As well know Mappa has quickly found its way to fame with the awesome Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen adaptations. But as is usually the case, when someone (or something) rises to fame there are always people to put allegations on them. The same has happened with Mappa recently. Is Mappa Underpaying their employee?
I will try to describe Mappa’s condition and present my views on the topic along with the origins of these allegations. Now keep in mind, it is not like I work for Mappa so I can only present my views on the situation and they may or may not be true. So let’s get started
Some information about Mappa
Mappa is a fairly new studio, founded on 14th June 2011. Its founder and current chairman is Maruyama Masao. The name “Mappa” itself is an acronym for Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association. Their list of anime isn’t that big but you can check out all of their notable works here.
They have 250 employees as of April 2021 and 2 studio buildings in Tokyo. The 2nd building was recently made and the production of Chainsaw Man is going on in the new building. Mappa’s current CEO is Otsuka Manabu. Now that we have some basic information about Mappa, let’s get started
Where did the allegations start?
All of these “underpaying” allegations started when famous animator Ichii Ippei accused Netflix of paying less than what the studios deserve specifically Mappa. Because of this, the employees are also paid less than what they deserve. He later clarified that his problem was with Netflix and not Mappa. Oh, Netflix, you never learn…. you can check out my article talking about how Netflix is bad for the anime industry here.
Now putting Netflix aside, Mappa said in a later statement that they are “paying a fair rate relative to the budget of the project” to their employees. They never denied what Ippei-sensei was saying so maybe Netflix actually pays less to the studios. All the more reason to not use Netflix for watching anime.
A little while after this, when a freelance animator who worked with Mappa on AoT Final Season accused them of having an “unhealthy, factory-like” working environment. Mappa did not comment on this. They did make the second building I mentioned earlier to improve the working conditions of their employees.
What are my thoughts on this whole matter?
Now to people who think Mappa is doing too many things at once, I’d like to clarify that any animation studio does not have a single team. They have multiple teams with different teams handling different projects. And the production of an anime begins quite a while before it actually comes out. That said, I do want Mappa to take a little rest. Since expectations for Chainsaw Man and AoT are really high.
So is Mappa overworking their employees? Maybe. This is very possible since they did not even have time to make a trailer for AoT Final Season and they ended up outsourcing the trailer. Hence, the difference in the quality of the trailer and actual anime.
Is Mappa underpaying their employees? I don’t think so. Since there haven’t been other people complaining about the pay they are getting in Mappa and not a lot of people have resigned from their jobs in the studio either. They made a lot of money from their recent projects so I doubt they underpay their staff.
Conclusion
That is all I have for now. Those are my honest thoughts on the matter. Let me know yours down in the comments. But as I said, they may be overworking their employees but I don’t think they underpay them. As always, stay tuned for more content, and do not forget to check out our art section. With that said, I will take my leave here. See ya!
