MAPPA

MAPPA Co., Ltd.(Japanese: 株式会社MAPPA, Hepburn: Kabushiki-gaisha MAPPA) is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded in 2011 at Suginami, Tokyo by Madhouse co-founder and producer Masao Maruyama, it has produced anime television series including Terror in Resonance, Yuri!!! on Ice, Kakegurui, Banana Fish, Zombie Land Saga, Dororo (with Tezuka Productions), Dorohedoro, Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan (season 4), Vinland Saga (season 2), Chainsaw Man, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, and Ranma ½ (2024). 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 the Madhouse era, but it took three years to start the production due to difficulties in raising funds.

In April 2016, Maruyama resigned as a CEO of the studio and became a chairman, withdrawing his management position and going on to establish Studio M2 to create Pluto (Japanese TV series). Leaving the studio in hands of animation producer Manabu Otsuka, a founding member of MAPPA and a former employee of Studio 4°C, who became the CEO following Maruyama's official departure.

In September 2019, Director Sunao Katabuchi established Animation Studio Contrail to produce his next work. While Otsuka serving as the representative director for the same.

In February 2026, It was announced that Contrail will cease to exist as an separate legal entity and will be acquired by MAPPA. To add, Director Katabuchi said that its just a management shift and they still will be producing under the Contrail name.

Production system

In addition to the head office in Nakano, a studio in Sendai was established in April 2018 specializing in in-betweening and finishing and a studio in Osaka in March 2022 that specializes in 3DCGI, To decentralize the excessive concentration of animation production in Tokyo and to bring opportunities for the graduates of the local vocational schools in their own respective region, instead of them having to move to Tokyo.

Tokyo Studio

The Tokyo studio consists of production department, CGI department, directing department, animation department, rights division, planning and development department.

Currently, other than every animation related project being primarily handled here, The head office also houses The Rights department which is responsible for copyright, illustrations, merchandises, coordination of events and advertisement of related intellectual property(s). To expand in this area in April 2025, a record label "mappa records" was started Kensuke Ushio's OST for Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc being the first publication under that label

Sendai Studio

Opened in April 2018, it was established to build a more stable production base, and to increase the percentage of in-house production, is mainly responsible for the processes of in-between animation and digital painting. There are future plans to establish a CGI section for 3DCG, compositing, and backgrounds.

Osaka Studio

Opened in 2023, in the center of Osaka city acts as a satellite office of the CGI Department. This studio is primarily staffed by the 3DCG section artists. The studio has future plans to establish other departments such as the CGI Department's background art section, the Animation Department, and the Production Department, with the aim of creating a functional production equivalent to that of Tokyo.

Productions

Anime television series

Anime films

Original video animations (OVAs)

Original net animations (ONAs)

Music videos (MVs)

Video games

Other productions

• Sex: Prologue (OVA, 2018) – promotional video for the 30th anniversary of manga Sex by Atsushi Kamijo; directed by Sayo Yamamoto
• Kick-Flight Promotional Video; Kick-Flight × KANA-BOON (ONA, 2019) – promotional video for the mobile game Kick-Flight, featuring the song "Flyers" by Kana-Boon; directed by Munehisa Sakai
• Mechronicle (unknown, TBA) – directed by Shinji Kimura
• Honkai: Star Rail Animation Concept Trailer (ONA, 2026) – concept trailer titled "Death in the Afternoon", co-produced with HoYoverse; directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa, character design by Kayoko Ishikawa

Cancelled projects

• Dreaming Machine (film) – cancelled film, originally directed by Satoshi Kon and taken over by Yoshimi Itazu after Kon's death; planned co-production with Madhouse
• Yuri!!! On Ice: Ice Adolescence (film) – cancelled film to be directed by Sayo Yamamoto and announced in 2017 before being delayed in 2019 and in production hell for several years. The film was cancelled in April 2024.

Notable staff

Representative staff

• Masao Maruyama (founder, first president (2011~2016), board chairman since 2016)
• Manabu Otsuka (second president since 2016)
• Wataru Kawagoe (animation producer; MAPPA Sendai representative)
• Makoto Kimura (board member, 2018~2024)
• Hiroya Hasegawa (animation producer; executive vice president since 2024)
• Yasuteru Iwase (former animation producer; board director, 2024~2025)
• Yuusuke Tannawa (board member since 2024)
• Shuuhei Yabuta (board member since 2024)
• Kousuke Hosokai (board member, 2024~2026)
• Yuuichi Fukushima (executive vice president at CloverWorks; external board member since 2025)
• Keisuke Seshimo (animation producer, 2018~; executive officer, 2024~2026)
• Motoi Okunou (executive officer since 2025)
• Eiji Matsuo (chief rights officer, 2024~2026)

Animation producers

• Fuuko Noda (2015~2025)
• Tooru Kubo (2015~2021)
• Takahiro Ogawa (2016~present)
• Katsuhito Masuda (2017~2018)
• Masakazu Watanabe (2019~2020; co-founder of Lapin Track)
• Masato Matsunaga (2019~present)
• Ryouta Kitsunai (2023; director)
• Kouya Okamura (2023~present)
• Ryou Ooigawa (2024~present)
• Yuriko Waki (2024~present)
• Koudai Katou (2025~present)
• Makoto Arakawa (2025~present)
• Riku Nihonyanagi (2025~present)

Directors

• Munehisa Sakai (2017~2022)

Animators

• Tadashi Hiramatsu[ja] (2018~present)

Controversies

The studio's scheduling, work, and culture have been the subject of scrutiny by industry creators and critics. 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".

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.

See also

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

Notes

External links

• (in Japanese)
• at the Wayback Machine (archived May 31, 2019)
• at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• at Anime News Network's encyclopedia