[Updated] The Story Behind The Aliens vs. Predator Animated Series!

[Nightmare Asylum]

I might have missed something while listening yesterday (was getting some work done while it was playing), but from the way I remember hearing it, it sounded like a lot of the more out there ideas talked about in this podcast episode ("Game Master" et al) didn't necessarily carry over into what was actually made, right? I was under the impression that that was all part of the original Japanese pitch but not necessarily 100% reflective of the project that was actually made.

[xShadowFoxX]

I totally would love to see a Machiko anime in that stylized traditional style. Either from Mappa or Madhouse.

[Cougerboy]

Well...with the Hollywood strike, Disney might run short of shows to put on air, if that is the case, who knows, we might see this anime out...somewhere. Of course, I much rather have Disney release it other than for the strike reason, but at this point, I don't care what causes it to be release, I just want to watch it, man.

[Corporal Hicks]

I might have missed something while listening yesterday (was getting some work done while it was playing), but from the way I remember hearing it, it sounded like a lot of the more out there ideas talked about in this podcast episode ("Game Master" et al) didn't necessarily carry over into what was actually made, right? I was under the impression that that was all part of the original Japanese pitch but not necessarily 100% reflective of the project that was actually made.

No, that's a fair point. I jumped the gun there. They did say it was the initial pitches. I wonder how detailed they'll get with the second part. Would love to know more solidly what is being withheld.

I am disappointed to hear they were pushing to have Yautja used in there. I'd just hope if they did it'd be within the context of the Predators referring to themselves though, and not just a random name used by mankind for the Predators like it ended up being in the Rage War.

[Enjoy]

Exhausted fan here

[BenditlikeBeckum]

clearly we know not what the hell anime is today.

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm hoping Part 2 will dish some details there.

[Herc Mondo]

See, the original idea they had is exactly what the hell I wanted. That sounds perfect pretty much: give us Machiko's story from
The books/comics. Plus War?! That would've been the illest route.

[Darkness]

Part 2 is out now. Sounds like it was ditched due to the quality of it being bad.

I'm having trouble pinning down the dates. He mentions that he was approached to do a Aliens anime afterwards based on Alien Isolation which hadn't been released. That would would put it at 2013 but he hadn't done the AvP anime until 2015/2016. I wonder if he was talking about that terrible Isolation Digital Series they put out in 2019.

[Corporal Hicks]

I was listening on the way to work this morning. Yeah, he's talking about the Digital Series.

[Marc505]

Just listened to episode 2 now and, yeeaahh that's the end of the short lived excitement I had about hoping to see this one day. It sounds quite poor - though that's based on this interview with two people who are understandably biased.

I'd like to see some screenshots of it perhaps, just to get an idea of the overall look of it, but I'm no longer under any illusion that there's a fantastic animated AvP series sat on the shelf that fans are missing out on.

[SiL]

How bad can it be considering that awful Isolation series?

[Nightmare Asylum]

Interesting listen. This whole thing definitely sounds like a messy experience through and through, with a lot of very specific conflicts/biases on either side of the project (those biases are very apparent in the way these guys talk about the project/the Japanese team, and I'd be curious to hear from Shinji Aramaki and his team's end to hear their own biases as well).

I've long made it known that AVP as a crossover concept is something that I don't have any real specific care/affection for, and I guess this project probably wouldn't have shaken that mentality for me in any significant way. But still, as a curiosity, as something that's pretty unique to these franchises, I'd still be very curious to see what this weird synthesis of a thing would have looked/felt like; if it ever were to leak or release, I'd still be very happy to check it out and give it its fair shot. I definitely wouldn't be coming to this looking for that "classic" Alien/Predator flavor, it just isn't a project that seems to have had any interest in that and that's totally fine by me, honestly. As for whether it would have been good, that's a whole different thing haha.

The news about the Shirley novel added to this adds another super interesting/weird layer to the thing though, in that Disney-era 20th Century Studios/Titan was looking to resurrect at least the bones of the story from this anime to use as the premise of a book just two short years ago.

I still think, though, the best way to do Alien and/or Predator in animation would be a more The Animatrix-esque anthology, with incredibly varied tones and styles where where some installments can be pretty dialed back and harken close to the films, while others can be super out there, larger than life takes on the material that just would never work in live action.

How bad can it be considering that awful Isolation series?

Also, yeah, this thing was dire. At the very least, even if Annihilation was bad, I can't imagine any world where it is worse than that. Annihilation would have at the very least been some interesting, messy, stilted oddity, as opposed to the most bland, half-assed, junk that was the Isolation webseries.

[Enjoy]

All they had to do was hire stan winston when he was alive to make an avp movie with a nice budget and talented director like the Current Dune film maker BUT NO.

[[cancerblack]]

I still think, though, the best way to do Alien and/or Predator in animation would be a more The Animatrix-esque anthology, with incredibly varied tones and styles where where some installments can be pretty dialed back and harken close to the films, while others can be super out there, larger than life takes on the material that just would never work in live action.

Agreed.