A few days ago a rumour broke out on Twitter that Yoshiaka Kawajiri director of Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D and various other works that have fuelled the western anime fandom for many a year, had passed away.
Thankfully however this quickly fizzled out as it was revealed that the source that started the rumour was a fake and it seems that Kawajiri is fine. However, though the crisis was averted the sudden “news” that he had passed away only a week or so after losing Satoshi Kon and the fallout that ensued, made me realise that in the upcoming years the news that a prominent anime director has left us will become far more common as the majority of them settle into their old age.
However whilst we start losing these venerable heavy hitters (though Kon was way before his time at 47) there are practically no young fresh-faced directors rising up to fill in the gaps (with some exceptions of course) and this truly is the worrying thing for it puts the future of anime as a medium in question. There are a few reasons for this, for one a lot of talent these days is being lost to the very much better paying videogame industry, in addition studios are far less likely to give an inexperienced director the money to just go and make a movie, the way that many directors made their break back in the 80s, the anime industry simply isn’t geared to help young directors get a foot up. A precursor to this can be seen in the field of mecha animation when Mamoru Oshii had to resort to using computer generated graphics to depict the flight scenes due in main part to the lack of A class mecha animators out there.
It’s hard to say these days that things aren’t looking dire, and it seems that at the moment if the Japanese government doesn’t interfere in the near future it can only get worse. However the government can only do so much, it is probable that the industry will have to completely re-invent itself in order to survive with those studios which can’t adapt falling at the wayside. Hopefully though, what this will result in is a leaner meaner industry, compared to the still over bloated current one, which is far better equipped to deal with the problems of the future.
Well I’m sorry for all this doom and gloom talk but I feel that the anime industry in Japan is at a pivotal point and it’s going to be in the next few years when we’ll see whether it’s going to sink or float. However I for one hope that it’s going to survive these rough times and come back at us stronger and smarter than ever before!
