I don’t remember the last time a Chinese donghua or a Korean drama was “delayed due to quality issues” but, unfortunately for Japanese anime, that seems to happen quite often.
(Anyone remember last year’s Uncle from Another World that took 9 months to finish airing?)
Case in point, the ongoing Haigakura anime series is apparently not releasing any more episodes for the near future due to animation studio Typhoon Graphics “needing to spend more time to make sure the quality of Episode 8 is as good as it can be”.
That decision was announced earlier today via the anime’s official X account, with no date being given as to when we can expect the fantasy anime to continue its run.
Typhoon Graphics did, however, nicely apologize for the delay. Saying this to everyone involved:
We sincerely apologize to our viewers, Shinobu Takayama, the author of the original work, Ichijinsha, the original publisher, and the artists and other companies that have cooperated with us in this promotion for the inconvenience this may cause.
Meanwhile, with seven episodes already released, the anime’s official website has now announced, in lieu of Episode 8, Haigakura will be rebroadcast starting from Episode 1 on November 25th.
In other words, it will likely be into 2025 before we have any chance of Episode 8 appearing, with my guess being some time in early January.
That’s because, if the first episodes of a series are going to be re-aired, the TV station airing it will usually time those episodes to end when the next not-yet-released episode is scheduled to premiere.
And that currently puts Haigakura, Episode 8’s appearance in the first couple of weeks of January.
What is Haigakura?
The anime is based on the fantasy-themed manga of the same name written and illustrated by Shinobu Takayama. A very popular manga series in Japan, I will add, with almost 17 volumes out so far.
The plot goes something like this:
Haigakura tells the story of a group of so-called “song officers” called Kashikan.
These people use both songs and dances to keep the four gods, known as the Four Evils, in their own realm. But, when two of the gods suddenly escape, the world is plunged into crisis.
It is now up to Ichiyou, one of the Kashikan, to head to modern-day Japan with help from lesser god Tenkou and try to capture them.
Unfortunately for Ichiyou, he is tone-deaf, which caused him to become a Kashikan dropout. How then will he and Tenkou (who can be a real pain in the rear) be able to carry out their task and put the world back to the way it was before?
While it may be a while before Haigakura, Episode 8 appears then, the first seven episodes of the fantasy anime are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
And no, it is nowhere near as bad as the current ratings on My Anime List suggest (I have enjoyed all seven of the released episodes). Then again, which anime ever is, eh?
Note: I will also give you a hint on why the MAL ratings are so bad — some people downvoted it because the subtitles on the illegal site they watched it on stopped halfway through the first episode.
Now that’s hardly the fault of Typhoon Graphics now, is it?