The year 2025 has
witnessed a changing of the guard in global entertainment. With massive box
office hits like the final arc of Demon Slayer and the Chainsaw
Man movie, the Japanese industry is at its best. However, Tomohiko
Ito, the acclaimed director behind franchises like Sword Art Online (SAO) and Erased,
has issued a serious warning in a recent interview with the Daily
Shincho: trying to please the world could be the undoing of anime.
Filling the
Hollywood Void
For Ito,
the rise of anime is not a coincidence, but a consequence of the weakening of
the West. "Considering the WGA strike a few years ago and
the influence of Covid, it seems that the power of influence of Hollywood films
has been weakening," the director analyzed. According to his vision, Japanese
anime has managed to become a "good replacement" to fill that content
gap.
The turning point,
according to the creative, was not recent, but when Aniplex (Sony) acquired Crunchyroll in 2020,
which triggered the explosion of global popularity we see today, consolidated
with recent movements such as Toho's expansion in the United
Kingdom.
The
"Global Approval" trap
However, Tomohiko
Ito points out that creating with the foreigner in mind is a
double-edged sword. "There have been many cases where focusing too much on
'global appeal' has led to failure," he warned.
The director
touched on a sensitive point: cultural difference and political
correctness. "The emphasis on political correctness is strong in
America, so you might think, 'Japan is the only country that still produces
plays where scantily clad girls struggle,' the kind of thing that would be
considered weird in America." For Ito, that creative freedom and that
"difference" is, ironically, what attracts audiences looking for
something different from what Hollywood offers.
The
philosophy of Hideaki Anno
Ito's stance
resonates with that of another legend: Hideaki Anno. The creator
of Neon Genesis Evangelion recently stated that he "never
did anything with the foreign audience in mind." For Anno, the priority
should be to create something interesting for Japan; If the world accepts it,
it is an extra gain, but never the main goal. "Production companies are
quick to say 'think about the foreign market', but that's not my goal,"
Anno said.
