Anime studios seldom begin without some lineage connected to another larger studio, like Bones breaking off from Sunrise, orTrigger and Khara breaking from Gainax. And some, like Wit Studio, are created as a subsidiary of another studio, like with creators behind 2021’sMushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, Studio Bind.
In fact, Bind was the result of a collaborative project by White Fox (Steins;Gate,Re;Zero) and the management company Egg Firm. Apart from its freshman work collaborating with Studio VOLN on two episodes ofKarakuri Circus, it wasn’t until 2021 that they resurfaced with their first series,Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. What is so awe-inspiring about Bind’s work onTenseiis that it is so goodin spite of it being the studio’s first big undertaking. Many studios begin with smaller projects, assisting other studios or producing music videos and OVA’s, but Bind seemed to come out swinging, and this was very much by design.
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White Fox And The Growing Demands Of The Industry
In early 2021, Nobuhiro Osawa of Egg Firm affirmed that the studio was created specifically to putMushoku Tenseito animation. Back in 2019, a piece by the Animation Business Journal elaborated on the rationale for the new studio, citing the anime industry’s expansion and the higher quantity of projects being created.
With such an increase in workload, the schedules needed to accommodate the production of TV anime are tougher to manage, so the decision to create a new studio was an economical one. By creating Studio Bind,Mushoku Tenseicould get the time needed to create the best possible product. Additionally, the show would be treated as a “launchpad” for more projects.
Isekai is already such an oversaturated genreand combined with the assortment of light novel adaptations every season to mixed reception. Some could argue that there is simply a lack of quality control in deciding what gets greenlit, which could certainly contribute to the larger problem: a lack of time to properly plan projects.
The Draw of Mushoku Tensei
Early promotional material forMushoku Tenseilabeled it as something of a pioneer in the isekai genre and while this accolade is contentious, it sold well enough for any producer to take notice. The decision to go forth with an anime adaption couldn’t have been similar, but by creating Bind, this show was given a serious advantage.
White Fox washot off the heels ofRe;Zero’s success, making it seem like a good option to produce another high-concept fantasy isekai. But with their schedule being what it was, the creation of a new studio seemed more ideal. Heading the project would be Manabu Okamoto, who had previously directedGamersfor Studio Pine Jam.
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The staff behind the series is so large that there is an assortment of animation directors across both parts of the first season, and some of the best key animators in the business. The art direction stays fairly consistent, both in the designs, but also in how often the animation becomes incredibly expressive.
Action brings moments of spectaclethanks to renowned key animators like Yoshimichi Kameda, but simple character moments are made so much more weighty thanks to expressive character acting. The wayMushoku Tenseican still draw the eye in its quieter moments is a testament to its storytelling.
What The Industry Can Learn From Mushoku Tensei
WhatMushoku Tenseiaccomplishes with its character animation, effects animation, and battle animation is the envy of all fantasy anime. While the story can be let down by its more problematic elements - a topic of much debate since the anime’s release - it cannot be denied that the work put into this adaptation paid off.
Sometimes it feels as ifthere simply is far too much anime nowadays, with little done to evolve the production pipeline or the business practices needed to facilitate the increased volume of work. There shouldn’t be so many light novel adaptations with shoe-string budgets being cranked out every season.
Concurrently, the solution shouldn’t be to narrow the scope only to stories and content which can most profitably be turned into series with lots of sakuga.Mushoku Tenseimay be an arguably unique isekai, but it is still an isekai,and even in such a bloated genre, a producer saw fit to take the chance and give it a proper adaptation.
One can hope that with projects like this, anime producers will begin to rethink how they pick their projects and that the industry will begin to trim the fat as it were. There are a lot of things to consider when “fixing” the anime industry, butMushoku Tenseihas clearly shown that with the proper time allotted, some truly spectacular things can come to be.
