It seems that another animation study failed to endure the pressure. Cloud Heartsknown for anime as “Tawawa on Monday“,”The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule The World“, And more recently”Whisper me a love song“, Banking procedures have begun since December 2024, as confirmed by records in Japan.
Cloud Hearts was born as a division of Yokohama Animation Lab studies before becoming independent in 2021 with Satoshi Nakatani as CEO. From the beginning, the study never worked completely alone, since all its production were supervised or co-produced with Yokohama Animation Lab. Despite its short career, the study left its mark on several series (either good or bad shape). But production problems and their dependence on sub-contracting personnel from abroad soon tacked.
One of the biggest signs that something was wrong was what happened with “whisper me a love song.” First, the anime had to be released in winter-2024 (January-March), but was delayed until spring-2024 (April-June) for “several circumstances.” Then, its original director, Cai Xinya, left the project for health problems and was replaced by Akira Mano. As if that were not enough, the last two episodes were delayed until December-2024 and, when they finally left, Cloud Hearts no longer appeared as a study by the project.
Do not offer to Anyone Still Enjoying It But Sasakoi Barely Shows Signs of Holding Itself Together. So many visual discrepancies are a Clear Sign of Poorly Handled Animation Work. Even The Live Band Segments and Music Don't Necessarily Mesh Together Well.pic.twitter.com/ns8husgezs
– Baleygr (@Baleygr086) May 25, 2024
On the other hand, Yokohama Animation Lab had also had his own dramas. His anime “New Saga” was delayed indefinitely in 2023 and resumed in 2025, but with a completely different team. The same happened with “Sword of the Demon Hunter”, which had to leave in June-2024 and is now expected for March-2025.
Thus, Cloud Hearts closure is a reflection of a bigger problem: small studies cannot survive in the current conditions of the anime industry. This industry continues to grow, which makes many producers depend too much on the cheap labor of abroad and bad efforts to get the projects in record time. Although Yokohama Animation Lab is still standing, it would not be uncommon for the steps of Cloud Hearts to soon follow and prepare for its imminent closure.
Fountain: Anime Atelier
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(Tagstotranslate) Cloud-Hearts
