Not every anime that is announced actually comes out.
Yuri!!! on Ice The Movie: Ice Adolescence
Yuri on Ice was an incredibly important milestone for both the creators and the viewers. For MAPPA, it was practically the anime that brought them to the mainstream audience and made them the powerhouse they are today. For the BL genre and its fans, it was a very nuanced take on the genre that was enjoyed by many.
This is why the movie having been canceled recently hurt so much. It was announced in 2018, and the original release date was supposed to be 2019. After 5 years of delays, MAPPA announced it’s not coming out — much to the fans’ disappointment. That said, it’s not the first anime like that.
The Dreaming Machine
For more experienced fans, Satoshi Kon’s name is associated with high-quality anime with complex plots revolving around the human psyche. He was famous for movies like Perfect Blue and Paprika. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2010 while working on his fifth movie.
Said movie, The Dreaming Machine (Yume Miru Kikai), he was working on alongside another industry veteran, Yoshimi Itazu. Itazu tried to finish the movie by himself, but admitted that he didn’t have the same vision. Later, he stated that the movie will only be finished if he finds someone as good at directing as Kon was — so pretty much never.
Despera
Despera is supposed to be a new anime project by Chiaki J. Konaka, Ryuutarou Nakamura and Yoshitoshi ABe — the writer, director, and character designer for Serial Experiments Lain, respectively. It’s been in the works since 2009, but Nakamura passed away in 2013, leaving the project unfinished.
At this point, most fans accepted that Despera will never come out. Konaka, however, is less pessimistic — in 2021, for example, he stated that he was still working on the series with a new director. Still, it’s probably not being actively produced in 2024, as it’s hard to sell an anime-original project nowadays, especially if it’s as weird as Lain was.
Shishou series
Another project Chiaki J. Konaka was involved with, the Shishou series anime was supposed to be an adaptation of a novel by Uni (which is based on a web novel series he published earlier). He was adapting the script for it (as it’s not an original series), but it ended up never being released.
“Shishou series” is the title the novel series is known by — the anime itself never got one. It was supposed to come out in 2016, but since then, we’ve had pretty much no news. It’s safe to assume this project is canceled.
[New Life+] Young Again in Another World
This one is way more controversial. [New Life+] Young Again in Another World (Nidome no Jinsei wo Isekai de) was an isekai series written by Mine — initially as a web novel and later as a light novel. It was scheduled for Fall 2018, but was canceled just a season before it — it’s safe to assume the production might have been close to being over by then.
Here, the cancellation is justified, though. The author’s derogatory comments towards Chinese and Korean people made the publisher stop working with him, canceling the light novel publication immediately. The anime was canceled as well because of this, and the other LN series by Mine was put on indefinite hiatus in 2020.
Mirai Arise
Studio Sunrise is famous for mecha series — for example, for the Mobile Suit Gundam (Kidou Senshi Gundam) franchise. Over the years, they’ve also had a number of ambitious anime-original projects, but not all of them came to life.
Mirai Arise was announced as a new anime-original project by Sunrise back during AnimeJapan 2015. A teaser was also created, though it was delisted from the official channel. Since then, there was no information regarding the anime, and it’s safe to presume it has been canceled.
Tokyo Babylon 2021
Tokyo Babylon is a manga series by CLAMP. It’s related to their other manga, X (the actual way they are related is confusing because of how the CLAMP shared universe works), and it was adapted into 2 OVAs in the 90s — though a lot of stuff was left out.
A remake was announced for 2021, made by studio GoHands — but it never came out. The reason was the costume designs were plagiarized — and later, more plagiarism was found. While there was an announcement regarding a full restart of the production, most fans believe this remake will never come out.
Ten Count
Another BL anime that ended up being canceled, Ten Count was initially supposed to be a TV anime scheduled for 2020. After many reschedules and production issues, it was turned into a movie which was supposed to be released in 2023… and then it wasn’t.
Later in the January of 2024, the movie was officially canceled — though by that point, no one was surprised.