I still feel for KyoAni. This time, though, they went too far

After the fire, everyone went easy on KyoAni, the industry and the fans alike. New shows took longer, and we waited. When something felt off, we told ourselves, "After what they've been through…" That was only human, and they deserved the support.

But feeling for a studio is one thing. Judging its work is another. We should still be able to say a project was badly planned, a source was mishandled, or the business side has drifted. After years of being protected like that, KyoAni may have gotten a little too used to being trusted.

You can see where the confidence comes from. They changed K-ON! a lot, and it worked. Same with Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!. They expanded Free! and rebuilt Violet Evergarden from the ground up, and pulled it off every time. After a run like that, it's easy to start thinking the original is just raw material, and that they'll make it better.

Back then, fair enough: they had the skill to back it up. But once the planning and judgment slip, the same confidence starts to look like arrogance.

That's what bothers me most about Sparks of Tomorrow. I'm not saying adaptations can't change things. It's how they changed this one. It reads like they're telling the original:

Meiji-era Kyoto? Won't sell. Real historical atmosphere? Not anime enough. So let's add steampunk, a parallel world, a chase with a business conglomerate, and slap "ユーレカ・エヴリカ" on it. There. Now it feels like a KyoAni show.

If I were the author, I'd just have to laugh. And here's the irony: the novel came out under KA Esuma Bunko, KyoAni's own imprint. They found it, published it and promised the anime. Then they didn't even trust their own book. They kept the title and the outlines of the characters and made something else. So why call it an adaptation?

I don't want to say they "had it coming." There's no need. The numbers already say enough: CITY THE ANIMATION sold just over 500 discs. And however gorgeous the first episode of Sparks of Tomorrow looks, if the story can't hold up, the backlash over the adaptation will land right back on them.

People still care about KyoAni. But nobody can say "if KyoAni made it, it must be great" with quite the same confidence anymore.