Japanese university offers college degree in anime & manga

Have you ever wished you could study anime professionally? A university in Japan will soon be offering a college degree in anime and manga, which will include lessons from leading artists and animators in the industry.

As reported by Crunchyroll, the Kaishi Professional University in Nigata Prefecture will be launching new courses in Anime, Manga and Character design in April 2021. 

For its initial offering, the university will be acceping 80 students, who will get to learn directly from leading animators, directors, illustrators, game creators, professional manga artists, as well as animation and manga researchers. Students will learn the theories and practicalities needed for more than 600 hours of study.

The announcement of the new courses comes after the country’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology approved the establishment of the institution’s anime and manga department earlier this month.

The private university, which aims to develop professionals with planning and production capabilities directly linked to business development, just opened in April 2020. According to their website, the university aims to provide a training ground for students to "help contribute to the further development of Japan's proud content culture."

The new campus comes equipped with a full digital training room that can respond to industry progress in the fields of anime, manga, and character design. It also has training rooms where student works can be screened and digital comic works can be presented on a powerful large screen.

Graduates of the program may be able to pursue jobs as animators, cartoonists, character designers, game crafters, illustrators, animation directors, 3DCG creator and other related fields, according to the university's website.

Applications for the new courses will be accepted starting Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020, while the first entrance exam will be held on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020.

Interested to learn more? Here's a short virtual tour inside Kaishi Professional University’s Furumachi Refuru Campus and overview of the new courses (explained in Japanese) in this YouTube video recently shared by the university. 

(Images via Studio Ghibli and Kaishi Professional University)