posted on by Richard Eisenbeis
“Our production, Yuri!!! on Ice, was a huge hit. But compared to that success, the money that came into the studio was very little.”
©はせつ町民会／ユーリ!!! on ICE 製作委員会
2016’s Yuri!!! on Ice was released to worldwide acclaim and won numerous awards both inside and outside of Japan. However, that success doesn’t appear to have trickled down to the studio that created it. In a recent interview done by Japanese online music magazine KOMPASS, MAPPA CEO Manabu Ohtsuka expressed his frustration with the situation and how it helped to change how the studio runs.
When asked about the difficulties of running an animation studio in Japan, Ohtsuka said the following:
“Our production, Yuri!!! on Ice!!!, was a huge hit. But compared to that success, the money that came into the studio was very little.”
Luckily, this experience seems to have pushed the studio into action.
“We felt that our studio had been responsible for continuing to allow this structure and we felt that we had to increase what we could do on our own. We can’t control when we will get a hit production, so unless we make the most of the limited opportunities we have, we will not be able to grow as a company.
To get out of this situation, investments in other businesses, the environment, and human resource development were needed. In addition to that, we needed to think about business plans. [Planning department general manager Makoto] Kimura, who had been working in these areas for a long time, joined us. And, at the same time, overseas distribution platforms entered the Japanese animation market, which greatly expanded our opportunities.”
All this gives some great context as to why both last year’s huge hit Chainsaw Man and last season’s Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill were both funded entirely by MAPPA.
