Director of Muv Luv TE Changed Due to Work Overload

by dtshyk
Jul 15, 2012 11:38 PM | 45 Comments

According to tweets by a staff member of game developer age, the director of Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse was changed from Inagaki Takayuki to Ando Masaomi (episode director of "Fairy Tail"). Apparently the production staff had put so many resources into the first two episodes and Inagaki had gotten overloaded with tasks. The staff said the studio has been in a mess which is probably noticeable from the quality of the third episode. Although the credits list the change in director starting from episode 3, Ando actually took over Inagaki's job starting from episode 10. Inagaki is now concentrating on making the scripts and the storyboards.

Source: Twitter account of age's staff

20 of 45 Comments Recent Comments

Jugem-Jugem said:
First the plagiarized art and now this, damn this is looking like a mess. Then again, animating TE before the original Muv Luv didn't seem like that good of an idea from the start.

It'll still sell really well, and thats all that matters. Same kinda production things happened to Persona 4, and it ended up being one of the top 5 selling anime of 2011.

Jul 16, 2012 11:03 PM by RyanSaotome

First the plagiarized art and now this, damn this is looking like a mess. Then again, animating TE before the original Muv Luv didn't seem like that good of an idea from the start.

Jul 16, 2012 9:18 PM by foot_licker

zerotenshigg said:
Wait so did the new director do episode 3?

He actually didn't, most of the episodes up to 10 are apparently doen by the same director but the new director will take some credit as well (probably for last minute changes and any BD changes). From episode 10+ it's all the new guy and the old director will just handle other jobs in the production that he was already doing as well.

Jul 16, 2012 8:28 PM by Leon-Gun

That explains the crappy animation on ep 3. I still enjoyed it though. :)

Jul 16, 2012 6:52 PM by Prizkilla

Hm, i really thought that the anime is already finished in its production before it gets aired...

Jul 16, 2012 6:04 PM by VonSchiller

Lmao..wow.

Jul 16, 2012 3:21 PM by Tyrel

RyanSaotome said:

Cirris said:
Something smells fishy about this. "workload" my ass, Japanese love working their asses off. i think they canned him cause otaku were so irate that innocent schoolgirls got slaughtered in very cliched manner.

Uh, this is how Muv Luv is. It wouldn't be Muv Luv if everyone lived happily ever after

Agreed. The first 2 episodes did an ok job, I think, though of course nothing can beat

Jul 16, 2012 2:48 PM by maxie

Uh, this is how Muv Luv is. It wouldn't be Muv Luv if everyone lived happily ever after

Jul 16, 2012 2:25 PM by RyanSaotome

Something smells fishy about this. "workload" my ass, Japanese love working their asses off. i think they canned him cause otaku were so irate that innocent schoolgirls got slaughtered in very cliched manner.

Not to mention that it was a waste of time spending two episodes building up the school squadron only to have them all slaughtered except one girl, which only survived due to a cliched heroic rescue. They could have easily done Yui's backstory in a much better and more efficient manner.

They specifically mentioned the first two episodes in their statement. It's obvious something was horribly wrong with it in the eyes of management. It's like they're trying to save face by lying over the reasoning for the director change, yet making sure that it's strongly understood that the first two episodes were tied to the outgoing director.

Jul 16, 2012 2:21 PM by Cirris

I am very confused aswell as the animation was not very well done during the first two episodes in my opinion.

Soulstrider said:
What work in the first two episodes? The animation was as awful in those as in the 3rd.

shanimebib said:
This doesn't affect me at all. Since I dropped this anime after episode two.

McRib said:
Poor Muv Luv...it deserves so much better.

Airglow said:
The series just needs to end. Period.

maxie said:
A bit sad that this anime gets a such low budget when the VN had a really high one. It's quite noticeable.

I love you all.

Jul 16, 2012 1:54 PM by Battlerrules

Wait so did the new director do episode 3?

Jul 16, 2012 1:51 PM by Kryomatics

jmal said:

RyanSaotome said:
I'm not sure if it'll sell the 20k or so that people speculated it would need to get the original trilogy animated, though. Thats all that matters to me.

Why 20k? That's a pretty immensely high threshold for a sequel.

But anyway, yeah, I really doubt it'll sell 20k.

I remember reading that the original Muv Luv creator wanted about 20k since he'd need to get the budget to get 75+ episodes for the original trilogy. He didn't want to greenlight a start to the trilogy without a proven success, since he wouldn't be able to get the entire thing greenlighted at once. So he was using this as a barometer to get the budget the trilogy would need.

Jul 16, 2012 1:21 PM by RyanSaotome

jmal said:

LoveMyAnime4Life said:
This show is good cant believe some people did not like it.

People who don't like mecha. People who don't like violent/gory shows. People who don't like extensive use of 3dcg. It was a mix of #2 and #3 that killed it for me. I can take either one to a point, but both were somewhat more than I can tolerate in MLA:TE and I'm pretty sure there will be much more of both over the course of the series.

That doesn't mean it's a bad show, or that the graphic (albeit censored) violence isn't a valid story element, and certainly it's true to the graphic original source material. It's just not something I personally feel I would enjoy.

If it's any consolation, the show is performing extremely well in early preorder rankings so it is likely to sell above average at a minimum, and potentially much more than that if sales performance holds up to any degree.

I'm not sure if it'll sell the 20k or so that people speculated it would need to get the original trilogy animated, though. Thats all that matters to me.

Jul 16, 2012 1:03 PM by RyanSaotome

A bit sad that this anime gets a such low budget when the VN had a really high one. It's quite noticeable.

Jul 16, 2012 1:01 PM by maxie

zeroyuki92 said:

Yvese said:

zeroyuki92 said:
Am I the only one who think that 3rd episode looks much more polished than the 1st? (the 2nd has so many BETA and bloods to animate so I guess that should add some costs, although it mostly static)

I'm with you man.

The first two eps' 3d mech animations looked slow and dull. It felt as if the mechs were moving at 12 fps and made me cringe just watching the mechs move. In the third ep the mechs move much smoother and naturally.

You may want to consider that all of the TSF in this episode are 2nd or 2.5 generation TSF, while the TSF in 2nd episode mostly are just upgraded 1st generation (except for the final blue TSF which is 3rd gen prototype, which also explains it's badassness). It's like comparing average gundam to modified zaku.

But well, actually I may be rating 3rd episode better in visual because the opening and ending finally got a proper PV.

@Topic
Well, I guess that happen when you want to animate a series with low money and have to use LOVE POWAH instead. Overworking everywhere.

I'm not talking about the mechs being older models being the reason why they moved slow and dull.

I'm talking about the animations themselves. It's clear they cut back on frames on a lot of scenes in the first two eps. I don't blame them though since there was a lot going on and they have a limited budget.

Jul 16, 2012 12:18 PM by Yvese

hmm i must have dog eyes or something, i did not see much wrong with the 1st 2 episodes let alone the 3rd. 3rd did sound a bit odd. This show is good cant believe some people did not like it.

Jul 16, 2012 12:01 PM by LoveMyAnime4Life

The series just needs to end. Period.

Jul 16, 2012 11:34 AM by Airglow

Even if you didn't notice a quality loss it still means that from episode 3 forwards the old director was swamped with too much work. Basically, he couldn't handle all the positions he had in the project.

Jul 16, 2012 11:12 AM by Leon-Gun

Yvese said:

Jul 16, 2012 10:31 AM by zeroyuki92

Poor Muv Luv...it deserves so much better.

Jul 16, 2012 9:09 AM by McRib

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