In fact, by the time the production of the "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" theatrical film was announced, the animation production team at L.S Produ had already finished their break and entered the official production phase for the "Mugen Train Arc."
Compared to a TV anime, a theatrical film has higher requirements for image quality. However, as an adaptation of a manga, the plot is a faithful recreation of the original work, and since it is a story that continues directly after the first season, not much time was needed for the script or character design. In this situation, a full year of production time was already more than enough for L.S Produ.
The only variable was the pandemic.
Lin Zhiyan had no control over this. Although some fans hailed him as the "God of Anime," he was not an actual god and lacked the ability to control the pandemic.
All he could do was push back the release of the anime originally scheduled for the first half of 2020 as much as possible, into the second half of the year or even 2021. This would allow more time for L.S Produ and L.S animation's production, ensuring that if any staff members were to be infected, it wouldn't cause a sudden production crisis that would compromise the film's overall quality.
Other than that, all he could do was pray that the pandemic wouldn't happen. However, considering that this wasn't a parallel world, but rather one that had slightly deviated due to his rebirth—even the major earthquake in '11 had occurred as usual—the possibility of the pandemic not appearing was almost zero, unless a miracle occurred.
Although a part of the reason for Demon Slayer's high box office was the "opportune timing" of the pandemic, Lin Zhiyan actually still hoped to enter a timeline without one. After all, this thing was quite terrifying, especially in the early stages when there was no cure, no treatment, and one could only wait for death.
As a reborn person, he could avoid those garbage animations and try his best to pick animations with potential to produce, but this virus was invisible and intangible. Even for someone who had been reborn, it wasn't impossible to get infected.
It would be laughable if he accidentally got infected and died when the time came.
It would be best if a miracle could happen.
It was a pity that, unsurprisingly, no miracle happened.
Entering 2020, the virus raged, and the production and daily lives of all mankind were greatly affected. Naturally, the Japanese animation industry could not be spared.
Lin Zhiyan had hoarded several warehouses' worth of face masks early on. When the pandemic situation in Japan became severe and many people couldn't buy any masks, he directly distributed them by the box to his employees, family, and friends. Even so, a few people he knew still ended up infected.
Fortunately, Lin Zhiyan was cautious enough. Before the pandemic even affected Japan, he had already started wearing a mask. Even when going to the office, he avoided close contact with others and did not dine out with outsiders. Later, seeing the pandemic beginning to affect Japan before it became severe, he immediately announced a work-from-home policy, urging employees to use remote work via computer whenever possible.
Due to his caution and a stroke of luck for his family, while some people he knew were infected with the virus, it did not spread to him or his family.
Later, as the pandemic worsened, his whole family stayed at home, not stepping out at all and avoiding contact with outsiders. Any purchases were delivered via contactless delivery, and items were disinfected before being brought inside. Under these circumstances, the probability of infection was even lower.
However, although Lin Zhiyan and his family were not infected, the pandemic still had a major impact on animation production. Fortunately, when he established the 2020 animation projects beforehand, he had arranged very loose production schedules. Under these circumstances, even with the impact, he was still able to ensure that the animations were completed to a high quality and that every episode was broadcast on television as scheduled.
Some other companies were quite miserable; some animations were affected by the pandemic, causing their production schedules to explode.
Although there are ways to handle having a sufficient production schedule and ways to handle a tight one—and if all else fails, you can even use a recap episode or a special voice actor program to get by—it's clear to any discerning viewer whether the quality is high or low and whether it has been affected.
In the past, many people on the internet would shout "the industry is doomed," and after the pandemic emerged, even more people believed that the animation industry was finished.
Even for the animations from L.S Produ and L.S Animation, although they continued to maintain high quality, it still made people very skeptical about how long they could hold on.
As for Lin Zhiyan's goal as a producer, even before the pandemic, few people believed it could be achieved, and once the pandemic hit, even fewer people thought it was possible.
Lin Zhiyan also entered a very low-profile state; although he would often still follow comments online, he would not post anything, nor would he accept any interviews.
"This Star Wants to Retire"
However, the two animation companies, L.S. Produ and L.S. Animation, were quite active, from time to time announcing some animation-related news, which would then become the focus of discussions among netizens.
For example, news related to the final season of the anime "Attack on Titan".
The first season of the anime was produced by L.S. Produ, and the second and third seasons by L.S. Animation. The remaining final season was originally supposed to continue being produced by L.S. Animation, but before the PV for the final season even arrived, L.S. Animation had already announced that it would no longer be producing this anime, while simultaneously announcing that the animation studio MAPPA would be taking over the production of the final season.
When the news was announced, the manga's ending had not yet been released, so viewers naturally didn't think that L.S animation had dropped the project because they knew the anime would have a poor ending.
The reason publicly stated by the official L.S animation account for not producing the final season was: "L.S animation has many other animation projects, and due to the impact of the pandemic, many had to be postponed. However, Kodansha had specific requirements regarding the release date of the final season. To avoid producing a final season that did not meet L.S animation's standards, we have transferred the production of the final season to MAPPA."
The reason was clear and reasonable, but it still made the audience unable to stop overthinking.
Some people started to speculate: Was it really just due to insufficient production time?
Could it be that the popularity of the "Attack on Titan" anime in Japan had already declined, with disappointing disc sales for the second and third seasons, and since L.S Produ had a new cash cow in "Demon Slayer," they didn't want to continue investing in the "Attack on Titan" IP, so they simply found MAPPA to take over?
This speculation has gained recognition from many, though many others dismiss it as complete nonsense. While it is true that the popularity of the second and third seasons of "Attack on Titan" in Japan waned and disc sales were significantly lower compared to the first season, the licensing fees for the anime in North America and Europe were quite substantial.
In fact, the revenue from selling the broadcasting rights in North America and Europe alone was enough to recoup the production costs of the anime, meaning everything else was pure profit. At most, they might have made less money than expected, but it wouldn't have been to the point of a loss that required someone else to take over.
Perhaps it really is as officially announced: it was simply a matter of insufficient production time.
This topic has generated quite a lot of discussion.
Apart from this, there is also news regarding the "Uma Musume" mobile game and the second season of the anime. Originally, the mobile game was scheduled for release in the winter of 2018, but the official announcement cited various reasons, stating that "the quality does not meet the standards for release, and the specific release date is to be determined."
By 2020, there was finally some clarity on the release date, with the game set to launch in February 2021 and the second season of the anime to air in January 2021.
Many people had assumed this project was dead, so this sudden progress naturally sparked a great deal of discussion.
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