Everyone knew that Studio A-Cat getting announced as the animation studio for The Beginning After the End was bad news. Fans of TurtleMe’s beloved web novel and manhwa were skeptical about the studio given its track record. The studio’s history of anime adaptations is marked by lackluster animation quality, and this raised red flags in everyone’s minds.
The Beginning After the End is eleven episodes into Season 1, and the fears have materialized into disappointment (what did y’all expect?). Every episode is plagued by horrendous animation and poor CGI. What was supposed to be an epic journey has degraded into a nightmare. Can A-Cat learn from its mistakes and deliver a better season 2, or will its subpar animation persist?
Season 1 of The Beginning After the End is plagued by bad animation
We don’t need to expand on this, but we will. It’s no secret that Studio A-Cat’s work on The Beginning After the End’s Season 1 has been a masterclass in missed opportunities. The studio could have risen to the opportunity and delivered a masterful adaptation for a novel as beloved as The Beginning After the End, but it seems to have become habituated to mediocrity.
Instead of giving fans some great animation and improving the public opinion about their works, A-Cat decided to continue on the “bad animation” route. Every episode in the first season of The Beginning After the End lacks fluidity. The characters, who are supposed to be lively individuals, often appear as static figures (don’t even get us started on how they massacred Reynolds).
Instead of appearing like living beings, the characters slide across the screen like they’re part of a PowerPoint Presentation. The show’s action scenes suffer from sh*tty choreography and overreliance on CGI that feels clunky and out of place. One minute, you see decently animated characters, and the very next moment, your day is ruined by CGI animals.
While the bad animation and lack of facial expressions ruin the viewer experience, they also change the story. Characters’ mouths barely move during dialogue (opening and closing someone’s mouth doesn’t mean that they are talking, for god’s sake). This, in turn, makes the story’s emotional scenes feel lifeless.
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The horrible animation, bad CGI, and heavy use of still frames disrupt the viewer’s experience, and make episodes feel like slideshows. Many fans are calling The Beginning After the End’s adaptation a disservice to the source material, and we can’t help but feel bad for TurtleMe. All these things make us wonder whether the studio can improve its animation in The Beginning After the End’s Season 2.
Can Studio A-Cat break its cycle of mediocrity?
The thing about mediocrity is that it becomes a habit, and in Studio A-Cat’s case, it definitely has. The studio’s history doesn’t inspire confidence about The Beginning After the End’s future (we don’t think they can improve). The studio is infamous for producing low-budget anime with bad animation quality.
The flaws we’ve seen in the first season of The Beginning After the End align with this track record. This pattern raises doubts about the studio’s animation ability and makes us wonder if it’s too late for the studio to pivot. Perhaps they’ve indulged in mediocrity for so long that they can’t move on from it (they are popular for all the wrong reasons, lol).
However, there are glimmers of hope (we’re optimistic). There is a chance of Studio A-Cat improving its animation for the second season if it partners with co-animation studios. This way, it can address issues like CGI learn better project management. The Beginning After the End is a huge project, and A-Cat must do whatever it can to make it a success.
The first season of The Beginning After the End has been a letdown in terms of animation, thanks to Studio A-Cat. The season has been full of static animation and poor CGI. Fans are now concerned about Season 2’s animation, and while there’s potential for improvement, it’s not going to come easily.
The Beginning After the End is currently available to stream on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
