"Chainsaw Man" Set Crunchyroll Record and Pushed MAPPA Towards Global Expansion - Studio Head
The success of "Chainsaw Man" on Crunchyroll helped MAPPA see the potential of anime beyond Japan.
MAPPA CEO Manabu Otsuka stated that the first season of the anime "Chainsaw Man" set a Crunchyroll viewing record at the time of its release. The series premiered in autumn 2022, and at that time, the studio particularly keenly felt the international potential of the franchise.
"The series was distributed globally through Crunchyroll – a service specializing in anime; the first season of 'Chainsaw Man' set a viewing record at that time. Thanks to this achievement, I got the feeling that 'Chainsaw Man' would receive more support abroad than in its home country."
Crunchyroll's viewing statistics are confidential, so it's difficult to say what record is being referred to. It's likely this metric has already been surpassed: in June 2025, Sony reported that "Solo Leveling" held the top spot for all-time Crunchyroll views as of the end of March 2025.
In the interview, Otsuka also reminded that MAPPA fully funded the first season of "Chainsaw Man" independently. The studio considered the experiment successful, so they applied a similar model to the film "Chainsaw Man. The Movie: Reze Arc." This approach gave the team more creative freedom during production.
Separately, Otsuka touched upon the new partnership between MAPPA and Netflix. The companies plan to collaborate more closely in the early stages of anime production, including script development and the creation of so-called "series bibles," to ensure projects resonate better with a global audience.
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