[TJR]

Originally Posted by fertygo

KyoAni also famous with how they treat their worker better than in most place. But its true though, Anime industry is bad place to work, in most case its just like the blog in the OP post.

Let's not buy too much into a company's PR, which exists to attract potential talent. Every place will say that they're some kind of paradise, whether they're Nintendo or Ion Storm (!!).

For KyoAni, geographical isolation forces them to make long-term investment in employees, so conditions are likely better. They also compete on quality.

Nevertheless, reality isn't as rosy as their PR will have you believe. Contrary to company claims, workers do stay overnight to meet deadlines (official policy may not directly dictate this, but what happens to staff who go home early when everyone else works long hours?). You also have people leaving KyoAni for the chaos of Tokyo, so conditions can't be that fantastic.

I just wish the recent trend of emergence of new studios (like Ufotable) that build by experienced figure, like Imaishi with studio trigger, MAPPA, Hosoda also build brand new studio.. there is also A-1, I hope those studio can have and develop better working environment for anime worker. At the very least they can work comfortably and not like labor.

Sadly, I suspect that the veterans are likely to maintain the status quo, simply because it "worked" throughout their careers (and as head of Madhouse, you can bet that Maruyama had a lot of say over how things were run). Bear in mind that in terms of creation, they only started new studios to keep doing what they were doing before. Their old companies changed, so they switched environments to maintain a status quo.

I feel bad for the working conditions that many of these people have to go through but this guy sounds awfully judgmental. From reading his comments it seems the problem is everyone else he is working with.

He was in production management, so his relationship with animators was probably antagonist. His job was to schedule people in, collect their work, and then deliver it to the next person down the chain. Plus, it was his responsibility to meet deadlines and quality standards.

You can see where the conflict lies. The animator sees the production manager/assistant as an annoying slave driver because of low pay and brutal schedule demands. Meanwhile, the producer (who tends to be relatively outgoing and organized) sees the animator as a socially inept jerk who has no responsibility or regard for anyone else.

These people could have taken a more rewarding job, but they chose to animate out of their own will.

Yes and no......

Some animate out of genuine love for the craft. Others are involved because they have nowhere else to go. Anime companies will readily hire people with no skill or college background, so to some workers, having the job still beats unemployment/homelessness. Few of the latter have any future in the industry (and as some veteran animators argue, they complain but make no effort to learn or improve their situation). Nevertheless, the studios will take advantage of their involvement just to get things done cheaply.