Former Employee Reveals Conflict Between Director and Original Author of a 2016 Anime

Our story today began on October 25th, when a post went viral on social media with a simple tweet that reached over 25 million views. Subete Hana wrote:

“Q: Why are there so many original authors who hate directors trying to add creative expressions or original scripts to anime?

A: Because there are so many directors and writers who completely lack confidence, and once the original author entrusts them with the anime, they start acting as if they created the work themselves (lol). The result is a terrible mess.”

This short tweet, explaining why manga and light novel authors often dislike anime directors and scriptwriters, went viral and sparked huge discussions online. Soon after, another account went even more viral by replying to Subete Hana’s post.

Alleged Former Employee Reveals Dispute Between Director and Author

The user SatZki claimed to be a former employee of an anime studio and shared a story from 2016 that he said he experienced firsthand. He wrote:

“I’m a former employee of an anime studio. There was a case where the director tried to force certain ideas and expressions into an anime he was working on, without sharing that information with the original author. The anime aired as it was, and afterward, the original author became furious, causing a major problem.

The company completely cut off communication with the original author, and all production and PR departments were instructed not to contact them, creating a totally isolated environment. I can’t name the title, but it’s from a Jump series.”

He made several follow-up tweets providing more details:

“The main cause was the director and writer who tried to push ideas and insert references from other shows on the same network without permission.

The total fallout with the author happened because, once the anime aired, they realized the content was different from what had been planned, leading to a huge issue.

Additionally, this same studio worked on a very famous title where they couldn’t keep up with the budget, causing the schedule to become extremely tight and the quality to drop drastically.”

In another post, he later clarified that it was actually the author who cut ties:

“The original author cut ties not only with the director but with the entire animation studio. Because of that, no one was able to meet with the author to discuss production matters anymore.”

The tweet spread like wildfire and quickly became a trending topic. Many people believe they’ve already figured out which anime he was referring to — D.Gray-man Hallow, which aired in 2016 and was produced by TMS Entertainment.

Many users commented things like:

“If what this guy is saying is true, D.Gray-man Hallow finally makes sense.”

Based on several Japanese comments, many fans believe that author Katsura Hoshino hated that particular season of the anime.

I haven’t personally watched D.Gray-man Hallow, but judging from the reactions, it seems one of the elements the studio tried to include — and that the author supposedly despised — were yaoi-like themes. Many users even shared the illustration below:

The illustration above was made by the anime team, and according to several comments, many Japanese fans say that the author absolutely hates that image.
It’s also worth noting that D.Gray-man Hallow had its Blu-ray and DVD releases canceled at the time.

However, there are also skeptics who argue that we shouldn’t believe an unknown Twitter account, and that even if the story were true, this person would be violating confidentiality agreements by sharing sensitive internal information.

some reactions:

• These half-baked stories only end up hurting studios that are doing things right. If you’re going to speak out, you’d better be ready to tell everything.
• This is just a low-level employee tweeting office gossip. He’s not an executive or anything — anyone who believes this is an idiot.
• Many people claim to be “animators,” “directors,” or “former directors,” but it’s often total lies. There are too many delusional people posting nonsense online.
• There was that manga where the author got mad about the anime and banned the Blu-ray/DVD release, right?
• I remember there being some “suspiciously gay” talk about D.Gray-man.
• But no one really watched D.Gray-man, right?
• Anyway, if the author gets mad, it’s over. That’s why you need to coordinate properly and get approval in advance.
• If the studio ignores the author’s intentions and just does whatever it wants, of course there’s going to be trouble.
• I don’t think it’s D.Gray-man, though.

What do you think about this whole D.Gray-man Hallow controversy?