There wasn’t a single news story that I wanted to highlight here, but rather to collect several smaller bits of news together in the same place. Production issues seem to be plaguing multiple shows at the moment:
- Jujutsu Kaisen and Mappa have had some high profile issues with the tight production timelines which has led to delays in distribution in some cases.
- Butareba’s 9th episode was announced to be delayed for one week. In its broadcast slot, they will instead re-air episode 8.
- The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess’s 9th episode was also delayed a week. In its broadcast slot, they are planning on airing a recap special.
All these issues in the current season are in addition to the continued delay of Zom 100 which is slated to air its final episodes in one batch on December 25th. Also, not to mention delays that were present in previous seasons to shows like Nier and Uncle from Another World.
For additional context on some of the issues, there have been industry professionals speaking out about some systemic problems.
- The founder of Mappa and Madhouse Studios, Masao Maruyama, spoke in an interview about how the industry’s focus on commercialization has hurt creative expression and storytelling. (I am ignoring the China portions of this interview as I don’t think they are nearly as important as he does).
- More recently, Nishii Terumi (former animation director for JJK 0 and Jojo), posted to twitter (stop trying to make X happen) about problems training talent (English article) due to studios focusing on profits rather than talent development.
I don’t have much to add to this. I wanted to try to find a good summary article to share about the topic, but couldn’t find much. So, instead, just kind of made a cliff’s notes version here. I just wanted to keep people here in the loop with stuff.
Thanks for the news roundup. I know it probably takes more time than you want and gets fewer votes than it would on Reddit or something, but it is good to see here.
More recently, Nishii Terumi (former animation director for JJK 0 and Jojo), posted to twitter (stop trying to make X happen) about problems training talent (English article) due to studios focusing on profits rather than talent development.
Sakuga Blog has been pushing the “anime is dying because the talent is being stretched too thin and/or not being cultivated properly” angle for a long time. At first I thought it was overly alarmist, though maybe we are actually seeing it in real time and we just don’t realize it. After all, it’s not like there will be one day where suddenly every studio in Japan stops producing anime, it will of course be a gradual change.
Agree that this is one of those issues that are going to be difficult to identify from the outside as merely a viewer. It is even harder to get a peek behind the curtain with a language barrier. It seems analogous to a company cutting IT staff because everything is running right in order to save money. Then, when there is an issue later, the staff that they hurriedly hire or outsource the work to, struggle. Pretty standard short-sighted corporate profit seeking. Unlike in IT, where a piece of hardware breaks and suddenly nothing works, in anime production we would just see production timelines and quality slip.
I am ignoring the China portions of this interview as I don’t think they are nearly as important as he does
I also agree as until China is free from it’s authoritarian regime it will never be able to achieve full potential of creative expression
Yeah, he qualifies his statement similarly. From the article:
“In Japan, people are no longer trained in animation,” Maruyama said. “The only reason China hasn’t quite caught up with Japan yet is because of a bunch of restrictions imposed on free expression there. If more freedom is unleashed, Japan will be overtaken in no time.”
I think he believes the loosening of restrictions in China to be more likely than I do. Frankly, I don’t see this as likely in the foreseeable future. To the point that I don’t think this should even be a point of discussion. I agree with his points about focusing too much on commercialization and profit margin maximization within the Japanese animation industry, but his statements about China are what the media ran with (talk about profit maximization).
It’s unfortunate that these issues are nothing new at all. The consequences of those issues just finally seem to manifest on a broader scale. I really hope that something will change for the better, but with the news of Kadokawa (I think) starting more studios, I have my doubts. And we as fans can’t do much about it except maybe boycott anime of certain studios, but I feel like that will leave an even smaller dent than the reddit boycott.
Also, don’t forget AoT. It was supposed to end 2 years ago, but probably due to a completely unrealistic deadline, that obviously didn’t happen (and I’m glad it didn’t. It wouldn’t have been this good otherwise)
Yep, it was Kadokawa.
