A recent interview with MAPPA’s CEO makes fans skeptical about the management’s focus on productivity and its effects on the employees’ ability to work for small salaries and under impossible deadlines.
Summary
- Recent interview with MAPPA’s Manabu Otsuka shows that the animation studio’s management is more concerned about productivity than creativity.
- MAPPA has long been criticized for its treatment of its employees and for working on four projects at once.
- The interviewed CEO points out that MAPPA has to compete with Kyoto Animation and Ufotable.
- Fans remain unimpressed and seem convinced that MAPPA doesn't treat its employees right.
MAPPA’s CEO Manabu Otsuka was recently interviewed. He reveals that his main focus is productivity. Fans, in turn, believe that the main focus of an animation studio should be creativity, which is why the discussion of the interview has attracted many people who find Manabu Otsuka’s statements offensive.
MAPPA’s Controversies
MAPPA is responsible for titles such as Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin), Chainsaw Man, and Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill (Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi). MAPPA has long been known for controversies. The studio reportedly pays very little, to the point where the pay may be five times lower than the industry minimum. MAPPA has also been criticized for working on four projects simultaneously.
Tight deadlines are also reported by MAPPA’s workers. Overall, fans have already known about MAPPA’s focus on productivity, but now, they have an interview of MAPPA’s CEO confirming their understanding of MAPPA’s business goals.
Potential Explanation
The interview goes into detail about MAPPA’s strong competitors (such as Kyoto Animation and Ufotable). According to the CEO, the market and competition forced MAPPA to make content quickly and cut costs while doing their best to maintain quality.
As a newer studio, Manabu Otsuka believes, MAPPA could not have survived in the market or made profit without some extreme decisions. That is the CEO’s rationalization of the studio barely paying employees while making them work under unreasonable deadlines.
Additionally, one could argue that employees are aware of how badly MAPPA treats them. Some fans suggest that employees who accept such conditions might be doing it out of love for the art or because they are just beginning their careers. In other words, there are some attempts to shift the blame from the studio to the employees.
However, it is very clear that the employees are not to blame. In fact, some fans believe that it’s the government who is to blame for failing to regulate the industry properly. Either way, MAPPA remains controversial, and this notoriety is unlikely to help it in the future.
Sourse: natalie.mu