A few weeks ago, Goro Taniguchi criticized
the current anime as "junk food" produced without directorial vision.
Now, in a new university conference, he went further and pointed to something
more structural: the way Japanese society itself is changing who can make anime
and what kind of stories are told in it.
The director of Code Geass, Planetes,
and One Piece Film: Red traced the history of anime from its
origins in the '60s through what he describes as eight stages of
evolution. He placed the current moment in seventh place and warned that
social changes in Japan are influencing both creative content and the way
productions are managed.
The central concept he used was that of "white
society," a term by sociologist Toshio Okada that
does not refer to race but to a highly transparent and sanitized social
environment, shaped by smartphones and social networks. In this context,
aggressive, disruptive or unconventional behaviors are increasingly
discouraged, while superficial harmony is prioritized. Taniguchi compared this
pattern to the Japanese stereotype about the people of Kyoto, known for their
extremely indirect way of expressing negative opinions to keep up appearances.
According to him, this social trend is seeping directly into the protagonists of current anime stories, particularly in the narou-kei and isekai, where the type of hero who avoids conflict and reads the social environment has become predominant. The problem is not only thematic: Taniguchi pointed out that producers increasingly prefer to work with creators who are easy to handle and who can faithfully reproduce the original material without imposing their own ideas. That leads to more ambitious creators being given fewer opportunities and eventually leaving the industry.
Added to this is the weakening of the
traditional learning system, caused in part by the proliferation of short series
of one cour, and the greater influence that original authors and rights holders
now exert on adaptations, which complicates the director's role and makes it
difficult to maintain a coherent creative vision. The result, in his analysis,
is an industry that prioritizes short-term profits and easily consumable
content over artistic ambition.
Looking ahead to the eighth stage, the next
decade, Taniguchi acknowledged that Japanese anime has achieved genuine global
recognition, but warned that that advantage could erode if the domestic
industry continues in that direction, especially with the productive
acceleration that China and South Korea are showing. The comparison he used was
that of ukiyo-e, the Japanese art that flowed into Europe in the 19th and 20th
centuries without Japan being able to capitalize on that influence in the same
way that others did.
Despite the panorama, he closed on a note of
hope: he believes that anime has a guaranteed future because people are always
going to need stories. Stories help to understand others and the world, to
experience emotions and decisions in an indirect way, to find meaning in
events, to alleviate loneliness and to pass on the wisdom of the past. In his
vision, anime is in a position to fulfill all those roles.
About Goro Taniguchi
Goro Taniguchi is one of the most recognizable directors
in Japanese anime, with a career that includes Code Geass: Lelouch of
the Rebellion, s-CRY-ed, Planetes, and One
Piece Film: Red. His most recent work is L'étoile de Paris en fleur,
released in Japan in March 2026. Their observations on the state of the
industry come from someone with decades of experience within the system, which
gives them particular weight within the conversations the outlet is having about
its own future.
