Masao Maruyama, who founded the MAPPA and Madhouse studios at the time, believes that China is doing much better.
There anime industry is the one that has been identified for decades with Japan, to the point that the term “anime” as such is used to categorize productions coming exclusively from this region. However, over the decades, more and more countries have worked to find animators who can compete with the Japanese, and one of the countries that has done the best in this regard is China. So much so that the founder of MAP believe that Japan will cease to be a leader.
China is already ahead of Japan in training facilitators
It’s the most relevant thing he said Masao Maruyamawho founded not only MAP but also Crazy’s houseon the current state of anime in Japan and the potential future of the industry (via AnimeHunch):
- Mr. Maruyama says he believes that Japan is clearly at risk of losing its leading position in the anime industry to China..
- He assures that this is due to the fact that in recent years Japan has focused too much on simply providing easy-to-market productions, particularly emphasizing the work of “cute girls”.. That’s why he thinks that when it comes to animation, it can’t even keep up with the works that are emerging in regions like the USA or France.
- Maruyama-san assures that in China is doing a much better job of training the next generation of facilitators today., and that the only reason why Japan is still in the lead is that in China they are still very limited in terms of creativity.
- At 81, Mr. Maruyama admits that he has little time to live professionally, and he has many doubts about the type of industry that has been shaped in recent years.
The truth is that the words of the founder of MAPPA and Madhouse continue very close to those left a few years ago by the creator of “Gundam”, especially with regard to the recognition of China as a country that had left Japan behind with regard to the training of its animators. In fact, it’s something that can be easily seen in the way the China COVID-19 of this same 2023 ended up affecting many shows in Japan. The reason? Only from Japan, they already hire many Chinese animators for their superior quality. It really only seems a matter of time before the baton change takes place if the right keys are hit from China.