In less than ten years, Mappa has established itself as one of the most important animation studios in Japan. Each new project of this company founded in June 2011 by Masao Maruyama and located in Suginami, Tokyo prefecture, unleashes passions. A popularity obtained thanks to the adaptations of the most popular manga of the moment: The attack of the Titans, jujutsu kaisen and now chainsaw manwhose first episode airs this Tuesday on Crunchyroll.
To measure the immense popularity of Mappa, it was enough to go last March to the preview of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 at the Grand Rex, to discover the room shouting the name of the studio in unison as soon as it appears on the screen. “Our name is especially easy to pronounce regardless of the country,” explains the studio’s president, Manabu Otsuka, who met in July at the Japan Expo. “That’s why people remember it so much more easily.” However, this success is accompanied by ultrablocked communication.
To meet Mappa leaders, you must show your credentials. Certain topics, such as working conditions inside the studio, are taboo. It is also difficult to evoke the figure of Masao Maruyama or the change in strategy made after his departure. During the interview, the three studio representatives – Manabu Otsuka, producer Makoto Kimura and screenwriter Hiroshi Seko – respond with their eyes fixed on a sheet where the previously validated questions are printed.
Nearby is American John Easum, director of Crunchyroll Europe, Middle East and Africa, which streams the Mappa series on the streaming platform. An army of Crunchyroll representatives completes this mini assembly, surrounding the reporter. For each question the same ritual is repeated: each one checks that it corresponds to the question previously sent. Impossible to deviate from the program.
attention to animation
This imposing device doesn’t stop Manabu Otsuka from analyzing Mappa’s fame sharply. “There are two reasons,” he explains. “The first is that there are a lot of creators who come to us to produce a lot of very different anime. Either I asked them to come over or they contacted us directly. The second reason is that we have done work that is very good. known. We think that’s what accelerated our rise.”
This promotion was made thanks to an impressive payroll, more important than that of the other studios, and which forced Mappa to chain the projects. “Once a series is finished, Mappa cannot pay his employees to do nothing. The studio is therefore forced, in order to pay them, to accept orders in the hope of having interesting projects”, deciphers Eddie Mehong, pioneer of French animation who frequently collaborates with the studio.
With an exponential number of productions to process, Mappa treats certain series -those with the greatest commercial potential- to the detriment of others. A profitable strategy, to seduce the often intractable fan base of these works. For its adaptation of chainsaw manthe studio left nothing to chance and turned to “monsters to animate, like in season 1 of One Punch Manenthuses animator Dorian Coulon, who works with Mappa on attack on titans (snk)).
For this other popular series, the studio has had its best animators, who strictly follow a bible, designed to distance themselves from the style of Wit Studio, which signed the first two seasons of SnK. “There are things about the lights that we find in Wit Studio that shouldn’t be put in Mappa,” notes Dorian Coulon. “It’s very framed. There’s a lot of detail to be respected. Even for the eyes. You need a double line to do with the iris. Same for the wrinkles.”
Mappa’s style takes an opposite view from that of traditional Japanese animation, which is mostly semi-realistic. A demanding style, which is not made for “everyone”, insists Eddie Mehong: “You have to have a lot of talent to integrate Mappa, because you need a good sense of observation”. But with eight series currently in production at Mappa and animators “in a state of complete fatigue,” it’s hard to keep up with this ever-expanding market.
Big budgets and overwork
This accumulation of projects is linked to adapted works, which are “particularly long” and “not always finished”, defends Manabu Otsuka: “Since the years 2017-2020 there has been a greater number of series, but in themselves, I don’t feel That we’ve doubled our production. It doesn’t change much for us.” In February, director Teruyuki Omine revealed on Twitter that he was only able to return home after three days of intensive studio work.
Mappa’s working conditions are increasingly denounced by the profession. “If we don’t talk to the facilitators, we will never find out about the working conditions,” lamented one of them on condition of anonymity.
“I know someone who worked on two episodes of Chainsaw Man. He had a minute to animate on his own. He ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome right after he did the design. [étape intermédiaire de composition de l’image, ndlr].”
“She hadn’t started the ‘cleaning’ [le moment où un dessin est “nettoyé”, ou finalisé, ndlr] that he had broken his wrist,” he continues. “Even in chainsaw manwhere the working conditions are better than in their other series, we must not lose sight of the fact that it is a Japanese production”. This environment, which is becoming more and more open to foreign animators, is very opaque, and most of sometimes offers low wages for very long working hours.
While Mappa doesn’t necessarily pay better than other studios, his productions often have larger budgets. And if animators from all continents rush to work on it, it is above all because of the aura of the projects. “That’s precisely why I don’t work for them,” notes a figure in the middle. “I think Mappa plays too much with his aura to enslave young fans of animation and these titles.”
“The best student in the Japanese system”
Mappa, who has no plans to slow down, presents himself as “the best student of the Japanese system, very prone to capitalism”, continues this figure in the middle: “In this context of overexploitation of animators, a studio wants to fight to create even more series than the others. This studio is Mappa, which believes that it is the largest animation studio in Japan, because it is capable of producing the largest number of series at the same time.”
Mappa didn’t always work that way. In its early days, the studio relied more on original designs than manga blockbusters. “Mappa was created to perform [le drame] In a corner of this world“, so remembers Manabu Otsuka. And the goal was to free himself from any commercial obligation. “Mr. Maruyama wanted to create a place where he would have less pressure,” says Eddie Mehong. “Madhouse, his previous studio, had become too large a committee-driven entity.”
Seven years after his departure, what remains of Masao Maruyama in the Mappa studio? “More than the quality of the animation, it is above all our relationship with the creators [qui importe]Manabu Otsuka insists. “Mr. Murayama tended to create lasting relationships with his creators. He had known some of them for more than twenty years. Know [le scénariste] Hiroshi Seko since 2012. I try to keep this spirit, keep a close relationship with the creators.”
Eddie Mehong sees in him the worthy successor of Masao Murayama. “I know he’s in the oven and the mill, but he’s someone who gets very involved. He’s from the same school as Mr. Murayama. He’ll fight for artists more than most big studio producers. He’s not in everything to lower wages to cover his costs. On the contrary, he will push to renegotiate contracts with his clients, and make them pay more. I think he has a little more land.”
towards the international
In the age of Netflix, Manabu Otsuka now has an international perspective, with the goal of “growing the studio in terms of quality of projects and business to make it the most international company possible.” Mappa doesn’t really have a choice, analyzes Eddie Mehong: “There’s a lot of competition in the Japanese market and the projects aren’t necessarily very well paid.” That’s how Mappa signed on to a series about the black samurai Yasuke for Netflix last year.
chainsaw man should consolidate Mappa’s place internationally in the coming weeks. The studio has promised that it will not censor the tone of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s highly atypical manga. “We don’t want to ban ourselves from anything. We wanted to stay true to chainsaw man“, confirms its scriptwriter Hiroshi Seko, a self-proclaimed expert “of series where there are many deaths and massacres.” If the proof is conclusive, Manabu Otsuka plans to animate the other works of Tatsuki Fujimoto.
2023 is expected to be a busy year for the studio, with the final season of The attack of the Titans. Mappa, true to his reputation, promises “a better ending” than mangaka Hajime Isayama imagined. The second season of the hugely popular. jujutsu kaisen it will also land sometime next year. She should surprise the fans, promises Manabu Otsuka: “We’re not going to do the same thing and repeat ourselves!”
Source: BFM TV
