Fans Are Worried About The Anime’s Production Conditions

Over the past month, Sakamoto Days has been releasing weekly episodes exclusively on Netflix, and the series is becoming one of the strongest anime titles available on the service. But some fans are worried about it.

While new fans seem mostly excited about the anime, long-time manga fans have been vocal about the animation’s quality. Before Sakamoto Days debuted, many expressed concerns regarding the action scenes – in their opinion, the scenes featured in the trailers looked stiff and not on par with neither the manga’s nor with other Shonen Jump series’ quality. These complaints likely drove some people away from the show in the first days.

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Many of them still don’t enjoy the way the animation is adapting the series – the action segments do feel a bit stiff, but not enough to annoy most of the audience. But some are now raising concerns about the production conditions of the series.

Signs That Production Might Have Been Rushed

A user pointed out on X (formerly Twitter) that, in the last episode of the series, 23 studios were credited – this account is now private, but screenshots of their posts were shared on Reddit. For those unfamiliar with the anime industry, it’s common for studios to outsource part of the production.

The main studio organizes and handles the most important parts of the show, while other studios take care of secondary processes. But when too many studios are involved, it generally means that the schedule is messy, and that the animators might be overworking and needing more help to meet the deadlines.

Netflix requested TMS to produce episodes before airing, so they could work on the dubs to release everything simultaneously. Not dealing with a tight weekly schedule could be a way to give the staff proper time to produce the series, but fans now think the production was rushed and are worried that the second part, set to debut in July 2025, will be worse.

According to another user on X/Twitter, the process of choosing TMS as the studio was competitive, and many studios submitted video material (likely trailers or short pilot episodes) to pitch the series. The user claims their source is an interview, but as they don’t provide any further information (who was interviewed, which outlet interviewed the person, a link to the interview, and so on), it’s not possible to check their claims. This kind of selection is not uncommon to happen, though:

Reaction of the Fans

Fans mostly reacted negatively to the allegations. On Reddit, a user commented:

Another one added:

anime industry is a legit slop factory, all the execs care about is pushing out episodes as fast as possible

A third one said:

They should have really taken their time… Peak DEMANDS Time… Also reports are that the show had been finalized in 2021…when SD still felt like a slice of life MANGA… So they probably didn’t think to assign a proper action team to the anime… This would explain A LOT!!

Despite the complaints, a few also praise what the staff has been able to accomplish besides the alleged limitations:

Source: Reddit and X/Twitter

Sakamoto Days

Release Date

January 11, 2025

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  Matthew Mercer

  Taro Sakamoto

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  Rosalie Chiang

  Lu Shaotang

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  Rosie Okumura

  Aoi Sakamoto