Former MAPPA Animator Describes Poor Working Conditions

Add studio MAPPA to the list of companies employing questionable business practices involving their animators. 

In a series of tweets (that have since been locked from public viewing), a freelance animator known as Mushiyo compared working at MAPPA to working in a factory. Instead of getting to work on their own drawings, he described the work of bottom-rung animators as focused on correcting other artists’ drawings until sunup each day. He went on to question the studio’s decision to work on four series at the same time, with Attack on Titan, Gymnastics Samurai, Zombie Land Saga: Revenge, and Jujutsu Kaisen currently in the works. He closed the tweet series by saying that he has left the studio and has already found a job elsewhere. 

In the report, it was noted that Mushiyo had said he wasn’t alone in his complaints and that his views were shared by around 80% of the staff. 

I first saw this story being discussed on a Discord server, last week, before catching even more comments about it on social media. In the interest of accuracy, I purposely held off on reporting this story until reliable translations were provided regarding what was said in the initial tweets. 

This is not the first time that poor working conditions in the Japanese animation industry have been reported on by various media outlets. It’s not even the second time. And it won’t be the last either. The industry’s worst kept secret is how poorly animators are treated and paid. It seems that the problem is much higher up on the industry’s food chain though. Until the higher-ups agree to a better industry standard, stories like this are going to reappear and depress everyone who’d like to see the anime industry survive and bring future generations the joy of fresh new ideas and stories. 

Source: Anime News Network