Mind Game Budget

What is known about the production of Mind Game?

"Mind Game," a animation released in 2004, was directed by Masaaki Yuasa and stars Koji Imada, Sayaka Maeda. The production budget has not been publicly disclosed, though STUDIO4℃, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Rentrak Japan produced the film, making it a notable entry in the animation landscape whose financial details remain private.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for a animation production like this include:

• Production: The film's music, produced by Shinichirō Watanabe, as well as the score by Seiichi Yamamoto includes an image song by Fayray and piano performed by Yōko Kanno.

Mind Game Box Office Performance

"Mind Game" earned $36,613 worldwide at the box office.

Awards and Recognition

1 win total

• Ōfuji Noburō Award

Critical Reception

The film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews. The film's accolades include the Ōfuji Noburō Award at the 2005 Mainichi Film Awards and the Animation Division Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2004, outranking nominee Howl's Moving Castle. Outside Japan, the film had its international premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival in June 2005.

How Does Mind Game's Budget Compare to Similar Anime?

• Paprika (2006): Budget Not disclosed | Worldwide $946,182. Satoshi Kon's late-period surreal anime feature at a larger production scale with stronger international theatrical returns.
• Tekkonkinkreet (2006): Budget Not disclosed | Worldwide $2,200,000. Another Studio 4°C feature with comparable production budget and significantly stronger worldwide gross.
• The Night Is Short Walk on Girl (2017): Budget Not disclosed | Worldwide $2,200,000. Yuasa's later Science Saru feature at a larger production scale with stronger international theatrical returns.
• Belladonna of Sadness (1973): Budget Not disclosed | Worldwide $500,000. Eiichi Yamamoto's experimental Mushi Production feature with comparable cult arthouse positioning.

Mind Game Production History

Mind Game is the feature directorial debut of Masaaki Yuasa, the Japanese animator who had previously worked as an animation director and key animator on television series including Crayon Shin-chan and Chibi Maruko-chan. Yuasa adapted the screenplay from Robin Nishi's 1995 manga of the same name.

Studio 4°C, the Tokyo animation house founded in 1986 by Eiko Tanaka and Koji Morimoto, produced the film. The studio had built its reputation on experimental short-form animation including segments of The Animatrix and Memories, and Mind Game was its second feature production.

Production took place at Studio 4°C's Tokyo facility across approximately two years. Yuasa supervised an animation pipeline that mixed conventional cel animation, rotoscoping, photographic textures, three-dimensional computer graphics, and live-action footage to produce a deliberately unstable visual identity that shifts styles within and across scenes.

Mind Game premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal in 2004 and won the Grand Prize for Animation at the Japan Media Arts Festival the same year. Despite minimal theatrical release and modest box office, the film has since been recognized as a foundational text of post-Ghibli Japanese animation and one of Yuasa's career-defining works.