MAPPA

MAPPA Co., Ltd.

Headquarters in Suginami, Tokyo
Native name	株式会社MAPPA
Romanized name	Kabushiki-gaisha MAPPA
Company type	Kabushiki gaisha
Industry	Japanese animation
Founded	June 14, 2011
Founder	Masao Maruyama
Headquarters	Suginami, Tokyo , Japan
Key people	MAPPA: Manabu Otsuka (CEO) Masao Maruyama (chairman) MAPPA Sendai: Wataru Kawagoe
Products	Animation planning and production
Number of employees	360 (as of April 2023)
Divisions	MAPPA Tokyo Asagaya 1st Studio MAPPA Tokyo Ogikubo 2nd Studio MAPPA Tokyo Ogikubo 3rd Studio MAPPA Sendai Studio MAPPA Osaka Studio
Subsidiaries	Contrail
Website	mappa.co.jp

MAPPA Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 株式会社MAPPA, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha Mappa) is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Suginami, Tokyo. Founded in 2011 by Madhouse co-founder and producer Masao Maruyama, it has produced anime works including Terror in Resonance, Yuri!!! on Ice, In This Corner of the World, Kakegurui, Banana Fish, Zombie Land Saga, Dororo (in co-production with Tezuka Productions), Dorohedoro, The God of High School, Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan: The Final Season, Vinland Saga Season 2, Chainsaw Man, and Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. MAPPA is an acronym for Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association.

Business

History

The studio was established on June 14, 2011, by Masao Maruyama, a co-founder and former producer of Madhouse, at the age of 70. Maruyama served as the company's first representative director, and the studio's initial goal was to produce Sunao Katabuchi's In This Corner of the World. Due to financial difficulties at Madhouse, Maruyama and Katabuchi established MAPPA in the hopes of producing the film; however, despite moving studios, the film had a lot of production troubles, and wasn't released until 5 years later. Maruyama first started working with Katabuchi for the film in 2010 during Madhouse era, but it took three years to start the production due to difficulties to raising funds.

In April 2016, Maruyama resigned as a CEO of the studio and became a chairman. Studio animation producer Manabu Otsuka, a founding member and a former employee of Studio 4°C, became the CEO following Maruyama's official departure.

Controversies

The studio's scheduling, work, and culture have been the subject of intense scrutiny. Veteran animator Hisashi Eguchi criticized the studio's low pay. Mushiyo, another animator at MAPPA, also criticized the company for not properly training its animators and the studio's culture of overwork, which led to them eventually quitting their job at the studio. Besides the animator's individual output within the studio, they also criticized the company's decision to produce four series concurrently. Kevin Cirugeda from Sakugablog suggested the problems were due to the studio's incredibly fast-paced growth and "recklessness".

Cirugeda also noted that in the 20 televised animes MAPPA produced from the beginning of 2015 to the beginning of 2020, the company had only been on the production committee for four of them, all of which listed MAPPA near the bottom or at the very bottom of the list, indicating that they served to a capacity almost as if they were being specifically contracted for work even on "original" series.

MAPPA denied offering "unreasonable compensation" to "creators" in a response to claims that the studio underpaid workers; however, animator Ippei Ichii claimed that an anime produced by MAPPA under Netflix was suggesting a pay of ¥3,800 per cut, to which Ichii claimed that ¥15,000 is the minimum cost that animators should negotiate for.

Productions

Anime television series

Anime films

Original video animations (OVAs)

Original net animations (ONAs)

Other productions

Notable staff

Representative staff

• Masao Maruyama (founder, CEO (2011~2016), chairman (2016~present))
• Manabu Otsuka (second president since 2016)
• Makoto Kimura (director since 2018)
• Wataru Kawagoe (MAPPA Sendai representative)

Animation producers

• Masato Matsunaga (2012~present)
• Masakazu Watanabe (2012~2014; co-founder of Lapin Track)
• Yasuteru Iwase (2013~??)
• Fuuko Noda (2014~present)
• Takahiro Ogawa (2014~present)
• Koya Okamura (2015~present)
• Katsuhito Masuda (2017~2018)
• Keisuke Seshimo (2016~present)
• Hiroya Hasegawa (2023~present)
• Ryota Kitsunai (2023~present)

Directors

Animators

• Tadashi Hiramatsu (2018~present)

See also

• List of Japanese animation studios
• Grizzly, an animation studio specialized solely on BL titles