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My Sister, My Writer Credits List Animator with Pseudonym 'Honestly, I'm Screwed'

posted on by Kim Morrissy

My Sister, My Writer has been attracting buzz this season, but not for the ideal reasons. Its deteriorating animation quality has been a trending topic on Twitter since the second episode aired in October.

Even the production staff appear to be perfectly aware about the situation and are making light of it through a pseudonym for one of the key animators. Episode 6's credits include a name called Shōjiki Komata (正直困太), which translates roughly to "Honestly, I'm screwed."

It is not unusual for animators to work under pseudonyms on titles they do not wish to have their real name associated with. The name Shōjiki Komata does not appear on the credits of any other anime project. The inclusion of this pseudonym has been interpreted by fans as an implicit apology by the production staff for the poor quality of the animation as well as a cry for help.

That might very well be true. Staff announced on Tuesday that the anime's 7th episode is delayed until next week due to production delays. The various television channels will air a rebroadcast of episode 6 instead this week.

The production troubles of My Sister, My Writer have been evident in the credits of every episode of the anime that has aired so far. The animation production is led by studios NAZ and Magia Doraglier; the former is credited primarily with production assistance and in-between animation while the latter is a newly formed studio. The credits of multiple episodes indicate that a large portion of their first and second key animation was outsourced overseas.

The credits of episode 2 indicate that the key animation, in-between animation, in-between check, and finish animation for the entire episode were outsourced entirely to a subcontracting company Buyu. According to their Wikipedia page, the studio has dissolved their key animation department and specializes mainly in in-between animation and finish animation.

Episode 5 credits up to seven animation directors. In animation circles, a large number of animation directors per episode is often interpreted to mean that the animation directors lacked the time to correct errors in the animation, requiring them to bring in more people. This contributes to a lack of uniformity in the animation style.

My Sister, My Writer premiered on television in Japan on October 10, and Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs. The anime's planned early streaming of the first episode was cancelled "due to production issues."

Source: Soranews24, Rakuten Infoseek


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