MAPPA pushes its 15th anniversary book back to October
The studio's anniversary book missed the Tokyo opening of MAPPA EXPO and will now go on sale on 28 October, with a MAPPA online shop listing to follow.
MAPPA has postponed the book charting its 15-year history, days after the Tokyo run of its anniversary exhibition opened. The studio published a short notice on its official site on 29 September, confirming that the title would not appear when planned.
Why the book slipped
The book had been scheduled to go on sale from 16 September, the first day of the Tokyo venue of MAPPA EXPO 15th Anniversary. MAPPA attributed the change to production circumstances on its side and apologised twice in the notice, once for the delay itself and again for how late the news reached the people waiting for it.
The new date and where it will be sold
Sales are now planned to begin on 28 October 2026. MAPPA added that the book will also be listed on the MAPPA online shop at a later date, giving collectors a second channel beyond the exhibition floor.
An anniversary year that keeps growing
The studio behind Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man and the final season of Attack on Titan has turned its 15th year into an exhibition rather than a single event. MAPPA EXPO 15th Anniversary opened in Tokyo in September with areas devoted to Chainsaw Man's Reze arc and Attack on Titan's final season, and the studio had already released a free audio guide narrated by its voice cast, a special commercial and a set of anniversary logos before the book ran into trouble.
Our opinion
A delayed art book is not a scandal, and MAPPA's notice is refreshingly unglamorous about it: the studio says the schedule slipped and that it told people late. What is worth noticing is how much of an animation studio's anniversary now lives outside the screen. Exhibitions, audio guides, branded merchandise and now a publisher's timeline that has to be managed like any other production. When a book tied to a Tokyo opening day misses that date, the disappointment lands hardest on the fans who booked travel around the exhibition. A few extra weeks and an online shop listing is a reasonable fix, and credit to MAPPA for saying so plainly. The lesson for the rest of the industry is smaller and duller: build the print buffer before you print the date on the poster.