Many upcoming and currently airing anime projects have been delayed or postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The effects are mainly being felt in Japan, where soon to premiere series like Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World- and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Climax have had their broadcasts postponed. The effects have spread to anime distribution in America as well, as Funimation announced last month that over a dozen of their currently airing English dub releases would be delayed due to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions. Evidently, these restrictions weren’t enough to hold back the incredibly popular English dub of superhero action anime My Hero Academia, as Funimation went through an incredibly complicated quarantine recording process to be able to release episode 84 with English audio this week.
https://twitter.com/FUNimation/status/1248753758550573061
Funimation posted a blog update explaining that they had been “working around the clock” to figure out a way to continue working on their SimulDub content during the ongoing COVID-19 quarantine. Their efforts resulted in a unique at-home recording and editing setup for a lot of their talent, with a Twitter video posted to the Funimation account outlining exactly how they went about recording and working with nearly 30 staff and voice actors all quarantined in their own homes. There is currently no set date for an English dub release of the next episode of My Hero Academia.
The full list of Funimation SimulDub series delayed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is as follows:
- BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense — starting with episode 9 on March 18th
- Hatena Illusion — starting with episode 8 on March 19th
- Infinite Dendrogram — starting with episode 8 on March 19th
- Nekopara — starting with episode 9 on March 19th
- Smile Down the Runway — starting with episode 9 on March 19th
- Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun — starting with episode 9 on March 19th
- Asteroid in Love — starting with episode 5 on March 20th
- Case File nº221: Kabukicho — starting with episode 21 on March 20th
- Darwin’s Game — starting with episode 9 on March 20th
- My Hero Academia — starting with episode 84 on March 21st
- Black Clover — starting with episode 124 on March 22nd
- ID: INVADED — starting with episode 13 on March 22nd
- Sorcerous Stabber Orphen — starting with episode 10 on March 24th
- A Certain Scientific Railgun T — starting with episode 8 on April 3rd
