Pudge Master, is a fantasy Isekai story. It started off as a super simple idea. What if an overweight guy was dropped into a land of warriors? From there the idea was built upon. Imagine a world that never needed to develop martial arts… And a video game based power system that allowed Our main character, (who would later be named Mason Cole) to use martial arts at an expert level. With this in mind I started gathering references, and made the very first drawing of Mason in January of 2024.
From there I delved deeper into the story. Building out the world in my head. Around this time I had finally broken down and started watching one piece, due to the edits I would see on TikTok. In these aforementioned edits I would see clips of the Wano arc, and of Haki. For those who don’t know it is a sub power system in the one piece series, that allows you to manifest black metallic looking armor. The visuals of it were so cool to me, and Haki looked like candy. So before even finishing the alabasta arc, or knowing what Haki truly was I took inspiration from it and added the Armor system to pudge master. This armor would be actual metal, and would function differently than Haki, although being inspired by it visually. And it would stand alongside the fire and ice powers I had already planned to add.
As the story developed I started making more concept art. In that same January I created the look that would be the building blocks for Mason going forwards.
I also started to learn animation, and used it to express some of the ideas I had in my head. But as the visuals expanded the story’s possibilities, The actual writing of said story was grinding to a halt. Things continued in that vein until September 2024. I was slowly but surely getting better at animation, and I had managed to make a short and simple Judo animation, featuring Pudge Master. The art style I came up with for that animation, gave me hope for the future. It’s simple nature would allow me to make a more substantial animated project, which would also flesh the story out more, I hoped.
While I did continue to make animations, and rough plans for a short film, the forward progress of Pudge master had slowed to a crawl once again. I couldn’t quite nail down the characters motivations, or personality’s. And the more animations I made, the more I realized I was mostly interested in the visuals that Pudge Master offered, not the story. I kept working on the series here and there, but It was relegated to the back burner.
Until one fateful day… On March 14 2025, the animation software I was using exclusively at the time (FlipaClip) Had just announced an animation contest for Original characters. The prizes looked good, and I felt confident enough in my animation skills to enter, and hopefully win. But which character would I choose. At that point I had over a dozen series in various stages of development, and could’ve chosen any of them. But since it was an animation contest I knew I would need something with great visual potential, something to grab the judges attention… The answer was right there. “Pudge Master.” It was the perfect choice. There was pretty much no story to speak of, so that meant no wild expectations in my head that I would need to live up to. It definitely had good visual potential, and thanks to that simpler animation style I had accidentally created, I would actually be able to finish an episode by the deadline. I made two videos documenting the process of this challenge, as well as the actual finished episode itself. They are all on my YouTube channel if you want to see them, so I won't waste time with the gritty details of producing this episode.
The final product was a little rough around the edges, but it was promising, and it showed me a path forward. The audience response to Pudge Master was also really great, and I started working on the second episode right away. I thought of ways to build on the story I had set up, and make something truly epic. But again I hit a roadblock. The concept had potential, but the story itself was still half baked at best. But even with that, I knew this series had legs, and I no longer felt comfortable giving up on it, or relegating it to a bland cookie cutter plot. So I stopped what I was doing. I buckled down. And on October 13 2025,I sat myself down to truly write this story. No BS, no random animations to make myself fell good. I actually focused in on writing a great story. I chose to write it like a light novel, rather than a TV script, of a Comic series. This allowed me to write from Mason’s perspective. I dove into how he felt, and who he was as a character. The world around him also developed, and as things started to come together,The story of Pudge Master finally became clear. There were still tough parts, still rewrites and sections that needed a lot more work. But the story was finally good. I’ve kept up the writing to this very day (Sunday August 16, 2026) getting as deep into the story as I could, so that I could add in foreshadowing, and correct continuity errors. And now Pudge Master is finally in a place where it can evolve, and take center stage. So whether you were there for episode 1, or you’ve read the future light novel, or manga adaption, or hey maybe your reading this after the anime was finished, I don't know. But I can tell you, the Pudge Master story Is finally something that I can be proud of. And I’m excited to share it with you all in the future.
written by: MD Hairston