Anime production facts that blew my mind

ArcadeLore · Apr 12, 2026

Been going through anime history and the production stories behind some classic shows are insane.
Akira (1988) needed 50 entirely new paint colors because the existing anime palette couldn't capture Tokyo at night. 327 colors total, 160,000 hand-drawn cels. They basically reinvented what anime could look like.
Neon Genesis Evangelion had only 2 finished episodes when it premiered in 1995. The rest were written week-by-week during broadcast. Gainax ran out of money, which is why the final two episodes look completely different from the rest of the series.
And this one: in 2010-2011, anonymous donors across Japan left school supplies at over 300 children's facilities, all signed "Naoto Date" (the protagonist from the 1960s anime Tiger Mask). No hashtag, no campaign. Just people collectively remembering a cartoon hero and acting on it.
I put together a full set of anime trivia questions here: https://learnclash.com/blog/anime-trivia-questions
What anime production fact do you know that most people haven't heard? The behind-the-scenes stories are sometimes crazier than the shows.

hippy dave · Apr 13, 2026

I like the Akira colours fact, my spouse is an artist who has been experimenting with manga-like styles using different materials including ones from Japan that are intended for it.

Kwyjor · Apr 13, 2026

I found a video a while ago about the "glow" effect used in vintage anime – something about letting the backlight shine directly through the animation cel – and how difficult it is to replicate digitally.

Alas, I can't quite seem to find the precise video anymore.

Robert Newbie · Apr 17, 2026

This reminds me of 90's internet. Back then, forums and resources were scarce, so it was easy to boost a fake story.

In my case, someone alleged that it took an entire month to localize a single episode of Pokemon. Even as a kid, I had a hard time believing it. Sure, it took time for 4Kids to edit content, do voice recordings, produce original songs (PokeRaps), approve scripts, etc., but a month per episode sounded horribly expensive and inefficient. Plus, it would require multiple teams working concurrently. Of course, it ended up being false.

I'm still amused by that memory.

TL;DR: I (will always) miss 90's internet.

To be productive, I found this trivia bit (from TV Tropes) about Yu Yu Hakusho's English dub:

Directed by Cast Member: In the English dub, Justin Cook was the ADR director as well as Yusuke Urameshi's voice actor. He once joked in an interview with Animerica magazine that he was much more demanding of himself than the other actors.

I noticed this back in the day by watching the credits. Apparently, Justin Cook was all-in on Yu Yu Hakusho. I think that, in the commentary for the last episode, he admits to buying a bootleg DVD set to watch the series in full. On top of that, he researched the manga to better direct other voice actors.

Skv0ra · Apr 19, 2026

Apparently Crunchyroll started up as your run of the mill fanslation free platform and then up and decided to profiteer by squeezing other platforms off the war table. Then proceeded with absolutely awful treatment of the entirety of their staff to date.

Japan literally never factored overseas into their anime production, so having "official" localization is extremely moot especially when the original licensor oversees next to nothing when it comes to localization unless its an extremely huge franchise.

synpulse · Apr 22, 2026

One thing I always found cool is how older anime had that glow because light was literally passing through the painted cels. That’s why it still looks different from modern digital stuff.

Anime production facts that blew my mind

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