A Japanese anime producer says the industry has become too focused on money, which is why nearly 90 percent of anime today are adaptations of manga, novels, games, or other existing works.In a recent interview, veteran producer Taro Maki, known for Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, and Serial Experiments Lain, explained that Japan’s corporate mindset pushes producers to play it safe. According to him, many producers are judged more on avoiding mistakes than taking creative risks, which leads to studios repeatedly choosing proven IPs instead of funding original ideas.Maki pointed out that while the anime market is now worth over 21 billion dollars, originality is shrinking. He believes the lack of support for new creators and experimental projects is making the industry feel “shallower,” and warned that relying too heavily on safe adaptations could hurt anime in the long run.
>literal who yells at clouds
>>284523607SoExactly what's been happening for ages with western entertainment Nobody should be surprised by this
>>284523627>known for Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, and Serial Experiments Lain>nobody
>>284523607Obviously right but the industry is trash all around beyond taking risks or not.
>>284523655He didn't write anything anon had heard about before joining any anime specific communities, so he's a nobody This is like someone who's new to baseball calling every famous player a nobody because he's not Babe Ruth
>>284523607>washed up hack mad his shit doesn't sell anymorethe industry was always focused on moneythe majority of older anime were adaptations or multimedia tie-insthis faggot is senile
>fags complain about no originals>don't watch the originals that are made>constantly quote old washed up hacks whose last good project was decades ago
>>284523683He didn't write shit, he's a fucking producer.
>>284523691He said 90%, not everything is adaptations
>>284523696Sorry, my brain is still on manga mode
When the world economy is doing well then you can have your muh deep artificial problem shows. When everything is down the shitter, people will flock towards simple escapism.
>>284523716I'm saying the people on /a/ that complain about the lack of originals often don't watch the ones that are made. Usually because they have such specific taste that they just in general don't enjoy anything being made. It doesn't matter if 10% of anime are originals if the loudest people don't bother watching them and just make meta threads about how anime is dead.
>>284523607Safe bets have been the name of the game since the economy went to fuck in 2008.We live in dismal times
>>284523770>You liked Lain?>This means you need to like my piece of turd """"original"""" garbage moeblob copypastaFuck off.
>>284523730Hmm...Maybe But I think the problem is entirely different than this I can't articulate it yet, so pretend I said something thought provoking
>>284523778K-on is also an adaptation
>>284523607Bushiroad's original IP are of more numerous quantity and quality than his output.
>>284523787Proving the point really hard anon.
>>284523787>Nooooo why don't they make originals anymore>Nooooo those don't count because they're not identical to [insert 20+ year old anime I like]Meanwhile people are still waiting for Despera which is likely to be a Lain copypaste, but it's okay because it's copypasting what I like. You know, like all the cyberpunk OVAs /a/ shits itself over.
>>284523787>implying Lain is not another moeblob but with a 2deep4you veil
>>284523790Hmmm. Made me do a big think.
>>284523607It’s the same in the film industry. That’s why everything is a re make or attempt at a multi film franchise
>>284523730The world economy is never doing well according to people It is always ‘oh no 50 years ago we were doing much better look at this propaganda poster!’
>>284523696This is the funniest partBiggest leech position
>>284523827> people are still waiting for Despera which is likely to be a Lain copypasteImagine being this wrong
>>284523730>>284523858>>284523897Okay I'm back and slightly less stupid Things absolutely are worse than they used to be Just... Differently bad then people are used to having to deal with The problems are not simply economic We're witnessing a general decay of society, purpose, and fulfillment People used to be comfortable enough with who they were and what they should be doing that they were happy to see things that were different and more complicated than just escapism Now though, young people feel increasingly isolated and aimless, with a strong sense that the world doesn't care about them and they have nothing of value that they could do to change the world, so they feel more desperate for simple things that fill the gap with fantasies of basic escapism like going to a magical world and being a hero and having a girlfriend
>>284523607That's why Lazarus was a game changeramirite?
>>284524026Urbanization unironically destroyed society We were closely, tightly knit communities, in which people practically know each others with stronger bonds Men used to be contented by simply hooking up with the slag next door, because that is all he knew. Same for women.Now in this modern world, we are all strangers, passing by on streets, reading comments from faceless anons on the internetNo commitment, no attachment, which was amplified and exploited even more by dating apps, para social relation with streamers, escapism medias, anime, gacha… All try to pretend it can fill that void left by an individual isolated in a vast world And the worse thing is, this is just the beginning, unless you are someone with at least 7 figs in your bank, youre doomed to this slow decay of the human race
>>284524221My full response to this would totally get a ban being off topic, because no way would I stop at just the one post after the conversation it started So instead, I'll just say that I agree with you
>>284523607Source on this interview, please?
>>284524828https://automaton-media.com/en/news/everything-has-become-shallower-tokyo-godfathers-lain-producer-says-the-japanese-corporate-mindset-is-why-90-of-anime-just-adapts-existing-works/
>>284523607He's not wrong, but that's just commercialization in art in general. Shit's in video games, western animation, comic books, everything in general.
so nothing has changed?
>>284525317No more anime kino like Lain
>>284523730Was Japan's economy doing well in the 90s when all the experimental anime people love were getting made?
>>284525452We had Sonny Boy just 4 years ago.
>>284523607He's not wrong. Investors, line-must-go-up and risk aversion all lead to creative death and all that's left is optimizing money making.
>>284523607Hear me out.You're complaining the anime isn't original butThe manga being adapted is original. There's originality because the manga is original. It would seem originality exists??But he and anons are saying originality doesn't exist. since the anime's not original but the manga being adapted is. I don't get it.
>>284523607It's completely understandable, but as everyone will tell you: the industry has ALWAYS been money focused. Every industry is. The Anime Industry was only really interested in taking "creative risks" though when the economy was flush with cash, when there wasn't a mainstream meta established, and when Americans were willing to consume quite literally ANYTHING Japan imported. The anime industry is bigger than ever, more mainstream than ever, arguably more flush with money and resource than ever, but then that also comes with bigger stakes, higher losses, and the reality of predictable tropes directors/creators can't help but fall in line to.>>284523881>It’s the same in the film industry.There's definitely parallels, but despite what you might have heard: live action is cheaper and "good" quality camera equipment & editing software have become more wildly available/significantly cheaper. All the production costs for live action have dropped over the years. Godzilla Minus One and Everything Everywhere All At Once both cost around 10 million dollars to make and grossed over 100 million. It's literally NEVER been easier before to make a blockbluster film on a budget, I think film has a bigger issue with nepotism, incest, deskilling and the fact most of the people directing/producing are wasteful fucking dipshits who haven't a clue what they're doing.
>his most recent production is an adaptationkek
>>284523607it's more interesting that they ever did give weirdos TV series in the '90s than that they don't nowif you wanted to be a hipster TV producer where is the stock of creative people that want to take on this ambitious artsy project where they have to be in charge of a big production with dozens of employees? Do you think like twitter people would do that now? I don't.
>>284526709nobody in film in the '60s or '70s would believe you if you told them people have better recording cameras than them in their pocket in 2025 but it has resulted in basically zero impactful independent films.
>>284526643Manga and anime are different mediums. Manga can work as a rough draft for the storyboard, but ultimately an anime has to stand on its own two legs. Back in the 2000s it wasn't uncommon for anime to add or remove characters, change scenes, or even have an original ending. They were not afraid to take creative liberties and add their own flare to what they worked on.
Why would you look to a medium where dozens of people have to be technically proficient enough to produce the illusion of movement by rigorously drawing thousands of pictures to produce a few minutes of final product? It's like looking for spontaneous originality in moon landings. It's a terribly complex and capital-intensive industrial process that naturally requires hierarchy and subordination.
>>284523691"Originals" these days are all just shallow knock offs of a better series that got some success, with all the edges rounded out by a marketing team to mitigate risks. If they weren't no exec would have funded them. Ironically the best way to watch an actual original show that takes risks and isn't undistinguishable from 99% of the anime offer these days is to rely on big franchises shitting out new installments. Because they will have actual freedom with story and setting so long as they throw a gundam or a digimon somewhere, and because an au/sequel in a long list tends to try and differentiate itself from previous installments to stand out.There are also remakes by good directors who have a vision so distinct from the original it's practically a new show and throaway projects by big anime corporations meant to train a team of animator but that's not so common anymore.
>>284526900Except the space rockets could draw literally any inprint on the moon while landing (we know this because for a hundred years people made an effort to make a different one) but nowadays they draw the same one everytime because it's safer and more efficient.And now the moon looks visually uninteresting.
>>284526862just like opm manga... creatively free to change one's story as they please.
>>284527140Yep with more creative freedom comes more risks, which is exactly what investors look to avoid.But personally I would prefer 9 garbage shows and 1 masterpiece instead of 10 average shows.
>>284523683It's not Taro Maki but I've read ABe talk about how Yasuyuki Ueda was basically willing things like Haibane Renmei into existence out of sheer will and it was already basically a feat of God to get these shows to happen. You can be like 'he's just a producer' but to the Directors themselves working in the sausage factory they know when someone is putting in extraordinary effort for artsy/passion reasons.
They're right tho original animes flop Why would you invest in something that you know is going to fail critically and commercially?
>>284527559It's true that well has been poisoned by idiots making anime originals with virtually zero planning that inevitably crash and burn as they go along.
>>284523829Lain is cute, sure. But her anime is also good and thought provoking. Can you say the same about the rest of originals?
>>284523691OK and how many originals do we get per season? 1 or 2? 3 if your super lucky? out of 50+ anime? The guy isn't wrong at all. Now count the original anime receiving a budget similar to the upper echelon of adaptations and your approaching something closer to maybe 1 original a year with any chance of coming out on top. He is completely right that the industry is far to safe right now. You deserve an award for looking at things in the dumbest way possible. It's like you have no interest in the truth of the statement, but rather in the fact that someone somewhere didn't watch enough original anime and so you don't want to hear anyone complaining about the lack of creativity because anyone complaining about it MUST be the same people responsible for it.
>>284529460The amount of original anime is irrelevant if most of them are carbon-copies of light novels and generic isekai slop. Original anime from the past is remembered for being exceptional in one way or the other. They don't even need to be that good, just put something different out.
>>284527559The only reason WEP is looked back on with disgust is because of the filler episode that didn't allow them to make the final episode. If they just made an OVA to wrap it up, it would be great.Hell, I'll even say it is great right now. Just needs that OVA to wrap it.
90s really was the golden age. No more weird one off OVA these days
>>284529898It must seem that way when you're a tourist
>>284523607He's just the producer
>>284529460That's a whole lot of words to provide reasoning for why you don't watch your precious anime originals that come our every season. Do you remember the most recent anime original you watched?
>>284529898It's impossible to watch all of anime but it's posssible to watch more anime. Watch 1000 anime before posting.
>>284530216I'm watching Towa no Yuugure this season lolYour really missing the point. So much that your response directly restates what I stated about you. You only care about if some random who on 4chan watched an original, not about if there is a lack of creative works.
>>284523607TL;DR: Watch P.A. Works anime. And I'm not interested.
>>284523881Disney made a bunch of original movies, yet none of y'all watched it.
>>284523770>Usually because they have such specific taste that they just in general don't enjoy anything being made.I'm seeing this in everything now. Games, TV, everything watched / experienced has a sunk cost fallacy now.So how exactly do you get anime 'fans' to eat their veggies so to speak?
>>284523627
>>284526926Hey, so how many originals did you watch?
>>284529582I think it already fell apart after they introduced the orange girl.
>>284526862>Back in the 2000s it wasn't uncommon for anime to add or remove characters, change scenes, or even have an original ending. Dark Alibaba from Magi is the peak of the medium? It's still Magi but you loved those times they made up shit like Punished Alibaba?>They were not afraid to take creative liberties and add their own flare to what they worked on.Ok, and? Those people asking for creative freedom could make their own manga to get all that creative freedom if they wanted to make their own stuff. They aren't doing that because... It would be too hard. They're too spoiled to do it. I'm supposed to care about this pride issue exclusive to directors, as someone who isn't one?
>>284526372No but japanese boomers take years before they get the message.
