MAPPA

• 1. Introduction

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  Masao Maruyama was seventy years old when he founded MAPPA on the 14th of June 2011, in Suginami, Tokyo. The name spells out Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association. He had just left Madhouse, a studio he had co-founded decades before. Financial trouble there threatened Sunao Katabuchi's planned film, In This Corner of the World. Maruyama had begun developing that project with Katabuchi back in 2010, while still at Madhouse. Raising the funds to start production alone took three years. The finished film did not reach theaters until five years after MAPPA's founding. Out of that rescue mission grew a studio that would go on to produce Jujutsu Kaisen, Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man and Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku. What happened to the man who started it? How did a single-film rescue turn into a studio producing four series at once? And what did that pace cost the people animating them?

• 2. Passing The Torch

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  In April 2016, Maruyama resigned as the company's CEO and became chairman, stepping back from day-to-day management. He then founded Studio M2 to make Pluto, a Japanese television series. Leadership at MAPPA passed to Manabu Otsuka, a founding member of the studio and a former employee of Studio 4°C, once Maruyama's departure became official.

  In September 2019, director Sunao Katabuchi established a separate company, Animation Studio Contrail, to produce his next work. Otsuka served as Contrail's representative director as well, running both companies at once.

  In February 2026, MAPPA announced that Contrail would stop existing as a separate legal entity and be folded into the studio. Katabuchi called it a management shift, insisting that work would still be released under the Contrail name.

• 3. Building Beyond Tokyo

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  A studio in Sendai opened in April 2018, specializing in in-betweening and finishing work. A satellite studio for 3DCG animation opened in Osaka, with the studio's own materials giving both 2022 and 2023 as its opening year. Both locations were meant to decentralize animation production away from Tokyo, and to give graduates of local vocational schools work without having to relocate.

  The Nakano head office houses six departments: production, CGI, directing, animation, rights, and planning and development. Its Rights division manages copyright, illustrations, merchandise, and the coordination of events and advertising for MAPPA's intellectual properties. In April 2025, that division launched a record label called mappa records. Its first release was composer Kensuke Ushio's soundtrack for Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc.

  Sendai's team has plans to add a CGI section of its own, covering 3DCG, compositing, and backgrounds.

• 4. A Widening Catalog

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  Kids on the Slope reached audiences in 2012, co-produced with Tezuka Productions and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. Watanabe returned two years later to direct Terror in Resonance, an original story rather than a manga adaptation. Sayo Yamamoto directed Yuri!!! on Ice in 2016, another original story rather than an adaptation. Two years later, Hiroko Utsumi's manga adaptation Banana Fish and Munehisa Sakai's original series Zombie Land Saga both premiered in 2018. MAPPA and Tezuka Productions again joined forces in 2019 for Dororo, adapted from a manga.

  Yuichiro Hayashi directed Dorohedoro for the studio in 2020, adapting a manga. That same year, he also took on Attack on Titan's fourth season, released in parts through 2023. Sunghoo Park directed Jujutsu Kaisen starting in 2020, another manga adaptation that ran into 2021. By 2022, Ryū Nakayama was directing Chainsaw Man, another manga adaptation. The following year brought Vinland Saga's second season under Shūhei Yabuta and Hell's Paradise under Kaori Makita, both adapted from manga. Kōnosuke Uda, who had directed the studio's 13 Days series back in 2016, returned in 2024 to direct a manga adaptation of Ranma 1/2.

  In 2013, MAPPA animated the music video Hana wa Saku, set to a Yoko Kanno composition. NHK used it as the theme for its Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Project. The studio also animated video game openings, including Persona 5 Royal in 2019 for Atlus. It did the same for Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade in 2022, published by Toho Games. In 2023, Contrail produced the music video for YOASOBI's song Seventeen.

• 5. Cancelled Ambitions

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  Satoshi Kon originally directed Dreaming Machine as a planned co-production between MAPPA and Madhouse. After Kon died, Yoshimi Itazu took over directing duties, but the project was ultimately cancelled.

  In 2017, MAPPA announced a follow-up film, Yuri!!! On Ice: Ice Adolescence, to be directed by Sayo Yamamoto. The project was delayed in 2019 and sat in production trouble for years before being cancelled in April 2024.

  Oblivion Battery's second season, by contrast, already carries a scheduled year: 2027.

• 6. The Price Of Growth

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  Veteran animator Hisashi Eguchi criticized the studio's low pay. Another MAPPA animator, known as Mushiyo, said the studio failed to train its staff and fostered a culture of overwork that led them to quit. Mushiyo also criticized MAPPA's decision to produce four series at the same time.

  Kevin Cirugeda, writing for Sakugablog, attributed the problems to the studio's rapid growth and what he called its recklessness.

  MAPPA denied offering what it called unreasonable compensation to creators. Animator Ippei Ichii disputed that response, saying a MAPPA anime produced for Netflix had offered a per-cut rate he called the minimum animators should accept.

  Chainsaw Man: Assassins Arc and Jujutsu Kaisen's fourth season are both already announced, both still listed simply as TBA.