Although anime is known for its beautiful animation, music, and storytelling, it can be surprising to learn that many popular anime were made on surprisingly tight budgets, especially compared to animation in the West. This also especially becomes a problem when anime is released overseas, as dubbing studios might not have much of a budget either. Added to this, even when a series has a decent budget at the start, it can lose funding or get its budget cut at any time during production.
Despite all of these issues, anime can still become pretty popular in spite of the problems they face during production. In fact, many popular and famous anime actually started out with humble origins.
10 Violinist of Hameln: The Series Really Liked Using Still Images
This anime series takes place in a world where music has magical properties. It has been noted by fans that the series seemed to save its animation budget for scenes with a lot of action, and making constant use of still images, causing some fans to dub this series the "Slideshow of Hameln." Allegedly, a big reason for this was because much of the show's budget went to securing music rights.
Although the series is somewhat obscure in the States, possibly due to a lack of a proper English translation, its low budget didn't keep the show from developing something of a cult following.
9 Kemono Friends: Budget Issues Were Only The Start Of Production Problems
In this series, a girl wakes up with no memories in a mysterious zoo filled with other girls with various animal features. Budget problems were so bad for this series, around ten people had to work over 500 days for this series. Despite this, the series developed a cult following, one that reportedly even increased the popularity of real zoos in Japan.
Allegedly, even the series' director ended up surprised that the show became popular in spite of its low budget. On the other hand, the series would also end up suffering media backlash after the series' original director had been fired.
8 Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Series Won An Animation Award In Spite Of Budget Issues
This anime, which revolves around students fighting duels over a mysterious figure called the "Rose Bride" at a similarly mysterious school, was also known to have a limited budget.
Allegedly, this lack of budget helped the show obtain its unique style, with its emphasis on stock footage. One famous scene known for using its stock footage involves the character Nanami trying and failing three times to play a prank on Anthy, which repeats the imagined reactions of the characters. Despite the budget, in 1997, the series won the Best TV Animation Award at Animation Kobe.
7 Sailor Moon: This Might Be The Reason The Series Used So Much Stock Footage
There is speculation that budget issues were the reason the show was fond of using stock footage in the Sailor Scouts' attacks and transformation sequences, especially during the first three series. Notably, quite a few attacks the girls had in the manga did not appear in the '90s anime and, throughout the seasons, Usagi was usually the only girl to get different transformation sequences. Added to this, some of the stock footage was known for its errors, like Usagi having 7 fingers during her "Moon Prism Power" sequence.
That said, another reason for the show's inconsistent animation also came from different animators working on the show. Regardless, none of this kept the show from becoming an anime that helped define the '90s.
6 Chargeman Ken: Poor Animation Ended Making This Series Go Viral
This series revolves around a boy named Ken who transforms into a superhero to fight aliens called the Juralians. In this series, it has been noted that the animation quality was so low that characters often spoke without their mouths moving.
Notably, the series also opens up with Ken having his powers, instead of explaining his origin story. In spite of these animation errors, or possibly because of it, the series eventually became something of a meme online.
5 Hetalia: Axis Powers: The Budget Improved By Season Five
In this series, the characters are personifications of various countries, which spawned a popular trend online with viewers imagining original characters based on various nations or territories, with some fans even making original characters of fantasy countries.
That said, the series had modest origins, with the first few seasons of the show having a low budget. Notably, the budget for the series seemed to increase by the fifth series.
4 Kill La Kill: This Might Help Show How Inhuman Certain Characters Are
This series, despite its impressive animation, was noted for having a limited budget, especially compared to other series that came out around the same time.
For some fans, this arguably helps with the style of the series. For example, the limited animation of the character Nui Harime can be said to help reflect how inhuman she is.
3 Musashi Gundoh: Fans Actually Liked The Version Before It Was Cleaned Up
This anime series, which takes place in a fictional version of Japan, involves a version of martial arts using guns. However, the series was known for its low budget, with poor art and animation, especially for its overuse of padding shots. Despite this, its poor animation is actually believed to be a primary reason that the series managed to get a fanbase.
In fact, when a DVD release actually attempted to clean up the animation, many fans of the original claimed to prefer the original television version.
2 Minky Momo: The Heroine Was Killed Off After A Sponsor Pulled Funding
This famous magical girl series lost funding after a toy sponsor pulled funding due to poor sales in spite of the series' popularity at the time.
The animators famously got revenge by killing off the main character by having her get run over with a truck filled with toys, although the character would soon be reborn as the child of her foster parents.
1 Neon Genesis Evangelion: Fans Theorize A Low Budget Was Behind The Surreal Final Episodes
This series is considered one of the most famous anime of all time, but there is speculation it did face budget issues, especially towards the end of the series.
One theory as to why the final episodes of the series were so surreal was possibly because of budget issues, with the last two episodes infamously using much stock footage. On a related note, it's believed that scripts were rejected and rewritten at the last second.