{"rewrite":{"id":"r_5c8bbbdf545f27a37b364d2b","clusterId":"c_ff12df40fa8eea20b5c18c82","slug":"rintaro-says-animation-s-content-glut-makes-the-new-hard-to-find","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"Rintaro Says Animation's Content Glut Makes the New Hard to Find","summary":"Rintaro, 85, spoke at a roundtable during the 31st Busan International Film Festival, where he gave a masterclass titled A Living Legend in Japanese Animation. Asked about turning points in the industry, the director of Galaxy Express 999 and Metropolis said he had once found it easy to make something new because few film and video works were available. Today, he said, content surrounds animators from the moment they wake, and creating something new is difficult.","whyItMatters":"The veteran's complaint is about volume rather than budgets: with content surrounding animators all day, the departure from Japanese animation's standard frame that he built his career on is harder to attempt.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eBusan\u0026#39;s special focus on Japanese animation screened The White Snake Enchantress, the 1958 Toei Animation film on which Rintaro holds an in-between animator credit. He went on to direct episodes of Kimba the White Lion and 1963\u0026#39;s Astro Boy during the founding of Osamu Tezuka\u0026#39;s Mushi Production. His argument at the roundtable, shared with Korea\u0026#39;s Cine21, is about method as much as output: he described his work as montage, overlapping images, against what he called Disney\u0026#39;s natural style. His recent short Nezumikozo Jirokichi imagines a lost film by Sadao Yamanaka.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Rintaro's complaint is about volume, not talent: content arrives from the moment animators wake, and he says that saturation is what makes something new hard to make.","twitterPost":"Rintaro says the glut itself is the obstacle: when content surrounds animators from morning on, new work gets harder to find.","threadsPost":"Rintaro frames the problem as abundance, not scarcity. He told a Busan roundtable that he once found new work easy because few film and video works existed, and that today content surrounds animators from the moment they wake.","newsletterBlurb":"Rintaro gave a masterclass at the 31st Busan International Film Festival and sat for a roundtable shared with Korea's Cine21. The 85-year-old director of Galaxy Express 999 and Metropolis said the volume of content now available makes it harder to create something new than when he started. He also described how he built his films from overlapping montage images rather than following Japanese animation's standard frame.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"Cartoon Brew\",\"url\":\"https://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/rintaro-interview-busan-metropolis-galaxy-express-268512.html\",\"title\":\"'At This Rate, There Will Be No Future': Anime Icon Rintaro On Animation's Aversion To Risk\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":5618,"outputTokens":3534,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1793214313,"createdAt":"2026-10-28T19:00:29.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-28T19:03:24.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T19:03:24.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_ff12df40fa8eea20b5c18c82","canonicalTitle":"‘At This Rate, There Will Be No Future’: Anime Icon Rintaro On Animation’s Aversion To Risk","representativeArticleId":"a_fdb3447249b4ae973db12364","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[\"Galaxy Express 999\",\"Metropolis\"],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[\"Rintaro\"],\"type\":\"op_ed\",\"domain\":\"anime\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-28T18:21:01.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-28T18:21:01.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-28T19:03:25.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"Cartoon Brew","url":"https://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/rintaro-interview-busan-metropolis-galaxy-express-268512.html","title":"‘At This Rate, There Will Be No Future’: Anime Icon Rintaro On Animation’s Aversion To Risk"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":["Galaxy Express 999","Metropolis"],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":[],"studios":[],"people":["Rintaro"],"type":"op_ed","domain":"anime","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":["Rintaro, 85, gave a masterclass titled A Living Legend in Japanese Animation at the 31st Busan International Film Festival, held October 6 to 15.","The festival's Japanese animation focus screened The White Snake Enchantress, the 1958 Toei Animation film on which Rintaro has an in-between animator credit.","Rintaro directed Galaxy Express 999, Adieu Galaxy Express 999, The Dagger of Kamui and Metropolis.","Rintaro said content now surrounds animators from the moment they wake until they sleep, making it difficult to find or create something new.","Nezumikozo Jirokichi, his short film, imagines what a lost film by Sadao Yamanaka might have looked like."],"pageLinks":{"healthSlugs":["galaxy-express-999","metropolis","rintaro"],"storySlugs":[],"entities":[{"slug":"galaxy-express-999","supported":2,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":2,"overall":"green","story_count":5,"has_dossier":true},{"slug":"metropolis","supported":2,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":0,"overall":"green","story_count":4,"has_dossier":true},{"slug":"rintaro","supported":4,"disputed":0,"contradicted":0,"unverified":8,"overall":"green","story_count":5,"has_dossier":true}],"stories":[],"entitiesOk":true,"storiesOk":true}}