Studio MAPPA Has ALWAYS Been This Way - Art Commentary

A big thank you to ‪@fxllxngofficial‬ for editing the audio and providing the background music!
Intro - 00:00
Part 1: A Troubling Timeline - 2:46
Part 2: The Boiling Point -7:53
Part 3: Swings and Roundabouts - 14:11
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Resources:
'The story of MAPPA studio: Legendary Japanese animation company' By Ben Barnhart, posted on 29 April 2022: www.linearity.io/blog/mappa-s...
Twitter thread of everything said about MAPPA by animators & others: / 1724836076198433177
'Attack on Titan The Final Season Episode Director Goes Home 'For the First Time in 3 Days'
posted on 2022-02-15 20:00 EST by Lynzee Loveridge: www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...
'The MAPPA JJK animators could not finish their vision for the episode due to time constraints'. By A.R. Madillo, posted on November 17, 2023: animehunch.com/jjk-season-2-e...
‘Ghost Fighter’, ‘Naruto’ animator’s death reportedly caused by overworking' by Alfred Bayle, posted on April 13th 2017: www.thejakartapost.com/life/2...
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My Links:
Twitter: ItsFionapollo?t=j...
Tiktok: / fionapollo
Instagram: / fionapollo.yt
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Software:
Clip Studio Paint EX (illustration)
OBS (speedpaint recording)
Audacity (Audio)
Adobe After Effects (Editing)
Adobe Media Encoder (Rendering)

[@GreayWorks]

I made a six-ish minute animated short with a small team and that took fivish months to fully complete and it was super exhausting, hearing that they had FOUR months to make a full movie terrifies me.

[@Thehjhhhhhggttyg]

Yeah, and they aren’t even getting treated Well and not getting paid what they deserve.

[@Mediados]

"What do you call making a movie in 4 months?" "Efficient?" "Hell."

[@CreativeWM_Personal]

Organizational Abuse

[@Bacon-lover101]

An actual executive or whoever at a Japanese animation company actually thinks that 4 hecking months is enough to produce a project?! Good lord, how exactly does that not sound like an absolute time crunch? Somebody definitely get the former MAPPA animators some food to eat, water to drink, and a bed to sleep on. And I hope the current ones that are still working have some good luck.

[@orbatos]

Don't don't really consider limitations in the first place, just what investors want. A lot of these problems are exacerbated by modern venture investment strategy and old (bad) business management concepts and metrics liked the "man-month".

[@MariusWales]

4 months. FOUR MONTHS! Even The Emoji Movie had a more reasonable work environment with the short time they had because they knew not to be this monstrous!!!

[@Fionapollo]

You know u fucked up if ur worse than the emoji movie

[@MariusWales]

@@Fionapollo Hell, the horrifying production of Sausage Party sounds more appealing than this shit!

[@skypiratevyse1123]

Adding a bit to the tweet by Hone_Hone; I do speak Japanese, and my wife actually is Japanese. The auto-translation here didn't really catch on to the colloquial tone and thus mistranslated a few crucial parts. It's not "the people above [...] think 'I can´t say anything' ". What was said is more like: "The staff works to complete an impossible-to-meet schedule while staring into hell, and upon completion, the people above only say 'despite all your rambling(complaining), you can get it done anyway!". So like, "See? You got it done after all! What were you even blabbering about?" The translation read it as "なんだかんだ.....言って出来んじゃん！-> "blabla + saying, can't!" -> "can't say anything!" When it should be read as "なんだかんだ言って.....出来んじゃん！->"blabla saying + can't!" -> "Don't say it can't be done!" P.S:, adding one more thing; there also was an animator within this twitter Mappa-meltdown who posted an illustration of a character from the series 'Shirobako' (who also happens to be an animator in said series about making anime) about to commit suicide from hanging themselves. He accompanied the illustrations with the words "all I'm going to leave behind for you is one word: scum."

[@nines90k9]

Four months isn't enough to make a 10 min animation sometimes what the hell?

[@Fionapollo]

EXACTLYYYYY LIKE WHAT ARE THOSE EXECUTIVES THINKING

[@Thehjhhhhhggttyg]

I have to agree with you Four months is not enough time to animate a full movie and I doubt that the animator that are working on this are getting paid what they deserved.

[@Fionapollo]

Definitely not from the sounds of it

[@Thehjhhhhhggttyg]

@@Fionapollo they should retreated better if that’s the case anyways but they aren’t

[@woolyhotcocoa]

It's Japan we're talking about here. Everyone who isn't in an exec position is underpaid, which is very cool.

[@Thehjhhhhhggttyg]

@@woolyhotcocoa I understand that but we’re talking about animators here that’s why I brought up animators.

[@woolyhotcocoa]

@@Thehjhhhhhggttyg , oh gotcha, my bad

[@lk_3099]

I've seen many animated shorts take a year, four months for a FILM is sadistic.

[@flowgazingg]

Four months??? That's not even enough time for a big animation studios to finish making a movie, I love JJK and its story, but I think many of us can agree that we would rather that the animators take their time on it (even if it takes years) instead of rushing. They are the ones putting their time and effort into this, it really is just shameful how MAPPA is doing this :(

[@Turquerina]

I think Mappa is sowing what they reap and we are seeing it come to light. These corporate ghouls aren't humans, their greed drives them to treat their fellow brothers and sisters like robots to be exploited. Going forward, Japan needs to adopt strict labor laws to protect their workers overall if we ever want a chance at reducing karoshi cases and most importantly, make good anime! Let the hustle culture die already.

[@Gabriel-nz2bj]

James Lopez's Hullabaloo just premiered yesterday after abound 10 years in the making. You can see clearly that's what it took to make the 2D animation look so smooth in an indie project, and still at the expense of the post-production. It's a painstakingly slow process even for experts like Lopez. With that said... FOUR MONTHS?!! FOR A FREAKING MOVIE!!! Heck, even if you have hundreds of animators working for you, that deadline is inhumane!

[@undefinederror40404]

The opening image is so on point, the expression on your character is 10/10 It's an immense shame that the studio that has worked on such shows is this terrible to its workers! I know it's an industry wide problem, but my god why does it just keep going on 🤦 It shouldn't be hard to do the bare minimum for your employees, even more so when you've reached the point of having shows that give certainty in viewer numbers. I appreciate the information overview that you gave here, thanks a lot!

[@lk_3099]

Japan really needs a serious culture overhaul with work culture.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

@@lk_3099 me too. I don’t know if traditions will change for the better either.

[@Kanohoro]

Low-key I don't think much will change with MAPPA specifically until something changes on a larger scale with the Japanese work culture, but with more and more production studios going through stories such as this, I wouldn't be surprised if that changed soon! The idea of a creative industry being one of the most soul-crushing jobs imaginable just hurts to think about, and doesn't seem sustainable at all.

[@Reverse-Goku]

I know that this has nothing to do/relate with the discussion/topic of the video but I just wanted to say that I really like all of your avatar's/OC's facial expressions they look all funny and cute at the same time, especially the thumbnail of this video 😁. Love your artwork and stuff though 👍🖼️.

[@okanimation68]

I love JJK but I prefer to wait 2-3 more years than them exploiting their animators...

[@strikerwott1222]

The movie having a full production for 4 months is absolutely nuts and infuriating. These working conditions are absolutely abysmal and it’s completely understandable to be frustrated at this. Animators deserve much more respect and much better treatment, especially since there have been animators who have overworked themselves to death like this. I really hope things change, no one should go through this horrendous treatment.. Also unrelated to the topic but related to the speedpaint, amazing drawing btw!! I love the lighting!

[@HeavenlyMercury2800]

We need more shows like Aggretsuko that show the toxicity of workplaces in Japan. I first watched that show in 5th grade so I never really noticed how toxic the w orkplaces can be, I just thought Retsuko's boss was an asshole, but now that I am 6 years older and wiser I can see that show is not just a story about an office worker learning to stand up for herself, but a way to shine light on how stressful it can be to work in Japan.

[@verylostdoommarauder]

It's like all of the anime producers have a conference where each time they pull out a list of every bad thing they could possibly do and decide on what to cross off next

[@kaiserdragon7233]

To hell with these black companies. Ugh, i cannot find the words how much i despise them and 4 months. 4 BLOODY MONTHS TO MAKE A MOVIE. ugh!!! Onto the question you ask. From where I'm standing, the Japanese people actually slowly started to accepting individualism and self expression of said individuals. So in the future, we well see the declining of black companies. Especially when government finally sees they have no choice. Still thats a long road. Unions are being made and some sacrifices need to happen. I just hope and pray for all those are under black companies boots. Thank you for making this. People knowing the truth on how these companies operate and see there's people that are willing to support and hear them out.

[@SlapstickGenius23]

That’s okay. It is slow but steady.

[@MatthewPrower]

I haven’t seen a project this rushed out since cartoon all-stars to the rescue

[@woolyhotcocoa]

Hey Fiona, I'd like to thank you for taking a little while to talk about how full of bullshit the Japanese work system is! I don't really hear anyone talk about it in most (if not all) western media and it frankly pisses me off, since everyone seems to look up to Japan when so much of it is just... not great. So I was both surprised and happy when you mentioned it - even if it was for a little bit. Again, thank you very much for talking about this! 'Tis very important. edit: Wait, you mentioned black companies?? Nice!

[@jacoblee21]

Why in God's name would they take four months to make a movie?! Not only is this unrealistic, but it's flat-out insanity! Making a movie -- whether animated or not -- takes at least three to four years. Maybe even decades. Richard Williams' "The Thief and the Cobbler" is a perfect example of this. It took years of production to get the film out there, even if Williams was booted off the project in the '90s and had a massive butchering by Miramax when it was released in 1995. (Thank God we have the ReCobbled Cut). Hell, we're almost in our third year of getting Strange Journey off the ground, so at least we're taking more time putting it out. Studio MAPPA making a feature film in just four months is mind-boggling, to say the least. Not just a movie, but multiple episodes of a single anime. Give these animators a break, MAPPA!

[@jensenpeacock8395]

This reminded me of an interview with one of the showrunners/producers of Invincible saying that he would rather the show get a new season once a year. a YEAR. the fact people are already criticizing the animation of the new season which was the result of only 2 years old work. idk if any workplace overwork stories happened on production like it has MAPPA, but really shows the lack of respect towards animators as individuals and as artists, alongside how abhorrent things are at MAPPA.

[@orbatos]

This is already far beyond a single company or industry. Rather this is what happens when modern griwth based business management is allowed to take over industries that rely on creation and artistic expression. It's also why these same managers push for machine learning development, all to exploit labour. The animation industry is so bad in three respect that it's been brought to Parliament in Japan as an economic problem several times and regulation is the only fix.

[@Papameme-rg3ig]

It’s so much worse than people think. Episode 11 of s2 was entering THE FREAKING LAYOUT STAGE as hidden inventory came to end with s2 ep 5. Episode 13’s director animated over 100 cuts of layout himself and that episode had a schedule of around two months. Layouts for ep 14 were reportedly done in two weeks which resulted in the director being in charge of over 200+ cuts in a very short amount of time. The new series director (at the time of me writing this comment) has directed episode 1,5,9,18, while animating scenes here and there, filling in for those who left the production while supervising the entirety of this project. To take on such a massive task with an overall production schedule of under 9 months is horrifying. God bless everyone who’s worked on this dumpster fire of a production.

[@alexofbree5278]

There is so much Absolutely Amazing anime out there, I can't even keep up. I personally will survive if there is 30-40% less anime coming out in a year

[@aninamated3984]

This is so upsetting but what frustrates me is when audiences complain about the quality of a scene or episode. If audiences keep expecting high quality from people who barely get any time to decently do their work, it won't change either.

[@guardiansoulblade2673]

Exactly, they only whine when it looks bad.

[@Hagunemnon]

Honestly, Japan (and the animation industry in general) needs to take a page from the French playbook and strike as a single bloc. If corporations feel they can crush you to save a dollar, then they will button-mash your ass until you're a fine smear on the pavement. This shit? This shit right here? This is why we need unions. If'n ya ask me, every industry needs a union. They might not completely prevent mismanagement and abuse, but they damn well make it more difficult and anything that makes the "lives" soulless money zombies at the top more difficult is a good thing. They need us. We do not need them.

[@aleksanikolic8362]

Thank you for this birthday gift.🎉

[@josesosa3337]

Thanks for talking about this.

[@quintussilenius4324]

"but you also can't resign yourself to being set on fire just to keep everyone else warm" - well, according to dark souls games, you can... but even there, it is shown as only being a temporary solution that in the end doesn't do anyone any good. so i guess people in japan understand all this as well

[@BrezhnevStan]

Really hope the industry starts treating these talented people better, if the anime industry implodes on itself animation as a medium might as well be over (Unless you're willing to watch something western like family guy or rick and morty lol)

[@BestOneEver247]

Not EVERY western is like freaking Family Guy or Rick and Morty, and if the anime industry does implode that may *at least* just shut up those Anime fans who claim that "CaRtOoNs WoKe AnImE NoT wOkE BuRrRRr"

[@BrezhnevStan]

@@BestOneEver247 The vast majority of "adult" western animation goes for the same awful style of shock value humor seen in rick and morty e.g. generic sex "joke" or just gore. I'm not really sure if anyone other than manchildren enjoy that type of stuff, but there isn't any substance beyond that since the animation is nearly always pretty cheap and lazy. It's a sad decline because I remember how good shows like adventure time were.

[@BestOneEver247]

@@BrezhnevStan your completely ignoring things like *Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal* , *Arcane* , *Invincible* , *Smiling Friends* , and *Adventure Time: Fiona & Cake* that prove otherwise

[@BrezhnevStan]

@@BestOneEver247 Arcane had an insane budget since it's a LOL show. Tbf invincible does have almost family guy tier animation with the lazy background art and bland character designs, the story is also very mid so far with the evil superman trope, ngl superhero media is creatively bankrupt.

[@BestOneEver247]

@@BrezhnevStan But does superhero *HAVE* to be creatively bankrupt as you say?, and what do you mean by "Arcane is an LOL show"?

[@iHateFridays]

Four months for a film is insane 😭😭😭 hhh I feel so bad for the animators, it’s a tricky situation…

[@iidaemii]

Watching this video now is kinda hilarious because a few days ago, we got the announcement that the Yuri on Ice movie "Ice Adolescence" is canceled!! We got the announcement for the movie probably like... 7 years ago, and after all that waiting, it just gets canceled just like that. 😢 It's kinda ironic thinking that MAPPA gave their animators 4 FUCKING months to make the Jujutsu Kaisen movie, but then just drops the Yuri on Ice movie after nearly a DECADE of waiting, disappointing many fans. I see your "priorities" MAPPA, I see you....😑

[@OtherwiseUknownMonkey]

how the payment process in japanese anime works: they will pay you for sure, tho it may take from a couple weeks to years to do so

[@justdracir8197]

Yeah i wasn´t to surpised about this to some degree. The first few Gojo episodes of the second season looked still really great but back to the normal timeline it was a huge quality fall which ofc meant they are overcrunched and outburned. Japan should get their fokin shit right at this point. Like wtf. Though that they made JJK Zero in only 4 months .. i have no words for that except that they probably had to work 24 hours for 4 months. But even than it seems impossible from the outside.

[@noobartist6009]

Don't get me started on the way the Chainsaw Man the Director was treated, not only by the CEO but by the fans too.

[@yuukovukovich9996]

I hope that Chainsaw Man season 2 gets sourced to a more reasonable studio

[@glamrockchica909]

I love anime don’t get me wrong but 4 f*king months to create a movie!? Im not fine with that, at least that minimum time scape for a movie is years and years of work not 4 months! Im a fan but of two other anime’s, one being called girls and panzer, with a run time of 12 Episodes, a film , OVAs , a six part finale and a spin off series called next generation in the works after the finale is finished, these finale episodes are released one every month and year to allow for proper production and the other one is food wars , the other one being called the irregular at magic high school which is split into multiple parts. Anyways I digress, MAPPA you suck, also you were raging a lot 😂 ❤❤ it’s also nearly my birthday on Christmas Eve

[@skypiratevyse1123]

Adding a little to Yurin on Ice; the show did not only receive praise, but also a fair amount of critique. - Many of the dance choreographies were directly stolen from world famous figure skaters without their permission or knowledge. Imagine an idol anime directly taking songs from music artists. Pretty much like that. - Many fans were equating the MC, Yuuri, too much with the prominet Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, leaving comments like "omg real life Yuuri" under Hanyu's videos, which was seen as somewhat disrespectful towards his lifelong career and dedication to the sports of figure skating, and to the sport in general. A person's life isn't just a real-life adaption of an anime. - Projecting Yuuri's sexuality onto Hanyu was equally objectionable. - The display of LGTBQ themes wasn't present to make the voices of minorities hear, but simplay to cater to yaoi fans (only hearsay, not my own opionin haven't seen the anime).

[@TheFuntimeCrew]

Boy do I love capitalism!

[@nikacomedawn]

Where is your accent from?

[@sonicfanboy3375]

I'm pretty sure she's British

[@gretahaffandhawf]

I'm fairly certain she's from northern England.

[@skullknight4579]

Has there ever been a solution for black companies?

[@BattleBeast5]

Mappa sucks

[@Userdoesnotexit]

there is no source. the movie took 9 month or a yeat to finish. 4 month is BS outt their ass

[@frizen9328]

The source is the animator who worked on it. The same production team worked on God of Highschool, JJK S1, JJK0, Chainsawman and JJK S2. It is well documented that anime series are still worked on while they are airing. JJK started 3 months after God of Highschool started airing, mind you they are both by the same team and director. Even if we want to say God of Highschool was the rare case when an anime is finished before airing full production on JJK would have been insanely short for 24 eps. 24 eps in a year or less is not possible, JJK was barely making it leaving no time for production for the movie until it finished airing. The movie had 7 months at most and based on how bad the schedule was for season 1 pre-production could be what took the 3 months with the 4 months referring to full production.