naiwa 2026-06-07

Meng Sun shared the story of the creation of the donghua and gave fans hope for a sequel.

After the release of the final episode of the donghua "Fangkai Nage Nuwu" ("Release That Witch"), director Meng Sun from Thundray studio addressed viewers with a detailed personal post on Bilibili. He described in detail the project's journey from idea to screen and announced that negotiations for a continuation are already underway together with the rights holder — the company Yuewen. Earlier in the spring, the situation was different: the series was cut from the planned 12 episodes to eight due to a conflict with the distributor, and there was no talk of a continuation.Meng Sun became acquainted with the novel back in 2018 and at that time sketched a short demo in the style of animator Naoyuki Onda. Full development only began at the end of 2019: initially, the series was conceived as ten one-hour episodes in the spirit of American dramas, but later it was reformatted into twelve twenty-minute episodes. This explains the density of the first four episodes — they contain material originally intended for a much longer runtime.The delay in release also received an explanation: episodes completed as early as 2022 did not come out due to a combination of circumstances — unstable international conditions, the aftermath of the pandemic, economic shocks, and frequent changes in leadership at the client. The director especially thanked the team that continued working even after funding was sto…