{"id":56249,"date":"2026-01-28T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56249"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:38:35","slug":"anime-studio-partnerships-with-global-giants-like-netflix-may-spur-reform-of-japans-investor-centric-production-system-insider-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/anime-studio-partnerships-with-global-giants-like-netflix-may-spur-reform-of-japans-investor-centric-production-system-insider-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Anime studio\u00a0partnerships with\u00a0global\u00a0giants like Netflix\u00a0may\u00a0spur\u00a0reform of Japan\u2019s investor-centric production system, insider says\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen animation studio&nbsp;<strong>MAPPA<\/strong>&nbsp;recently announced a strategic partnership with Netflix, through which the&nbsp;two companies&nbsp;plan&nbsp;to&nbsp;co-produce and&nbsp;distribute&nbsp;multiple&nbsp;upcoming anime projects.&nbsp;When the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/netflix-and-mappa-form-strategic-partnership-to-exclusively-distribute-anime-worldwide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announcement<\/a>&nbsp;was&nbsp;first&nbsp;made on January 21, MAPPA\u2019s president Manabu Otsuka&nbsp;said&nbsp;that Japanese animation studios&nbsp;now need to&nbsp;take the lead in all stages of anime production&nbsp;themselves, declaring the company\u2019s intent to&nbsp;become independent.&nbsp;According to veteran TV Asahi producer Hiromichi&nbsp;Shizume&nbsp;(source:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pinzuba.news\/articles\/-\/14026?page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pinzuba News<\/a>), moves like this could create pressure to rethink Japan\u2019s long-standing \u201cproduction committee\u201d system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1274\" height=\"844\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1274px) 100vw, 1274px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-55958-header.jpg\" alt=\"Netflix and Mappa partnership\" class=\"wp-image-55960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-55958-header.jpg 1274w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-55958-header-380x252.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260121-55958-header-768x509.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Becoming commonplace in the 90s,&nbsp;a&nbsp;production committee&nbsp;is a&nbsp;consortium of companies&nbsp;(such as manga publishers, broadcasters,&nbsp;and&nbsp;marketers)&nbsp;that come together to&nbsp;invest in the production of anime on a project-by-project basis.&nbsp;While&nbsp;this system&nbsp;helps fund&nbsp;new titles&nbsp;and reduces the&nbsp;financial&nbsp;risk animation studios bear,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;also&nbsp;somewhat notorious&nbsp;for&nbsp;not allowing the studios to make money.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As&nbsp;Shizume&nbsp;puts it,&nbsp;investors&nbsp;allocate&nbsp;only the bare minimum&nbsp;to the&nbsp;anime&nbsp;studio, keeping&nbsp;productions&nbsp;costs low.&nbsp;This means&nbsp;a&nbsp;base budget&nbsp;for the studio is secured even if the&nbsp;anime&nbsp;doesn\u2019t&nbsp;end up selling, but it also&nbsp;gives investors&nbsp;the&nbsp;opportunity to&nbsp;lap up most of the profit.&nbsp;And&nbsp;since&nbsp;there\u2019s&nbsp;no royalty system&nbsp;in place&nbsp;(like in&nbsp;book&nbsp;publishing, for example), the studio\u2019s cut&nbsp;remains&nbsp;the&nbsp;same no matter how big a hit the&nbsp;anime becomes.&nbsp;As a result&nbsp;of this structure (and other related factors like&nbsp;manpower&nbsp;shortage), there has been a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/anime-studio-bankruptcies-and-closures-continue-to-rise-for-third-consecutive-year-in-japan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rising number of studios going bankrupt<\/a>, and animators\u2019 wages have barely improved throughout the years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1316\" height=\"737\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1316px) 100vw, 1316px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260115-55789-001-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56252\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260115-55789-001-1.jpg 1316w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260115-55789-001-1-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260115-55789-001-1-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if&nbsp;Japanese&nbsp;studios&nbsp;skip the production committees&nbsp;and&nbsp;start signing directly with global streaming giants (like MAPPA has with Netflix),&nbsp;Shizume&nbsp;believes production budgets will rise considerably.&nbsp;\u201cCreators naturally want to work where the pay is&nbsp;better,&nbsp;and they have more freedom.&nbsp;That\u2019s&nbsp;true not just for anime, but for dramas and variety shows too.\u201d &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While he cautions that&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;still not clear how far these kinds of partnerships can go in breaking apart the production committee system,&nbsp;Shizume&nbsp;notes&nbsp;that, \u201cIf we start seeing a string of overwhelming hits, there may be growing pressure to rethink a system where only the investors profit.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/more-sequels-and-even-more-remakes-of-90s-and-00s-hits-anime-industry-research-report-predicts-eight-major-trends-for-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">More sequels, and even more remakes of 90s and 00s hits. Anime industry\u00a0research report predicts eight major trends for 2026\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/days-with-my-stepsister-author-explains-why-some-anime-never-end-up-getting-a-second-season-even-if-we-had-the-budget-it-would-be-too-difficult-to-assemble-the-original-team-again\/\"><strong>Days with My Stepsister author ex<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/days-with-my-stepsister-author-explains-why-some-anime-never-end-up-getting-a-second-season-even-if-we-had-the-budget-it-would-be-too-difficult-to-assemble-the-original-team-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>plains why some anime never end up getting a second season. \u201cEven if we had the budget, it would be too difficult to assemble the original team again\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran Japanese TV producer Hiromichi\u00a0Shizume talks about the implications of MAPPA&#8217;s new partnership with Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":56251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[73,17],"class_list":["post-56249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-anime","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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