MAPPA – a name that is very familiar to all anime fans. From Attack on Titan: Final Season, Jujutsu Kaisen to the project Chainsaw Man that just hit theaters. This studio has almost embraced the hottest brands in recent years. Despite its reputation and large fan base, MAPPA has faced an internal crisis: employees are exhausted, production progress is suffocating, and the quality of the work fluctuates like an emotional roller coaster. But behind that halo, the story behind MAPPA 'draining' its employees reflects a scary reminder of the dark side of the Japanese anime industry. Let's analyze the story behind it with Hobiverse.
The Truth Behind the Glamour: The Anime Industry Is Not All Rosy
The Japanese anime industry has long been romanticized, portraying its workers as “silent artists” who create dreamlike worlds. But the reality is far from it. On average, anime artists work 10-12 hours a day, with salaries that sometimes don’t cover the cost of living in Tokyo.
MAPPA is no exception. Many animators have revealed that they are paid so little that they can barely afford rent. Their passion for the profession is being challenged! On X (Twitter), a series of anonymous shares appeared, talking about an overloaded working environment, deadline after deadline. Many talented people have chosen to leave the industry, creating a wave of brain drain that no one wants to admit. The competitive pressure between studios is increasingly fierce. To maintain cash flow, studios are forced to run projects continuously and MAPPA has been exposed for 'squeezing' its employees when the whole team has almost no time off between seasons.
Fluctuating quality, exhausted studio
MAPPA's story of 'squeezing' staff again affects the quality of anime, typically some episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 are not smooth and cut corners. Or like One Punch Man season 3 from JCStaff, currently ranked as the top new anime of the end of 2025. just disappointed fans with many still scenes appearing, a clear saving of motion. But many opinions have said that the fault does not really lie with the studio but with the current anime production mechanism. The studio itself has to take on many projects to survive, but all decisions about budget, progress or production team must go through the investor. Or in other words, the studio is the unit hired to do it.
In contrast, within MAPPA itself, Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc was meticulously invested, each polished frame showing internal selective priorities. So the problem is not entirely the artist's ability, but the unstable production management. When people have to run deadlines instead of creating, the art is inevitably eroded.
There is no denying that many studios are sitting on huge IP treasures. But the irony is that despite their huge reputations, they are not making a commensurate overall profit. Spy x Family: Wit Studio recently reported a huge loss and is looking to season 3 to help turn things around for the entire company. A few hot names cannot break even with the huge production costs and many other reasons.
What future for MAPPA and the Japanese anime industry?
The big question now is: Are studios sacrificing creativity for volume?
The solution is not easy, but perhaps it is time for producers to restructure, from reducing the volume of projects, extending the break between seasons and reviewing the income and salaries of direct production staff. Another direction that can be mentioned is international cooperation, to share the workload instead of putting it all on the shoulders of domestic workers.
MAPPA, like many other studios, is still a talented studio despite its “scandals”. But it will be a double-edged sword if the strategy is tied to forcing employees to work harder when the rewards are not commensurate for a long time, because it will erode both the health and creative soul of the artist.
As fans, we always look forward to the best anime, but we also need to remember that behind each sparkling frame are sleepless nights and the trembling hands of the animators. And what they deserve in return is not only praise, but also respect and proper working conditions. Hopefully in the future, there will no longer be a situation where MAPPA 'squeezes dry' the staff in this honorable anime production industry.
