by A collapsing animation director…what the heck is that?
Nowadays, when sharing thoughts about anime online has become commonplace, poor animation tends to be criticized as “artistic collapse.” However, many anime have taken advantage of this trend and made their works more exciting with intentionally poor animation.
Intentionally aired an episode with poor animation, which became a hot topic. Although this is a so-called magical girl story, it is a comedy work in which the main character does not transform into a cute girl but instead transforms into a strong man dressed as a magical girl and fights.
The problematic animation collapse occurred in episode 11, “Magical Girl☆Final Battle,” where the enemy’s mastermind reveals his true identity. The mastermind fires mysterious beams all over the town, trying to destroy the world, but in “Magical Girl Ore,” this collapse was expressed by deliberately breaking down the animation and messing up the world of the anime itself.
The somewhat nostalgic animation failures unfold one after another. When they do, a caption on the screen says, “Due to the story’s progress, the animation is unavoidably broken. We ask for your understanding.”
Moreover, the ending credits list the title of “Broken Animation Director,” which was probably prepared just for this episode, and viewers called it “an elaborate sloppy work.” Speaking of anime that uses animation failure as a joke, “Hackadoll: The Animation” is also famous. It is a promotional anime that features a mascot character from the smartphone news app “Hackadoll” otaku as the main character, and there are many stories in this work tickle the otaku heart.
The second episode, “Let Me Be an Idol!” is a typical example. In this episode, the Hackadolls aim to become idols to help a troubled producer. However, when they finally performed at the live venue, they were shown dancing unsteadily with sloppy animation. They made a big blunder by deliberately causing animation failure in the live performance scene, which is the scene where the animation is most important.
Furthermore, the song they performed at the live performance was “Cabbage Test,” and the lyrics were a reference to the “Cabbage Incident” from “Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na,” which is famous in the animation failure community. It may be worth watching this work to hear this one song. Another famous episode with animation failure is episode 4 of the anime “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann,” “Is it better to have more faces?”.
This work is known as a popular robot anime that represents the 2000s. However, episode 4 is still discussed because of the animation failure and the different tension of the characters from the other episodes. However, according to Director Hiroyuki Imaishi’s column on WEB Anime Style, it was intentional that the style of episode 4 and the following episodes, 5 and 6, is different from the other episodes. In this work, episodes 1 to 3 depict the protagonists’ journey from the underground village to the surface. From episode 7 onwards, a full-scale battle with the enemy forces that have imprisoned humans underground begins.
The original plan was for many episodes with complete stories after the protagonists reach the surface. Still, due to various circumstances, this was condensed to episodes 4 to 6. Director Imaishi said episodes 4 to 6 were “the most free world” in his mind.
In contrast, from episode 7 onwards, the story develops furiously and intensely, keeping you on your toes. He said, “For the sake of balance, I wanted to make this part uneven, even if it was intentional.” This idea led to poor animation in the episode.
