Studio Ghibli veteran says animators are weak at negotiation and lack the strength of personality of the previous generation

Shigeo Akahoria veteran of the famous Studio Ghibliin a recent interview with Gamebiz talked about the many problems in the anime industry and left some solutions.

With over 40 years of experience and having worked on anime such as The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, The Secret World of Arrietty, Monster It is Paranoia Agentthe animator stated that younger animators they are lukewarm, weaker in negotiation and do not have the strength of personality of the previous generation. Top brass need to negotiate with those at the bottom and allow employees to reap the rewards of copyright and licensing.

Akahori said that in the early days of the anime industry talented creators “were able to freely use their ingenuity, resulting in many masterpieces, and seeing this, even more talented people entered the anime industry“. However, nowadays, “It is important that manga originals are faithful to the original work, which is why people are needed who are more artisans than creators”.

To solve the problems this causes, Akahori calls for shorter animations and for the government to push for ways that connect fans behind the scenes of anime production.

Shorter animations could help save the anime industry

Although it is controversial to ask for shorter animated projects, Shigeo Akahori claims that airing them in conjunction with the standard 30-minute, 12-episode seasons would be effective. That “would attract amateurs and animators who had ideas but nowhere to put them into practice”.

Although the suggestion of Akahori expect to meet the demands of the anime industry by producing higher quality works, others have suggested increasing quantity through ‘lighter anime’ that are cheaper to produce.

Akahori later in the interview he references the importance of shorter anime when praising the filmmaker Makoto Shinkai (your name., Tenki no Ko, Suzume) as a necessary figure to overcome the problems of the anime industry. Shinkai made frequent use of animated short films before establishing itself as a global leader in feature films. Akahori says this would provide a crucial entry point, allowing masters of his craft to emerge.

The CEO of Aniplex and producer of Demon Slayer, Atsuhiro Iwakamirecently shared similar sentiments with Akahori in relation to talented creators. In his extensive comments, he added that the way things are created in Japan largely depends on a single genius. In many ways, anime production has been characterized by stories of a singular force of nature, such as Hayao Miyazaki, Hideaki Anno or Yoshiyuki Tomino. Iwakami says that the industry needs to take into account the issue of foreign models, where production is more “logical and organized”, but it often failed in Japan.