An animator who worked on the anime Bleach, among many other popular works, has harshly criticized plans for the newly announced ‘light anime’ medium, which promises to create anime with The cost is only 10% of current production costs.
After a new anime format was announced by major Japanese producer and publishing company Imagica Foss (Apothecary’s Diary, Isekai Cheat Magician), Mizue Ogawa mocked the announcement on X (formerly Twitter ), said: “If you’re going to force anime to work in such a crude way, shouldn’t you stop making anime and just read manga and novels? Probably a silly question.” She continued, “I’m sure the original author was hoping for a solid anime adaptation, so I don’t think there’s a need for something half-baked like this????”
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Ogawa is a veteran animator who has worked on some of the biggest anime adaptations, including Bleach, Dragon Ball Z, Attack on Titan, and My Hero Academia. As previously announced, the light anime will be based on manga panel animation with voice actors narrating. They can be produced with just 10 people, compared to regular anime series that can have hundreds of staff working.
The announcement comes amid growing criticism about the direction of the anime industry. The original anime’s creator has stated that anime is in narrative decline, while Jujutsu Kaisen 0 animation director Terumi Nishii said that skill levels are plummeting, citing unsustainable demand as the reason of faster production of new anime series is a major reason for this. She said this has led to studios having to fill manpower shortages with unqualified animators. Perhaps one of the best examples of this unsustainable demand was through CBR’s extensive coverage of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, where busy MAPPA staff had little time to produce the series.
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Demand for new anime has exploded over the past few years, as evidenced by the millions of hours of anime available on Netflix and other streaming services this year. With the industry long struggling to keep up with demand, the rapid launch of light anime in 2024 could be further evidence that the anime industry is currently in a bubble.
Source: Mizue Ogawa via X (formerly Twitter)
