Sword Art Online Director Says ‘Global Appeal Leads to Failure’ For Anime

In a recent interview with Japanese publication Daily Shincho, Tomohiko Itō – the director responsible for the first two seasons of Sword Art Online, the upcoming 2026 film Kusunoki no Bannin, and assistant director of Death Note – discussed the anime industry’s future heading into the new year and beyond. Itō touched on the rise of AI in animation, the lack of original works compared to the 1990s, and the particular risk of creating anime with the specific intent of appealing to western tastes and sensibilities.

When asked by Daily Shincho if he had been creating anime with “global awareness” in mind, Itō responded, “There are many cases where being too conscious of ‘global appeal’ leads to failure. What Japanese audiences think will be well-received worldwide probably won’t be well-received by people over there. Political correctness is strict in America, so they may think, ‘Japan is the only country that still makes the type of works which would be considered strange in North America, like girls fighting with lots of exposed skin!'”

Itō’s comment touches on a major talking point that anime and video game fans have been focusing on for a while now, especially as localizations from Japanese to English works take increasing liberties with their source material. His argument could be read as such: anime fans like anime because of how in-touch their favorite series are with Japanese culture, not in spite of it. Being too mindful of “political correctness”, in his words, means holding back too much from a creative perspective. This means not watering down Japanese-minded tropes and concepts for western audiences. By homogenizing series with a western audience in mind, anime studios ironically lose sight of why several anime fans watch the medium in the first place.

Japanese Anime Can & Will Replace Hollywood, According To Tomohiko Itō

Earlier in the interview, Daily Shincho touched on the fact that Japanese anime is only becoming more and more popular in the United States, noting how much of a chance that is for the industry. Anyone who’s been an anime fan since the 80s or 90s knows first-hand just how much more mainstream the medium is now. Long gone are the days of anime being a niche interest, to the point where Crunchyroll and BoxLunch even feature premiere fashion lines based on anime properties. Itō credits Crunchyroll as a major factor in making anime more popular worldwide, and in the US especially.

“It seems that Japanese anime has been growing explosively around the world since Aniplex acquired Crunchyroll in 2020.” Interestingly, Itō also attributes the growth in anime to not only Covid, but the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. “With the Screenwriters Guild strike a few years ago and the impact of COVID-19, it feels like the influence of Hollywood movies has been declining, so I think that Japanese anime has become a good replacement for them.”

Essentially, Hollywood losing ground due to the pandemic and mismanagement of writers allowed Japan to fill a niche with audiences, presenting viewers with high quality animation and stories at a time when Hollywood was struggling to keep up. This, of course, doesn’t even begin to touch on the very real issues certain production companies like MAPPA struggle with in overworking their staff, but it highlights Itō’s perspective that placating western tastes is not the answer. Audiences are resonating with anime because of Japanese tropes, mindsets, and cultural qualities inherent to the medium and country.

The Only Way To Stop AI In Animation Is To Create Anime AI Cannot Make

When asked about the rise in AI, Itō had a lot to say on the matter. “AI will take over tasks that have been done by humans in the past, even in anime, and I think that works using AI will continue to appear. The evolution of technology is unstoppable.” Itō isn’t exactly defeatist in his analysis, however. “When Midjourney became popular, I thought that it could be used in anime as well, so I tried to see if I could create image boards using AI, but when I actually tried [using AI], I found that it didn’t quite come out as I expected.” AI simply could not replicate the image boards he envisioned for animation.

That said, it’s just a matter of when the technology improves enough from Itō’s perspective, not if. “[Creating anime with AI] will definitely happen… Technological innovation will broaden the base, and I think more people will get involved. However, at this stage it is still unclear whether this will lead to more good works.” He does not resign himself to AI’s future, though, ending, “I think that in the next few years we will need to consciously create things that AI cannot make.”

Source: Daily Shinco