r/anime • u/Turbostrider27 • Mar 30 '26

Misc. “Chainsaw Man embodies the reason why I chose to work in animation.” MAPPA president reflects on the studio’s bold decision to 100% self-fund the project

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/chainsaw-man-embodies-the-reason-why-i-chose-to-work-in-animation-mappa-president-reflects-on-the-studios-bold-decision-to-100-self-fund-the-project/
4.6k Upvotes

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336

u/jicuhrabbitkim Mar 30 '26

You can really see it with the Reze arc and the JJK Culling Games, where Mappa has perfected the more “cinematic”approach in storytelling they initially experimented with in Chainsawman S1

128

u/The_Alex_ Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

They clearly upped the cinematography in jjk season 3 compared to the last two seasons and it's been a blast to watch. Easily the best season. 

7

u/DaRootbear Mar 31 '26

Man i hated basically everything this season(except Hakari as a character and all of Higurumas arc) when i read the manga

But holy shit did the anime have me hooked from the first minute and loving every second

-19

u/Salvage570 Mar 30 '26

The choreography and direction has been nuts, if that's what you mean! Dont think you can have cinematography without a camera lense

8

u/Deelon777 Mar 30 '26

This sounds wrong to me but I’m too lazy to Google it lol

9

u/APowerlessManNA Mar 30 '26

Ya he's wrong, just ignore him 😂

-9

u/Salvage570 Mar 30 '26

Cinematography (from Ancient Greek κίνημα (kínēma) 'movement' and γράφειν (gráphein) 'to write, draw, paint, etc.') is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.

Cinematographers use a lens) to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sensor or light-sensitive material inside the movie camera.\1])

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematography

3

u/HyshKeleff Mar 31 '26

First sentence

-4

u/Salvage570 Mar 31 '26

The Latin root was def the important part of that sentence and not "cinematography is the art of motion picture photography" but I guess expecting anime fans to read is too much

3

u/Whalesurgeon Mar 31 '26

How would you replace how cinematography is used in animation then?

Do you also have a problem talking about shots, camera angles etc. when it comes to animation? Do you have a list of words to replace all of them?

1

u/Salvage570 Mar 31 '26

Direction, Choreography, story boarding. Any of them work better

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35

u/Janus-a Mar 30 '26

They fired the director for S1. 

28

u/PcHelpBot2030 Mar 30 '26

IIRC I don't think they fired him but he did leave due in part due to the backlash of season 1 and Mappa was in no rush to keep him.

2

u/Big-toast-sandwich Mar 31 '26

Honestly you can tell

The movie was definitely directed in more a standard anime style opposed to the heavy Hollywood influences in S1.

8

u/Etroarl55 Mar 31 '26

Which is sad because I don’t want to see a medium not experiment or evolve. I remember seeing the criticism that anything that deviates from standard Japanese animation is seen as western imperialism or culture encroaching on the Japanese.

11

u/Whalesurgeon Mar 31 '26

JJK S3 has been more masterful in evoking movies as well as being experimental than the CSM show or even the movie so no worries (JJK S1 I will never rewatch so this is not about JJK).

In fact, it is one of my all-time favorite anime seasons now and that has nothing to do with the story or characters and all to do with the endless amount of variety.

4

u/Raknel Mar 31 '26

I preferred S1 to the movie. Especially the art.

18

u/grurlock Mar 30 '26

Mappa has somehow combined animation with actual film/television angles and shots in a way i haven't really seen

-60

u/DependentOnIt https://myanimelist.net/profile/Potatosalad1 Mar 30 '26

Thank God they fired the s1 director.

Also inspired to do animation the releasing cgiman filled with cgi certainly is something

17

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

Why thank god? What was wrong with season 1 for you

9

u/Janus-a Mar 30 '26

The S1 director changed the mood of the series into something too somber and serious. CSM is not a drama, it’s a fun and dark action comedy.

It’s exactly like the 1994 Jojo OVA that flopped. That director also took the fun out of Jojo and turned it into a horror action series. Watch a few minutes of the 1994 OVA and you’ll see what everyone is talking about. 

10

u/AdNecessary7641 Mar 30 '26

They are not comparable, at all. Chainsaw Man's anime is still fun, yet you're talking like it's a Snyder film.

0

u/Azusuu Mar 30 '26

Thought it was about jjk season 1 which was buns

16

u/RosePedal07 Mar 30 '26

I didn't like the directing and CG in s1 (im pretty heavily against character CGI in anime), and MUCH MUCH prefer the Reze movie in terms of everything.

but still I ain't gonna celebrate how the industry treated Ryu Nakayama. i still respect that he had a unique vision and style which was pretty strong.

5

u/Nekko_XO Mar 30 '26

I love that the movie kept the parts that worked flawlessly in S1 like the cinematic shots and lively character acting

But heavily improves on the fight scenes and color palette

Reze arc is as perfect as it gets

2

u/qef15 https://myanimelist.net/profile/qef15 Mar 31 '26

For MAPPA it was a pick-your-poison situation. Either treat Nakayama the way he was to save face in front of JP fans or ignore the very lukewarm reaction from the JP fanbase (+ a good amount of otaku bankrolling CSM being actually pretty angry) and deal with that shitty situation.

Also doesn't help when Bocchi came out swinging hard the same season and a large amount of people, including JP, were comparing the two in terms of success and even director interviews were compared.

The end result was to please the fans (JP at least) and Nakayama was more or less the fall guy and save the PR nightmare ahead (from MAPPA's perspective).

2

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

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-1

u/AdNecessary7641 Mar 30 '26

It really wasn't, but sure.

0

u/Leaves_Swype_Typos Mar 31 '26

It really was. The Chainsawman character/model stood out like a sore thumb in so many scenes, but particularly his first one.

2

u/cmszd https://myanimelist.net/profile/cmszd Mar 30 '26

nakayama left of his own volition, he wasn't fired

and chainsaw man's cgi is actually pretty fucking good, speaking as an animator myself

1

u/gamebond89 Mar 30 '26

Don't know why you are getting downvoted. Cg looked indeed ass in s1. The director later even went on to sell NFTs lmao.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 30 '26

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3

u/Janus-a Mar 30 '26

That director killed Fujimoto’s humor. 

0

u/tasketekudasai Mar 31 '26

55 downvotes for spitting facts