Popular director leaves MAPPA to work on a new venture
MAPPAMAPPA continues to lose employees mainly due to the reported toxic environment. While some animators chose to leave the creative firm due to the aforementioned reason, a renowned director ended his journey with MAPPA for a different purpose.
Chainsaw Man Season 1 was released in 2022, and in no time, the dark fantasy anime impressed every fan with its wonderful animation – thanks to the animators of MAPPA and Ryu Nakayama’s direction.
Following the release of the finale episode of Chainsaw Man Season 1, the entire anime community awaited the announcement of Season 2. However, before the series’ renewal, the Chainsaw Man creators announced a movie at JUMP FESTA 2024.
Of course, the upcoming movie was supposed to show Nakayama in the director’s shoes, but the latest news about him reveals a different story.
Chainsaw Man’s director, Ryu Nakayama, starts his own animation studio
After working on several massive projects like Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more, Nakayama heads toward a new journey.
The brilliant director recently shared the big news via his X account, which confirms that he’s leaving MAPPA to start his own animation studio. Nakayama’s post states:
“We have recently established Andraft Co., Ltd. We aim to establish a better animation production system and deliver high-quality work to the world. I would like to challenge various genres without discrimination and open up new possibilities. Thank you for your continued support!”
Apart from the announcement, we also got a glimpse of the animation Andraft will bless the industry with. While the first animation of the studio was directed by Nakayama, it also involved AoT’s animator, Fumika Ito, and Kenji Segawa, the animation director of Oshi No Ko. As disclosed by the official website of Andraft, the studio won’t restrict its employees to traditional animation; it will give them every chance to step out of the box and be unique.
Recently, we have seen several renowned personalities in the Japanese animation industry leaving their reputed jobs to pursue their dreams. For instance, before Nakayama’s venture, we came across Yusuke Murata, the One-Punch Man’s author, who surprised every fan by talking about his acquired animation studio on January 1, 2024.
Of course, we’ve yet to see what project Nakayama’s newly established studio will undertake. They might pick up an underrated manga series for an anime adaptation, or the studio might surprise us by getting their hands on an incredibly popular or awaited project.
You can check out our Chainsaw Man coverage here and the rest of our anime coverage here.
