There are still plans to continue Stars Align.
Clarifying his previous statement that there were "no plans to produce more episodes" after the scrapped episode 13, director Akane Kazuki tweeted, "I'm very sorry to say that I still haven't found a production company or a company willing to fund the production of the sequel to 'Stars Align.' Therefore, I have not been able to gather the animators to produce 'Stars Align.' However, I am preparing to make episodes 13 to 24 someday."
To the overseas supporters of "Stars Align".
— 赤根和樹 Akane Kazuki (@Akane2514af) April 19, 2021
I have received many Twitter direct mail questions from overseas fans of "Stars Align" regarding the episodes after episode 13. ↓
Kazuki denied the rumor that there was a movie being developed that would conclude the show's story and further explained the nature of the Stars Align Special Fan Movie, a short released on YouTube in May 2020. The short showed the anime's various characters, now in high school, two years after the finale of the anime's first season. Kazuki explained that the fan movie was "made up of scenes taken from the scenario of episode 13" and answered, "Why did the story suddenly start two years later, and what happened to the story of Maki and Toma that was directly connected to episode 12? I plan to make it so that you can understand it when you watch the completed episode 13."
While production on the anime has come to a halt because of a lack of funding, based on these tweets, Kazuki clearly still plans to complete the anime's story and even has some unused animation and material from later episodes at the ready.
Directed by Akane Kazuki of The Vision of Escaflowne fame, the 2019 sports anime Stars Align (Hoshiai no Sora) was a cult favorite series with a significant overseas fanbase. The anime was originally supposed to run for 24 episodes, so when the network canceled the series 12 episodes in, confused fans spent over a year waiting to see if the series would ever be completed.
Stars Align is an original sports anime about a boys' soft tennis team. The series centers on Maki, a child from a broken and abusive home, who joins tennis enthusiast Toma and enlivens his school's declining soft tennis club. Although a sports anime, Stars Align was equally a coming of age drama about each of the boys' personal lives. The series accrued a notable cult following, particularly overseas in North America, and its cancellation, which came after a very dark cliffhanger, has been long lamented by its fans.
Source: Twitter
