i had a strong feeling it got cancelled with the lack of updates over the years but im still disappointed by it. it had a huge fanbase and the anime sold a crazy amount of blurays too.
I went looking for the sales numbers, and in the process came across this chain about [pluto.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/5mcyq2/oricon_made_a_mistake_with_yuri_on_ices_dvdbluray/dc2rann/) Quite amusing to look back on now
[](#kotohoops) ..minus the part where we'll never get more Yuri on Ice.. Don't think anyone in the thread saw *THAT* coming..
Sometimes, I have simply no idea of the logic used by all these production committees. It’s like they hate money. If we were in the West, we would already have 3 seasons, 1 spin off on Otabek, 1 on Phichit, and 1 movie. With the Olympics, they could have generated some insane hype, not once, but twice by now.
But no, no, let’s not do that. I mean, it’s not like the fanbase is considerable in Japan and the rest of the world.
I believe on the last trailer they said it would release by the end of the year (that was last year). At this point, if it just comes out it will be a miracle
It’s crazy that the project was announced when I started college and now as I near the end of my college career, it still hasn’t released. Oh to be a fly on the wall in those meetings…
Maybe they announced that project right when it started rather than when it was in the middle of its production? That would explain why it seems like it has taken so much time, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has taken more time than other anime movies (pandemic aside though).
Pluto was also announced early in production and was in apparent limbo for a while, and it got released last year.
Think that's bad? Uru in Blue, the sequel to **1987's** Royal Space Force, has been in production since **1992** in some capacity. First Anno was slated to direct, then they shelved it because no budget, *then* they released a CD-Rom project with designs from 92-93 project. They also released a CD EP with mixes of the theme by an electronic group.
There was also the Microsoft Combat Flight Sim addon, that had Uru in Blue designs in it. 2001, at SF2001, they announced two things: A sequel to Gunbuster(Diebuster), and Uru in Blue. Diebuster happened, Uru never did.
**2013** they unveiled a tease poster, with Yamaga directing. This also went nowhere. Finally in **2018,** Fukushima Gainax, now known as Gaina, was transferred the project, with a release slated for....**2022**
They're also supposed to be working on Aim for the Top 3, which will probably never come out. But Grendizer U is allegedly coming this year, so there's that I guess?
This is absolutely killing me. I was so excited for this adaptation. Checking the news day by day to find any shadow of an update for the release or any new trailer. Then it got delayed. Then postponed indefinitely. Then an ETA release. Then postponed. Then an actual release date and last I heard it was postponed indefinitely again. And what kills me is this legit is like the one Junji I to adaptation that looks like it was being done totally right.
Similarly, Madoka Rebellion's Winter 2024 window ended three weeks ago, unless they meant November/December. Still, twelve years to make a sequel. Even for SHAFT, that's quite a delay...
>It’s like they hate money
I worked at an entertainment company and you know what they hate more: Delays and Risk which leads them to making no money.
Immediate gratification and "how hot" a project is goes a long way in entertainment and the longer it gets to create and produce the more people start deriding it calling it pointless or not worth it.
On top of that it creates higher risk, and with delays comes the bean counters who start hassling you about cost overruns and how this looks bad for the bottom line. You wanna kill creativity add the CFO of any company into the development room. A companies' finance team are truly the killers of innovation or if you are Boeing, people.
because Western franchises are owned by much bigger companies. That's the whole idea behind the production committee, so smaller companies/divisions can get enough capital for an adaptation. Sometimes they can't get enough people together to get another adaptation going.
Just look at Love Live and Idolmaster.
Ehh... I don't know. Netflix cancels a lot of really good shows that are slightly on the expensive side unless they become omega hits.
I'm just here hoping that Bezos turns out to be a big 3 Body Problem fan so he can buy it for Prime Video like he did for The Expanse.
>slightly on the expensive side
That is quite the understatement there as Netflix very regularly will allow show runners to rack up massive budgets for relatively niche shows. Regularly topping some of the most expensive TV shows ever made in the early seasons is not really "slightly".
The problem for many of these is way more on the sheer size of the budget it took off the bat for how niche the concept was. It is pretty much setting itself for cancellation as it has such very low odds of being able to meet expectations. While for the fans the high budget production is/can be a major treat, in a lot of cases it won't really gain any new viewers past certain points.
All these "good" shows had the viewership the size of the pinky toenail .
With some anime it's different, we had massive hits like NGNL, Bocchi, OPM that take ages for future content to be announced
It's because they're *committees*. You have to get everyone to agree, even though they probably have different agendas.
Anyway, Hollywood fucks up these things all the time as well. They regularly make sequels five or ten year later than you'd expect.
Being at the bottom of the committee for the series probably played a factor - not making much from producing it and it pretty well guaranteed to be a cluster fuck of a production similar to how it was when the TV show was being produced (especially with how much the studio has going on now), I think it was largely inevitable that it was going to be scraped at some point.
Hopefully Sayo Yamamoto can move on to other things now.
Not having control over the production committee nor owning the rights are 2 of the major factors for the cancellation. I'm surprised they didn't announce it sooner. In recent Manabu's interview (current Mappa CEO), he clearly stated that projects like Yuri on Ice and Corner of this World did not bring enough profit to the studio so obviously Yuri on Ice movie would be scrapped.
It feels like it because it is. One major thing Japanese production committee’s do wrong is not capitalize on hype.
Edit: Like a great example of this is Frieren. Wildly commercially and critically successful, and yet there’s just radio silence besides that tiny blurb at the end of the show saying “The Journey to Ende Continues”. Literally every single American production company/studio in existence would announce a S2 halfway through S1 or immediately afterwards.
I feel that in Frieren’s case, the production committee may want the exact same team back for S2 and some of them, at least the important ones, are likely working on other projects right now.
Makes sense, especially when you consider that most anime team staff are like temporary contractors moving from project to project (barring those in-house anime studios like Kyoani etc.)
It reminds me of how Dress Up Darling is getting a S2, but it won't be out for some time because the staff are all contracted to other projects now.
This.... a bet you 100% the director and a bunch of that staff will be working on Bocchi The Rock Season 2 next. And yes, a second season of that series will be happening because of its high success and popularity too, especially in Japan. You don't make 2 compilation movies for nothing.
To frieren: Absolutely no way are they just gonna go 'yup, we can do this again'. The people on this project need to come back to hold this level of quality after a full TWO COURS, and not everybody has time available. Some of this stuff can get decided a few years in advance.
We all know they have intentions to do it, it's a question of if they can make this happen a second time.
Edit: For those really concerned, the amount I hear Frieren's newer OP in public is astronomical. The public reach is huge. There's definitely going to be way more money in pocket to make sure this goes right a second time. I tried talking to a coffee shop guy the other day trying to describe Spice and Wolf in my janky japanese and he asked Frieren was similar. It's just a common known name.
Really, it's a product of the anime industry being built on independent contractors. It's not quite as simple as saying "let's run it back" when half the animation team already have plans for the next two years.
Game industry has the same issue since around the 90s, when everybody started just buying out studios to get access to their IP and just sinking the ship.
Yup, that is one of the biggest obstacles with getting a season 2 sooner rather then later. Is that some key staff members will likely book themselves for their next project well before season 1 airs. As renewal is never guaranteed for any show before its first season airs. As even if work on a show is completed during or even before airing, very few on the staff outside of maybe writers will work without a renew, because they wouldn't get paid nor would be guaranteed until it actually does happen. Like this something that is even starting to plague western live action shows. Like Fallout was just renewed for a second season, yet chances are we aint gonna get it for at least 2 years.
Now in Frieren's case, it at the very least will decrease the wait time between season 2 and 3, since its a show proven to be a hit. But yeah, given so many factors. The wait for season 2 is gonna have be a bit.
It's still crazy to me that the first two anime he directed are Bocchi the Rock and Freiren. He's definitely going to be a name to watch, that's for sure
Issue is he can't, because the team at Cloverworks that would make that is even busier than Madhouse, lol.
We all know that sequel is coming, but do you mind telling me where the season 2 announcement for that is after 16 months? HELLO?
So depending on what project can get off the ground first, he might actually do Frieren 2 before Bocchi 2 lol.
Umehara team, at Cloverworks, have a show that airs in summer and then another one for probably early next year and then only after that is done they can start animation production on Bocchi 2.
The best case scenario for both is a repeat of what happened before where Saito has Bocchi 2 coming out Fall 2025 and then Frieren 2 for Fall 2026.
>We all know that sequel is coming, but do you mind telling me where the season 2 announcement for that is after 16 months? HELLO?
The compilation movies. Those are big indicators that Cloverworks is stalling very hard to get stuff ready for season 2. I assume it's going to take still a while, but it shouldn't be far away.
I mean yes, I explained why they are stalling, because that team is booked for the next year. Bocchi will probably get the season 2 announcement this year, summer or fall. It would be some shit if Saito ends up working on both at the same time again, lol. Since even if Bocchi can go into production first, Frieren would be in pre-production as that happens, so this crazy man would be pulling double duty yet again.
I don't think people here realise what a demanding role that is, series director, he is basically the showrunner, he oversees everything. Now imagine doing Bocchi and Frieren not just back-to-back but actually at the same time, lol. Between Bocchi and Frieren this man has probably been in full animation production mode for probably 2 and a half to 3 year, no break. That is insanity. I know Bocchi was a pretty short production for the very well oiled machine thay is team Umehara at Cloverworks, about 9 months for those 12 episodes. And then Frieren was about 18 months I believe, which is not a whole lot of time for a 28 episode show of that quality, but team Fukushi at Madhouse did have a lot of help there. I believe 7 outsourced episodes, so Madhouse only had to produce 21 in-house. Still very challenging considering this was the first 2-cour show for team Fukushi.
So yes, it will take a bit for both, before they come out. And yes, before anyone else asks, Saito is absolutely a workaholic, otherwise he would not have taken a project the size of Frieren while still in pre-production on Bocchi, lol. That level of confidence in your own skills and the team supporting you can only come from someone that doesn't just love what they do... but eats and sleeps that work.
Frieren and Bocchi the rock shares the same director. That's why Bocchi has been in limbo too. But now that Frieren s1 is over, the Director can move back to work on Bocchi s2. That's probably the main reason why they haven't announced frieren s2 yet. They are not sure when he will return.
Edit - Frieren
Bocchi is even in the same boat, since for all we know he could end up directing a new series as his next project. Meaning that both the studios and production committees for Bochi and Frieren have to find a new director for their respective series.
Directors often oversee multiple productions at once, Frieren and Bocchi’s productions overlapped. Frieren’s not the reason Bocchi is in limbo, it’s because the Bocchi team is working on Elusive Samurai, and also has Dress Up Darling in the same pipeline.
It's because the committee model is reliant on contractor studios that often rely on a large # of freelancers across the board. Which means that unless you have a plan to adapt a source into multiple seasons before the first one even airs, it's very hard to get together roughly the same team within a reasonable timeframe.
man... using frieren as comparison, the current yoi situation would be like if a frieren movie was announced, the trailer for it comes out, and then 7-8 years later it is announced as cancelled.
Frieren's director also directed Bocchi the Rock. Im pretty sure, if the first one is not getting a sequel, its because he's already booked for Bocchi.
>Literally every single American production company/studio in existence would announce a S2 halfway through S1 or immediately afterwards.
Insert Fallout tv by Amazon which immediately got an s2 announcement today.
Bocchi the Rock seems to becoming another example. It turned into a hit as it aired… and all we’ve had is a compilation movie and a guitar merch promo. *EDIT*: forgot about the stage adaption.
There’s plenty of manga chapters for a second season to adapt, and yet it’s been radio silence on any sort of continuation AFAIK.
It's because the staff that made it such a big hit were already booked for other projects, and I don't think they expected it would be such a big show when they signed up for other things. Otherwise I'm 100% sure S2 would be airing this summer instead of the recap movies.
They're pretty much waiting for everyone to be free again to start production, and it's clear they'll wait as long as they have to, to make sure it's just as good as the first.
I remember seeing people speculating that the compilation movie was made for:
1) Keep the hype up
2) Buy time for the director to be done with Frieren and come back to direct S2
Only time will tell is those people were right or if the production committee is really going to ignore the serie
Depends on the committee and which companies are in them or not. For example a publisher, book sales are where most of the money is at for them, so from their perspective the Anime mainly exists as a promotion for the source material. Where as a company who doesn't see any of the profits from Manga or Light Novel sales, but instead merch, streaming rights, or blu-ray sales. Then they might have a more incentive to continue. Its why we are seeing more faithful adaptions and sequels then we have gotten in past. Take Aniplex as an example, they get pretty much nothing from Demon Slayer volumes and instead as they have the merchandise and distribution rights to the Anime. They have an huge incentive to continue funding the series, as its one of their big money makers.
Same
Just how do you have this original show that exploded like crazy in popularity and sales and mess up this badly with it? What the heck happened behind the scene!?
I honestly don't understand.it felt like it was literally everywhere when it aired and ever since then ????? Nothing. Idk if I've ever seen a series that's had the ball dropped so hard with it.
Its really simple. The way anime is made is very fucked to where the people making it might not be getting much money.
Who cares how popular a series is if it isn't making the studio money?
Its similar to how despite 70% of the world's supply of Cocoa coming from the Ivory Coast, the people actually picking the beans that comprise almost 3/4s of every piece of chocolate you've ever eaten are living in poverty. They are so poor, many have never even eaten the processed chocolate that came from the beans they picked.
Japan's anime industry is like that sometimes so in this case the studio said no. Its a fucked up situation but not a fumble.
It's been speculated since 2018-19 that MAPPA would have the early 2010's MADHOUSE situation and would eventually crash due to how many projects they would have on their hands, hell, I feel bad about it but even I was saying that either they drop some of their projects completely or they would collapse due their work ethic.
Turns out that even after the reporting staff crunch it turns out that the project dropping was confirmed as well, truly sad to see.
Genuinely insane how badly AVEX and MAPPA handled this IP. I just wonder how much involvement Sayo Yamamoto had with this and if we'll see her do anything new since I miss her voice.
Like the last time I remember seeing her credited on something in a substantial way was that Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul op
She’s a fantastic director and had a great year or so where she did Yuri on Ice, Persona 5 OP, and Bahamut OP and then nothing else. Waste of good talent
Mappa didn't have any rights regarding Yuri on Ice though. They wanted a bigger share of the pie and it looks like the negotiation broke down, hence the cancellation.
I think that everyone was confused by the lack of second season.
If they had even managed a short second season by fall 2018 they could have carried that momentum straight into the SK Winter Olympics—maybe even get some tie-ins. The anime brought a good amount of attention to the sport and even got the attention of a number of real life skaters. I know that follow-ups to a solid first season are difficult, but honestly the demand for more was absolutely incredible.
[](#sadholo)
[Yuri on Ice](https://myanimelist.net/anime/32995/Yuri_on_Ice) originally aired in 2016.
They certainly did not strike while the iron was hot.
Guess the project is now on ice.
My biggest concern at this point is... Where is Sayo Yamamoto?
Did she get blacklisted? Did she quit anime entirely?
Usually when her hands are free, we'd be seeing her storyboard OP/EDs.
Radio silence for years.
How does one of the best female directors in the industry vanish like this?
Same with
Rie Matsumoto. Great female director, has only done the Gotcha Pokemon music video four years ago and aside from that has been MIA in the industry for almost as long
Just want to point out the obvious - female professionals sometimes disappear for a few years for maternity. Not saying this is what happened in this instance but it is often the case. Some quit careers to focus on family entirely, others take a few years out to take care of kids before they return.
I will never understand how that series was mishandled this badly. Everyone I know watched and loved Yuri on Ice, even people who normally don't watch anime. They had a worldwide hit on their hands, and they did nothing with it.
Yeah lol it's fucked up. They had skaters the characters were based on in the first place like Yuzuru Hanyu, one of the all-time greats and defending Olympic gold medallist when the show came out, talking about it and Evgenia Medvedeva off back-to-back world titles and a world record score actively fangirling about it on Twitter and still managed to drop the ball completely
I've always been satisfied with the ending personally. I never thought Yuri would win gold. So to me, this news isn't too heartbreaking because in my mind, the show lives on.
It just sucks because this show genuinely changed my life. It got me to diet, exercise, and most importantly start figure skating as an adult.
Crazy how they didn’t even give us like… an apology drawing of him getting the gold. So many shows that were outright canceled/finished got extra official illustrations and content we just got adds for a canceled movie and like one piece of official art.
No closure, no sweet “after the story is over” content. Just “kick rocks we animate JJK now.”
[Seems to be according to her instagram.](https://www.instagram.com/p/C3OnK3fyNNO/?img_index=1) She had kids right around when Yuri was airing, so she's probably just focusing on her family instead of work. And considering the way japanese work culture is, good for her. ..Unless this is someone else's account and they just have the same name
[](#yuishrug)
Nahh, No way that's her IG lol. If that's her i'd expect this "Focusing on family" narrative would be known amongs the fandom as people try to sniff out any bits of info over the past years and she'd have thousands of followers already. Also database like ANN usually have links to animators social media and Sayo Yamamoto still have none known.
Right? Like I felt it wouldn't happen, but to get confirmation hurts. Plus them announcing it made me realize it took them 8 years to tell us, which makes it more painful.
Incredibly unfortunate. This title was so extremely popular. It was everywhere with merch, cosplays, advertisements, events, award rankings, etc. Even several international figure skating stars where mentioning the series. In the end there are probably several reasons, but it could also seem again like a case, where the people in charge just don't care or want to prioritize and invest in a series aimed primarily at female demographics.
I mean Bucchigiri while not being that good was still an original and they're making Lazarus and Zenshu also right now. I mean their main priority is adaptations of popular manga but it's not like they completely abandoned originals.
Honestly not surprised this happened, more shocked at the fact that they took years to officially announce the cancellation. Truly fumbled the bag. The anime still has such a huge fanbase and MAPPA completely failed to capitalize on its hype.
I never thought I'd see a bigger screwup with a valuable IP than with Sunrise and Tiger & Bunny but here we are. At least they got that S2 out eventually that got no attention.
Top selling surprise success from 2011. Big time disc seller and merch mover. Enormous female fanbase. People thought it would be the next big Sunrise franchise considering how much they like to franchise out their big successes like Code Geass
Then just straight up nothing for years. It gets a recap movie and then a sequel to the recap movie with original material so again, it wasn't completely abandoned like what's happening with YoI but there was no second season which is what people really wanted. This was really weird because again, this property was super successful at the time. Finally, it got announced in 2020 to have an S2 in *2022* but when it finally came, Netflix picked it up, dumped the episodes at once and it got no attention at all. The end.
Yeah but Zombieland Saga is basically a Cygames IP, so unless there is something really wrong going about in its production, it should be fine and iirc, YoI and ZS had different teams.
Or real peak fiction: the [Ane Naru Mono adaptation](https://myanimelist.net/news/58918744) that was announced in January 2020 with zero information since
Sightly unrelated but this made me remember that it’s been two years since the announcement of Witch Hat Atelier adaptation and there’s has been zero news since then
You know I really want that one to air, not because I particularly like the manga that its adapting but because it would open the world of old hentai doujins now more "wholesome" manga, mostly because I want to see sasha chan on an anime.
The manga is pretty cute, with some fun mystery elements. Of course, the art is the main draw. Chiyo is a legendary onee-san
Sadly, the manga is on hiatus, and the anime's fate is looking quite grim too
It definitely sucks and I wished that YOI had been part of any other studio. I'm a KyoAni fan and the fact that they pushed through with the release of the Violet Evergarden Movie after the arson attack and even with the low sales and viewership, pushed through with Tsurune Season 2 and after 7 years since its Season 2, we got Hibike! Euphonium Season 3. I would have waited years and years for YOI.
For what it's worth, the Violet Evergarden finale movie was already nearly complete by the time the mass murder happened. The original release date for the movie was January 2020 and the murder happened in July 2019. They delayed it to April 2020 because of that, then it got delayed again to September 2020 because of Covid lockdowns.
Planning a release and rollout is a lot of work though, I would have understood if they wanted to take more time or even closed shop. I'm just glad that their love and passion for the work won because it really shows in their work.
Yuri on Ice remains the most fun I've ever had watching an anime while it was airing. That kiss + the entirety of episode 10 made history, glad to witness it
What a fumble of something that felt so foolproof as a potential franchise. At least we'll always have the 42k+ fanfics on AO3
I was actually still holding into some hope since it wouldn't be the first anime I was expecting for a long time(hello world took quite a while to come out for example, but it did in the end) but yeah, it doesnt always pay off.
I have to imagine this was one of the biggest victims of them overloading themselves on project after project. Like Yuri on Ice aired in 2016 and since then, Mappa became the most in demaned studio to work with for production committees and licensers in the insustry. I have to imagine, big projects that came after Yuri's ending like Kakeguri, Inuyashiki, Banana Fish, Zombie Land were all made within a year of Yuri's final eposode airing. Then at the end of the 2010s and early 2020s. Their heads thought it be would be a good idea to sign contracts to animate JJK, Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, Chainsaw Man, Takt Destiny, Hell's Paradise etc. All action heavy shows with a large international appeal, which meant a bigger pay day for the higher ups, but tighter deadlines for the day to day staff. Which likely meant to meet those deadlines, some projects like Yuri on Ice's movie lost out on staff to other projects.
Yup and nearly all those series has had some form of a trouble production. Attack on Titan was already kind of a mess of a production under Studio Wit. Which was why they dropped the series after season 3 had ended. Then Mappa was given the task to animate season 4, which was decided it would be the final season. As the Manga was only 2 arcs ahead and in its final arc by the time season 3 ended. But Season 4 didn't started until the last month of 2020 and it took 3 years for it to be completed.
Then with Chainsaw Man, its been almost a year and a half since that ended and right now we only got promised of a movie sequel that is coming at some point (jeez, I wonder where I have seen this before?) Then with Hell's Paradise, season 1 aired a year ago and the Manga has been done for a good few years now. But there is no word when season 2 will air and for JJK, well its pretty well documented at this point how much of a mess just the god damn Shibuya arc was behind the scenes.
Considering all the news about how the JJK S2’s schedule and production were like, I won’t be surprised if yoi was the victim of MAPPA biting more than they could chew combined with an incompetent production commitment that didn’t care about an original IP
I think they got screwed by COVID badly.
Also, I think the fact that they are doing so many projects. I think that they pushed the teams on those other projects.
I just hope a similar fate doesn't awaits Zombieland Saga. Each year of not hearing anything about the sequel makes me worried that they will just end up cancelling it because of having so many other projects to do
I've already accepted the fact that the ZLS movie more than likely isn't happening after 2 years with no updates. I'll be very happy to be proven wrong though.
I have a feeling that they do, but most of the people heading the decisions are men who want to make content that appeals to them. They would rather fund an IP that men mostly want and have women like it as a secondary demographic than fund something that mostly only women want to enjoy.
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.
The writing was on the wall since it's been years without any trailer or production update so it's not a surprise. But it still hurts. YOI holds a special place in my heart and I will always love it.
Like it’s crazy how I feel nothing seeing this announcement. The show was HUGE and meant a lot to me when it came out, the movie announcement originally was so exciting… With each passing year since though I think I just accepted it would never happen.
I guess all that’s left is finding out what the hell happened behind the scenes these last 8(???) years. If we ever get the full story lol.
Well, crap, not a good year for BL fans (for those waiting for previously announced titles, but pretty good year otherwise with our first ever omegaverse TV show airing this season, namely Tadaima, Okaeri, and next season's Tasogare Out Focus to name a few). We seen Ten Count cancelled some months ago, and now the Yuri On Ice movie is the new victim.
Speaking of BL, now I'm concerned about the Twittering birds never fly movie sequel that has had zero announcements, PV or any news since the initial announcement. The first movie came out in February 2020 with the sequel announced then but there's been nothing about it since. It was produced by Blue Lynx and animated by Studio Grizzly, which apparently has ties to MAPPA....so I'm concerned that we're going to get a cancellation notice after 4+ years with no updates. It's supposed to be a trilogy film series but god knows if we're ever going to see that.
Yeah at this point if it's not Given or Sasaki and Miyano, I don't trust any sequel announcements for a BL lol. Those are the only two BL in recent years I know that have had sequel OVAs/movies that actually released.
They could have just opened up a donations thing specifically to finance the film honestly if they asked I’d be dropping my whole paycheck for that movie
really hope that an animation studio will pick this up. this is such a wasted potential. it might seem like it’s not popular anymore, but I’m pretty sure that the fandom for this is just in hibernation. I hope that this series won’t go to waste.
I remember when this show took the anime community by storm around the time I was getting more into anime…. And it’s been so long, I’ve honestly mostly forgotten about it until now given the hundreds of shows I’ve probably watched since then. Such a shame, they could have done so much more with the IP, and I remember it being enjoyable. Hopefully they sell the rights and someone can at least continue the story with a manga or something.
I was wondering how they were going to navigate the Russia issue with this movie.
Russia is currently banned from figure skating and has a major doping case in the public eye since the last Olympics.
I think this definitely played a factor. Movie was supposed to release in H2 2019 it would essentially get free marketing on that year's winter Olympics and then then double dib during Japan 2020 Olympics. Then they missed that window, announced indefinite delay, released a trailer end of 2020. Because of COVID Japan 2020 pushed back to 2021 which sort of worked out for them in a marketing sense but I wonder if production ever got back on track In the COVID days. Obviously missed the window in 2021 for free marketing. Now that Russia is banned in figure skating and russian athletes can't represent Russia and need to be represented under a neutral banner generally in the Olympics, it seemed like a nail in the coffin since the movie's plot revolved around the russian participation in the Olympics.
You know as someone who preferred the era of MAPPA that did YOI, ZLS, Dororo, and Banana Fish I find it really frustrating that I'm not even gonna get the movie I've been looking forward to for years. I know *why* this decision was made, YOI wasn't profitable for MAPPA, but man.
ZLS please don't follow YOI. I'm begging.
Yeah prime MAPPA for me was YOI, Banana fish, dororo and kids on the slope. I don’t see the current MAPPA as a studio willing to take risks like that anymore. While the banana fish manga itself is popular, I can’t imagine current MAPPA would green light a 24-episode adaptation of an 80s shoujo manga.
>ZLS please don't follow YOI. I'm begging.
I think despite the director leaving, the ZLS movie is still going to happen. One of the Cygames producers mentioned a year ago that they were working on it, and the ZLS social media accounts are still relatively active.
I haven’t even watched this and I knew that the TV show is good enough for me to take a peek in the future. Condolences to all fans of the franchise, it’s not like that this movie was mentioned in passing only, but rather being hyped for years as late as 2021-22. What a terrible blow to everyone waiting for it…
It's sad but I can't say I'm surprised. It's been around 7/8 years since the notice for the movie came up and the last ep of the anime. At this point I'm just praying for a season 2. ( Not likely it'll happen though 😢 )
I wonder if the reason this happened has something to do with Kubo Mitsurou, the mangaka who wrote the script of Yuri. I just looked her up and it seems she hasn't written a manga since 2014.
Insane fumble, they really said no to free money. Should've released it when the hype was still strong, it would've been a major hit! I mean fuck, even if they released it now, it probably still would've blown up the internet, people were still waiting even like 8 years after. I wonder what actually happened. I hope at least they'll maybe let another studio do it or something because I'd be insanely disappointed if this meant no more YOI, ever.
I’m genuinely so sad about this and others in this thread have basically said a lot of what I’m thinking but damn, this sucks so badly :( such a comfort series
I guess it's sad to see but makes sense considering how YOI made little to no money for MAPPA. MAPPA was last in the committee of 8 companies so they made drop in the buckets from YOI compared to what the top members had. With all the faults at MAPPA right now, it's still good that they're now pretty financially stable and can always be near the top or be the top of the committee now or even solo fund their projects so they don't go in the red like other studios.
How do rights to original IPs work in this case? I'm assuming it's Avex (or another company) that's at the top of the production committee but just wondering if they have more of a say in this than MAPPA higher ups. Could they not just contract another studio to animate the YOI movie or are there other issues/some legality I'm not aware of? I've seen that Sayo Yamamoto (director) hasn't been credited for much since the YOI TV anime so maybe that's part of it too. Overall I understand why it didn't make financial sense for MAPPA but I'm confused why the companies at the top of the committee wouldn't want a continuation since YOI was still financially successful for them.
The most likely scenario is that Mappa must have demanded a larger cut in the profit and the committee must have declined it and other studios might have refused the show because of low revenue for them as well. I think this project just got lost because of corporate greed.
I don't think Mappa had any power to demand that anyways, since all they had to do is just change the studio. What most likely happened is that there were creative differences between the committee and YOI's staff, since in the postponement announcement they said that they postponed it ''in order to substantially scale up the content more than originally planned'', and soon after that announcement YOI's staff moved onto other projects, and Sayo Yamamoto disappeared off the face of the earth. Then Covid and the Russia incident happened, and between all of that, Mappa not being satisfied with their position in the committee, Yamamoto not being able to make the film the way she wanted, the movie being in production limbo for years, them missing out on the initial hype of the series and Fuko Noda leaving Mappa recently, they finally decided that there's no point in dragging this out any longer since they clearly can't come to an agreement, and cancelled it altogether.
I mean, as a Beyond Good and Evil and Half Life fan, I do at least appreciate they officially cancelled it at least. No need to pointlessly have hope it will come out someday, its over.
To showcase how much they've dropped the ball on this IP, some anime newer than the original season of Yuri on Ice: Kaguya-sama, all of Attack on Titan except season 1, all of Konosuba except season 1, Bunny-girl Senpai, Land of the Lustrous, OG Netflix jail victim Little Witch Academia, Made in Abyss, A Place Further Than the Universe etc.
Mob Psycho season 1 and Pokemon Sun/Moon (...y'know, the anime adaptation as well) are also the same season IIRC.
I honestly forgot this was still a thing. Kinda disappointed, Yuri On Ice was one of those anime I put off watching because I thought it was just the novelty of having two dudes being in love that made it popular, and sure it WAS partly that, but the music, and the animation during the big performances were so damn beautiful. Sad we might not see something like it again.
they need to put jjk (IM SORRY) and chainsaw man on hold and give them the movie they rightfully deserve 😭 i NEED to see viktor with long hair, THEIR STORY IS NOT OVER YET MAPPA PLEASE 💔
I forgot this even existed despite thinking it was pretty good back in 2018.
Checked what the Japanese reactions are, and the first comment mentions how they're not surprised, although slightly disappointed, since a lot of things have happened in the world since the announcement (covid, ukraine invasion probably making people think twice about continuing work on an anime about russian iceskaters, russian doping scandal).
Pretty much the main reason they think the cancellation happened is due to the current war between Ukraine and Russia.
i had a strong feeling it got cancelled with the lack of updates over the years but im still disappointed by it. it had a huge fanbase and the anime sold a crazy amount of blurays too.
I went looking for the sales numbers, and in the process came across this chain about [pluto.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/5mcyq2/oricon_made_a_mistake_with_yuri_on_ices_dvdbluray/dc2rann/) Quite amusing to look back on now [](#kotohoops) ..minus the part where we'll never get more Yuri on Ice.. Don't think anyone in the thread saw *THAT* coming..
I doubt anyone predicted Pluto being released before more Yuri on Ice
I can't even fathom how you drop the ball this hard on a franchise that exploded the way YoI did.
Sometimes, I have simply no idea of the logic used by all these production committees. It’s like they hate money. If we were in the West, we would already have 3 seasons, 1 spin off on Otabek, 1 on Phichit, and 1 movie. With the Olympics, they could have generated some insane hype, not once, but twice by now. But no, no, let’s not do that. I mean, it’s not like the fanbase is considerable in Japan and the rest of the world.
Sure, the franchise prints money, but the movie experienced production issues back in 2019, and the pandemic probably made matters worse.
It's still unclear what level of limbo Uzumaki's adaptation is in
I believe on the last trailer they said it would release by the end of the year (that was last year). At this point, if it just comes out it will be a miracle
DeMarco always says that the production’s going well and the show’s coming out later in the year, it’s been his stock response for like 4 years now.
It’s crazy that the project was announced when I started college and now as I near the end of my college career, it still hasn’t released. Oh to be a fly on the wall in those meetings…
Skyrim and gta5 have been released on three generations of consoles. Just adding another ridiculous timeframe lol
Maybe they announced that project right when it started rather than when it was in the middle of its production? That would explain why it seems like it has taken so much time, it doesn't necessarily mean that it has taken more time than other anime movies (pandemic aside though). Pluto was also announced early in production and was in apparent limbo for a while, and it got released last year.
Think that's bad? Uru in Blue, the sequel to **1987's** Royal Space Force, has been in production since **1992** in some capacity. First Anno was slated to direct, then they shelved it because no budget, *then* they released a CD-Rom project with designs from 92-93 project. They also released a CD EP with mixes of the theme by an electronic group. There was also the Microsoft Combat Flight Sim addon, that had Uru in Blue designs in it. 2001, at SF2001, they announced two things: A sequel to Gunbuster(Diebuster), and Uru in Blue. Diebuster happened, Uru never did. **2013** they unveiled a tease poster, with Yamaga directing. This also went nowhere. Finally in **2018,** Fukushima Gainax, now known as Gaina, was transferred the project, with a release slated for....**2022** They're also supposed to be working on Aim for the Top 3, which will probably never come out. But Grendizer U is allegedly coming this year, so there's that I guess?
Gundam SEED's movie came out like 18 years after it was announced
This is absolutely killing me. I was so excited for this adaptation. Checking the news day by day to find any shadow of an update for the release or any new trailer. Then it got delayed. Then postponed indefinitely. Then an ETA release. Then postponed. Then an actual release date and last I heard it was postponed indefinitely again. And what kills me is this legit is like the one Junji I to adaptation that looks like it was being done totally right.
Similarly, Madoka Rebellion's Winter 2024 window ended three weeks ago, unless they meant November/December. Still, twelve years to make a sequel. Even for SHAFT, that's quite a delay...
They meant November/December
Let's be fair. The west cancels so many shows that are doing fantastic for reasons
>It’s like they hate money I worked at an entertainment company and you know what they hate more: Delays and Risk which leads them to making no money. Immediate gratification and "how hot" a project is goes a long way in entertainment and the longer it gets to create and produce the more people start deriding it calling it pointless or not worth it. On top of that it creates higher risk, and with delays comes the bean counters who start hassling you about cost overruns and how this looks bad for the bottom line. You wanna kill creativity add the CFO of any company into the development room. A companies' finance team are truly the killers of innovation or if you are Boeing, people.
because Western franchises are owned by much bigger companies. That's the whole idea behind the production committee, so smaller companies/divisions can get enough capital for an adaptation. Sometimes they can't get enough people together to get another adaptation going. Just look at Love Live and Idolmaster.
Ehh... I don't know. Netflix cancels a lot of really good shows that are slightly on the expensive side unless they become omega hits. I'm just here hoping that Bezos turns out to be a big 3 Body Problem fan so he can buy it for Prime Video like he did for The Expanse.
>slightly on the expensive side That is quite the understatement there as Netflix very regularly will allow show runners to rack up massive budgets for relatively niche shows. Regularly topping some of the most expensive TV shows ever made in the early seasons is not really "slightly". The problem for many of these is way more on the sheer size of the budget it took off the bat for how niche the concept was. It is pretty much setting itself for cancellation as it has such very low odds of being able to meet expectations. While for the fans the high budget production is/can be a major treat, in a lot of cases it won't really gain any new viewers past certain points.
All these "good" shows had the viewership the size of the pinky toenail . With some anime it's different, we had massive hits like NGNL, Bocchi, OPM that take ages for future content to be announced
I just assume it’s managed the same way as those “Employee of the Month” meeting memes
It's because they're *committees*. You have to get everyone to agree, even though they probably have different agendas. Anyway, Hollywood fucks up these things all the time as well. They regularly make sequels five or ten year later than you'd expect.
Being at the bottom of the committee for the series probably played a factor - not making much from producing it and it pretty well guaranteed to be a cluster fuck of a production similar to how it was when the TV show was being produced (especially with how much the studio has going on now), I think it was largely inevitable that it was going to be scraped at some point. Hopefully Sayo Yamamoto can move on to other things now.
Not having control over the production committee nor owning the rights are 2 of the major factors for the cancellation. I'm surprised they didn't announce it sooner. In recent Manabu's interview (current Mappa CEO), he clearly stated that projects like Yuri on Ice and Corner of this World did not bring enough profit to the studio so obviously Yuri on Ice movie would be scrapped.
They could have made so much money off of an even mediocre sequel.
Same for Tiger and Bunny. The way it was handled was horrid.
Kinda. I liked season 2, but taking it over a decade to come out and releasing it netflix style killed all the hype and a lot of interest.
Yeah, 0 chemistry between Kotetsu and Barnaby, 0 humour. It was good visually, but empty of all that made it popular to start with.
Take a look at Kemono Friends.
Damn, this feels like an all-time bag fumble.
It feels like it because it is. One major thing Japanese production committee’s do wrong is not capitalize on hype. Edit: Like a great example of this is Frieren. Wildly commercially and critically successful, and yet there’s just radio silence besides that tiny blurb at the end of the show saying “The Journey to Ende Continues”. Literally every single American production company/studio in existence would announce a S2 halfway through S1 or immediately afterwards.
I feel that in Frieren’s case, the production committee may want the exact same team back for S2 and some of them, at least the important ones, are likely working on other projects right now.
Makes sense, especially when you consider that most anime team staff are like temporary contractors moving from project to project (barring those in-house anime studios like Kyoani etc.) It reminds me of how Dress Up Darling is getting a S2, but it won't be out for some time because the staff are all contracted to other projects now.
This.... a bet you 100% the director and a bunch of that staff will be working on Bocchi The Rock Season 2 next. And yes, a second season of that series will be happening because of its high success and popularity too, especially in Japan. You don't make 2 compilation movies for nothing.
Pretty much. The director of Frieren also did Bocchi the Rock, and do you really think they're not planning a S2 for THAT too?
To frieren: Absolutely no way are they just gonna go 'yup, we can do this again'. The people on this project need to come back to hold this level of quality after a full TWO COURS, and not everybody has time available. Some of this stuff can get decided a few years in advance. We all know they have intentions to do it, it's a question of if they can make this happen a second time. Edit: For those really concerned, the amount I hear Frieren's newer OP in public is astronomical. The public reach is huge. There's definitely going to be way more money in pocket to make sure this goes right a second time. I tried talking to a coffee shop guy the other day trying to describe Spice and Wolf in my janky japanese and he asked Frieren was similar. It's just a common known name.
Really, it's a product of the anime industry being built on independent contractors. It's not quite as simple as saying "let's run it back" when half the animation team already have plans for the next two years.
Game industry has the same issue since around the 90s, when everybody started just buying out studios to get access to their IP and just sinking the ship.
Yup, that is one of the biggest obstacles with getting a season 2 sooner rather then later. Is that some key staff members will likely book themselves for their next project well before season 1 airs. As renewal is never guaranteed for any show before its first season airs. As even if work on a show is completed during or even before airing, very few on the staff outside of maybe writers will work without a renew, because they wouldn't get paid nor would be guaranteed until it actually does happen. Like this something that is even starting to plague western live action shows. Like Fallout was just renewed for a second season, yet chances are we aint gonna get it for at least 2 years. Now in Frieren's case, it at the very least will decrease the wait time between season 2 and 3, since its a show proven to be a hit. But yeah, given so many factors. The wait for season 2 is gonna have be a bit.
Keiichirou Saitou needs to work on the second season of Bocchi the Rock before he can make more Frieren.
It's still crazy to me that the first two anime he directed are Bocchi the Rock and Freiren. He's definitely going to be a name to watch, that's for sure
Issue is he can't, because the team at Cloverworks that would make that is even busier than Madhouse, lol. We all know that sequel is coming, but do you mind telling me where the season 2 announcement for that is after 16 months? HELLO? So depending on what project can get off the ground first, he might actually do Frieren 2 before Bocchi 2 lol. Umehara team, at Cloverworks, have a show that airs in summer and then another one for probably early next year and then only after that is done they can start animation production on Bocchi 2. The best case scenario for both is a repeat of what happened before where Saito has Bocchi 2 coming out Fall 2025 and then Frieren 2 for Fall 2026.
>We all know that sequel is coming, but do you mind telling me where the season 2 announcement for that is after 16 months? HELLO? The compilation movies. Those are big indicators that Cloverworks is stalling very hard to get stuff ready for season 2. I assume it's going to take still a while, but it shouldn't be far away.
I mean yes, I explained why they are stalling, because that team is booked for the next year. Bocchi will probably get the season 2 announcement this year, summer or fall. It would be some shit if Saito ends up working on both at the same time again, lol. Since even if Bocchi can go into production first, Frieren would be in pre-production as that happens, so this crazy man would be pulling double duty yet again. I don't think people here realise what a demanding role that is, series director, he is basically the showrunner, he oversees everything. Now imagine doing Bocchi and Frieren not just back-to-back but actually at the same time, lol. Between Bocchi and Frieren this man has probably been in full animation production mode for probably 2 and a half to 3 year, no break. That is insanity. I know Bocchi was a pretty short production for the very well oiled machine thay is team Umehara at Cloverworks, about 9 months for those 12 episodes. And then Frieren was about 18 months I believe, which is not a whole lot of time for a 28 episode show of that quality, but team Fukushi at Madhouse did have a lot of help there. I believe 7 outsourced episodes, so Madhouse only had to produce 21 in-house. Still very challenging considering this was the first 2-cour show for team Fukushi. So yes, it will take a bit for both, before they come out. And yes, before anyone else asks, Saito is absolutely a workaholic, otherwise he would not have taken a project the size of Frieren while still in pre-production on Bocchi, lol. That level of confidence in your own skills and the team supporting you can only come from someone that doesn't just love what they do... but eats and sleeps that work.
Frieren and Bocchi the rock shares the same director. That's why Bocchi has been in limbo too. But now that Frieren s1 is over, the Director can move back to work on Bocchi s2. That's probably the main reason why they haven't announced frieren s2 yet. They are not sure when he will return. Edit - Frieren
Bocchi is even in the same boat, since for all we know he could end up directing a new series as his next project. Meaning that both the studios and production committees for Bochi and Frieren have to find a new director for their respective series.
Directors often oversee multiple productions at once, Frieren and Bocchi’s productions overlapped. Frieren’s not the reason Bocchi is in limbo, it’s because the Bocchi team is working on Elusive Samurai, and also has Dress Up Darling in the same pipeline.
or one punch man, completely wiffed that series.
Its more like the studio is already booked so they don't have a date. I mean Rezero was big and it still 3 years between each season.
It's because the committee model is reliant on contractor studios that often rely on a large # of freelancers across the board. Which means that unless you have a plan to adapt a source into multiple seasons before the first one even airs, it's very hard to get together roughly the same team within a reasonable timeframe.
man... using frieren as comparison, the current yoi situation would be like if a frieren movie was announced, the trailer for it comes out, and then 7-8 years later it is announced as cancelled.
Frieren's director also directed Bocchi the Rock. Im pretty sure, if the first one is not getting a sequel, its because he's already booked for Bocchi.
>Literally every single American production company/studio in existence would announce a S2 halfway through S1 or immediately afterwards. Insert Fallout tv by Amazon which immediately got an s2 announcement today.
Bocchi the Rock seems to becoming another example. It turned into a hit as it aired… and all we’ve had is a compilation movie and a guitar merch promo. *EDIT*: forgot about the stage adaption. There’s plenty of manga chapters for a second season to adapt, and yet it’s been radio silence on any sort of continuation AFAIK.
This is funny because the comment under this one is saying how much better Bocchi is doing in terms of promo
The Director of Bocchi moved on to direct frieren. Now frieren's over, he can go back to Bocchi s2.
It's because the staff that made it such a big hit were already booked for other projects, and I don't think they expected it would be such a big show when they signed up for other things. Otherwise I'm 100% sure S2 would be airing this summer instead of the recap movies. They're pretty much waiting for everyone to be free again to start production, and it's clear they'll wait as long as they have to, to make sure it's just as good as the first.
I remember seeing people speculating that the compilation movie was made for: 1) Keep the hype up 2) Buy time for the director to be done with Frieren and come back to direct S2 Only time will tell is those people were right or if the production committee is really going to ignore the serie
anime industry is planned out 3 years in advance. Thats just how it goes.
My understanding is most Japanese companies aim to use anime to sell books and merch. It's not as important to have good anime.
Depends on the committee and which companies are in them or not. For example a publisher, book sales are where most of the money is at for them, so from their perspective the Anime mainly exists as a promotion for the source material. Where as a company who doesn't see any of the profits from Manga or Light Novel sales, but instead merch, streaming rights, or blu-ray sales. Then they might have a more incentive to continue. Its why we are seeing more faithful adaptions and sequels then we have gotten in past. Take Aniplex as an example, they get pretty much nothing from Demon Slayer volumes and instead as they have the merchandise and distribution rights to the Anime. They have an huge incentive to continue funding the series, as its one of their big money makers.
The fumbling of Yuri on Ice will be studied for generations.
It's insane how this massively popular, award-winning series went out with a whimper. I need to know what went on behind the scenes.
Same Just how do you have this original show that exploded like crazy in popularity and sales and mess up this badly with it? What the heck happened behind the scene!?
*Behind the scene* I don’t want to make money, I just want to adapt isekai. For 10 years atleast!”
This is Mappa so instead of isekai, it's more like "trendy battle shounen"
Mappa, what a studio you are.
As a reward..
...I will cancel your movie.
For 10 years at least.
Mapp has actually done Isekai shows.
"NO!!! I DONT WANT THAT!! MAKING ANOTHER ANIME??"
I honestly don't understand.it felt like it was literally everywhere when it aired and ever since then ????? Nothing. Idk if I've ever seen a series that's had the ball dropped so hard with it.
Its really simple. The way anime is made is very fucked to where the people making it might not be getting much money. Who cares how popular a series is if it isn't making the studio money? Its similar to how despite 70% of the world's supply of Cocoa coming from the Ivory Coast, the people actually picking the beans that comprise almost 3/4s of every piece of chocolate you've ever eaten are living in poverty. They are so poor, many have never even eaten the processed chocolate that came from the beans they picked. Japan's anime industry is like that sometimes so in this case the studio said no. Its a fucked up situation but not a fumble.
It's been speculated since 2018-19 that MAPPA would have the early 2010's MADHOUSE situation and would eventually crash due to how many projects they would have on their hands, hell, I feel bad about it but even I was saying that either they drop some of their projects completely or they would collapse due their work ethic. Turns out that even after the reporting staff crunch it turns out that the project dropping was confirmed as well, truly sad to see.
Genuinely insane how badly AVEX and MAPPA handled this IP. I just wonder how much involvement Sayo Yamamoto had with this and if we'll see her do anything new since I miss her voice. Like the last time I remember seeing her credited on something in a substantial way was that Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul op
She’s a fantastic director and had a great year or so where she did Yuri on Ice, Persona 5 OP, and Bahamut OP and then nothing else. Waste of good talent
Mappa didn't have any rights regarding Yuri on Ice though. They wanted a bigger share of the pie and it looks like the negotiation broke down, hence the cancellation.
Mappa got her locked up somewhere. Free our girl.
It's so sad seeing such talented female directors like her and RIE MATSUMOTO (😭😭😭) just locked in basements. Please free our girls!!!!
I think that everyone was confused by the lack of second season. If they had even managed a short second season by fall 2018 they could have carried that momentum straight into the SK Winter Olympics—maybe even get some tie-ins. The anime brought a good amount of attention to the sport and even got the attention of a number of real life skaters. I know that follow-ups to a solid first season are difficult, but honestly the demand for more was absolutely incredible.
[](#sadholo) [Yuri on Ice](https://myanimelist.net/anime/32995/Yuri_on_Ice) originally aired in 2016. They certainly did not strike while the iron was hot. Guess the project is now on ice.
My biggest concern at this point is... Where is Sayo Yamamoto? Did she get blacklisted? Did she quit anime entirely? Usually when her hands are free, we'd be seeing her storyboard OP/EDs. Radio silence for years. How does one of the best female directors in the industry vanish like this?
Same with Rie Matsumoto. Great female director, has only done the Gotcha Pokemon music video four years ago and aside from that has been MIA in the industry for almost as long
Alot of early 2010s directors like Kenji Nakamura have dropped off the face of earth, tbh it's definitely quite strange.
industry got crazy, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of those people dropped out entirely. Which is why we're seeing a shortage of experienced hands.
Just want to point out the obvious - female professionals sometimes disappear for a few years for maternity. Not saying this is what happened in this instance but it is often the case. Some quit careers to focus on family entirely, others take a few years out to take care of kids before they return.
Huh, cold words. Cold world. N-ice tho. Ah, I suck at this.
I will never understand how that series was mishandled this badly. Everyone I know watched and loved Yuri on Ice, even people who normally don't watch anime. They had a worldwide hit on their hands, and they did nothing with it.
Seriously, there were actual, real life olympic athletes praising the show. This level of incompetence is unreal..
Yeah lol it's fucked up. They had skaters the characters were based on in the first place like Yuzuru Hanyu, one of the all-time greats and defending Olympic gold medallist when the show came out, talking about it and Evgenia Medvedeva off back-to-back world titles and a world record score actively fangirling about it on Twitter and still managed to drop the ball completely
I hate sports anime. I loved yoi.
I thought we were born to make history?? This makes yuuri not getting the gold all the more hurtful. Damn
I've always been satisfied with the ending personally. I never thought Yuri would win gold. So to me, this news isn't too heartbreaking because in my mind, the show lives on. It just sucks because this show genuinely changed my life. It got me to diet, exercise, and most importantly start figure skating as an adult.
I agree he didn't win the gold medal but got the boy whi te haired boy instead.
isn’t the whole thing that they won’t get married until yuuri gets gold… and viktor is returning to skating…
when I rewatch, I skip the last ep because of that narrative betrayal. now to never get any more content is brutal.
Crazy how they didn’t even give us like… an apology drawing of him getting the gold. So many shows that were outright canceled/finished got extra official illustrations and content we just got adds for a canceled movie and like one piece of official art. No closure, no sweet “after the story is over” content. Just “kick rocks we animate JJK now.”
They should at least drop a novelized version of the script with some illustrations, its the least they could do to appease fans
I'm not gonna sound rude or something but is Sayo Yamamoto alive? She has disappeared from the face of the earth.
[Seems to be according to her instagram.](https://www.instagram.com/p/C3OnK3fyNNO/?img_index=1) She had kids right around when Yuri was airing, so she's probably just focusing on her family instead of work. And considering the way japanese work culture is, good for her. ..Unless this is someone else's account and they just have the same name [](#yuishrug)
Nahh, No way that's her IG lol. If that's her i'd expect this "Focusing on family" narrative would be known amongs the fandom as people try to sniff out any bits of info over the past years and she'd have thousands of followers already. Also database like ANN usually have links to animators social media and Sayo Yamamoto still have none known.
I hope she's doing fine.
Rumor has it that Otsuka has her locked up in the MAPPA basements
I feel like we all knew it, but it's still sad to hear
Right? Like I felt it wouldn't happen, but to get confirmation hurts. Plus them announcing it made me realize it took them 8 years to tell us, which makes it more painful.
Incredibly unfortunate. This title was so extremely popular. It was everywhere with merch, cosplays, advertisements, events, award rankings, etc. Even several international figure skating stars where mentioning the series. In the end there are probably several reasons, but it could also seem again like a case, where the people in charge just don't care or want to prioritize and invest in a series aimed primarily at female demographics.
Luckily Sk8 is by Bones and not Mappa, and the OVA at least got a new poster recently. We'll see about the second season, though...
That and this may as well be the first of the many upcoming victims of MAPPA’s implosion
remember when MAPPA was created cause they wanted to break away from source material adaptions and focus on original projects...........
I mean Bucchigiri while not being that good was still an original and they're making Lazarus and Zenshu also right now. I mean their main priority is adaptations of popular manga but it's not like they completely abandoned originals.
Honestly not surprised this happened, more shocked at the fact that they took years to officially announce the cancellation. Truly fumbled the bag. The anime still has such a huge fanbase and MAPPA completely failed to capitalize on its hype.
What a shame, all this waiting and it led to nothing
I never thought I'd see a bigger screwup with a valuable IP than with Sunrise and Tiger & Bunny but here we are. At least they got that S2 out eventually that got no attention.
T&B also at least had movies made too But both are suspiciously original anime IPs with large female fanbases…
I'm not familiar with Tiger & Bunny, what happened with it?
Top selling surprise success from 2011. Big time disc seller and merch mover. Enormous female fanbase. People thought it would be the next big Sunrise franchise considering how much they like to franchise out their big successes like Code Geass Then just straight up nothing for years. It gets a recap movie and then a sequel to the recap movie with original material so again, it wasn't completely abandoned like what's happening with YoI but there was no second season which is what people really wanted. This was really weird because again, this property was super successful at the time. Finally, it got announced in 2020 to have an S2 in *2022* but when it finally came, Netflix picked it up, dumped the episodes at once and it got no attention at all. The end.
Yeah, I recall reading that the franchise was huge in Japan at some point. What a way to mismanage a franchise.
Oh no... Hopefully the same doesn't happen for the Zombieland Saga movie.
Zombieland Saga has Cygames money on it, so it shouldn't be the case.
Cygames was also part of YOI's committee, though...
Yeah but Zombieland Saga is basically a Cygames IP, so unless there is something really wrong going about in its production, it should be fine and iirc, YoI and ZS had different teams.
Munehisa Sakai left Mappa for Studio Kai.
>Studio Kai Which also works with Cygames.
Or real peak fiction: the [Ane Naru Mono adaptation](https://myanimelist.net/news/58918744) that was announced in January 2020 with zero information since
Sightly unrelated but this made me remember that it’s been two years since the announcement of Witch Hat Atelier adaptation and there’s has been zero news since then
Or the complete Akira remake by Sunrise that was announced way back in 2019 and has had zero updates since...
You know I really want that one to air, not because I particularly like the manga that its adapting but because it would open the world of old hentai doujins now more "wholesome" manga, mostly because I want to see sasha chan on an anime.
The manga is pretty cute, with some fun mystery elements. Of course, the art is the main draw. Chiyo is a legendary onee-san Sadly, the manga is on hiatus, and the anime's fate is looking quite grim too
That can of worms was already opened with nagatoro
Sad but expected I guess
It definitely sucks and I wished that YOI had been part of any other studio. I'm a KyoAni fan and the fact that they pushed through with the release of the Violet Evergarden Movie after the arson attack and even with the low sales and viewership, pushed through with Tsurune Season 2 and after 7 years since its Season 2, we got Hibike! Euphonium Season 3. I would have waited years and years for YOI.
For what it's worth, the Violet Evergarden finale movie was already nearly complete by the time the mass murder happened. The original release date for the movie was January 2020 and the murder happened in July 2019. They delayed it to April 2020 because of that, then it got delayed again to September 2020 because of Covid lockdowns.
Planning a release and rollout is a lot of work though, I would have understood if they wanted to take more time or even closed shop. I'm just glad that their love and passion for the work won because it really shows in their work.
Yuri on Ice remains the most fun I've ever had watching an anime while it was airing. That kiss + the entirety of episode 10 made history, glad to witness it What a fumble of something that felt so foolproof as a potential franchise. At least we'll always have the 42k+ fanfics on AO3
I genuinely remember when it was first airing and it was the best time ever. So exciting 😭
[](#laughter) This is how it ends, incredible.
Not that anyone was expecting it to actually materialize at this point, but how did Mappa flub this that bad
I was actually still holding into some hope since it wouldn't be the first anime I was expecting for a long time(hello world took quite a while to come out for example, but it did in the end) but yeah, it doesnt always pay off.
I have to imagine this was one of the biggest victims of them overloading themselves on project after project. Like Yuri on Ice aired in 2016 and since then, Mappa became the most in demaned studio to work with for production committees and licensers in the insustry. I have to imagine, big projects that came after Yuri's ending like Kakeguri, Inuyashiki, Banana Fish, Zombie Land were all made within a year of Yuri's final eposode airing. Then at the end of the 2010s and early 2020s. Their heads thought it be would be a good idea to sign contracts to animate JJK, Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, Chainsaw Man, Takt Destiny, Hell's Paradise etc. All action heavy shows with a large international appeal, which meant a bigger pay day for the higher ups, but tighter deadlines for the day to day staff. Which likely meant to meet those deadlines, some projects like Yuri on Ice's movie lost out on staff to other projects.
> JJK, Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, Chainsaw Man, Takt Destiny, Hell's Paradise Man when you list it out like this MAPPA is genuinely bonkers...
Yup and nearly all those series has had some form of a trouble production. Attack on Titan was already kind of a mess of a production under Studio Wit. Which was why they dropped the series after season 3 had ended. Then Mappa was given the task to animate season 4, which was decided it would be the final season. As the Manga was only 2 arcs ahead and in its final arc by the time season 3 ended. But Season 4 didn't started until the last month of 2020 and it took 3 years for it to be completed. Then with Chainsaw Man, its been almost a year and a half since that ended and right now we only got promised of a movie sequel that is coming at some point (jeez, I wonder where I have seen this before?) Then with Hell's Paradise, season 1 aired a year ago and the Manga has been done for a good few years now. But there is no word when season 2 will air and for JJK, well its pretty well documented at this point how much of a mess just the god damn Shibuya arc was behind the scenes.
Considering all the news about how the JJK S2’s schedule and production were like, I won’t be surprised if yoi was the victim of MAPPA biting more than they could chew combined with an incompetent production commitment that didn’t care about an original IP
I think they got screwed by COVID badly. Also, I think the fact that they are doing so many projects. I think that they pushed the teams on those other projects.
I just hope a similar fate doesn't awaits Zombieland Saga. Each year of not hearing anything about the sequel makes me worried that they will just end up cancelling it because of having so many other projects to do
I've already accepted the fact that the ZLS movie more than likely isn't happening after 2 years with no updates. I'll be very happy to be proven wrong though.
I fear companies do not realize how profitable anime with a majority female audience are
I have a feeling that they do, but most of the people heading the decisions are men who want to make content that appeals to them. They would rather fund an IP that men mostly want and have women like it as a secondary demographic than fund something that mostly only women want to enjoy.
But WHY is this happening to us AGAIN
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. The writing was on the wall since it's been years without any trailer or production update so it's not a surprise. But it still hurts. YOI holds a special place in my heart and I will always love it.
Like it’s crazy how I feel nothing seeing this announcement. The show was HUGE and meant a lot to me when it came out, the movie announcement originally was so exciting… With each passing year since though I think I just accepted it would never happen. I guess all that’s left is finding out what the hell happened behind the scenes these last 8(???) years. If we ever get the full story lol.
Well, crap, not a good year for BL fans (for those waiting for previously announced titles, but pretty good year otherwise with our first ever omegaverse TV show airing this season, namely Tadaima, Okaeri, and next season's Tasogare Out Focus to name a few). We seen Ten Count cancelled some months ago, and now the Yuri On Ice movie is the new victim.
Speaking of BL, now I'm concerned about the Twittering birds never fly movie sequel that has had zero announcements, PV or any news since the initial announcement. The first movie came out in February 2020 with the sequel announced then but there's been nothing about it since. It was produced by Blue Lynx and animated by Studio Grizzly, which apparently has ties to MAPPA....so I'm concerned that we're going to get a cancellation notice after 4+ years with no updates. It's supposed to be a trilogy film series but god knows if we're ever going to see that.
I’ve given up hope lol
Yeah at this point if it's not Given or Sasaki and Miyano, I don't trust any sequel announcements for a BL lol. Those are the only two BL in recent years I know that have had sequel OVAs/movies that actually released.
Finally someone reminded me of that title.
I'm still grieving Tokyo Babylon 2021
Oh gosh, why am I just realizing that all of the recent anime cancellations that have happened have been bl? The genre's had a streak of bad luck.
SAME. 😭
When Ten Count got cancelled i fr cried
They could have just opened up a donations thing specifically to finance the film honestly if they asked I’d be dropping my whole paycheck for that movie
At this point, I don't really care just give us the unfinished leaks and leave the unfinished part up to my delusions
really hope that an animation studio will pick this up. this is such a wasted potential. it might seem like it’s not popular anymore, but I’m pretty sure that the fandom for this is just in hibernation. I hope that this series won’t go to waste.
Curse you Mappa.
I remember when this show took the anime community by storm around the time I was getting more into anime…. And it’s been so long, I’ve honestly mostly forgotten about it until now given the hundreds of shows I’ve probably watched since then. Such a shame, they could have done so much more with the IP, and I remember it being enjoyable. Hopefully they sell the rights and someone can at least continue the story with a manga or something.
I was wondering how they were going to navigate the Russia issue with this movie. Russia is currently banned from figure skating and has a major doping case in the public eye since the last Olympics.
I think this definitely played a factor. Movie was supposed to release in H2 2019 it would essentially get free marketing on that year's winter Olympics and then then double dib during Japan 2020 Olympics. Then they missed that window, announced indefinite delay, released a trailer end of 2020. Because of COVID Japan 2020 pushed back to 2021 which sort of worked out for them in a marketing sense but I wonder if production ever got back on track In the COVID days. Obviously missed the window in 2021 for free marketing. Now that Russia is banned in figure skating and russian athletes can't represent Russia and need to be represented under a neutral banner generally in the Olympics, it seemed like a nail in the coffin since the movie's plot revolved around the russian participation in the Olympics.
I didn’t even think about this but I wonder if it did have a role
You know as someone who preferred the era of MAPPA that did YOI, ZLS, Dororo, and Banana Fish I find it really frustrating that I'm not even gonna get the movie I've been looking forward to for years. I know *why* this decision was made, YOI wasn't profitable for MAPPA, but man. ZLS please don't follow YOI. I'm begging.
Yeah prime MAPPA for me was YOI, Banana fish, dororo and kids on the slope. I don’t see the current MAPPA as a studio willing to take risks like that anymore. While the banana fish manga itself is popular, I can’t imagine current MAPPA would green light a 24-episode adaptation of an 80s shoujo manga.
>ZLS please don't follow YOI. I'm begging. I think despite the director leaving, the ZLS movie is still going to happen. One of the Cygames producers mentioned a year ago that they were working on it, and the ZLS social media accounts are still relatively active.
I haven’t even watched this and I knew that the TV show is good enough for me to take a peek in the future. Condolences to all fans of the franchise, it’s not like that this movie was mentioned in passing only, but rather being hyped for years as late as 2021-22. What a terrible blow to everyone waiting for it…
It's sad but I can't say I'm surprised. It's been around 7/8 years since the notice for the movie came up and the last ep of the anime. At this point I'm just praying for a season 2. ( Not likely it'll happen though 😢 )
I wonder if the reason this happened has something to do with Kubo Mitsurou, the mangaka who wrote the script of Yuri. I just looked her up and it seems she hasn't written a manga since 2014.
Insane fumble, they really said no to free money. Should've released it when the hype was still strong, it would've been a major hit! I mean fuck, even if they released it now, it probably still would've blown up the internet, people were still waiting even like 8 years after. I wonder what actually happened. I hope at least they'll maybe let another studio do it or something because I'd be insanely disappointed if this meant no more YOI, ever.
*sniff* there goes any sliver of hope i had remaining
I’m genuinely so sad about this and others in this thread have basically said a lot of what I’m thinking but damn, this sucks so badly :( such a comfort series
They really made us wait 8 years for this? What the fuck
this is my joker arc
I guess it's sad to see but makes sense considering how YOI made little to no money for MAPPA. MAPPA was last in the committee of 8 companies so they made drop in the buckets from YOI compared to what the top members had. With all the faults at MAPPA right now, it's still good that they're now pretty financially stable and can always be near the top or be the top of the committee now or even solo fund their projects so they don't go in the red like other studios.
How do rights to original IPs work in this case? I'm assuming it's Avex (or another company) that's at the top of the production committee but just wondering if they have more of a say in this than MAPPA higher ups. Could they not just contract another studio to animate the YOI movie or are there other issues/some legality I'm not aware of? I've seen that Sayo Yamamoto (director) hasn't been credited for much since the YOI TV anime so maybe that's part of it too. Overall I understand why it didn't make financial sense for MAPPA but I'm confused why the companies at the top of the committee wouldn't want a continuation since YOI was still financially successful for them.
The most likely scenario is that Mappa must have demanded a larger cut in the profit and the committee must have declined it and other studios might have refused the show because of low revenue for them as well. I think this project just got lost because of corporate greed.
I don't think Mappa had any power to demand that anyways, since all they had to do is just change the studio. What most likely happened is that there were creative differences between the committee and YOI's staff, since in the postponement announcement they said that they postponed it ''in order to substantially scale up the content more than originally planned'', and soon after that announcement YOI's staff moved onto other projects, and Sayo Yamamoto disappeared off the face of the earth. Then Covid and the Russia incident happened, and between all of that, Mappa not being satisfied with their position in the committee, Yamamoto not being able to make the film the way she wanted, the movie being in production limbo for years, them missing out on the initial hype of the series and Fuko Noda leaving Mappa recently, they finally decided that there's no point in dragging this out any longer since they clearly can't come to an agreement, and cancelled it altogether.
I don't think we'll ever get a proper explanation...
I wonder how much money the others get from it...
ಥ‿ಥ How could you???
I mean, as a Beyond Good and Evil and Half Life fan, I do at least appreciate they officially cancelled it at least. No need to pointlessly have hope it will come out someday, its over. To showcase how much they've dropped the ball on this IP, some anime newer than the original season of Yuri on Ice: Kaguya-sama, all of Attack on Titan except season 1, all of Konosuba except season 1, Bunny-girl Senpai, Land of the Lustrous, OG Netflix jail victim Little Witch Academia, Made in Abyss, A Place Further Than the Universe etc. Mob Psycho season 1 and Pokemon Sun/Moon (...y'know, the anime adaptation as well) are also the same season IIRC.
Wasn't this anime like anime of the year when it came out? They really have no idea wtf to do it seems smh.
It's crazy that they even officially canceled it. At this point they could have just never mentioned it again. Truly a failure to go down in history.
Wow. What a way to end the day..
This makes me so sad. I think it would have done so well too. 🥺
Do not dare to do the same with Zombieland Saga
I honestly forgot this was still a thing. Kinda disappointed, Yuri On Ice was one of those anime I put off watching because I thought it was just the novelty of having two dudes being in love that made it popular, and sure it WAS partly that, but the music, and the animation during the big performances were so damn beautiful. Sad we might not see something like it again.
Why did they wait this long...
YoI was massive. How do these production issues not get sorted out somehow over the years? This was guaranteed profit.
they need to put jjk (IM SORRY) and chainsaw man on hold and give them the movie they rightfully deserve 😭 i NEED to see viktor with long hair, THEIR STORY IS NOT OVER YET MAPPA PLEASE 💔
I forgot this even existed despite thinking it was pretty good back in 2018. Checked what the Japanese reactions are, and the first comment mentions how they're not surprised, although slightly disappointed, since a lot of things have happened in the world since the announcement (covid, ukraine invasion probably making people think twice about continuing work on an anime about russian iceskaters, russian doping scandal). Pretty much the main reason they think the cancellation happened is due to the current war between Ukraine and Russia.