I am trying to create a list of canceled anime. It would be nice if you help me to expand the list and also share your thoughts. What do you think are we going to see the revival of any of this titles.
It's currently incomplete I will add more titles.
1. Girls' work
• Type-Moon x Ufotable collaboration project. The anime was announced in December 2010 since then we have no info about this anime. Still there is no official statement about its cancellation.
• Plot : The story involves a version of Shinjuku that has "become one" with Paris. The city is called "the city that dreams", and is mentioned to be the real main character of the story.
2. Mirai Arise
• Sunrise original anime announced way back in 2015 at AnimeJapan and was supposed to come out in 2016. Unfortunately got cancelled according to the lead character designer.
3. Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou
• An anime film adaptation was also announced on February 9, 2017 but since then we got no additional info.
• Plot : Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou is a mystery series about a young woman who solves the mysteries of ancient books that are brought to her secondhand bookstore in Kamakura, Japan.
4. Orbital Era
• Supposed to be an anime flim directed by Katsuhiro Otomo at Sunrise. announced on July 2019.
Plot : Story of some boys in a society in the near future on a space colony under construction who keep living their lives while they're being tossed about by fate.
5. To the Moon
• Supposed to be an anime movie announced in May 2018 as of now we don't know anything about the project.
• Plot : A story-driven experience about two doctors traversing backwards through a dying man's memories to artificially fulfill his last wish.
6. Chimera
• On March 5, 2018, Yumemakura's agency revealed via Twitter that Mamoru Oshii will adapt the novels for screen but since then there is no info about this project.
• Plot : A young student discovers he has superhuman abilities of various beasts absorbed inside him. He must struggle to keep his hold on reality and not be taken over.
7. Tokyo Babylon 2021
• A full anime television series adaptation, Tokyo Babylon 2021, was announced in 2020, but was cancelled in the wake of accusations of plagiarism.
• Plot : Tokyo Babylon is a Japanese manga series by Clamp about Subaru Sumeragi, the 13th head of the Sumeragi clan, and his sister Hokuto as they protect Tokyo from supernatural threats.
8. Yuri on Ice : Ice Adolescence
• A Yuri on Ice original film was announced in April 2017. The film was originally scheduled to be released in 2019, but was subsequently delayed. Unfortunately this movie got delayed in April 2024.
• This movie was supposed to be a prequel movie focus on young Viktor Nikiforov.
9. Ten Count
• An anime was announced in March 2018. A teaser trailer was released on March 23, 2019, which listed a 2020 premiere date. The adaption was revealed to be a film produced by East Fish Studio and SynergySP. On January 19, 2024, it was announced that due to production circumstances, the film was cancelled.
• Plot : Corporate secretary Shirotani suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. One day he meets Kurose, a therapist who offers to take him through a ten-step program to cure him of his compulsion. As the two go through each of the ten steps, Shirotani's attraction to his counselor grows.
10. Shishou Series
• An anime adaptation by Pierrot Plus was announced in 2016 but latter it was revealed that the anime got cancelled.
• Plot : The story revolves around a protagonist who experiences various spiritual encounters due to his upperclassman at his college's club, the "master teacher" in the series title that has spiritual sensitivity.
11. Dreaming Machine
• Dreaming Machine would have been Satoshi Kon's fifth feature film but due to Kon's death on August 24, 2010 this movie got cancelled.
• According to Satoshi Kon_ "The title will be Yume-Miru Kikai. In English, it will be The Dream Machine. On the surface, it's going to be a fantasy-adventure targeted at younger audiences. However, it will also be a film that people who have seen our films up to this point will be able to enjoy. So it will be an adventure that even older audiences can appreciate. There will be no human characters in the film; only robots. It'll be like a "road movie" for robots."
12. Force of Will
• An omnibus movie project based on the Force of Will trading card game was announced at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and was supposed to release on 2018 but unfortunately got cancelled for unknown reasons.
13. Despera
• An anime adaptation was announced in 2009. There was an update in 2018 it was still in the works but with development issues. In 2021 Konaka said it was 80% funded and has been continuously worked on except during Covid-19 pandemic interuptions. So it still is moving along but no release date.
• Plot : The story centers around Ain, a 12 later 14 y/o girl who builds devices despite her lack of scientific or engineering background. An alternate history science fiction story, it is set in Tokyo during the Taishō era in 1922, one year before the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.
14. Aoki Uru
• A sequel to Gainax's 1987 film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise was announced titled Aoki Uru. Aoki Uru was originally planned to be directed by Hideaki Anno and scripted by Hiroyuki Yamaga, with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto serving as its chief animation director and character designer.
• During 1992–93, the Aoki Uru creative team produced a complete storyboard, a partial script, and a large collection of designs and pre-production art for the film; however, the project had been initiated without a secured budget, and its development occurred within a period of personal, financial, and managerial crises at Gainax that contributed to the indefinite suspension of work on Aoki Uru in July 1993.
• Aoki Uru co-producer Yasuhiro Takeda has argued that the themes and circumstances surrounding the film project influenced the creation of Anno's TV anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, the planning for which began in the same month that Aoki Uru was put on hold. In the years following 1993, Gainax has made occasional announcements regarding a revival of the Aoki Uru concept, this time to be directed by Yamaga, with Sadamoto remaining attached to the project, including a multimedia proposal in the late 1990s, and the formal announcement of an English name for the film, Uru in Blue, at the 2013 Tokyo Anime Fair. In 2018, the Uru in Blue project was transferred from Gainax to Gaina, a different corporate entity and subsidiary of the Kinoshita Group, with the aim of a worldwide release of the film in 2022; an essay published at the end of 2022 described Yamaga as currently working on the project.
15. Nidome no Jinsei wo Isekai de
• On May 21, 2018 Mine and Kabocha's light novel series "Nidome no Jinsei wo Isekai de ([New Life+] Young Again in Another World)" anime adaptation was announced but unfortunately this anime got cancelled because original creator MINE was involved in controversy regarding his alleged insults and discriminatory remarks directed at China and South Korea, along with allegedly discriminatory content within the story of the novels themselves.
Plot : When death tapped Renya Kunugi on the shoulder, he smiled and went willingly. After enjoying a nice, long life of 94 years, he was looking forward to shutting his eyes for the last time. He was, therefore, understandably upset when he woke up again in an empty space, devoid of memories, with a young girl in a tunic rambling on and on about how she's God. So, he did what any reasonable person would have done under those circumstances: he sent the girl flying with a kick to the face. It turned out that the girl was indeed God, and she was in a pinch. She urgently needed someone to do some interdimensional Resource smuggling, and Renya fit the bill.
His mission: cross the boundary into another world, then chill for a few decades. God would handle the rest. To sweeten the deal, she offered him an eighteen-year-old body and a whole laundry list of ludicrously powerful skills, yet he remained hesitant. Then, she mentioned the food—an exotic world comes with exotic delicacies—and this sealed the deal. The next thing he knew, he was standing in a foreign land, younger, stronger, and more clueless than ever. Will he survive this world? And more importantly, will the world survive him?
16.Boku wa Robot-goshi no Kimi ni Koi wo Suru
• On May 7 2018 an announcement was made that Boku wa Robot-goshi no Kimi ni Koi wo Suru (I Fall in Love With You Through a Robot) novel will get an anime adaptatio by A1 Picture they even release a trailer but due to some unknown reason unfortunately it got cancelled.
• Plot : Set in the year 2060, the novel follows a love story as Tokyo's third Olympics draws near. Takeru Oosawa, who works for the AI Robot Technology Research Lab, is chosen as a member of the national secret project using humanoid robots. With the help of childhood friend and co-worker Youichirou Amano and his sister Saki, Takeru tries his best to reach his objectives. However, the situation changes when Saki's office receives a warning note for terrorism.
Anime movie called Dreaming Machine/Yume Miru Kikai being cancelled due to director of movie Satoshi Kon dying before they could finish it. In addition, no other studio/person was given a chance to finish the movie due to them not being trusted
Not canceled but it has been in "development hell" first announced in 2009. Last update said it is still not there on funds but 80% funded back in 2021
Despera ですぺら
The story centers around Ain, a 12 later 14 y/o girl who builds devices despite her lack of scientific or engineering background. An alternate history science fiction story, it is set in Tokyo during the Taishō era in 1922, one year before the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.
Genre: science fiction, steampunk?, adventure?, drama?(different sources)
Producer: Dazzling star
Writer: Chiaki J. Konaka
Character design: Yoshitoshi ABe
I have a suspicion the Serial Experiments Lain anniversary project stuff was in part in order to gain money for Despera but I have no source on that. This was reported to be the spiritual successor to Lain and you can see the similarities in the character even down to being same age Lain was in the video game 12 then later 14 like in the anime.
it's funny because you are right spun. anime fans keep complaining ''WHY SO MANY SEQUELS????'' as if they don't already know the answer
it's the same freaking reason hollywood loves sequels. it's because ORIGINAL WORKS are risky for investrs WITH THE MONEY whereas already well established IP with recognition = $$$$$ in their eyes
I'm not sure if it's counts but t.A.T.u's anime was canceled. t.A.T.u. Paragate is the name. Because of the cancelation, they made a song called "Gomenasai". They wanted to work with Shinichiro Watanabe, which is surprising.
Edit: eblf2013 already wrote. Sorry for not saw this on before.
@CombatMaid Of course it was announced by Gainax. They have like 10 projects "they're working on" for more than a decade but no updates on any of their projects, in fact they haven't released anything at all in like 5 years. Why doesn't Gainax close already?
I suspect Girls' Work is same situation as I mentioned Despera has. There is no intention to not making it but it likely is lacking in funds needed to make it. So it can not be made until the funds are gathered. Too bad people cant just donate to creators somehow, is that a thing? I know some anime is crowd funded but can you give just randomly hand over money without a crowd funding campaign?
Gonzo was making a Mardock Scramble adaptation back in the mid 2000s, but it ended up being canceled, buncha stuff about it can be found out there like a pretty vague trailer and some pics.
Who are you and why do you show your hostility towards a complete stranger whom you've not once spoken with before. Are you seriously asking to get blocked? Well, if that's what your intent is; to tempt me into throwing hands with someone as lowly and insignificant as you, then i may grant your wish provided you articulate yourself a bit better when trying to spite a person of my wavelength.
Any of the KyoAni works with the original production (sequel to Disappearance, etc.)
but the Haruhi movie might have intentionally been open-ended standalone with its ending
@NonAtmospheric Were these confirmed to exist at least though? I'd like to know since it's a bit of a sad case a Haruhi sequel was in development which got canceled.
Not confirmed to be cancelled, but the movie based of Satoshi Kon's unfinished manga, Opus. Which is pretty ironic. I'm pretty sure it was announced back at the same time that the Pluto adaptation came out by the same studio that created Pluto, so it could be in the works still. But I'm pretty sure it's been four/five years since it's announcement. Covid probably really screwed over it's production.
A sequel to mekakucity actors was announced in 2016, but we never got more news about it. New 'Mekakucity Actors' Anime Announced this is the page of the news, you can see that the link that directed to the anime entry was deleted, it's now a 404 error Mekakucity Reload on MAL
@ZXEAN
No it was only announced in 2009. There was an update in 2018 it was still in the works but with development issues. In 2021 Konaka said it was 80% funded and has been continuously worked on except during Covid-19 pandemic interuptions. So it still is moving along but no release date
"[New Life +] Young Again in Another World" was supposed to have an anime adaptation done by seven arcs but got cancelled because of the controversy surrounding the author.
An anime adaptation of Alive: The Final Evolution was planned by Gonzo in the late 2000s. But their financial struggles and being delisted by the Tokyo Stock Exchange led the project to get canned.
There was supposed to be a sequel to Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 called Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2041 that was quietly shelved.
A planned collaboration between DIC and TMS Entertainment to create a futuristic take on Lupin III for American audiences called Lupin VIII was in development in 1982 before being cancelled. There were several episodes developed for it, with one being fully animated as a pilot without voice recordings and several others being partially animated.
Madhouse had plans to do an animated Peanuts short in 2012. But there hasn't been any new news on the project since then.
Tokyo Babylon, Yuri on Ice movie, and Ten Count still hurt me so much.
The Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu Movie has been announced since 2017, until now still no news :') I anticipate it will go down the same path as YoI: Adolescence considering ufotable is working on Demon Slayer right now. A shame.
As far as I remember, it seems the director for the Zombieland Saga Movie also quit working at MAPPA and transferred studios? That seems like it's the end for that movie too. Either way, anything MAPPA touches that isn't a big money maker seems to be canceled anyway, so I wouldn't hope for the best :(
@pk8list gosh, I almost forgot that one existed. looks like something from the late 90s - early 2000s. shame its not seeing the light, it looks pretty appealing.
From your list, I was really looking forward to Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou as it is one of my favorite novel series. That's very sad when I found out that the anime was canceled. 😔
@pk8list gosh, I almost forgot that one existed. looks like something from the late 90s - early 2000s. shame its not seeing the light, it looks pretty appealing.
@MichaelJackson Yeah, it feels like a good mix of Lovecraft and Giger. Same that the project got scrapped.
Not sure if this really counts as anime since its California-based production studio Unified Pictures adapting the manga but I figure its worth mentioning, Vampire Hunter D: Resurrection was a CG animated series that was announced in 2015 and as of now no new information has come out about it.