#Anime Studio MAPPA Responds to Claims of Low Pay From Animators

Earlier this week, animation director Ippei Ichii claimed on Twitter that he was offered only 3,800 yen (US$34) per cut (for a short scene) to work on a show at MAPPA produced by Netflix. The tweets, and the responses from the anime industry at large, went viral.

Today, MAPPA responded to those claims, saying that the information was “misleadingly disclosed” which made some of the facts be “taken out of context” and enforce “misunderstandings and speculations” that promoted “unjustified distortion of the truth.” The full statement translated is below.

“We have recently noticed that some internal information about an unpublished work was misleadingly disclosed on social media.

As a result, some of the facts were taken out of context and other information was added based on misunderstandings and speculations, resulting in unjustified distortion of the truth and causing a great deal of inconvenience to our clients and other people involved in the work.

As a matter of fact, the work in question, which has not yet been released, is not a project that we were commissioned to produce by a major platform.

The work in question is a new installment of a TV series that was produced in the past and for which both we and the production committee had been eagerly awaiting approval, and finally, the production order was realized when the production committee’s managing company confirmed the sale of the work to a major platform. The production cost is determined by the sales amount.

In the past, as well as in the case of this work, we have never forced creators to accept commissions at unreasonably low prices that were not in proportion with production costs.

Since many companies and creators are involved in the production of animation works, conditions are agreed upon between the parties involved and information management is also under strict control.

Especially for works that have not yet been published, there is a risk that the parties involved may be accused of violating the contract and the work itself may be abandoned. We strongly object to such unauthorized disclosure of information and will take appropriate action.

Our company aims to produce the best work possible within the scope of the production costs set for each project, and we will continue to make every possible effort to do so. We will strive to continue to improve the working environment and conditions for each project every day.

Thank you very much for your continued support.”

It was not 100% confirmed in the above statement if the project MAPPA is discussing is one they have worked on in the past or taking over an anime project from a previous studio.

Source: MAPPA

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Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.