Studio Wanpack to close

[NJ_]

https://twitter.com/statuses/958941548674088962

Their founder/representative, Kōji Yamada, passed away recently (RIP) and now they will be closing on February 28th. Wanpack was known for working on some of Sailor Moon Crystal seasons 1 & 2 along with some minor work in season 3 and according to this, was very reliable with other major studios in addition to Toei so this is a blow to everyone who worked with them.

EDIT: From kViN of Sakuga Blog (thread):

Studio Wanpack's representative Yamada dying is obviously the biggest tragedy here. As far as I know he started working as an animator in the 80s, so I don't think he was all that old either. That said, the studio closing down is huge & also terrible.

Wanpack are one of the biggest outsourcing studios in anime. They've worked in over one thousand titles. 20+ ongoing shows have already relied on them, and that includes important studios like Sunrise, WIT, ufotable, Toei, A-1. Chances are you favorite was among their clients.

They've been criticized for low quality work sometimes, but that's a systemic issue rather than their own fault. They're made to help in disaster situations and that doesn't help out, but the fact that multiple star animators began their career there proves they've got talent.

Despite being a subcontracting studio with no projects of their own, they're bigger than many anime production companies that do make their own titles. Their lineup is heavily imbalanced towards animation roles, since that's what they assisted with. And they did *a lot.*

So now anime's lost one of its biggest crutches and ~100 people will lose their job after someone passed away. I don't have to tell you that this is bad. That won't change, but my assumption is that some Wanpack producer, if not multiple, will start their own studio.

Because that's what tends to happen whenever a sizable studio suddenly goes down, for whatever cause. Things will be messy for a while, and this hurts on multiple levels, but it's not the end of the world either. RIP.

EDIT 2: Crystal episodes they worked on (sources: Their website & AniCorner):

Act 1 - Key Animation: Not listed in the website but credited in the episode by studio name only (meaning the Wanpack animators are uncredited).
Act 2 - Key Animation: 325 cuts (with 1 cut by a guest animator), Animation Director: Miho Tanaka
Act 3 - Key Animation: 11 cuts
Act 4 - Key Animation: 4 cuts
Act 6 - Key Animation: 339 cuts, Animation Director: Miho Tanaka
Act 11 - Key Animation: 284 cuts, Animation Director: Miho Tanaka
Act 15 - Key Animation: 325 cuts, 2nd Key Animation: 4 cuts, Animation Director: Miho Tanaka
Act 20 - Key Animation: 278 cuts, Animation Director: Miho Tanaka
Act 24 - Key Animation: 333 cuts, Animation Director: Miho Tanaka
Act 25 - Key Animation: 16 cuts
Act 31 [episode 32] - Key Animation: 25 cuts
Act 36 [episode 37] - Key Animation: 22 cuts, 2nd Key Animation: 6 cuts

Those with the Animation Director listed are the episodes that were fully done at Wanpack while the rest were done on other studios' behalf (like M.S.C. who worked on Act 31).

Edit 3: Both ANN & MAL are reporting the deceased as "Kōji Yamada" instead of "Hirotsugu Yamada" and after double-checking with someone (Thanks Rika ), that has been fixed now.

EDIT 4: Wanpack's website is gone but has been archived so links to that site have been updated, also updated their post in the Dragon Ball Super thread.

 

[Neon Genesis]

So what does all this mean for the future of Sailor Moon Crystal?

 

[cuau_cg]

So what does all this mean for the future of Sailor Moon Crystal?

Nothing.

 

[Rika-Chicchi]

So what does all this mean for the future of Sailor Moon Crystal?

Nothing.

I also think so.

RIP, Yamada-san. m(_ _)m

 

[Swan Cat]

I hope Sailor Moon Crystal isn't a dead project.

 

[NJ_]

Keeping The Anime Industry Afloat From The Shadows: Wanpack And Outsourcing Studios

New article from kVin, explaining outsourcing and how important Wanpack was and the aftermath of the studio closing down.