The first episode of Oblivion Battery already had dozens of second key animators.
The production is a total mess, which was expected from MAPPA.
It looks better than the 2022 special, but fans are still concerned.
Oblivion Battery (Boukyaku Battery) is a new baseball-themed series this season. Following Kei, formerly a very skilled catcher who lost his memory, it’s seemingly your usual sports anime, only this time with an amnesia subplot.
It’s not that different from Re-Main so far, another MAPPA sports series with an amnesia plot, although Oblivion Battery seems to feature much more comedy.
An important part of any action anime — and that includes sports — is smooth and fluid animation. That specifically concerns fans a lot in this case, and you can see why if you look at the credits.
The Credits for the First Episode Were a Mess
The very first episode of Oblivion Battery already had 5 assistant episode directors — an absurd number for just one episode. As if that wasn’t enough, it also has around 50 second key animators — with a runtime of less than 25 minutes.
This, actually, isn’t that out of the ordinary for MAPPA — similar numbers have been seen on some Jujutsu Kaisen S2 episodes, among others. Still, that is not a sign of good production, and potentially indicates huge issues within the studio. And we’re just on the first episode.
MAPPA has been at the center of controversies regarding the treatment of animators for quite a while now. There’s a huge chance this is going to be another case for controversy, as the looks of the anime have been a huge concern even before it aired.
It Looks Better Than the Special
The original Oblivion Battery special episode from 2022 looked… really bad, especially by MAPPA standards. As such, fans were concerned about the looks of the TV anime. The trailers looked odd, too (although better than the special) — and viewers were very conflicted about them.
While the baseball animation looked really good, the character designs felt very off. The first episode of the series also looked like that. It seemed that the studio only cared about animating the actual sports scenes, and the slice-of-life moments looked very janky. That doesn’t sound like a too far-fetched theory for MAPPA.
What Do Fans Think?
At this point, fans are concerned about the treatment of the workers — and if the anime will even be finished in time.
The credits for the first episode show how messy the production is already, and there is already speculation the anime will have to take a break — even though it’s only scheduled for 12 episodes.
Guess what? MAPPA is back at it again.
Summary:
The first episode of Oblivion Battery already had dozens of second key animators.
The production is a total mess, which was expected from MAPPA.
It looks better than the 2022 special, but fans are still concerned.
Oblivion Battery (Boukyaku Battery) is a new baseball-themed series this season. Following Kei, formerly a very skilled catcher who lost his memory, it’s seemingly your usual sports anime, only this time with an amnesia subplot.
It’s not that different from Re-Main so far, another MAPPA sports series with an amnesia plot, although Oblivion Battery seems to feature much more comedy.
An important part of any action anime — and that includes sports — is smooth and fluid animation. That specifically concerns fans a lot in this case, and you can see why if you look at the credits.
The Credits for the First Episode Were a Mess
The very first episode of Oblivion Battery already had 5 assistant episode directors — an absurd number for just one episode. As if that wasn’t enough, it also has around 50 second key animators — with a runtime of less than 25 minutes.
This, actually, isn’t that out of the ordinary for MAPPA — similar numbers have been seen on some Jujutsu Kaisen S2 episodes, among others. Still, that is not a sign of good production, and potentially indicates huge issues within the studio. And we’re just on the first episode.
MAPPA has been at the center of controversies regarding the treatment of animators for quite a while now. There’s a huge chance this is going to be another case for controversy, as the looks of the anime have been a huge concern even before it aired.
It Looks Better Than the Special
The original Oblivion Battery special episode from 2022 looked… really bad, especially by MAPPA standards. As such, fans were concerned about the looks of the TV anime. The trailers looked odd, too (although better than the special) — and viewers were very conflicted about them.
While the baseball animation looked really good, the character designs felt very off. The first episode of the series also looked like that. It seemed that the studio only cared about animating the actual sports scenes, and the slice-of-life moments looked very janky. That doesn’t sound like a too far-fetched theory for MAPPA.
What Do Fans Think?
At this point, fans are concerned about the treatment of the workers — and if the anime will even be finished in time.
The credits for the first episode show how messy the production is already, and there is already speculation the anime will have to take a break — even though it’s only scheduled for 12 episodes.
