Why is it that in the eyes of the audience, "whoever suffers can't take its turn", the excellent animation has fallen into the desperate situation of no film to broadcast?
As an "anti-routine" other-world theme animation, "Uncle of the Otherworld" can be regarded as a popular work in the Drama of July this year, about the male protagonist going to the hospital to pick up his uncle who has been in a coma for 17 years due to a car accident, but found that the uncle is actually wandering in the otherworld full of "sword and magic" during this time, and can still use various magic even after waking up.
When most of the "Otherworld" works are still focusing on the grand narrative of national hatred and family hatred or the protagonist of "Dragon Auror", the uncle who returns to reality first asks "how is Sega fighting in the main engine war" seems to be a clear stream.
Knowing that Sega had long since stopped launching the console competition, his uncle cast a forgetting magic on himself
The story revolves around how the uncle adapted to the long-lost modern life and the memories of his travels in other worlds, and is a daily work full of contrasting laughs and ACG terriers.
Since its inception, "Uncle of another World" has received good responses everywhere, whether it is in Nico or Douban, it has been well received, and many god-like uncle COS have emerged on the Internet.
However, due to various reasons, the domestic genuine version of this film was broadcast until July before the first episode was listed on the B station, and the name was changed to "Fantasy World Uncle".
Just when everyone was teasing the "July New September Broadcast", "Uncle of Another World", which had just finished the 8th episode on TV, issued an official announcement, saying that the original 12 episodes of the animation had been broadcast here, and the remaining one month of the schedule would replay the previous episodes.
The return of the uncle of the other world came to an abrupt end.
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The uncle in the story has encountered many ups and downs in the other world.
He was treated as a mutant half-orc because of his ugly appearance, and he was discriminated against and bullied everywhere he went, and he had no way to go home. Although he has mastered powerful magic through the adventures he has accumulated from Sega games (and his heart that once stood up to school bullying), he is still a marginal figure in that world.
Just because of appearance, you will be rejected everywhere
In reality, the experience of the work "Uncle of another World" is as fateful as that of the uncle himself, always oscillating between "luck" and "misfortune".
The original author of the manga's pen name is "殆ど死んでいる", which literally translates to "almost dead". As the name suggests, he himself is quite low-key on the Internet, and there is almost only the content of retweeting information related to "Uncle of the OtherWorld" on Twitter.
But there are also many indications that he began to play in the fandom at least ten years ago, drawing all-age manga such as "Gate of the Stone of Destiny" and "Fleet Collection", but it was not until 2018 that he finally began to serialize his first manga online on Kadokawa's manga website, that is, "Uncle of the Otherworld".
Although it was not a hit, "Uncle of another World" has accumulated a small number of loyal fans, including some Chinese readers, and the author has also drawn pictures to thank him for the sponsorship of Chinese readers.
As for the previously popular online "funding from Chinese readers to support the author to continue serialization", it is somewhat exaggerated, when the domestic Sinicization Group sponsored the author, "Uncle of another World" has actually published a single book and sold well
This work can be loved by readers in the early stage, to some extent, also thanks to the "Sega feelings" contained in it.
The uncle in the story shows an extraordinary attachment to Sega games - he was hit by a car because he went to buy the latest Sega games, the first thing he did when he woke up was to ask about Sega's current situation, and it was sega games that supported him through the hellish life in the other world.
The image of the uncle corresponds to the real "Sega Youth", who are also grumpy about the decline of Sega, and also remember the glory of the Sega game on the Internet, giving people the feeling of being out of touch with the uncle who has been out of touch with modern society for 17 years. Therefore, the various plots in the comic that insude to reality can always make people laugh.
But at the same time, many of the bridges in this comic also show that the author is full of family treasures and feelings for sega history, which is enough to make people believe that the author himself is a "Sega Qing", and the plump image of "uncle" comes more from his self-deprecation rather than ridicule, and the scale of "laughing at people without laughing" is clever.
This also allows the work to be flattered on both sides, and no matter what the reader's attitude towards Sega Games, they can get pleasure from the reading process.
In the first popularity poll held by the manga, the character who won the second most popular place in the work was the Sega Saturn console
Perhaps because of this, Sega also acquiesced to Uncle Another World directly quoting the name and even the character image of its own game in the story, rather than changing the name to avoid copyright issues as is common in other spoof works. By the time the anime adaptation was about to be released, Sega had even made his uncle a linked character in its mobile game Chain Wars, allowing him to meet his "first love" Sonic in the game.
"Uncle wins the numb"
From being nameless to "star-chasing success" and then being adapted into a popular animation, the journey of "Uncle of the OtherWorld" was originally almost a "counterattack shuangwen", but all of this fell to the bottom with the suspension of broadcasting, and the title of the single episode stayed in "Sega games are useful for life".
No wonder even the audience couldn't help but complain - "This is probably the fate of the man who chose Sega".
Refers to "a smooth and easy life"
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In fact, until the official confirmation of the suspension of broadcasting, most viewers were still optimistic about the production status of "Uncle in another World", after all, judging from the number of episodes that have been broadcast, this is still a well-crafted work, not the kind of cheap animation that is shoddily rushed to the production period, and the opening animation alone pays tribute to Sega-related games almost every frame.
The usanekowanwan on the Tubing examines many of the homage details that appear in the OP
The overall drawing style of the original comic is rough and casual, and there are many yanyi bridge sections with broken expressions, but when it comes to drawing girls, they are particularly delicate and lovely, and several female characters that the uncle met in the other world have their own characteristics in the author's pen, and readers affectionately call them "aunts".
The uncle and the "great aunt" are obviously not in the same painting style, which is enough to make people feel that it is no wonder that the uncle will be regarded as an orc in the other world
In the adaptation of the animation, these charms of the original work have basically been restored, and the funny scenes can poke people with laughter, and when the girls sell cute, they can also be pitied.
On the other hand, most of the voice actors found in this anime are well-known voice actors that the audience is familiar with, and even come with many voice actor terriers, such as his uncle's voice son An takeshi once dubbed Shigeru Aoba in EVA, and the two have a lot of similarities in the character image, and the story is also straight ball playing the EVA terrier.
"Uncle me, when I was young, I acted in EVA"
Although several "aunts" are supporting roles, they are also played by voice actors of permanent heroines such as Haruka Tomatsu and Aisei Toyosaki, which makes people feel that the production team has a lot of spare time in casting.
Not to mention that this film was also bought out of the network broadcast rights in most areas by the wealthy Netflix, in everyone's previous impression, Netflix's copyright money alone is enough to cover the production costs of a small-cost animation, drought and flood protection.
But it is such a superb animation that in the eyes of the audience, "whoever suffers can't take its turn", it has fallen into a desperate situation with no film to broadcast.
In the official announcement, the production team blamed the suspension on the recent fluctuating Japanese epidemic, saying that the number of infections among employees in the company had soared, and the construction period had to be suspended for everyone's health.
This statement seems to be quite reasonable, and the comment area is mostly a message of solidarity and comfort to the production team. However, in some animation-related forums, there are also many viewers who do not buy this.
After all, there are so many animations in the season, but the impact on "Uncle of another World" is serious to the point of "opening the skylight", not to mention that there have been "uncle parties" on Twitter to reveal that the behind-the-scenes management of this animation is quite chaotic, "the animation that will be broadcast in three weeks has not yet found a painter to start work."
In the end, it didn't catch up
Atelier Pontdarc, who is responsible for the animation, is a new studio that was only established in 2020, and before that, he was only responsible for the production of the webcast instant noodles "Sauce at the Same Time".
The new company lacks experience in process management and foreign connections – which is considered to be the real reason for the suspension of "Uncle in another World", and the epidemic is more like an excuse.
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The 2015 anime "White Box" is a work that depicts the working conditions of the Japanese animation production industry at that time, based on local materials.
It is almost common for the production team in the story to fail to catch up with the progress due to various conditions, and even the film that will be broadcast in the evening has not received the original painting of the artist's responsibility on the same day. The mantra of the production director in the film is "Wan Ce Exhaustion", which means "there is nothing to do".
So later, among the audience, everyone often used "every strategy to describe the production of an animation in trouble and facing the situation of not catching up with the broadcast schedule.
Of course, there are many ways in the industry to deal with the "every strategy". Some of the more rotten production teams will directly hand over the semi-finished animation, and then find an opportunity to correct it when the DVD version is launched, and all kinds of "painting collapse" scenes are derived from this;
Can't catch up with the construction period, there is no time to catch up with the painting method - "Ben Magician Cecil"
"Episodes" is another common slow-down tactic - the production team pieced together the previously broadcast episodes into an animation equivalent to the length of one episode through editing, which is called to help the audience sort out and summarize the previous plot.
Twenty years ago, this reason could fool people, but now it is equivalent to publicly declaring that "everything is exhausted." There have even been works like "Kill La Kill", where the next episode is announced in advance that the next episode is "total episode", but in fact, it only takes 30 seconds to review the plot and then it is full of new content, and the reverse publicity earns gimmicks.
"16 episodes in one minute"
2017's "Just Because!" featured a special episode titled "Suddenly, Just Because! Journey" in the seventh week of the anime' episode, in which the lead voice actors came to the real-life scenes of the animation to conduct a "Holy Land Tour".
Although it is a simple Vlog, it also mobilizes a lot of local scenes and personnel resources
Everyone knew that this was something that was produced in response to the animation production not keeping up with the schedule, but it was also felt that Pine Jam, who was also a new company at the time, did everything in his power to prove his sincerity.
In other words, even if some of the coping methods are not decent, the situation of completely stopping the broadcast in the middle of the broadcast like "Uncle of the Other World" is still the "worst ending" that everyone can't avoid. After all, this kind of processing will also bring about various follow-up effects, the first of which is "how to broadcast the content after it is made".
Most of the broadcast of Japanese animation on television requires the production committee to purchase a schedule from the TV station, which is essentially a promotional channel for spending money to promote the subsequent release of DVDs, original manga and peripheral products. Nowadays, repeating the episodes that have just been released is equivalent to wasting the slots bought with real money and silver, and the advertising effect is greatly reduced.
Not to mention that the remaining half of the season of "Uncle of the OtherWorld" has not even entered the production process, and when it can be done, it must be a question mark; After this part is completed, it is difficult to find a suitable schedule for broadcasting on TV stations.
The "Girl Chariot" and the more recent "86 Non-existent War Zone" also failed to catch up with the production progress during the broadcast period, resulting in the remaining two episodes of the ending can not be broadcast smoothly, it was only after half a year that they waited until the two-week free slot period to see the needle to seek a beginning and an end, and at least five episodes of "Uncle of the Other World" that could not be broadcast The difficulty of finding a schedule can be imagined.
Therefore, the current suspension of "Uncle of another World" can be said to be the result of "every strategy" in the true sense, which is undoubtedly a heavy blow to a newly established studio. If it were not for the fact that there are network broadcasts today, the ending of this animation is mostly a loss that cannot be found in the north, and the follow-up production status still makes people sweat.
The only thing we know is that the genuine version that has been broadcast two months behind in China probably has a chance to catch up with the progress.
epilogue
Although there are not many examples of "giving up treatment" like "Uncle of Another World", it is still common in the industry that Japanese animation is forced to adjust halfway through.
In the past, the production team also weaved various reasons to explain this situation, but in the past two years, the "recent surge in the number of infections in the company" has become almost a unified statement.
In the eyes of the outside world, this is naturally one of the manifestations of Japan's ineffective epidemic prevention policy; But in the eyes of some viewers, such an excuse is also becoming similar to "the wolf is coming".
On the one hand, most of the problems that occur frequently are medium-cost projects for small-scale new companies, and such animations have relied heavily on overseas outsourcing in China, South Korea, Thailand and other places in the production process, and it is reasonable to say that they are less likely to be imagined by the local epidemic. Even before the pandemic, such projects were already the hardest hit areas.
In contrast, Toei Animation, which also manages more projects, also experienced a large-scale suspension in March this year, but it was hacked and blackmailed, resulting in the production content being locked and delayed.
Many animations, including One Piece and Digimon, were suspended for two months, and the theatrical version of Dragon Ball was postponed
On the other hand, although reasons such as "for the health of employees" sound grandiose, people familiar with the Japanese animation industry know that this is a labor-intensive job with low remuneration, whether it is a painter or a production, the survival status quo of many low-level practitioners is "hand-to-hand".
The suspension of animation production may only be a loss on the books from the perspective of the enterprise, but for employees, it is a survival problem of "how to pay the rent next month" and "whether to eat dinner today", even more urgent than the "risk of infection with the new crown".
Just as "Uncle of another World" has been called a "tragedy wrapped in a comedic shell", most of the laughs in the film come from the contrast between his uncle's tragic life experience and his open-minded and optimistic personality; Behind the animation that brings laughter to the audience, can the producers who have put in the effort still live with a smile?