Yamagata High School to Introduce Anime Classes in 2020

October 25, 2018

Yamagata- Tokai University's Yamagata Senior High School in the northeastern Japan city of Yamagata said Wednesday that it will introduce anime classes in April 2020.

The anime classes will be available as an optional subject for students in the second and third year of the high school's general course.

Such classes will be held four hours a week, or some 120 hours in a year.

Second-year students will learn basics including anime history, drawing and stop-motion anime, while those in the third year will show anime works that they have created.

The classes will be conducted with the help of production companies Telecom Animation Film Co. and Shirogumi Inc. The two firms will give advice to teachers on course content, as well as send production staff as instructors to the school.

Previously, it was difficult for people from rural areas to get jobs in anime production unless they move to Tokyo.

With the spread of the Internet, however, people are now able to work on anime creation from remote locations.

Yu Kiyozono, head of Telecom Animation, voiced hopes that the classes will create a path for people from Yamagata to lead the anime industry in future years. Jiji Press