JAPAN Beijing aims to overtake Japan in the ‘anime’ industry

China is aggressively investing in young cartoonists for animated films. For Masao Maruyama, Japanese products are now “too commercial” and risk being outdone. In the country of the dragon, what weighs are the “restrictions” on freedom of expression. Liu Jian: Chinese production is beginning to find “its own style”.

Beijing () – Tokyo risks losing its hegemony in the cartoon industry soon, giving way to Chinese “competition”, increasingly consistent, richer and more capable of attracting a large audience in the Asian animation market. The person in charge of sounding the alarm is one of the leading experts in the sector in the Rising Sun, Masao Maruyama, according to whom the country is losing the consistent advantage it had in the past due to a growing and myopic inclination towards the “commercial ” to the detriment of quality and originality. “Success distracted Japan from promoting the new generation of talent,” he warned. Meanwhile, Beijing is going in the opposite direction by “aggressively investing in young entertainers.”

For Maruyama, that overcoming could occur “in a very short time.” The only reason China “hasn’t caught up with Japan yet is because of the restrictions on free speech” imposed by the communist authorities, he went on to say in the interview. But if more creativity and freedom of expression were allowed, the Japanese production would be easily overwhelmed because the authors “are no longer prepared for animation” as in the past.

The expert is one of the greatest exponents of the sector in the Land of the Rising Sun and had Osamu Tezuka as a teacher and mentor, who is considered by many to be the “father of manga” and founder of the sector due to his prolific capacity and many times a pioneer in the genres. . His role in post-war animation was fundamental, also thanks to the historic studio he founded, Mushi Production, to which the first authentic anime series in history is linked: the famous Astro Boy, from 1963. Maruyama was a protégé of Tezuka and He remains today, at 81, one of the most respected authors thanks to his numerous behind-the-scenes roles, although he has not drawn or directed himself for a long time.

He criticizes the Japanese production that only tries to produce genres that attract money, with female characters that blink or productions that achieve occasional success, without a solid studio behind it. The country has lost sight of the ability, and desire, to nurture young talent, while China is making leaps and bounds, investing mostly in new recruits. Tezuka’s heir to his uncompromising work ethic and research, he stressed that creating a work means “challenging” oneself “to do something new, regardless of what has been done in the past.”

Maruyama is not the only one of the great teachers who has warned about an imminent Chinese leadership in the sector to the detriment of Japanese production. Also thinking like him is anime director Makoto Shinkai, who during the days of the Berlin Film Festival speculated about a possible “overtaking” of Beijing in world animation during the premiere of the Chinese animation drama “Art College 1994”. A production by 53-year-old director Liu Jian, centering on a group of students in the 1990s, it was critically acclaimed because it “evokes a particular time and place so vividly that you can almost taste the stale smoke.” of cigarettes and cheap beer.

“The quality of (Chinese) movies,” Shinkai says, “is improving rapidly and they are able to build those unique characters that we have in Japan. Sooner or later they will surpass us.” Until 10 years ago, he continued in his reflection, Japanese anime creators were “very confident in making the best animated films in the world.” However, the situation has changed in recent years “and most of my peers feel the same way.”

The global market for Japanese anime grew 13% to reach an all-time high of 2.74 trillion yen ($20 billion) in 2021, according to data from the Japan Animation Association. But lately Chinese movies are catching up. “In recent years,” reflected director Liu Jian, “more and more Chinese animation films have been released, and they are more and more varied, not just commercials, but also art films.” Many Chinese commercial animations have influences from Japanese animation, but they are beginning to find their own style”, he concluded. There remains the knot of censorship, which for the moment limits the creativity of the authors and the themes to explore: proof of this is the long list of Japanese anime banned by Beijing to date, which includes very popular products especially among young people such as Black Butler, Tokyo Ghoul, Deadman Wonderland, Death Note, Attack On Titan and High School Of The Dead.