It’s not terribly uncommon for a rumour to be posted on Reddit’s /r/anime. Often, they’re based on very little; perhaps an image of dubious origin at the best of times. Sometimes, they’re just the rumour on their own without proof. And sometimes, it’s a magazine scan with a completely incorrect translation.

Without fail, at least one rumour a month can pop up, and I thought it worth writing a guide on how to quickly spot whether or not a rumour is true, in terms of both truth and sheer possibility.

The Tite Kubo Tweeting ‘Bleach Anime to Return’ Case

This image has done the rounds a few times since the Bleach anime halted. A fan of the series will post it, either believing it unquestioningly, or wanting to have it verified. Each time, you’re much more likely to find a ton of comments taking the stand that Bleach shouldn’t even bother coming back, and others will take offence at the first lot for their comments. Anyone who actually tries to answer the question gets buried underneath, especially if they try and take the time to explain their reasoning.

Often, however, there can be clear tells as part of a rumour that it’s false, which most people are can to do quick checks on to see if it makes sense. Take the idea of the Bleach anime coming back. You can do some rudimentary checks – the Anime News Network news list, basic Google searching, say – but you might not get a conclusive answer. So what can you do on your own?

The first thing would be to check Twitter itself in this case, of course. The account in question does exist, and checking the photos and videos gallery there shows unique artwork, and over 150,000 followers. It’s probably safe to assume that this really is Kubo Tite. Yet, when looking for this particular tweet, it’s nowhere to be found.

Of course, the image itself looks heavily edited, but it could be that it has been edited a few times – cropped for size, say – which could explain the heavy artifacting in the image (though at the level that the black colour from the text spills heavily into the white background, I’d imagine it’s been edited so much due to being a Photoshopped prank), but this is the least of the problems with the image itself. To explain what’s wrong, however, requires a bit of Japanese knowledge.

Learning Japanese

To fully understand the extent of how little what has been said makes any sense, grammatically, would take a long time; probably in excess of a year to tell at a glance (seriously, it was probably a non-native speaker running it through Google Translate). But there are definitely some smaller things to point out.

Firstly, a note about personal pronouns in Japanese. Most people will know of 私 (watashi), a gender neutral term. Much less commonly known is 俺 (ore), a heavily masculine term for ‘I’/’me’, with a lot of ins and outs and caveats for use in social situations. There are many more, and learning Japanese pronouns can be very useful (because they tell you an awful lot about the character of a person; here’s a pretty basic, albeit shonen-biased video to get a start on learning some), but for now, these two are the important ones for the rumour.

In the image above, Kubo appears to refer to himself using 私 on the second line. Yet, a cursory glance over every tweet in his actual timeline shows he’s far more likely to say 俺, which is pretty huge. He’s not talking like himself at all, and it is a cause in-and-of itself to highly doubt the legitimacy of the screenshot. This, however, isn’t the greatest issue with the tweet. The second sentence is one that shows it is completely false.

Those Who Make the Decisions

(The following section contains some plot spoilers for the middle of Bakuman’s run.)

Bakuman was a pretty cool series. It told the story of two kids who teamed up to write manga, with the dream that, one day, it would be adapted into an anime. The series is most interesting in that the pair decide they want to write for Shonen Jump, the very magazine the actual manga is published in. Not only do they explain how manga is made, and the decision-making process on which manga should appear in the magazine, they also show the decision-making process for selecting a series that should get an anime adaptation.

In the case of Shonen Jump, this would be the publishing company, Shueisha. The manga created by the pair in Bakuman, ‘PCP’, was considered for an adaptation into an anime. The pair wanted the series to be adapted, and there were proposals sent into Shueisha, but the idea was shot down pretty quickly. And there lies the issue. The selection process for which anime gets adapted is all down to Shueisha, as the production committee, not the authors themselves.

The idea that Kubo Tite would be able to announce that, “[he] has a new contract with TV-Tokyo,” becomes absurd when you know this piece of information. The way the English wording comes across makes no sense, as the contract would be Shueisha’s to make. They would tell Kubo, of course, but he would be under a non-disclosure agreement until the production would be well under-way, and an official announcement would be most likely made in an issue of Jump itself.

With all of these points to mind, and that the main reason for the anime’s hiatus still an issue (there wasn’t enough material to avoid filler episodes), it is exceptionally easy for me to simply dismiss this as an unreliable source that Bleach would be coming back.

More on Production Committees

March 28th 2013 marked the final episode of Kyoto Animation’s original series, Tamako Market. Rumours were abound with what, if anything, would be announced; KyoAni hadn’t left us unaware with what they’re working on, and with nothing airing at the time, since Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu finished airing in November 2003, as Ultimatemegax’s chart shows.

Many people began suggesting possibilities, including sequels for either Full Metal Panic or The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The problem is, neither of those had a chance of being announced, and, with a bit of knowledge on production committees, you’ll understand why.

Firstly, televised anime makes it onto certain channels in a very different way from western television. In Japan, the production committee has to buy a time-slot, and they get to fill it how they want – their show, their advertising space. It’s why you’ll find adverts relevant to the show and other products created by the same production committee, for example.

Looking back at the chart again, you’ll see KyoAni has only worked with 2 production committees, Kadokawa and TBS/Pony Canyon. It becomes clearer, then, why neither FMP nor Haruhi would be announced after Tamako Market aired: TBS/Pony Canyon wouldn’t use its own advertising time to announce a Kadokawa title.

And indeed they didn’t, instead announcing, vaguely, that Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai is to get another project (though we have no idea in what format it is to be in). They followed this up a week later with the announcement that Kyoukai no Kanata is to receive an anime adaptation too (and again, no idea of the format), once again with a TBS/Pony Canyon committee.

So that brings us to the pending announcement on their website. There are some suggestions people have made that we can safely dismiss. Firstly, it is probably not going to be Chuunibyou, nor Kyoukai. They’ve already had their announcements, so it would be highly foolish to have this kind of secretive countdown; too anti-climactic.

Secondly, there hasn’t been a Kadokawa anime airing since Hyouka. As these tend to air at least once a year, it wouldn’t be too surprising for this announcement to end up being one of their’s, especially after two TBS/Pony Canyon show reveals.

Thirdly, I, personally, find it unlikely that it would be the Swimming Anime CM from before. That it would be a Kadokawa committee is highly doubtful, as they have their own content to pick from, so it’s more likely that’d be a TBS/Pony Canyon committee.

So, with this knowledge, we’ve already cut down a few common theories and rumours that people have been discussing. While we have no guarantees, it’s still a solid guess, backed up by enough data of previous trends. To turn around and claim it’s Full Metal Panic, say, would be taking it further than we have clear evidence of, but at least it doesn’t fly in the face of evidence we do have.

It would probably be worthwhile, on this note, to delve deeper into production committees in more detail. I feel, however, that it would be better served in a separate article, after more research is done into the different committees, to make sure the conversation is done justice. Instead, it’d worth touching on what happens when the evidence we’ve tried to build up is actually incomplete.

Deceptive Scans & Translations

Earlier this year, Trigger (Little Witch Academia) announced in the March issue of Newtype magazine that they would be working on their first television animation project. Due to be directed by Imaishi Hiroyuki (Dead Leaves, Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt), it caught people’s attentions immediately, and scans of the magazine began to flow out. Unfortunately, one of the popular scans circulated was the above cropped one.

Cropped images are a nightmare. Not only does it not show the source, but who knows what kind of relevant information is being omitted? The above image, at the top-right, is a perfect example. In it, we see Okada Mari, a シナリオライター (scenario writer) has written a blurb about the project. This much is easy enough to verify, at least. It’s when the rumour starts circling that the blurb claims that she is to work on series composition for the new Imaishi project that it doesn’t just become difficult for those who can’t read Japanese to dispute the claim, but for those who do, as the relevant information has been discarded.

After a bit of searching, however, the following alternative scan can be found:

Not only does this show the source is indeed Newtype, but it also contains an explanation as to why so many different people wrote a blurb. Various people from the animation industry, and outsiders to the project, were shown a sneak-peak at production materials, and they commented on what was seen. In fact, the only person announced to absolutely be working on the project is Imaishi.

The scan does not say, one way or another, whether the people commenting are actually involved with the project, but it would be safer to assume that they aren’t attached, based off of such weak evidence.

It goes to show how dangerous it can be to trust cropped scans, especially ones that leak out early. It is much better to wait for a full page scan, or better yet, the release date for much more trustworthy a source, a physical copy, to ensure that false rumours aren’t spread too far.

We won’t actually know anything else until the the issue of Newtype released on May 10th. For now, here’s the Trigger-uploaded teaser trailer, simply reiterating what we already knew. It’s good to have multiple sources!

Nasty Rumours Spread Fast

It only takes one person. One person can innocently ask a question about a rumour they heard, when the sought after information is out there already, and people will start believing the rumour is true. Channels get crossed, and the truth gets buried. It’s the way of the internet.

Yet there are always sources people can check for, tidbits of information people can pick up on, that can answer a question before it even needs to be really asked. There’s always websites that will tell you production committee members, sources for boxed copy sales figures and even lists of titles used for film credits, so you can tell who’s responsible for certain aspects of a show.

Many more of these are available, and when we’re able to all be on the same page without mistaken information, that’s when a truly meaningful conversation can happen.