His animators are frantically working around the clock to complete Cardcaptor, a film adapted from a popular Japanese comic, or manga, that's also a TV series. Sakurai is concerned his exhausted animators will snap at the sight of more visitors. But he needn't be concerned. Crammed into the colourful pink, green and yellow warehouse in the Mimami-Asagaya district of Tokyo, many of his crew are too tired to notice and are quietly catching a few winks by their drawing boards. Today, more than 50 animation shows air on Japanese TV stations.
Global sales add much more.
And there's no end in sight for the artists toiling day and night at Madhouse. But the surge of interest disturbs some analysts in Japan. And there's a yet darker side to Japanese animation, one where depictions of assaults on children are commonplace and which, like its tamer counterparts, has a devoted following in the West. Tired of the cute, anthropomorphic creatures favoured by Disney, young audiences like the edginess of Japanese animation, where characters have wide, gleaming eyes and spiky hair. Japanese artists, in turn are incorporating American graphic styles into their work.