Fans berate MAPPA after Studio Pierrot's managing director comments about the working conditions in studios

MAPPA has again come under anime fans' radar after Studio Pierrot posted an interview with the company's Managing Director Keiro Itsumi. The interview saw the Studio Pierrot staff speak about IP financing and management of an animation studio. With that, he gave his insights into the anime industry.

The interview touched on areas for which the anime studio MAPPA has been criticized. Thus, anime fans took the initiative to berate MAPPA, asking them to learn from long-running animation studios like Studio Pierrot who have been trying to tackle their obstacles through appropriate payments and scheduling.

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Anime fans berate MAPPA over Studio Pierrot's efforts to improve work environment

The interview saw the Studio Pierrot Managing Director being asked about the changes in the anime industry. In response to that, Keiro Itsumi started speaking about the new trends in the industry as to how all studios have been wanting to expand their works on the world stage with higher quality.

However, it is not as easy as it seems. Previously, the anime industry may have been working under a premise that ignored the Labor Standards Act. However, in today's world, proper labor management is a must. This is because animation is not done by computers but by people. Hence, if the staff was exhausted, then there was no way to work around it.

To tackle that, Keiro Itsumi revealed that, ever since he joined Studio Pierrot, the company has made major revisions in salary, retroactively paying overtime pay by 20%. With that, the company has made great strides in improving the working environment.

Anime fans reacting to Studio Pierrot's methods to tackle poor working conditions. (Image via Sportskeeda/X)

Everything that Studio Pierrot had been doing to improve working conditions seemed exactly what MAPPA had been accused of ignoring all this time. Hence, anime fans immediately began to berate MAPPA over its poor management of its employees' working conditions.

Many fans asked the animation studio to take notes from Studio Pierrot to hopefully one day adapt the same methods to tackle poor working conditions. It did not make sense to them why MAPPA was the only company that faced a lot of criticism.

That's when one fan tried to point out that maybe anime studios like Studio Pierrot themselves faced similar problems. However, given MAPPA's popularity, its poor working conditions are the ones that come in front of the public the most.

While that theory does seem plausible, not many animators from other animation studios have felt forced to reveal the sad truth surrounding their company.

Anime fans reacting to Studio Pierrot's methods to tackle poor working conditions. (Image via Sportskeeda/X)

In the meantime, other anime fans began praising Studio Pierrot and its Managing Director Kiero Itsumi for their good work. While their methods may not be the best way to tackle poor working conditions, they certainly act as positive baby steps towards eradicating the problem.

Hence, they wished for other animation studios to also follow the same blueprint. One anime fan even theorized that the reason Studio Pierrot may have been doing well was because they stopped animating series that weren't incurring much profit. By saying so, the anime fan made a dig at the Boruto anime that was stopped in 2023.