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INTEREST: Veteran Producer Masao Maruyama Warns of Anime's Creative Decline


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TheSleepyMonkey



Joined: 11 Jul 2022
Posts: 960
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 12:53 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
On the other hand, Maruyama joked that he has no special skills for himself, and that all he does is "cook and clean toilets."


Huh, so I guess Musashino's president from Shirobako was way more accurate to him than I thought.
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Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24207
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 1:22 pm Reply with quote
I don't worry about anime's creative decline. Sure, there's a lot of generic, formulaic, uninspired dreck out there (hello, average isekai titles) but good stuff continues to be made. I can't remember who first said it, but the quote goes that 90% of everything is crap. Anime continues to produce 10% of stuff that is not crap (or an even higher percentage, ymmv), so like I say, I'm not worried.
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-Matthew-



Joined: 12 Mar 2022
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 1:22 pm Reply with quote
Sadly he is right. China make really good anime. And looking that there are only isekai which are VERY SIMILAR to each other and IDOLS anime you understand that his words are true.
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Los Nido



Joined: 26 Jun 2022
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 2:18 pm Reply with quote
Will all do respect to the man, this is just another case of Old Man Yells At Cloud. He even admits anime is successful and "crowd pleasing" to the masses, but since it's not the stuff he makes that's popular then the industry is clearly doomed. These statements never come from creators who continue to find success in the modern industry. It's unsurprising he's upset when even otaku works like the Girls und Panzer film outdid his last original anime film at the box office in Japan, let alone the mainstream ones like One Piece, Detective Conan, and Your Name from the same year. Anime is doing just fine.
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kuma991



Joined: 20 Jan 2021
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 2:20 pm Reply with quote
As expected from the man behind Monster. He's absolutely right. Japan has produced so much garbage since 2013, the standards are so low now. Thank god people like him still exist to inspire new generations of animators and thinkers.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4631
Location: New York
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 2:25 pm Reply with quote
Fear of loss of originality is always an issue. But Japan has one massive advantage over China - No Glorious Leader to directly account for censorship standards. The government will not force you to make things a certain way or to promote certain ideals (memes about the late Shinzo Abe aside) and that gives you flexibility that your opposition lacks.
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xxmsxx



Joined: 06 Sep 2017
Posts: 601
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 2:51 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
He warned that the industry is more concerned with churning out endless iterations of crowd-pleasing genres than training the next generation of animation talent, which is damaging in the long run.


Well, most people don't have the birds-eye view over the entire industry like you do, sir. They can only see the 3 minutes of profit right in front of them. Hence they will continue to chase after the crowd pleasers instead of thinking about the long term.
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Ryuji-Dono



Joined: 26 Apr 2018
Posts: 1242
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 3:00 pm Reply with quote
kuma991 wrote:
As expected from the man behind Monster. He's absolutely right. Japan has produced so much garbage since 2013, the standards are so low now. Thank god people like him still exist to inspire new generations of animators and thinkers.


Nah, sounds more like he’s generalizing.
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Sasuke149



Joined: 09 Sep 2009
Posts: 91
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 3:25 pm Reply with quote
I watched The Legend of Hei some time ago and I have to say the man is on to something. It has been such a long time since I watched such original animation.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 3:32 pm Reply with quote
xxmsxx wrote:
Quote:
He warned that the industry is more concerned with churning out endless iterations of crowd-pleasing genres than training the next generation of animation talent, which is damaging in the long run.


Well, most people don't have the birds-eye view over the entire industry like you do, sir. They can only see the 3 minutes of profit right in front of them. Hence they will continue to chase after the crowd pleasers instead of thinking about the long term.


There's also the fact that most young creators themselves are Otaku (as normies left years ago, the conditions aren't for them and they are better off everywhere else in Japanese media than in the anime, manga, LN & WN). This results in anime made for Otaku, sometimes whichever Otaku category they are a part of.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 2127
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 5:05 pm Reply with quote
Los Nido wrote:
Will all do respect to the man, this is just another case of Old Man Yells At Cloud. He even admits anime is successful and "crowd pleasing" to the masses, but since it's not the stuff he makes that's popular then the industry is clearly doomed.


I didn't see it that way. He's just generally warning about the potential for stagnation and getting pigeon-holed into certain genres and audiences. Consider the time he came from when MADHOUSE and Tezuka etc. were around and you'd see a lot more works that were unconventional and challenging. Today, it is a lot safer than in the heyday of anime coming onto the scene, especially the aimed-at-adults kind, or exploring new artistic visual expression. But that's generally how it goes. Doing new and different things, hoping to find that something that people didn't even know they wanted, comes with risk. Catering to the market with what is already established, is safer.


Quote:
These statements never come from creators who continue to find success in the modern industry.


Then you're only agreeing with him. The successful shows/films largely tend to follow conventions that people like and stick close to formula with even when they do successfully find new spins or reinventions on them. Even Makoto Shinkai very recently stated that despite his success even he has trouble getting to make something different from the successful guy-meets-girl films he's made his name on.
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Matros



Joined: 22 Feb 2021
Posts: 335
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 6:18 pm Reply with quote
Los Nido wrote:
Will all do respect to the man, this is just another case of Old Man Yells At Cloud. He even admits anime is successful and "crowd pleasing" to the masses, but since it's not the stuff he makes that's popular then the industry is clearly doomed. These statements never come from creators who continue to find success in the modern industry. It's unsurprising he's upset when even otaku works like the Girls und Panzer film outdid his last original anime film at the box office in Japan, let alone the mainstream ones like One Piece, Detective Conan, and Your Name from the same year. Anime is doing just fine.


It's kinda amazing and sad at the same time that every single word of his went over your head.
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WoodDude



Joined: 22 Dec 2022
Posts: 72
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 6:30 pm Reply with quote
I've never seen or heard anyone talk about Chinese animation. About the only area of Chinese pop culture I see become popular are some video games like Genshin Impact, Honkai, Azur Lane, and etc. In that regard, sure, China is certainly doing well with some mobile gacha games. And Honkai Star Rail is probably the best RPG I've played in a long time, but I don't see Chinese animation ever having the global appeal or popularity that Japanese animation does. Which Chinese animation is dominating the world, exactly?
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2316
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 6:48 pm Reply with quote
IDK, maybe the 30+ years of recession, changing attitudes towards work culture (and acknowledging that many were toxic), declining birth rates further exasperated by a global pandemic, and unchecked captialistic greed quashing any feelings of optimism or desire for artistic self-expression had something to do with it too, but sure we can blame the Chinese I guess.
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TheSleepyMonkey



Joined: 11 Jul 2022
Posts: 960
PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2023 7:02 pm Reply with quote
Joe Mello wrote:
IDK, maybe the 30+ years of recession, changing attitudes towards work culture (and acknowledging that many were toxic), declining birth rates further exasperated by a global pandemic, and unchecked captialistic greed quashing any feelings of optimism or desire for artistic self-expression had something to do with it too, but sure we can blame the Chinese I guess.


Except that he's not "blaming" the Chinese, he's simply saying that the way the anime industry's current problems that just keeping worse is making it more likely that other countries will surpass it. Literally from the article itself:

Quote:
He warned that the industry is more concerned with churning out endless iterations of crowd-pleasing genres than training the next generation of animation talent, which is damaging in the long run.


I'm convinced you people just don't know how to read.
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