Japan's animators in pencil peril over production halt

Naoya Nagatsuma, 11th-generation owner of Tokyo stationery store Soumaya Genshirou Shouten, holds a Mitsubishi pencil in Tokyo, Japan, February 3, 2021. REUTERS/Chang-Ran Kim REUTERS/Chang-Ran Kim

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's animators are losing one of the tools of their trade after Mitsubishi Pencil said this week it would scale back a long-running line of coloured pencils.

Mitsubishi Pencil will reduce its 7700 line of hard coloured pencils to a single red iteration starting in June. The three colours to be cut - orange, yellow-green and pale blue - were saved from a broader cull in 2015 after an outcry from the animation industry.