MAPPA producer Makoto Kimura, heavily involved in the production of Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan: The Final Season and more, has left the studio. Now, he has revealed the reason why.
Kimura spoke to Gamebiz about his departure from MAPPA and the founding of his new production company Blue Rights. "Since joining MAPPA, I think that the things I wanted to do were realized in a pretty good way," he said. "MAPPA will probably continue to grow, and I hope it will continue to do so, but for me personally, it would be better to leave MAPPA and work on a broader scale, both as a challenge for myself and in the sense of contributing to the industry." His comments suggest that his MAPPA departure was amicable, even adding that he hoped Blue Rights could give back to MAPPA.
Kimura has had one of the largest impacts in turning MAPPA into the production powerhouse it is today. He says that when he first joined MAPPA, "there was no copyrights department and only one or two people were responsible for the rights. Since then, we have now grown into a department of several dozen people who are able to run the rights business, so I think I was able to contribute in that aspect." Kimura's role connected MAPPA to stakeholders such as "publishers, broadcasting stations, film companies, video manufacturers and distribution companies" and spearheaded the decision for Chainsaw Man to feature 12 different ending songs, which garnered worldwide attention.
MAPPA Now Owns the Anime Copyrights to Chainsaw Man and Others
MAPPA's copyright business puts it among the leading anime studios. The company is in the rare position of being able to self-finance anime, owning the anime copyrights to Chainsaw Man and Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill. MAPPA CEO Manabu Otsuka says this policy change saved the studio's finances. It's worth noting that the recently released Anime Industry Report 2023 reveals that 50% of the anime market derives from overseas income; MAPPA's ability to negotiate directly with streamers over overseas streaming rights means it reaps the majority of it, again seen in the recent Oblivion Battery series, airing as part of Crunchyroll's Spring 2024 anime lineup.
MAPPA Changes Its Management Structure in the Wake of Yuri on Ice Producer Departure
Kimura joins fellow producer Fuka Noda as a recent departure from MAPPA, with the studio announcing a change to its management structure in early April. Noda, an animation producer on the popular Yuri on Ice and Netflix's new Maboroshi film, recently joined Chocolate Inc. While departures in the industry are common, and the above two seemingly amicable, they follow high-profile freelancers like Jujutsu Kaisen Season 1 director Sunghoo Park and Chainsaw Man director Ryu Nakayama, who have both made comments interpreted as MAPPA criticism. Popular Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece freelancer Vincent Chansard recently said he would never work with them again.
Source: Gamebiz
