1. Sunrise had no faith in Code Geass
Code Geass is one of the most popular anime series around the world, but Sunrise expected it to be a failure.
Sunrise did not make the development easy for Director Taniguchi and his staff. Season one was cut from 50 episodes down to 25.
The first season’s success didn’t give Taniguchi much freedom for the second season.
A change in time slots forced them to tone down the content and to include a time skip, so new viewers wouldn’t get too confused with the story up to that point.
The only good thing to come from Sunrise’s restrictive nature was that Taniguchi had to create the Geass power and C.C. in order for the series to get greenlit.
#2. Angel Beats! was randomly cut short
The most common complaint against Angel Beats! is that it’s too short.
Subplots are dropped, character backgrounds are never told, and various character relationships are left unresolved.
Most shows are cut short because of lack of confidence, a natural disaster, or bad viewer numbers. None of that applies to Angel Beats!, it was just randomly cut from 26 to 13 episodes.
One possible reason is that the project cut into too much time for Key’s staff.
However, Angel Beats! has expanded into a successful multi-media franchise with a light novel, two manga, a visual novel, and three OVAs (the third is set to air June 24, 2015).
#3. The Cell Saga in Dragon Ball Z was the result of editors
For most fans, the Frieza and Cell sagas are considered the best arcs in Dragon Ball Z.
But what some fans don’t know is that Akira Toriyama’s editors are just as responsible for their popularity as he is.
In the case of the Cell saga, the editors kept rejecting Toriyama’s villains.
That’s the reason why Toriyama cut from the Android to the Cell saga so quickly. It’s also why Goku and crew fight Androids 19 and 20, then 17 and 18, and the three forms of Cell in a relatively short time.
#4. Naruto was originally a ramen manga
Naruto mangaka Masashi Kishimoto once revealed that in his first ever TV interview, he initially planned Naruto “to be about ramen” and that “it is aimed at boys in middle school.”
“I initially thought I would write a story about ramen, but it wasn’t accepted.”
“So I thought I might do something about Japan and with ninja in it.”
The crazy thought was obviously not accepted..
#5. Did Dragon Ball influence the birth of One Piece?
More than 20 years ago, Eiichiro Oda was a huge fan, and also an assistant of Akira Toriyama.
Oda was inspired by Akira Toriyama’s work (notably, Dragon Ball) and aspired to become a manga artist.
His pirate adventure One Piece, which debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997 quickly became one of the most popular manga in Japan with sales of over 65 million copies.