When you hear or find something interesting that gets you excited, it’s like finding a pot of gold. That’s the case here when there’s a new anime or donghua that caught our attention from the first day it was revealed, like the Chinese donghua Blades of the Guardians and why it was delayed.
Most of the time, it makes us excited and sometimes nervous because we can’t wait to see it and want it to come out as soon as possible. But hoping for the best can lead to sadness when things don’t go as planned or take longer than expected.
Blades of the Guardians (Biao Ren), one of the most-anticipated Chinese anime (donghua) among anime fans, is in the same situation. First, it was said that the donghua would come out in 2020. That was almost 3 years ago, and we still don’t know when it will come out.
Still, it’s good to know that Tencent still mentioned it as one of their upcoming Chinese anime releases at their annual conference. This means that the project is still being made and hasn’t been canceled.
Blades of the Guardians and Why It Was Delayed?
Okay, We’ll explain why We thought Blades of the Guardians had been delayed, even though Tencent had been making a lot of noise about it since it was first announced in 2021. Our main points may be based on nothing but guesswork, but they are based on what we’ve read and seen from the Chinese animation company that made it, Colored-Pencil Animation.
We thought that the lack of people working on it was the main reason why it was taking so long. We have seen that Colored-Pencil Animation keeps offering jobs for Blades of the Guardians from late 2021 to late 2022. This means that the project doesn’t have enough people or skills to finish.
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Even though Tencent originally listed and hinted that Blades of the Guardians might come out in the spring of 2022, the anime hasn’t been launched yet. We also thought this was true because they showed several promotional movies for different donghua characters. This is something that Chinese animation shows often do to promote a new show before it comes out.
Surprisingly, Blades of the Guardians hasn’t come out yet and it’s the year 2023. So what’s taking so long? Even though manpower might have been a problem, we think Tencent and Colored-Pencil are trying to make this project big. Unlike their other projects, they might be spending a lot of money and hiring skilled animators for Blades of the Guardians.
After all, if we look closely at all the trailers and advertising videos that have been released so far, we can say for sure that Blades of the Guardians is much better than most Chinese animations we have seen so far. It’s almost as good as some of the best Japanese animes.
Aside from Blades of the Guardians, Colored-Pencil Animation has a lot of other projects to work on, like The King’s Avatar Season 3, Silent House, Daydream, and Warm Sun. So far, the only donghuas that have come out since 2020 are The King’s Avatar Season 2 and Fantasy x Hunter, both of which came out later than planned.
Lastly, the return of Covid-19 cases in China is another reason for the delay, which may also slow down the production of donghua. Also, Chinese control is something to think about. We’ve heard that, because of tight censorship, Chinese animations often have to be changed or redone in order to pass the censorship board, which is usually made up of many stages.
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Still, 2023 is a new year, and delays aren’t the worst thing that could happen to a show that people are so excited to see. Cancellation must have been the worst-case situation, and as long as Tencent keeps it on their list of upcoming Chinese anime, we can always expect the Blades of the Guardians donghua adaptation to be one hell of a ride.
