Some fans feel that they mostly disappeared from the industry.
Summary:
Madhouse is famous for making many classic anime, but fans can’t name many of their newer works.
They use freelance workers a lot, and the quality varies from anime to anime.
They’re making Frieren now, and have made multiple anime over the past few years — they just weren’t as successful as their most popular works.
If you’ve been following anime for a while, you have probably heard of Studio Madhouse. They were commonly thought to be one of the biggest powerhouses in the industry, responsible for classics like Death Note, One Punch Man and the 2011 adaptation of Hunter x Hunter.
However, over the years, it feels like they have become less and less relevant. A lot of fans remember them for their older works, but by now, practically no one can name more than a few anime they worked on in the past few years. What happened, and what is the studio doing these days?
Fans were disappointed they didn’t make OPM S2
Perhaps the biggest disappointment related to Madhouse in recent years doesn’t come from a particularly bad anime made by the studio.
Rather it comes from the fact that the second season of One Punch Man was not made by the studio — it was animated by J.C.Staff instead. While it’s a result of unfortunate circumstances, fans are still unhappy about Madhouse not returning for the third season of the anime.
Madhouse employs a lot of freelance animators
Just like MAPPA, Madhouse is a fairly big studio which works a lot with freelance animators. As such, the quality of the series they make significantly varies from anime to anime.
One Punch Man S1 was a miracle of a production, ending up the way it was due to connections within the industry — specifically, the producer Yuuichirou Fukushi is often credited.
A similarly amazing production from a few years ago is Sonny Boy (also directed by the director of OPM S1, Shingo Natsume). He’s also involved with Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren).
They’re still working on anime, but not all of them become hits
The reality, however, is that Madhouse is doing what they’ve always been doing: making anime. Frieren is one of their latest productions, and it looks amazing — the studio is still very much capable of dropping bangers.
Yes, many of their recent series were less successful, but not all of their works have been hits even before: you probably just don’t remember the unpopular ones.
Frieren is not even the only series they’ve made recently. Madhouse has actually had an anime every season in 2023 — these include My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 (Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru) and The Gene of AI (AI no Idenshi), for example.
They are also working on multiple anime scheduled for the near future, such as a new Overlord movie or Trillion Game.
Some fans feel that they mostly disappeared from the industry.
Summary:
Madhouse is famous for making many classic anime, but fans can’t name many of their newer works.
They use freelance workers a lot, and the quality varies from anime to anime.
They’re making Frieren now, and have made multiple anime over the past few years — they just weren’t as successful as their most popular works.
If you’ve been following anime for a while, you have probably heard of Studio Madhouse. They were commonly thought to be one of the biggest powerhouses in the industry, responsible for classics like Death Note, One Punch Man and the 2011 adaptation of Hunter x Hunter.
However, over the years, it feels like they have become less and less relevant. A lot of fans remember them for their older works, but by now, practically no one can name more than a few anime they worked on in the past few years. What happened, and what is the studio doing these days?
Fans were disappointed they didn’t make OPM S2
Perhaps the biggest disappointment related to Madhouse in recent years doesn’t come from a particularly bad anime made by the studio.
Rather it comes from the fact that the second season of One Punch Man was not made by the studio — it was animated by J.C.Staff instead. While it’s a result of unfortunate circumstances, fans are still unhappy about Madhouse not returning for the third season of the anime.
Madhouse employs a lot of freelance animators
Just like MAPPA, Madhouse is a fairly big studio which works a lot with freelance animators. As such, the quality of the series they make significantly varies from anime to anime.
One Punch Man S1 was a miracle of a production, ending up the way it was due to connections within the industry — specifically, the producer Yuuichirou Fukushi is often credited.
A similarly amazing production from a few years ago is Sonny Boy (also directed by the director of OPM S1, Shingo Natsume). He’s also involved with Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren).
They’re still working on anime, but not all of them become hits
The reality, however, is that Madhouse is doing what they’ve always been doing: making anime. Frieren is one of their latest productions, and it looks amazing — the studio is still very much capable of dropping bangers.
Yes, many of their recent series were less successful, but not all of their works have been hits even before: you probably just don’t remember the unpopular ones.
Frieren is not even the only series they’ve made recently. Madhouse has actually had an anime every season in 2023 — these include My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 (Yamada-kun to Lv999 no Koi wo Suru) and The Gene of AI (AI no Idenshi), for example.
They are also working on multiple anime scheduled for the near future, such as a new Overlord movie or Trillion Game.
Which of these anime by Madhouse is your favorite one?
