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Originally Posted by kj1980
wwww. I laugh at that ludicrous wage that you expected. Animators (gengaka) here are viewed as the bottom rung of society - people who work close to 20+ hours a day, have to sleep at their office, who gets paid less than the people flipping burgers at McDonald's, and never see a single yen from the profits from the sales. They probably might be better off doing nothing and getting social welfare from the government.
As for your question - there's a difference between low-level key animators who sweat and toil doing genga art for meager wages versus a director whose own work reaps in royalties and profits.
Think of it this way - who makes the most money at Coca-Cola? The guys working the machines at the plant, or the CEO? You need the plant workers to make the product, but they get paid close to minimum wage, whereas the CEO does all the deals and manages the entire operation and he gets paid millions.
Same thing in the anime industry. The head honcho (they can be the chief writer, the director, the original character designer, etc.) are the ones who bring up the idea. They are the ones who do all the dealings with sponsors and TV studios. They are the ones who are the brainchild of the series, stories, and whatnot. Hence, they reap in all the royalties and percentage of the profits. That's why you have people like Akahori Satoru (main writer for many successful anime and games) who owns a Centurion American Express card, who lavishes around in expensive bars ordering $5,000+ bottles of wine, driving around in exotic cars and getting all the ladies. On the other hand, you have slaving low level animators who gets paid meager amounts in which they can't pay their electric bills and are kicked out from their apartments for not being able to pay their rent.
But that's how the anime industry works in Japan - you lower yourself to a shitty job, but if you perservere you might get a chance to be responsible for the chief animation director. And if you are able to get through that, you might make connections along the way to move up to become a director or a writer. And if your stuff becomes popular, congratulations - you are now one of the members who can laugh back at the "elite" salarymen (read: "normal people" who work for a "normal" company) who once looked down upon you. But out of a pool of thousands of low level animators and the chances of you reaching that level; very marginal.
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sounds like the very lifestyle of other artists in other arts as well... either they are paid the least or the most... there are those who worked all their lives but never made it to the top, but those who do enjoy reaping luxuries and fame.
there are lots of artists, musicians, and writers--- but not everyone can share the same fame (and money). unfortunately for some artists, their work only became famous posthumously so they never enjoyed their supposed "returns"