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[00:01] Conversations surrounding Studio MAPPA have come up once again, with new footage being revealed from their upcoming Jujutsu Kaisen adaptation, as well as the big news that they would be taking over on Attack on Titan's final season.

[00:15] Founded in 2011 by Madhouse's Masao Maruyama, this is a studio that has often found critical acclaim with their wide variety of works that span genres. Here are 5 things you need to know about Studio MAPPA.

[00:35] Maruyama founded MAPPA as a way of creating shows that would surprise people. As Madhouse had begun to grow, it became more difficult to get ambitious passion projects greenlit. This was exacerbated by the studio's financial problems at the time, which prompted a buyout

[00:50] from NTV. When Maruyama left a lot of those left at Madhouse started to get uneasy doubting whether they would be able to create the projects they want to make as Maruyama had always supported The result was a massive exodus from the studio leaving the Madhouse of today as a very different

[01:07] studio. That said, Maruyama would eventually leave MAPPA as well in 2016. In setting up the studio, he was looking for a way to create really unique projects with a dedicated team.

[01:19] One of his proudest works was In This Corner of the World with Tsuno Katabuchi. This was a heartfelt tragic film, something that isn't flashy or exciting and thus, was seriously difficult to get funded.

[01:31] However, after the studio started to grow, it stopped being a place for his passion projects and so he left yet again to create a new studio, M2 Studio, where he produced the TV series

[01:43] Onehei and is continuing his work on the Garou anime. This now means that there are three studios in the industry that are named after him. Although he insists that MAPPA is actually named after the words MAPPADAKA, meaning Stark

[01:56] Naked Maruyama may be gone but there are some elements of his leadership that remain One of the biggest is the directors While Shinichiro Watanabe hasn returned to MAPPA since Maruyama left the younger

[02:08] directors Maruyama worked with have stayed. For instance, he asked Yuichiro Hayashi to direct the ambitious action series Garou the Animation and now he's directing the final season of Attack on Titan.

[02:21] Similarly, Keiichi Sato was asked to direct Rage of Bahamut Genesis and he stayed to create the sequel, Virgin Soul, as well as the adaptation of Inuyashiki in 2017. In fact, Rage of Bahamut was a big deal for the studio because the original creator, Cy

[02:37] Games, were looking to seriously invest in anime creation. This began with Rage of Bahamut Genesis in 2014, where Cy Games gave the team at MAPPA close to complete creative control. They also funded the Virgin Soul sequel and later asked the studio to create the second

[02:53] season of the Granblue Fantasy anime. But that's not all. Cygames has also invested in MAPPA original projects helping shows like Yuri on Ice Zombieland Saga and In This Corner of the World get made Original shows can be a pain to greenlit so Cygames has been a big player in getting

[03:09] unique ideas off the ground at MAPPA. I mentioned that Maruyama left MAPPA, but it would be remiss to say that everything continued like normal. It's not difficult to see that a studio that was founded to create unique and surprising

[03:23] anime would not be finishing off other studios' works like Granblue Fantasy and Attack on Titan. If you look at the studio's early output, you see a lot of originals and adaptations of manga that Maruyama really believed in. But now the studio appears to be more focused on contract work

[03:39] offered from the outside than original ideas from the inside. The quality is still high and there's a lot to be excited about from Attack on Titan Final Season, but the excitement that used to to come from a MAPPA announcement has kind of wilted.