One of the largest production companies in Japan, Imagica Group, has reached a deal that will see “full-scale production” of light anime – a new, cheaper type of animation.
Yomiuri reports that Dai Nippon Printing and Imagica Group subsidiary Imagica Foss have signed a business partnership to jointly produce light anime. They added that this was the first time a major Japanese company had seriously attempted to produce light-hearted anime. Dai Nippon Printing will plan to produce the anime while Imagica will produce them, with each series having six to 12 episodes, each approximately 10 minutes long. The first batch of light anime will air on TV and online distribution services in 2024. Imagica president Foss is optimistic about the medium’s potential, saying: “When an anime director directs production and a famous voice actor dubbing, the level of perfection is surprisingly high.”
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It is claimed that light anime production will be significantly faster and cheaper at a cost of only about 10% of current television animation costs. Light anime works by animating parts of digital manga images while voice actors narrate the dialogue. The article also claimed that this medium would eliminate the cost of drawing and painting by hand and could be completed using about 10 people. This is in stark contrast to current anime, where the production staff list is growing. A recent Denfaminicogamer feature on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners writer and Studio Trigger co-founder Masahiko Otsuka revealed that the anime currently has about 200 staff working on it, using about 3,000 images—with a higher quality anime numbers even go up to 5,000-10,000 frames. Lightweight anime would eliminate many of these staff, bringing work from their source material to the screen much more quickly.
However, the announcement may not go down well with fans, who feel that the industry is trying to cut corners rather than provide reasonable working conditions. Bleach director Tomohisa Taguchi recently came under fire for agreeing that AI could replace “lazy” animators like “leeches” and for CBR’s extensive coverage of MAPPA in Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 for found that fans and staff alike wanted more time to produce, not less. While light anime and anime can coexist, it is currently unclear how light anime will differ from existing similar media. While light anime can serve as a way to gauge popularity, the effect is already present, as seen with the announcement of Tokyo Ghoul creator Sui Ishida’s Choujin fans are excited about the possibility of an anime adaptation.
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The successful adoption of this medium by the Imagica Corporation will likely see a rapid increase in the number of anime produced annually. The company is already one of Japan’s largest companies, with total assets equivalent to Toei as of 2019. Famous book publisher Shufunotomo (Apothecary’s Diary, Isekai Cheat Magician) holds a small portion in Imagica Foss, opening up the possibility that some of their own works could be adapted through this light anime medium in the near future.
Source: Yomiuri
