Danica Davidson
April 22, 2024 
Makoto Kimura, who has been involved professionally in the anime world since 2007, revealed that he’s left MAPPA Studios, where he was working most recently, to found his own business called Blue Rights. He said goodbye to MAPPA last month.
Blue Rights sounds like a very ambitious enterprise. It’s going to be involved with the creation of anime for both TV and movies, though it says it will stick more with “planning and production” as opposed to the production of animation.
But it’s not limiting itself to anime. It wants to get into the publishing world with manga and novels, and get into the music world with its own music and music videos. Beyond that, it wants to create its own products, and to be involved with both events and commercials. At this point, specific titles of projects have not been announced.
Kimura is doing all this as a reaction to seeing how much anime is growing worldwide. His official title at Blue Rights is “representative director.”
He got his start in the anime world by producing anime for Fuji TV. That was in 2007. After that he was an employee at Twin Engine for a while. Last but not least he became a MAPPA employee in 2018, where he was a rights management director as well as a director and producer. The tasks of getting anime financed and produced, among other things, fell to him. He was a big part in getting the money so that the Chainsaw Man anime could be made.
Some of the titles Kimura was involved with over the years include Attack on Titan The Final Season, Bucchigiri?!, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, Chainsaw Man, Dance Dance Danseur, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Hell’s Paradise, Jujutsu Kaisen, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Vinland Saga, Your Lie in April, and Zombie Land Saga.
Source: ANN
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
