‘A Direct Response’: Global Anime Challenge Members on the Future of the Industry

The Global Anime Challenge is a multi-year program supported by the Japanese Government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs with the goal of cultivating the anime industry’s next wave of creative minds. As global demand for anime continues to skyrocket, an industry challenge arises: fostering fresh talent capable of driving original ideas into production. Anime Trending sat with Takushi Koide, Ayumi Moriyama, andKeisuke Shinoharaat Anime Central to discuss their time as participants in the program and the state of original IPs in the anime industry.

Thank you very much for your time, and welcome to Anime Central. Could you all please introduce yourself and your involvement with the Global Anime Challenge?

Takushi Koide: I am Takushi Koide, the director of Goodbye, Lara. As for the Global Anime Challenge, each participant has a different level of involvement due to their work schedule. In my case, my involvement with GAC started late, so from here on I will be focusing on working on my pitch and also making pilot films.

Ayumi Moriyama: I’m the episode director for the Pokémon series and also assistant director for Let’s Play. As for GAC, I am creating my own original IP to be pitched at Annecy.

Keisuke Shinohara: My name is Keisuke Shinohara, and I’m the director of My Dress-Up Darling. As part of the Global Anime Challenge, I’m currently developing a new original project, and our first goal is to create a pilot film for it. I can’t share many details at this stage, but it’s exciting to approach this new challenge. I’m feeling a little pressure, but I’m doing my best.

The Global Anime Challenge is a three-year enterprise, and we’re approaching the halfway point of the program. What are your thoughts on the program so far?

Ayumi Moriyama: In Japan, animators rarely promote themselves as individuals, and there is often a tendency to undervalue our own work.

When the industry was focused mainly on domestic audiences, that kind of passive mindset might have been enough. However, now that we know anime is being watched and loved on the world stage, I don’t think we can afford to stay complacent anymore.

To me, the Global Anime Challenge is a place that helps creators — many of whom are naturally reserved people— learn how to communicate and promote themselves to the world and not look cheap. It encourages us to share who we are more openly, while also teaching us how to protect the value of our work instead of underselling ourselves.

Other members of the Global Anime Challenge were guests last year at Anime Central. Did they give you any advice for what to do or expect during your time here?

Keisuke Shinohara: I didn’t receive any particular advice, butKeiichiro Saito said, “It was a lot of fun — I’m really glad I went,” so I was looking forward to attending. And I’m having a great time. This is actually my first time visiting the United States, and the atmosphere feels very different from the events I’ve attended in Europe. It’s been a really fresh experience.

I’ve participated in events in Japan, South Korea, Belgium, and now the U.S., and what I find fascinating is how different each country feels — the atmosphere of the events and the passion of the fans can be completely different depending on where you are. 

The Global Anime Challenge’s stated purpose is to “nurture the Japanese anime industry’s next generation of creatives.” What do you think of the industry’s current health and the various recent attempts to address its issues?

Keisuke Shinohara: I think what the Global Anime Challenge is doing is actually a very direct response to many of the current challenges facing the anime industry. In particular, the idea of animation studios themselves developing original IP is extremely important right now.

In recent years, the industry has largely been supported by strong existinguccessful titles, such as Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and One Piece. However, at the same time, I think many studios feel a sense of crisis that the industry’s ability to create original works and entirely new IP has diminished

In the past, government programs like Anime Mirai — which created Little Witch Academia and Death Parade — focused heavily on issues such as training new talent and improving working conditions. At that time, there were serious problems like low wages and high turnover rates. But with the growth of international streaming markets, more money has gradually started circulating through the industry, and conditions have slowly improved.

That said, I think the next major challenge is: how do we continue creating new IP going forward? If the market for originalt on a small number of publishers or existing IP, there’s a risk that the overall balance of the industry could be disrupted. It means we won’t be able to go and negotiate to let us create original IPs

That’s why I believe it is incredibly important for studios themselves to cultivate original IP if we want to secure the future of the Japanese anime industry.

Ayumi Moriyama: I strongly feel that training new talent is something the industry urgently needs to focus on. 

The anime that audiences around the world usually see represents only the very top tier — the work of exceptionally skilled artists. So when people say, “Japanese anime has very high quality,” my reaction is often, “Of course it does, because what gets exported is usually the best work.”

It’s actually very common to watch different productions and realize that the scenes you thought were especially well animated were drawn by the same handful of animators. But even those highly skilled people cannot sustain impossible workloads forever. And if you want to maintain the same level of quality across an entire 30-minute anime episode, you need many equally talented key animators to make that possible.

You might think, “Why not have those skilled artists train newcomers?” But I believe the environment for allowing those artists to take on mentorship roles is still underdeveloped. By “environment,” I mean creating stable living and working conditions for educators and mentors. There’s also the risk that placing even more responsibility on those veteran animators and artists prevents them from creating their own work, which I don’t think is healthy. 

As for training systems, I think individual companies are still responsible for them at the moment. Studios need to support newcomers and act as a filter to help maintain a certain level of quality. Of course, studios are often reluctant to see the talent they spent time developing leave for other opportunities. But as someone who came from the animation side of the industry, I think that might be necessary if we want to raise the overall quality of anime production as a whole.

Maybe only the strongest studios will survive at that point. If Japan truly wants to continue promoting anime internationally through initiatives like Cool Japan, then maybe government support for studios focused on training young talent could help. That said, I imagine the reality is far more complicated, and as just one animator, it’s difficult for me to speculate too much further.

Takushi Koide: Animation production is very expensive nowadays, and it has become so much harder just to make anime. On top of that, the number of creators and professionals in the industry is decreasing, not increasing. So when you try to think about which IP to focus on for the sake of the industry, or how to get funding for that IP, that’s not something that creators should be thinking about. It’s the producers’ job to make those decisions.

The balance has started to tip. With the current situation, I think we need producers who are creatives, but also for creators to be more producer-minded. 

Questions by James Mizutani and Melvyn Tan. Interview conducted by James Mizutani.

Special thanks to Global Anime Challenge and Anime Central for the interview opportunity. 

Disclosure statement: Anime Trending is an official collaborator with the Global Anime Challenge. This interview was conducted independently for editorial and news purposes.