MAPPA

MAPPA is a Japanese animation studio established in June 2011 by producer Masao Maruyama, who had previously co-founded Madhouse and served as its president. The company’s name, “Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association,” reflects Maruyama’s initials and production ambitions. Its first television anime, Kids on the Slope, aired in 2012; directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, it adapted Yuki Kodama’s manga about teenagers drawn together by jazz in 1960s Kyushu. It paired Watanabe with composer Yoko Kanno, whose music was central to its jazz setting. Maruyama left MAPPA in 2016 and founded Studio M2 in 2017, while MAPPA continued under president Manabu Otsuka. Among its high-profile series, Yuri on Ice premiered in 2016. The original anime was created by Sayo Yamamoto and Mitsuro Kubo and follows Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki after his career setback and Russian champion Victor Nikiforov. MAPPA also animated the 2018 adaptation of Akimi Yoshida’s Banana Fish, directed by Hiroko Utsumi; its story moves the manga’s original 1980s setting into contemporary New York and follows gang leader Ash Lynx and Japanese photographer Eiji Okumura. Another adaptation, Dorohedoro, began streaming in 2020 as a Netflix series in Japan. It used 3D graphics alongside 2D animation for Q Hayashida’s fantasy manga. MAPPA took on several major Shueisha properties. Jujutsu Kaisen, adapted from Gege Akutami’s manga, began television broadcast in 2020. Its prequel film, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, opened in Japan in December 2021 and became a major box-office success. MAPPA then released Chainsaw Man in 2022, adapting Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga about impoverished devil hunter Denji, who merges with his chainsaw devil Pochita. The studio also assumed production of Attack on Titan: The Final Season from Wit Studio. Its first installment aired from December 2020 to March 2021; later installments completed the adaptation of Hajime Isayama’s manga in 2023, which had ended in 2021. In 2023, MAPPA animated manga adaptations: Hell’s Paradise and the second season of Vinland Saga. Hell’s Paradise adapts Yuji Kaku’s manga about condemned ninja Gabimaru and executioner Sagiri on an island sought for an elixir of immortality. Vinland Saga, based on Makoto Yukimura’s historical manga, follows Thorfinn after the Viking age prologue covered by Wit Studio’s first season. MAPPA also produced the 2024 original television series Bucchigiri?!, directed by Hiroko Utsumi and written by Taku Kishimoto. In the same year, it animated a new Ranma 1/2 television adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi’s martial-arts comedy manga. The series streams internationally on Netflix.