Confirmation of Petition

[squeaky-spooky.livejournal.com]

Apparently the rumors about a petition in Korea to cancel the Hetalia anime are true:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-01-13/korean-protests-call-for-hetalia-anime-cancellation

No plans to cancel it as of yet. Interestingly enough, there were never plans for Korea to be in the anime.

Comments

[kenichi-bokushi.livejournal.com]

Apparently, they have stopped production (http://www.kids-station.com/rni9hp00000026n6.html), as someone pointed out earlier. It's not specified whether it was because of some ridiculous Internet petition (if it was, I wouldn't specify that, either, because I would be the subject of ridicule forever) or because of some other problems, but apparently there was some sort of problem that caused production to stop, so it most likely will not air in February. Whether or not it's cancelled for good is still not clear. (If it is, then that's the first time in history that an Internet petition has actually worked, and we can all look forward to Korea having a strangle hold on the anime industry from now on.)

[kenichi-bokushi.livejournal.com]

Much of it does have some Korean animators involved with it; it's possible that protesters have manged to like picket the studios or some of the animators decided not to work on it (in which case, maybe they would be able to find a different group of animators?).

Studio DEEN (the same company that made Higurashi no ku Koro ni, Kyou Kara Maou, Vampire Knight and Junjou Romantica, among many others) is the company handling the actual production.

[shincaru.livejournal.com]

The date of that petition is from Jan 10 ... I think it's too late in the anime process for it to have contributed majorly to the delay. Thinking about the current economic climate and the overall costs of an anime, possibly someone somewhere got cold feet?

That, and ... uhhh, Koreans have complained about a lot of things in Japan, and I think Japan usually carries on as usual until the Koreans forget and move on to another thing to complain about. *mutter*

[kenichi-bokushi.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- not to mention that it's some silly Internet petition. It is possible that they just didn't think they could market it (though, really, they should have thought about that before they went ahead and cast it, added staff and even made a trailer).

[bubbole.livejournal.com]

So do they actually cancelled the first airing on the 24th or they just skipped the month?

[kenichi-bokushi.livejournal.com]

It's possible that the February thing was a typo (it read "ni-gatsu," or February, on the site), since it was slated to start in January. However, that means that at best the start would be delayed.

[bubbole.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see! Thanks, I actually hope for any shift, but alas, it's better a move on an other month than the cancellation!

[kenichi-bokushi.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I hope it is a shift to another month rather than a full-on cancellation.