{"id":54992,"date":"2025-12-15T18:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T09:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54992"},"modified":"2025-12-16T17:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T08:42:14","slug":"everything-has-become-shallower-tokyo-godfathers-lain-producer-says-the-japanese-corporate-mindset-is-why-90-of-anime-just-adapts-existing-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/everything-has-become-shallower-tokyo-godfathers-lain-producer-says-the-japanese-corporate-mindset-is-why-90-of-anime-just-adapts-existing-works\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEverything has become shallower.\u201d Tokyo Godfathers, Lain producer says the Japanese corporate mindset is why 90% of anime just adapts existing works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Japanese anime market has reached the size of over 21 billion dollars in 2023, and continues to expand at a rapid pace. However, as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.co.jp\/articles\/d6a5997d1456996e232c606c9023a881f52e531f?page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ITmedia Business via Yahoo! Japan News<\/a>, among all TV anime titles in the Fall\/Winter season of 2025, 85.7% were based on existing source material like manga, novels, games and other IPs. On the other hand, original works made up only 14.3%. And while it seems like the market is walking the safe and profitable route \u2013 the lack of talented workforce, and with it, frameworks to support the creation of original content \u2013 are what could end up setting the industry back in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Talking to the outlet, Taro Maki, veteran anime producer known for his work on <strong>Tokyo Godfathers<\/strong>, <strong>Millenium Actress<\/strong> and <strong>Serial Experiments Lain, <\/strong>reflected on the problem, pointing out Japan\u2019s \u201cbusinessman producer\u201d culture of playing safe as one of the main causes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Millennium Actress - Official Digital Trailer (HD)\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AiaR25JXGlA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As he explains, Japan is witnessing a \u201clack of producers\u201d who aren\u2019t led by safe business decisions and profitability. \u201cThere are many \u2018businessman producers,\u2019 and in Japan the system of evaluation basically focuses on minus points, rather than plus points. \u201cIn other words, not making any mistakes ends up being their main priority.\u201d Maki explained that, in such an environment, there is no concept of taking on new challenges. \u201cThat\u2019s why, as a result, only safe projects and hit genres are the ones circulating,\u201d he added. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As suggested by Maki, this kind of corporate mindset is what might be holding Japan back from creating more original works, and why the industry is oversaturated with \u201csafe\u201d adaptations. \u201cNowadays, \u2018original works\u2019 like manga or novels become hits, and then they get an anime adaptation which would tie into the business of the publisher \u2013 almost 90% of the whole industry is built around this kind of framework. This leaves no room for new anime creators to thrive. Ideally, I\u2019d be fine with around 70% of new titles being \u201csafe,\u201d but I think that the remaining 30% should be turning towards taking on new challenges. We can create a \u2018healthy\u2019 anime industry only if we manage to find this balance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"In This Corner of the World Trailer #1 (2017) | Movieclips Indie\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sDPRMcZs5Lw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But acclaimed films like <strong>In This Corner of the World<\/strong>, which Maki personally worked on, didn\u2019t just appear as immediate hits. It took director Sunao Katabuchi around three mid-performing original works before he \u201chit it big\u201d with In This Corner of the World. Even Hayao Miyazaki had to go through some trial-and-error before producing his first hits, Maki says, and the role of a producer is precisely to create room for those kinds of challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is why Maki suggests that there should be more spaces that encourage experimentation with unconventional, \u201cdifficult-to-understand\u201d anime that doesn\u2019t completely conform to what\u2019s the most profitable. \u201cThe truth is, reactions from the audience are not something that can be predicted, and the \u2018difficult-to-understand\u2019 works are there precisely to foster an audience. Back in the day, there was a culture of watching \u2019slightly complex films\u2019 at small arthouse theaters, and that\u2019s what gave us some room to take on new things ourselves. But now, there are no such spaces, and I feel everything has become a bit shallower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/no-interference-in-creative-works-japanese-government-proposes-new-policy-for-anime-and-game-expansion-in-the-west\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>\u201cNo interference in creative works.\u201d Japanese government proposes new policy for anime and game expansion in the West<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/western-audiences-growing-tired-of-formulaic-disney-titles-is-what-paved-the-way-for-japanese-anime-toei-animation-veterans-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Western audiences growing tired of \u201cformulaic\u201d Disney titles is what paved the way for Japanese anime, Toei Animation veterans say<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent interview, anime producer Taro Maki talked about how the Japanese corporate mindset is affecting the industry&#8217;s &#8220;originality.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":54996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[73,17,66],"class_list":["post-54992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anime","tag-japan-related-news","tag-non-gaming-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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