This Week in Anime

The Waiting Game

Coop
I know you've talked about canned anime projects before, Chris, but what about the ones that've blown so much smoke ahead of time that you start wondering if there are mirrors involved?

For example: The more I hear about N LITE's MFINDA and their other projects, the more I question if we'll actually see any of it come to fruition.

In a recent interview with Animenomics, N LITE CEO Christiano Terry talks about building interest by constantly engaging with potential audiences—either through merchandise or happy accidents along the course of production.

While I can understand the desire to publicly hype up a project still in active development (especially when looking for interested investors to bankroll it), there's a reason all the behind-the-scenes insights are saved for the promotional period or a Blu-ray special feature—serious accidents are just as likely as the happy ones. Since animated films often take many years to complete, there's always room for illness, scheduling mishaps, or a creative collapse to happen. In the case of MFINDA, the film's director-producer duo of Gisaburō Sugii and Masao Maruyama are both in their mid-eighties. If either of them happens to run into any serious health complications, it could be disastrous for the film's production. Also, if you've watched a documentary like Kingdom of Dreams and Madness or Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki, you've probably seen just how hard this business is on an elder creative.

It gets a touch confusing when the focus ping-pongs between the film and manga adaptation. On that topic, there's also the very real chance that the manga goes down its own narrative and stylistic route. We both know that general audiences really don't like it when the manga deviates from the anime. Regardless, I'm stoked for the folks who will be able to soak up Tom Lintern's beautiful watercolor illustrations for the first time. Lintern's own comic series, Girrion, is a visual delight.

However, there's another issue here: Audiences won't be attached to the world of MFINDA until they see the final product for themselves. It won't matter how many side projects and merch there is unless the main project sticks the landing. Seeing that N LITE has another four projects in the hopper and at least one already shelved, it'd probably be best to stick with one before going hog wild. Terry's interview with Animenomics seems to imply the company's dangling all these keys to keep investors interested, but again, it comes off as a touch excessive.

That's why I'm a big believer in the idea of keeping a lid on the surprise until it's just about to pop. Sometimes you need a huge announcement to cap off your stage presentation, but preferably one that's coming out within the next year or so at the latest.

My beloved Macross is another example of unhappy accidents and bad timing conspiring to throw off entire schedules—be it the 2022 Crunchyroll purchase of Right Stuf seemingly throwing announced Blu-ray releases into the air, Anime Limited's recent rescue of Delta and Frontier, or the very very early announcement that the next Macross series would be produced over at Sunrise. That last one was just over three years ago.

I appreciate the honest "we got busy, did other things, and now we're working on this" candor Imaishi and Nakashima have in this quick announcement video, but the whole thing kind of comes off an "announcement for an announcement." It all just makes me go "Don't say anything until you actually have something to show! And I don't mean concept art either; I mean animation as animation. Even if it's early!"

Kinema Citrus initially revealed Goodbye, Lara with a full-on concept trailer in 2024, clearly communicated that it'd take them a while to get it done, and then went largely radio silent on the subject. Honestly, I think this was a winning strategy for the studio. They gave potential viewers something tangible to chew on while they kept cooking away, not just a quick sketch and some lofty promises.

What about Frieren Season 3?

To your point, the annoucement-to-airing gap hits way harder with continuing series rather than new or self-contained ones. Kind of crazy to think that the second season of Chainsaw Man could either pop out next year or perhaps early 2028 (MAPPA hasn't been clear on the release timing)—5 to 6 years after the first season aired. There's a chance the series' audience grows out of it by then.

Now, that's a perfectly reasonable amount of time to get excited for the first new Tsuneo Imahori score in over a decade. We stan "H.T" in this house.

Getting an anime series together is hard enough as it is, but adding in a splash of game dev? Woo nelly.

At least another punch lesbian outing is way more likely than the actual release of Uru in Blue or a Gunbuster 3, especially with GAINAX being sent out to pasture in late 2025. Rex Nabours III of Beyond Electric Sheep has a pretty beefy look into the ups and downs of Uru in Blue's production status just before Gainax's dissolution, alongside a whole bucketload of notes to go along with it.

That adage about sleeping dogs exists for a reason.

And you know, if the wait was actually worth it (as it was with New Panty & Stocking), all that extra time becomes kind of a moot point. Then again, it can always loop back to our aforementioned "sophomore slump" chat.

Wherever she is right now, I hope Sayo Yamamoto is out there living her best life and still coasting off the many ice skating highs from this year's Olympics.

We'll only really know once the final product is actually out there, which in MFINDA's case, is hopefully sooner rather than later.

As long as I get to play Akira, we'll be in business!