Two TV Anime for the 50th Celebration

In the recent issue 10 of Weekly Shonen Champion, there were announcements for TV anime adaptations for Mairimashita Iruma-kun and Beastars. These are announced as projects of the 50th anniversary, so is that a reason to believe they are both airing this year?  Regardless of this, a Beastars did not come as a surprise but Iruma was one. I firmly believed that The Vampire Dies in No Time would be the next series to get an anime but it seems i was mistaken, though i still believe it will get one eventually.

Beastars's animation will be handled by Studio Orange. Beastars will be just the second TV series it will be in charge of, 'Houseki no Kuni' was the first in 2017. Prior to Beastars, it also was in charge of animating the film 'Monster Strike the Movie : Sora no Kanata' in 2018. However, the studio has done subcontracted work in various other series in CGI.

A visual and teaser have been released, but it is too little to pass any judgement on quality. Nevertheless,  Orange seems like a reputable studio even though it is relatively unexperienced in heading projects.

I believe the content being adapted is of quality and the studio will know that and expectations will be high due to the renown Beastars got with the awards. The beginning of the manga is very strong in leaving a lasting impression especially by showcasing Legosi inner conflict and reflecting the unspoken tension between the carnivores and herbivores as a result of the murder. The first three volumes in particular for me are the best part of the series as of yet : and It is also the reason it got the acclaim it currently has.

Animation is held to be of great importance by the viewing public and 3D CGI animation still hold a lack of appeal for the core western anime fanbase, excluding fans of animation in general which probably enjoy CGI or other forms of animation made by many film animation studios. However, successes by CGI anime in Japan shows that this stigma is not present or at least not as strong in the Japanese audience.

In contrast to these people, I sincerely do not think the animation will be the biggest hurdle in the making of the Beastars TV anime, after all Beastars is not an action series but a human (animals in this case) drama series. The animation will have to be designed and worked to fit certain scenes that together with other equally, or more, important aspects such as sound and directing will play a uge part in the response of the audience to a scene. A lot of work will be needed to paint the right ambience and this is where the mixture of music, visual effects come into play as an anime can appeal to senses that manga simply cannot. How these will be used not only to replicate the feel of the manga but also add an extra layer to it, specially in the scenes of Legosi's inner conflict, the play arc or the visit to the back market arc, is a question will only answered when the series inevitably debuts in the near future.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

Iruma-kun has being seeing an increase in popularity recently and this stabilised its position in the magazine which had been shaky for a long time. The increase in popularity could be partially due to its increased exposure online. The series has become available to read online on Line, Piccoma and others online manga sharing platforms that allow manga to be read for free with some restrictions. This is not unheard of, Harigane Service also gained a lot of popularity in the same way.

The school fantasy setting of the manga allows the manga to flirt with a lot of genre. One is comedy which is the main one, however, there are drops of romance, action and slice of life. So, this broadness in appeal gives it leaway to play on different themes like friendship, coming of age and family which are a corner stone of shonen manga.

Iruma, I believe will need good animation for the TV anime adaption to be successful. Iruma is more action driven so the animation holds more value. Specially since Iruma is comedy series based in characters actions and the wacky developments.  Scenes are composed significantly differently as a result, the pacing has to be controlled to balance out the series with comedy and its other aspects. The voice acting plays a much bigger part with punchlines having to be done in a certain way to enhance the comedic effect.

The pacing will be important in making sure things are progressing smoothly and giving time for the scenes to have their effect. In a 13/12 episode seasonal anime format which is the main format for anime series at the moment. Using a simple division, 3 chapters per episode would be needed for the anime to cover till chapter 38, which is the epilogue of the first arc in the series and seems to be the most appropriate ending place for the the anime. Dividing the chapters by the number of episodes is obviously a simplistic way of looking at it, since action oriented episodes can cover many chapters.

Example -
Episode 1 - 1+2
Episode 2 - 3+4
Episode 3 - 5-8
Episode 4 -  9-13
Episode 5 - 14-16
Episode 6 - 17-19
Episode 7 - 20-21
Episode 8 - 22-25
Episode 9 - 26-28
Episode 10 - 29-33
Episode 11 - 34-35
Episode 12 - 36-38

Whatever happens, I believe Iruma will probably be linked with Narou series. The trend these series have set might benefit Iruma when it airs. However, without any news of the studio or any visual teaser, there is really nothing to pass judgment on at the moment.