Recently anime has gotten more and more popular throughout the world. I myself started watching anime this summer. If you’re familiar with anime you’ll know what MAPPA is. MAPPA is an animation studio that animates many popular anime. Attack On Titan season 4, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Chainsaw Man were all animated by MAPPA studios. But MAPPA is infamous for one thing, the inhuman treatment of their employees. MAPPA is infamous for giving their workers terrible work conditions and not enough time to finish their work. They’re also known to underpay their workers.

Now the difference between MAPPA and studios in America is that animators have much less of a voice. They have little to no power. When Hollywood’s underpaying of writers became clear the writers went on a strike and that led to a deal being made, but MAPPA animators don’t have the ability to go on strike as they are not unionized. Every time MAPPA works on a new project workers go on social media to vent their frustrations. The most recent example is Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, the animators were truly bent to their limit during the airing of the season. MAPPA refused to give necessary delays so the animators would have the necessary time to complete the episodes. But by some miracle, Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 has some of the best animation I’ve ever seen and in complex fights too. The animators are truly incredible at their jobs, it’s so unfortunate that they are treated so poorly. A MAPPA animator who worked on Jujutsu Kaisen stated on Twitter that an episode was “30% of what could’ve been” due to the unfair time restraints. The episode in question was episode 17 of season 2 “Thunderclap Part 2”, this episode had some of the most jaw dropping animation I’ve ever seen. I won’t spoil anything but this episode was a pretty hyped up fight from the manga, and even though it was only 30% of what could have been it was one of the best animated fights of the year.

Unfortunately with bigger projects being announced it seems there is little light at the end of the tunnel. Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 has already been announced, and as a manga reader I will say that the arc has some incredibly complex and long fights that would be difficult to animate. A new Chainsaw Man movie has been announced which will cover the “Reze Arc” and that is also an incredibly difficult to animate arc from the manga. I will say I’m extremely excited to see how it is animated as both arcs are some of my favorite moments from each respective story, but I really hope that MAPPA lets the animators bring out their best work and compensate them fairly. Because MAPPA animators are truly incredible at what they do and they always deliver. Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 mostly covered the Shibuya arc which is one of the most hyped up arcs of newer manga and they delivered perfectly without good conditions. Attack On Titan is probably the biggest anime of the decade and they nailed the final season and finale. The finale of Attack On Titan was amazing visually (and story wise it was perfect as well) and again MAPPA animators did not have good conditions at all when making this. At least when making the final season of Attack On Titan there were some delays but still it was horrible conditions.

And other studios have proven that you don’t need to do what MAPPA does to make good anime. Kyoto Animations is a beloved studio and made what I believe to be the most visually stunning anime of all time in Violet Evergarden. A-1 Pictures has made my two personal favorite animes in 86 and Love is War (please watch both, we need new seasons) and they both look amazing. Of course these two studios aren’t perfect but there really isn’t any other studio that matches the scum of MAPPA. And for the animator’s and viewer’s sake I hope MAPPA ends their reign of terror and lets the animators be their best selves.