Madhouse, MAPPA Founder Masao Maruyama Warns Chinese Animation Could Outshine Japanese Anime Soon

 

In a profile on anime producer Masao Maruyama, a co-founder of Madhouse, MAPPA and Studio M2 in The Japan Times, the titan of industry is claiming that Chinese animation, known as donghua, will overtake Japanese animation if “freedom is unleashed” to let Chinese animation shine.

 

Maruyama told The Japan Times, “In Japan, people are no longer trained in animation. The only reason China hasn’t quite caught up with Japan yet is because of a bunch of restrictions imposed on free expression there.” 

 

The self-confessed “inheritor” to Osamu Tezuka is worried that vying for an anime hit for every project has made the industry lose sight of its creativity and at this time “doesn’t necessarily outshine” animation produced by Disney.

 

Maruyama is currently producing Pluto, based on Tezuka’s Astro Boy, to be distributed on Netflix later this year. The producer has fostered the talents of Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars), Sunao Katabuchi (In This Corner of the World) and many more under both Madhouse and MAPPA.

 

The 81-year-old fears that Japan is looking more to “kawaii” characters and “money-spinning genres” and that the industry isn’t fostering the next generation of talent, where China is investing hard into young animators and worries that if China gives animators the freedom to create what they like, the countries animation industry will quickly rival and overtake Japan.

 

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Makoto Shinkai, whose recently released anime film Suzume has ruled over Chinese theaters since its premiere in late March, took inspiration for the film from the Chinese animated work The Legend of Hei, showing that the two Asian countries are currently having cross-cultural impacts. Donghua, such as All Saints Street, is heavily promoted in Japan alongside other seasonal series and is streaming on Crunchyroll. 

 

Source: The Japan Times

 

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Daryl Harding is a Senior Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.