to do it anyway for the sponsors. This is without a doubt the absolute stupidest thing I have ever heard or seen, I don't even think there is a precedent for this in anime. If I were involved in this I wouldn't want my name credited.

[Sonhex]

I'm even more curious now.

Even if it is an abomination it'll be worth an episode or two to find out, if only for a laugh. But, this is Satelight, and even when they work on something that should have been put out of its misery *cough* Glass Fleet *cough* they at least produce something sort of watchable in a perverse kind of way. Well for three episodes at least in the case of the latter, though that was more Gonzo's doing I guess...

[MrProphet]

This story sounds like KareKano all over again, except KareKano had time to rule the world until Anno jumped ship, while KissDum seems to be dead on arrival. 8)

Kinda funny, though. I'm glad I only got sorta interested in the project because of Kawamori, so no major expectations yet.

[aardvark]

Hahaha wow. I'd heard about the story in aohige's post, but I thought the show won't air til at least summer, giving the staff at least more time to figure something out...

How can it possibly start next month?? This is going to be an interesting trainwreck to say the least, and I was kind of looking forward to this too...

[aohige]

Update:

Interesting turn of events.

Just about less than an hour ago, (3/6 Japan time)
Nagaoka's homepage has been updated.

長かった・・・ホント長かった・・・。
数々のトラップを乗り越え　ついにこの日を迎える事ができました。
以前から準備中だった新作「キスダム」のARでございます。
ほんの二時間前にサテライト本社でラスト２話分の本読みをしたばかりなのに
今、赤坂で第１話の録りなんて・・時間の感覚　狂いまくりである。
今回のキャスティングは星界、ダンナーから数人顔見知りがいるものの
初めて組む役者さんがほとんど。
しかも男くさい作品なのに女子率高く予想外の煌びやかさ(笑)
煌びやかなのにテンション高けぇぇぇぇえええ!!
絵もCG部分は半分ほど埋まっていたがテンション高けぇぇぇぇえええ!!
CGスタッフのみなさん　ホントにありがとうございます。
コンテが何倍にもスケールアップして見応え十分。
現場が大変なのであまり無責任な事はいえませんが
来週のダビングが無事迎えられますように(笑)

He's reporting that conte for early episodes finished, and recording of ep1 is going on right now in Akasaka, and the dubbing starts on next week.

This has thrown the fans into total confusion.
Was the Nagaoka leaving a bluff? Or did he return to the set seeing the mass confusion online?
Or is this blog diary report itself a bluff? Or is he simply giving reports on how they are doing, but leaving anyways?

The first blog post on 2/9 about KissDum having to restart project all over, btw, was from the main animation director (not to be confused with director).
The second was from one of the animation director.

Only thing we can conclude from this is.... well, nothing really.
Just that the set must be in total chaos.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

This story sounds like KareKano all over again, except KareKano had time to rule the world until Anno jumped ship, while KissDum seems to be dead on arrival. 8)

Huh? KareKano's bad "ending" wasn't due to Anno leaving as Tsurumaki did a good job, the real cause was Gainax losing the rights to continue the series as it was originally stated to run indefinite episodes.

[Shinndou]

Well, I was planning to watch this since Kawamori is involved in it, so I do hope that this show won't end up failing even before airing on TV. I hope it's just a bluff (although there might still be a hint of truth even if all these rumours were actually just a "prank").

[duckroll]

As long as Nagaoka is still in charge, it'll be fine. It's been suggested by some fans that there might be some conflicts of interest within Satelight that resulted in malicious rumors being spread. It's only a month away, so we'll see how it goes.

[MrProphet]

Originally Posted by 7Th

Huh? KareKano's bad "ending" wasn't due to Anno leaving as Tsurumaki did a good job, the real cause was Gainax losing the rights to continue the series as it was originally stated to run indefinite episodes.

Anno left precisely because he was not able to go on working on KareKano the way he wanted.

I have no idea what exactly were you trying to argue with...

[monir]

Love gossiping. Thanks Aohige!

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

By the way Monir, why is the mecha genre a "downer". I've said it before and I've said it again, mecha in an anime does not in any way detract from a show by default. If that were the case then all military based anime and anything with machines would be terrible. Unless you are anti-war or something.

You are absolutely right of course! I refer to mecha as "downer" for my own distinct disliking for the drama element a lot of these mecha shows bring over. I just can't stand the angst associated with these kind of show with the typical plot about fate-of-the-world-rests-on-the-shoulder-of-a-few-angsty-whiny-teenagers and such. I don't mind the repeat/recycling of the plot, it's the overflowing of angst that gets to me. Shows like Evangelion has scarred me beyond repair. That said, I'm not totally anti-mecha genere since I've thoroughly enjoyed Macross Zero OVA for the godly animation, FMP, Vandread, Sousei Aquarion ( ) for it's hilarious parody where it makes the typical mecha-plot it's target.. and etc. As I said, this is solely my own bias and I only speak for myself.

[Shinndou]

Well, Sousei no Aquarion is EPIC, if you know what I mean.

[wao]

Soooo... how many people are going:

サテライトｵﾜﾀ＼(＾o＾)／

This is extremely interesting. Really. One moment everyone's going "zomg Seikai series director + awesome cool animator Sushio + Satelight = WIN?!!" and I was sort of looking forward to see if it would turn out in the same way as Noein except with a bit of an Aquarion flavour but....

What a bizarre development! And it makes for such good silly gossip that one almost wonders if they did it on purpose just to create buzz for the show, but surely they wouldn't go to the extent of lying that much...

Now I really can't wait to see how this turns out - well, for now at least in a "cannot peel eyes away from horrific traffic accident" sort of way. $deity, God, Allah, and all other omnipotent omniscient (and hopefully benevolent) Higher Beings forbid Satelight go down to the level of MABUSHI!!, though

That would just shatter my brain, really... especially wish Sushio even somehow involved... (and yeah, I like those chara designs of his.)

[Nightengale]

I can't see why Satelight/KEP staff would want this kind of publicity though, especially considering it's Nagaoka, Kawamori, Sushio and Satelight. I'm always skeptical about anime, but that itself sounds like it promises to be an entertaining experience, even if not outstanding. Unless Nagaoka has absolutely zero confidence that his own concept would work of course. We've seen worse things in mecha animes work, so for a director to thinks...god, my idea fails and walk out for an almost good 2 weeks when the show's production is behind schedule to begin with sounds extremely...worrisome.

Right now, even if Nagaoka got his head together for how his story and characters would work, it almost looks like KEP cannot avoid looking a little bit weak on the production/animation side unless their animators are going to burn midnight oils, considering they're behind schedule.

Frankly, even if this whole Nagaoka thing is some staff member's idea of a tasteless joke to spark interest, it's still worrisome.