Commemorating the 15th anniversary of MAPPA, company President and CEO Manabu Otsuka alongside director Kaori Makita (Hell’s Paradise, Kakegurui Twin) attended German convention AnimagiC. Beyond presenting a special screening of Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, the leadership offered candid insights into the evolving logistics of high-end TV anime production, regional studio expansion outside Tokyo, and the limits of emerging digital technology.
Production Cycles and Scale
Addressing the timeline shifts across MAPPA’s history, Otsuka detailed how drastically scheduling benchmarks have changed since the company launched productions like Terror in Resonance in 2014 and Yuri!!! on ICE in 2016. Early operations managed two-year windows between inception and broadcasting. Current tentpole series demand a far longer runway:
Today, at least three years of production time is the standard. Big titles now come with a completely different budget than before, and for the bigger titles, five years or more—counting from the planning stage—is not unusual at all. That’s a very big difference compared to the past.
Manabu Otsuka, President & CEO of MAPPA
Director Kaori Makita highlighted how her background as a design production coordinator (settei seisaku) under established veterans shaped her directing approach. Working directly alongside series directors provided crucial technical understanding across all pre-production stages, informing how she guides animation staff today.
Self-Financing and Decentralization
MAPPA’s choice to fully finance and distribute Chainsaw Man marked an intentional break from conventional production committee constraints. Otsuka noted that unifying production and commercial delivery allows the studio to protect the vision of its animators and directly convey creative nuances straight to the audience without corporate middle tiers diluting the work.
The studio has also targeted systemic geographical barriers within the Japanese animation industry. Historically, career entry demanded relocating to Tokyo. In response, MAPPA launched satellite studios in Tohoku and Osaka to recruit regional animators, university graduates, and digital specialists without uprooting them.
Human Expression Over Automation
Addressing generative machine learning and automated workflow discussions, Otsuka maintained a firm line regarding MAPPA’s core philosophy on software tools:
Whether it’s digital tools, 3D, or indeed AI—to me, all of these are ultimately tools, and nothing more than tools. Quality that moves people emotionally can only come from human beings—it has to be people who create it. Tools can at most serve to make workflows more efficient, but the creative process has to come from people.
Manabu Otsuka, President & CEO of MAPPA
Makita emphasized that true craft often surfaces outside bombastic set pieces. While complex sakuga sequences attract immediate viewer applause, accurately timing and executing quiet, natural character movement demands extraordinary nuance and collaborative scrutiny across layout, key animation, and compositing departments.
The retrospective runs alongside the physical MAPPA EXPO 15th Anniversary exhibition hosted at the Yurakucho Museum in Tokyo through December 2026, compiling landmark production materials from across the studio’s fifteen-year run.
