An animator has called out Studio MAPPA for repeatedly stalling negotiations over pay.
The worker in question, a freelancer for MAPPA, has worked on Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. In a now-deleted X (formerly Twitter) post, the animator said, "When things get tough, I get flooded with work requests, but when it comes to money negotiations, it gets postponed for over a month. That's the kind of company MAPPA is. I'm tired of keeping silent about it already." The post went up on Nov. 18 before being taken down a few hours later.
The post was met with widespread support, with fans wishing the animator the best in his negotiations and others calling MAPPA out directly. One user referenced a core theme behind Jujutsu Kaisen seemingly lacking at MAPPA, saying, "Rather than exorcise the darkness of cursed spirits, please exorcise the darkness of the [anime] industry first..." While MAPPA recently increased animator pay after controversial changes to the Japanese tax system, this animator details a workload clearly above the norm and no sign that the extra load comes with commensurate pay.
Accusations of stalling payment negotiations follow the recent revelation of the brutal production schedule of Jujutsu Kaisen 0, completed in just four months. This followed a Jujutsu Kaisen episode director who posted a disturbing image on Nov. 15, sparking worries about his mental health. Another animator's post in October illustrated the impact the current production schedule is having on the staff, saying, "I've done a job that no one would appreciate, and I'm sure I'll continue to do so. Sorry." Some of the biggest names in the industry have also vowed to never work for MAPPA again after the studio's recent offenses.
Crunchyroll streams both seasons of Jujutsu Kaisen, which is described as follows: "Yuji Itadori is a boy with tremendous physical strength, though he lives a completely ordinary high school life. One day, to save a classmate who has been attacked by curses, he eats the finger of Ryomen Sukuna, taking the curse into his own soul. From then on, he shares one body with Ryomen Sukuna. Guided by the most powerful of sorcerers, Satoru Gojo, Itadori is admitted to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, an organization that fights the curses... and thus begins the heroic tale of a boy who became a curse to exorcise a curse, a life from which he could never turn back."
Source: X (formerly Twitter)
