Why Wit Studio’s President Thinks Japan Should Host Its Own Anime Awards Show

Wit Studio has earned itself a place as a household name among anime fans. Since its founding in 2012, the studio has produced genre gems including Spy x Family and the early seasons of Attack on Titan and Vinland Saga. With Wit Studio lapping its 14th anniversary, president George Wada has even grander plans for the production house, including The One Piece, a remake of the long-running shonen series One Piece, and a new original series waiting in the hopper for longtime and newfound anime fans to enjoy. io9 recently spoke with Wada via email. In our chat, Wada gave us an inside-baseball look at the anime industry from the perspective of someone running it. These insights included how its new show, Lona, will push the studio toward new creative horizons; industry trends and preventative measures against worker crunch; its stance on AI in anime; and his wish for Japan to host its own industry-wide anime awards separate from Crunchyroll’s annual awards show. Isaiah Colbert, io9: Wit Studio remains one of the most influential studios in modern anime. From where you sit, what are the major trends and barriers currently shaping the industry for creators trying to reach a global audience? And do those outside pressures actually affect how Wit approaches its own work—or would you rather keep the studio’s creative core insulated from what the market is doing? George Wada: In terms of content trends, I sense a push toward “more intense, more stimulating, expressed in shorter footage.” Within that trend, Wit Studio is a studio that places importance on building universal values into stories with strong drama, so we will take in what the trend offers while creating out of a belief in our own values. io9: When we spoke three years ago, you described collaborating with other studios, as on SPY×FAMILY, as one way to ease crunch. Since then, have you introduced new systems, policies, or forms of collaboration to better protect staff on recent and upcoming productions? Wada: Ties between anime studios have grown stronger. I came to feel that protecting staff means adding value ourselves and communicating that outward. The Association of Japanese Animations, the industry body we anime studios belong to, is holding an event called Tokyo Anime Next from October 30 to November 2, 2026. It will give you a view of the leading edge of Japanese anime, so please do check it out! io9: Your new work Lona appears to engage head-on with technology, identity, and anxiety about what a rapidly changing future means for human beings. What made you want to pursue this concept? And in what ways is Lona different from your past work and present a new challenge for Wit Studio? Wada: An important phrase in this work is “a straight beam of light.” We wanted it to serve as a guide for living in a world that feels chaotic as information keeps piling up. With that in mind, we made a story that cuts through anxiety with this light. The project was built by young staff centered on director [Takashi] Katagiri and animation producer [Kazuki] Yamanaka, both raised in-house. I hope their challenge lights up Wit’s future! io9: You have spoken publicly about the fact that Japan has no industry-led anime awards, unlike international events such as the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. What motivated you to make the case for an awards show judged and celebrated by professionals within the Japanese anime industry? And since raising the idea, has there been any movement toward establishing such an event, or conversations with other creators who share an interest in making it happen? Wada: Because I came to feel strongly that Japan needs a place that properly evaluates on-the-ground creators and production craft from an industry-insider perspective—one that, like the Academy Awards in film, raises the pride and standing of the people who make the work, and connects to nurturing the next generation of talent and to the sustainable growth of the industry. As a result of all the anime studios moving forward, we are holding Tokyo Anime Next from October 30 to November 2, 2026, as the launch project for a new international anime event aiming at a full-scale edition in 2027. I would be delighted if you would keep an eye on it. io9: What is the studio’s current stance on AI tools in animation production? Wada: We put protecting copyright and the originality of the artwork first, and for now our stance is a cautious one. We believe that human sensibility and handcrafted expression are the core of each work. io9: Your The One Piece reboot strikes me as an enormous undertaking, given how deeply the original is tied to hand-drawn animation. When Wit Studio decided to render the story anew with contemporary digital techniques, were there barriers you ran into in the early stages—both in preserving the spirit of the original and in redrawing it for a new generation? I’m curious whether the change in technique led to new discoveries during production, or conversely revealed limits that forced you to rethink how certain scenes, characters, or aspects of the world are depicted. Wada: Revisiting the original from a present-day vantage point, with the serialization now far advanced, we were overwhelmed by how much intricate foreshadowing and character backstory was already packed into chapter one. The question of how to rebuild the rich world [Eiichiro] Oda-sensei draws as contemporary animation is the biggest barrier—and at the same time it stirs up our appetite for a big challenge. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.