Masao Maruyama & Studio MAPPA Q&A
[Source: ToonZone] Perennial Otakon guest Masao Maruyama returned to the convention once
again in 2013 to do several Q&A sessions. This panel in particular
centered on his work with his new production studio, MAPPA. The panel
opened with a total of three videos, two of which I can talk about: a
tribute to the late Satoshi Kon that had only been previously shown at
Mr. Kon’s funeral and a video made as a tribute to survivors of the 2011
earthquake. The video tribute to Mr. Kon was very moving and the
tribute to the earthquake survivors just as much so, in part due to a
story that Mr. Maruyama related to the audience afterward. His family
is from one of the areas greatly affected by the earthquake. His
hometown was heavily damaged and his family home was actually washed
away in the tsunami that came after the earthquake, so being part of
this production was very important to him. The second video also
included music composed by Ms. Yoko Kano that was as beautiful as the
video itself.
Mr. Maruyama was very gracious in answering a wide range of question
about himself and his studio. When asked about his time at Mushi Pro
studios, Mr. Maruyama said that he started there right after Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom)
first started airing and the anime industry was very much in its
infancy. The studio did not have very many resources to use, so taking a
chance on a weekly animated television show was a very big gamble at a
time when the only anime that existed was a couple of theatrical films.
When Mr. Maruyama started he did not know much about the animation
industry, but working with such exemplary talents as Rintaro, Isaburo,
Tomino and Dezaki it turned out to be a very adventurous time and an
adventurous 50 years. With the passing of several of the giants on
anime is recent years Mr. Maruyama said that directors like Senichi
Sato, Shinichiro Wantanabe and several others would be worth keeping an
eye on in the future.
One of the audience members had an interesting question on the
possibility of crowd-funding with a tool like Kickstarter in light of
Studio Trigger’s recent success with this. Mr. Maruyama was happy to
hear that studios are able to raise funding that way. When a follow-up
question was asked on the subject, he said that MAPAA would possibly
consider a project funded by crowd-funding if it was the right kind of
project. MAPAA does have some projects that they would like to produce
but don’t have funding for right now, as well as several that are going
to be debuting on Japanese television in the next year.
Mr. Maruyama was previously part of Studio Madhouse. When asked why
he left Madhouse, Maruyama said that the studio had gotten too big for
some of the projects that he wanted to do and that it had gotten very
difficult to get anyone to work on certain projects, so he decided it
was better for him to start up a new studio that would work on the kinds
of things he wants to work on now. MAPPA has been expanding recently
with some new staffers, and Mr. Maruyama is very happy to have had the
chance to renew himself this far into his career. He hopes that in 10
years he’d be able to shut down MAPPA and start all over again if he
wanted to, but given that he is 72 now that may not be in the cards.
MAPPA has done a variety of different projects so far including the very richly animated Kids On The Slope and the much more basic TQ,
which in and of itself is Japanese slang for low-quality as well as
Tennis (or Courtyard Ball). For TQ, They specifically wanted to make a
low-quality animation show rather than doing something very high quality
like Kids on the Slope. Several of MAPPA’s projects have been
simulcast in both Japan and the USA simultaneously and while MAPAA
itself doesn’t control distribution (the project’s sponsors do), Mr.
Maruyama is happy to see more people enjoying what he works on. He also
hopes that the anime industry will continue to grow and have room for
both up-and-coming creators and the old guard. Finishing with another
question about crowd-funding, Maruyama said that a lot of the younger
creators have trouble finding ways to fund their projects. He also
quipped that if anyone wants to start up a Maruyama fund on Kickstarter
he will do whatever you want him to do, possibly including coming to
your house and cleaning the bathroom.
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