In a recent interview with the Japanese media Comic
Natalie , the president of MAPPA studios , Manabu
Ootsuka , commented on his future vision for the company and the goals
he has proposed for its long-term management. Although MAPPA was
founded just twelve years ago, in a short period of time they have become a
studio whose name is known by a large part of the industry's fan community.
For this article we have compiled some of the most relevant responses from the complete interview, available at the source:
(Omission) For MAPPA, “ Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni
(In This Corner of the World) ” was a long-awaited hit in 2016. The
reality that followed, however, brought new ideas to the mind of Manabu
Ootsuka .
« It was good that we were able to produce a
successful film, but the amount of money that came into the studio for simple
production work subcontracted by a committee was very small. What
I mean by less is that the studio's revenue is small relative to the overall
business scale of the productions. I felt that if we didn't improve that,
it would be impossible for us to survive and grow strongly as a company. So,
starting in 2016, we set out to maintain an environment where we could continue
producing animation while focusing on production conditions that brought more
money to the studio, and starting around 2018, we also started outside
production businesses to animation, such as rights and events »,
commented Ootsuka.
« Until then, I was one of the youngest in the
sector, so I followed the custom of 'this is how it's done' or the trend of
'follow the right path', but if you keep saying 'it's hopeless', nothing will
change. Even in a market trend where the business environment
surrounding studios is increasingly harsh, we came up with the idea of taking
risks ourselves to realize things like we can make animation that people enjoy
», He continued . .
A symbolic example of the materialization of this idea is
the one hundred percent investment of MAPPA studios in the anime
adaptation of “Chainsaw Man” , which was broadcast starting in 2022.
It was an unprecedented experiment for an animation studio.
« The original story of 'Chainsaw Man' fascinated
me so much that I decided to accept the challenge of adapting it into an anime,
and after thinking about what we could do better, we came up with the 100%
investment scheme. We have a director, Makoto Kimura, who used
to work at a television network before moving to MAPPA, and he and I created a
plan together and proposed it to Shueisha .
« Kimura is a producer with whom I have worked on 'Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance)' and other projects, and now he is in charge of thinking about those business plans and proposing them to me. Kimura joined us at the right time, when I felt we needed someone at the studio who could build a good relationship with the part of the platform that ships the animation and come up with appropriate business schemes. MAPPA is what it is today thanks to the collaboration of people like this, even from outside the company », he continued explaining.
Regarding this Fall-2023 season , MAPPA is
broadcasting large-scale titles such as “ Jujutsu Kaisen ” and
“ Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season ”, and the film “ Alice to
Therese no Maboroshi Koujou ” is also being screened in
theaters . The company was founded just twelve years ago, in 2011,
by producer Masao Murayama who had left Madhouse studios .
« MAPPA was originally created because Maruyama
wanted to produce some films. One of them was 'Kono Sekai no
Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World)', and at that time Maruyama also had
a project to animate 'Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope)'. The
director of 'Sakamichi no Apollon', Shinichiro Watanabe, asked me if I would like
to participate in the production. Until then, I had been working at
STUDIO 4°C, a studio specializing mainly in film animation, but I wanted to
experiment with a television series to improve my skills as a producer. Also,
at that time, the Noitamina block was at the forefront of animation for adults
to watch, so I was interested. The times coincided, and I ended up
joining MAPPA from its beginnings with this project ,” Ootsuka
narrated.
« I was grateful that Maruyama allowed me to work freely since I joined MAPPA. Specifically in the field of business management, at Studio 4°C I only thought about the productions themselves, but at MAPPA I became interested in how to get money and work to run an animation studio, and I started working on it. I didn't think 'I want to be the president', but as a producer I started to get into the company's figures when I worked on productions ," he explained.
Otsuka became the CEO of MAPPA studios when Maruyama
assumed the presidency in 2016. Manabu Ootsuka's desire at that time
was, and continues to be, an insatiable desire to excel.
« As I learned various figures related to studio
management, my interest focused on 'how far can we grow as a company
that makes animation and how far can we survive as a company?' . Therefore,
when Maruyama asked me to assume the position of CEO in 2016 and I accepted,
the first thing I thought was “to survive and continue creating animation” » ,
He narrated.
« Not in the small framework of the animation
industry, but as a company. When we thought about what we needed to do to
achieve this, the first thing was to increase productivity. It is
difficult to reach the quality of Kyoto Animation and Ufotable in a short time,
and it is too late for MAPPA to try to reach that level in 20 or 30
years. So we had to take a different approach than the studies that
preceded us. So we thought about how we could produce a lot and gain
experience while maintaining a high level of quality, and at the same time
brand the studio and join the race with these studios in the shortest time
possible », He explained .
For animation fans, MAPPA can be a studio “on par with
the best studios,” producing high-quality work from the start. However,
this was not Otsuka's perception.
« We were already aware that we wanted to be in
the race with the big studios when we were making 'Zankyou no Terror (Terror in
Resonance)', 'Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis' and 'GARO: THE ANIMATION', which
aired in 2014. But we had a complex because we didn't have our
own successes and we didn't know how to make them. After that, we
continued making productions through various trial and error processes, and the
first one that bore fruit was ' Yuri!!! on Ice ' and then
' Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World) '
were screened in 2016. The success of those two titles had such an
impact that it would not be an exaggeration to say that it changed the destiny
of MAPPA, and it also clearly changed the way the people around us saw us »,
he concluded.
Fuente: Comic Natalie
