Former Anime Staff Member Writes About Working Environment

[j0x]

might as well re-post this great insight again on the condition of the anime industry

source: http://anond.hatelabo.jp/20120712005200 (blog entry date: 2012-07-12)
original post: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=463111

The following is a translation of a blog article posted on July 12, 2012

I quit working at an anime company. My position was production assistant. The company I quit is probably one of the top-ten companies in the anime industry. I will choose to write about only the bad side of things for the sake of expressing why I quit. The biggest reason would be the following.

In every single aspect, there just isn't enough money.
The anime industry in general has terrible financial circulation. The entire business is run on a hand-to-mouth basis, meaning most, if not all, income goes right back to the production budget. Even the biggest anime companies have only as much money flowing as a general middle-class/lower-class company.

Naturally, the income of an employee is small. The annual income of my first year was a little over 2,000,000 yen. The basic income did increase proportionately as I continued to work there year after year, but around the 3rd year, the increase flattened at 3,000,000 yen annual income. If you were to include seasonal/year-end bonuses, you can say that the basic income actually decreased after the 3rd year as the total annual income stayed put. When production is at max, a production assistant would be working from 12 to 14 hours a day (including stand-by), and as the anime work goes into the climax of the story, we lose the time to go home or sleep. This work is not worth the money.

Social insurance is unavailable (though I do hear there are some companies that provide it), and companies generally are uninterested in retaining employees. To the managers, it has become common sense for employees to go in and out. That is primarily due to risk circumvention with respect to the high leaving rates.

The studio is not anything as extraordinary as a company building, but rather just one floor within a rented mansion. The desks and floor were littered with personal belongings, and it was just a mess.

As a matter of fact, there were no permanent or regular employees. The production staff members were comprised of temporary contract employees only. They were probably all working on an operating agreement. "Make a contract with a company and become a horse carriage horse! (Madoka Magica style)" I am not aware of how administrators and executives are treated. The animators, directors, color finishers, and the like that work in the studio are not even employees. They are freelancers that are temporarily borrowing the workspace. Their salaries are per episode, or unit price per cut or per frame quality. However, there are a few that receive a stable salary under the name of "directing fees" or "restriction fees". Art, photography, and editing are done by separate companies or specialized factions within the company. There are a few animators who are sent from a different illustration company, but because most are freelancers, these animators are also treated indifferently, meaning their annual income could go as low as less than 1,000,000 yen.

In any case, there are many who suffer from mental stress mainly caused by lack of money. Most don't have the mental leisure to relax, and because the top members of the company are like that to begin with, we get a chain reaction to the bottom of the social grapevine. In fact, there are workers who have been diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder. I don't know about the percentage, but I have never felt such a situation to be so close to me.

Anime is made by the workers' love for anime and their varying levels of resolve towards responsibility.


There is no person worth respecting.
Once an anime is complete and airing, there is only beauty in it. I wonder how many people, aside from those that have experienced anime production, even imagine the production process? Unfortunately, the anime industry has very low standards. There are many people with low motives. There are many people who I would feel are like children when I'm talking to them. The workers are rotting. It's a level in which you can barely continue living even if you work without giving it a single thought. The administrators are pulling each other down. It is required for the creators to have "capability backed by experience and effort, or godly talents". They need to have luck, chance, and stamina to climb up, and even if they reach the top, they still wouldn't be able to survive anyway, or so it seems to me. There is no "As long as I keep trying, it'll pay off in the end."

To be blunt, there are many anime otakus here who have simply watched anime all their lives and don't know how to properly communicate with others. Regardless of gender, there are workers who can easily be mistaken for homeless people, and emit terrible odors. They don't (can't?) do even simple greetings. If the garbage pale is full, they stack garbage on top of it. They don't work even though they're at the studio. They don't clarify things they don't understand. It makes me sad to see female workers conversing about male anime characters when they themselves seem to not even have a clue about what makeup and attire is. It make me want to cry when I see workers complaining about compensation thinking they're working as briskly and efficiently as when they were younger, when in fact their quality and speed of work has obviously been declining as they would for anyone in their 40s.

I believe the core of anime production lies in the animators. Frames must be drawn for production to progress. Therefore, I must wait, even if it's for the animator's self-satisfaction or just pure laziness. The work site is very loose. Although there is a final deadline for broadcasts and delivery, most workers couldn't care less about being overdue for lesser deadlines during the process. Why? Because the responsibility over the entire production until the product is aired lies in the production staff members and not the animators themselves. If the animators fail to do their work, they just lose that money. However, the unfinished work must be done by someone else. (The production staff members must hire new people, distribute workload, basically restart the whole thing.) Not being able to reach workers, both by phone or email, is default.

Although reputation would obviously plummet, it would be better to have such workers than face a chronic shortage of workers. The job is perfect for a person who wants to sleep whenever he/she wants to, come to the studio whenever he/she wants to, answer the phone whenever he/she wants to, and can survive as long as there is anime and a neighboring convenience store (sarcasm intended, with the emphasis that it places a huge stress on the production team). It is ironic how it's these kinds of people, that allow the anime industry to continue to be operational.

However, I could not stand these attitudes. Their ties with others were loose. They couldn't care less about how others saw them. As long as they had one aspect they were highly talented in, everything other aspect could be missing. I can't become someone like that, nor would I want to, and therefore I couldn't come to respect them neither. I felt that you can perhaps survive by dreaming on, but you could never achieve happiness. (For the record, there are "normal" social people and those who have the attitude of a professional, as well as amazing workers who churn out finished products like a one-man assembly line. However, most are as I explained above.)

I had thought I was an otaku before, but I realized that I don't like anime to the extent I would forget eating and sleeping, and that I'm a normal person who knows how to enjoy having a girlfriend or boyfriend in the real world. There were many times I thought I was the weird one. When I would meet long-time-no-see colleagues at a marriage ceremony, no one would be watching anime. I have never met anyone who has ever watched an anime I had been involved in the production of, let alone on-time every week.


From now
"Anime is amazing! It is the ultimate form of motion picture media! I don't need money! I'm going to live with anime, and die with anime! It's fantastic, to be able to gain experience and get money for it!"

Or so I thought when I joined the company.

The standard income of the anime industry is dependent on the sales of DVDs and related merchandise. Therefore, the production is directed towards the buying customers. However, there are as many wills of production as there are staff members. At least, I was producing anime for myself. I thought hard, incorporated ideas, put forth all of my effort to make the anime even slightly better, went around lowering my head everywhere, just to make an anime that everyone would enjoy and that I myself would be satisfied with.

Commercial anime production is a work process divided amongst an enormous group of people. The process flows systematically and mechanically. The sectors that place orders never even see the face of workers working at the front. The given storyboards are blueprints that determine 80% of the finished product. There are some storyboards that make no sense. There are many times when the storyboards come late, and we would be churning episodes running along a schedule that would inevitably fail.

How much of my feelings were represented by the finished product? If I watch the episodes that I was in charge of, I can still clearly remember the moments of hardship, the difficult cuts, and the faces of members I dislike. However, who would think about that when watching anime? Had I only been in charge of the production that were framed as inconsistent episodes of shit anime, that had terrible DVD sales, and that wouldn't remain in anyone's memories?

I suddenly realized that I had lost even my sense of accomplishment for achieving a finished anime episode through working hard to retain a decent level of quality. I suddenly realized that I was not necessary here anymore. I couldn't think about continuing, about moving forward in this industry anymore. All I had acquired was some normal driving techniques.

I currently have no other licenses or degrees. If I hadn't joined the company as a fresh college graduate, I would have regretted joining. It was a good thing I joined. It was a good thing I quit. So, how should I go about living now? Well, I will leave putting feelings into anime up to the workers still working for sure.

[monir]

Interesting. Why didn't he mention which Production Company he worked for? Either way, he isn't saying anything new.

[Kimidori]

those kind of story have been around for years...

[j0x]

Originally Posted by Kimidori

those kind of story have been around for years...

so i take it you ignore reading the entire blog? and i hope your not implying that this kind of stories are fake

[hyl]

Originally Posted by j0x

so i take it you ignore reading the entire blog? and i hope your not implying that this kind of stories are fake

I am not ignoring this matter, but it's known for quite some time that the industry has not been kind for it's employers.

Like this old thread http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=28856

or this this article from 2006
http://www.riuva.com/?p=111

[Kimidori]

Originally Posted by j0x

so i take it you ignore reading the entire blog? and i hope your not implying that this kind of stories are fake

hell no!! i have read this thoroughly, and as monir said, he isn't saying anything new since there have been a lot of these already, and i do believe those story to be real.

there are more detailed infomation on this thread

that thread even describe the working environment of animator worse than this.

[j0x]

i see well its good to spread more awareness about this
thanks for those threads ill read them later

[MartianMage]

I wonder which studio is that...

[j0x]

Originally Posted by MartianMage

I wonder which studio is that...

that word "i wonder" reminded me of my reply on that MAL thread too
i said there that i wonder why japanese anime companies does not use the internet to increase profit, crunchyroll should have been made by them first but instead crunchyroll is made by USA, and also they can go for kickstarter website to at least ensure break-even profit incase the anime they sell fails, but no kickstarter is also started by USA, their is an upcoming anime kind of project on kickstarter too to show crowd funding works for anime its title is "The New Kind" here is the trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2C7oFhH7dc

but the japanese who translated that blog to english said that more japanese are not internet savvy, and that was a shocker since many people consider japan as a hi-tech country

[hyl]

Originally Posted by j0x

that word "i wonder" reminded me of my reply on that MAL thread too
i said there that i wonder why japanese anime companies does not use the internet to increase profit, crunchyroll should have been made by them first but instead crunchyroll is made by USA, and also they can go for kickstarter website to at least ensure break-even profit incase the anime they sell fails, but no kickstarter is also started by USA, their is an upcoming anime kind of project on kickstarter too to show crowd funding works for anime its title is "The New Kind" here is the trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2C7oFhH7dc

Japan already has multiple anime streaming services like the ones found on Niconcio douga, animate etc.
Your post in MAL and here suggests that streaming would be THE answer for japanese anime producers. Truth is that streaming services doesn't earn them back even a slight amount of the huge costs for producing an anime. Example: a blu-ray for 2 epsiodes costs me around 7000-8000 yen, while the costs of "renting" 2 episodes on niconico douga would be cost me 420 yen.

edit: it is also obvious that the anime producers will not even get the full ammount of the stream, because some or most of it goes naturally to the streaming website.

[j0x]

Originally Posted by hyl

Japan already has multiple anime streaming services like the ones found on Niconcio douga, animate etc.
Your post in MAL and here suggests that streaming would be THE answer for japanese anime producers. Truth is that streaming services doesn't earn them back even a slight amount of the huge costs for producing an anime. Example: a blu-ray for 2 epsiodes costs me around 7000-8000 yen, while the costs of "renting" 2 episodes on niconico douga would be cost me 420 yen.

edit: it is also obvious that the anime producers will not even get the full ammount of the stream, because some or most of it goes naturally to the streaming website.

really? japan has paid legal streaming website like CrunchyRoll? its the first time im hearing this, but no wonder it fails because its not global and those services are only in japan

and ye i get your point of anime is costly to make but they should experiment and think more atleast on the profit effects of "higher prices get less customers" or "lower prices get more customers" i read that anime like K-On and Haruhi is sold at lower prices on USA by Bandai and that fails but japanese anime companies never yet tried sites like CrunchyRoll and KickStarter on a global scale to get more potential buyers and more potential profit

Originally Posted by hyl

it is also obvious that the anime producers will not even get the full ammount of the stream, because some or most of it goes naturally to the streaming website.

ye that too their is too much Red Tape or too much Bureaucracy or too much middle-man why not Japanese Anime Studio become like hybrid of Indie Film makers with Crowd Funding and just directly sell stuff from their website for example

[hyl]

Before this anime goes out of hand and becomes another anime streaming or anime cost topic, here are some nice reads on those subjects

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-05
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-07
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-09

Going back on the original purpose of this thread. The bad working conditions isn't limited to japanese animation studios , but it applies for the majority of the small/middle sized companies in Japan. Eventhough animators do get severely underpaid though.

edit: I also recall that i have read somewhere that employers of game companies (like the very known square enix) in japn also have similar bad working conditions.

[j0x]

Originally Posted by hyl

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-05
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-07
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-09

i actually have read that in the past too, and that is why i said their is too much Red Tape or too much Bureaucracy that increases the cost of making anime, and anime making is like a big gamble too since profit can either win big or fail big

i just read from another forum and by googling that meanwhile gaming industry is making a lot of money in japan though, might be those movie game genre (games that plays like a movie or tv series) will be the evolution of anime

[Sackett]

Reading that, I can't help but feel that a large part of the problem isn't even the low pay (although that is of course important), but the lack of camaraderie and esprit de corp.

Nobody wants to go work with losers everyday.

[Tempester]

It is these terrible working conditions and salaries that result in the huge number of anime we enjoy today. As much as I'd like to think they deserve better treatment, if they were given high salaries and a luxurious environment, the cost of anime would skyrocket. As a result of that, the turnover rate of anime series per season would drop dramatically, resulting in less variety, much like how American animation is now.

These people could have taken a more rewarding job, but they chose to animate out of their own will. Remember that, and keep enjoying the anime you watch.

[Kirarakim]

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. These lines especially rubbed me the wrong way.

It makes me sad to see female workers conversing about male anime characters when they themselves seem to not even have a clue about what makeup and attire is. It make me want to cry when I see workers complaining about compensation thinking they're working as briskly and efficiently as when they were younger, when in fact their quality and speed of work has obviously been declining as they would for anyone in their 40s.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by j0x

i just read from another forum and by googling that meanwhile gaming industry is making a lot of money in japan though, might be those movie game genre (games that plays like a movie or tv series) will be the evolution of anime

Since you bring up the game industry this is from 2010 but here's a bit of trivia by animator Cindy H Yamauchi

I had to take on another small videogame character design project on the side. The title is well-known, and even someone like me--who has very little interest in videogames--recognized its name. Naturally, I was very, very surprised to hear how low the rate was. It was so low that it almost makes you wonder why the TV animators are complaining about not being paid enough; those poor game designers have it far worse than we do. Seriously, the amount I was offered was missing a digit, but I took it anyway to help out an old friend of mine. It would've been great if the money was there, but it wasn't that important in this case. Anyway, I learned that I should stay away from that industry altogether.

Originally Posted by Sackett

Reading that, I can't help but feel that a large part of the problem isn't even the low pay (although that is of course important), but the lack of camaraderie and esprit de corp.

Well one point Yamauchi brings up can't help

It may sound surprising, but there is no official “directory” of animators—so the artists who the producers select for a given production is determined by either through his/her own connections, or through the director and/or Animation Directors’ connections. If the selections are left up to the producer, it’s not unusual for a team to consist entirely of artists who’ve never met before.

Though I figure not all companies are like that,I know companies like P.A works have permanent members and try to form them in house,it's in japanese but there's a long and Q&A about what it's like to work for them here ,can't relly make out much of anything without a translation but seems they've got dormatories 15 minutes away from the studio so I guess that allows for more bonding between employees

[C.A.]

As an animator who has heard from many professionals and veterans in the industry, I can tell you that no animator outside of Japan in their right mind would want to work on anime.

Being an animator in Japan means you are more a factory worker or salaryman than an artist. and you get paid less than them.

You have to work so much that you don't go home, you either bring a tent and sleep in the studio or just sleep under your desk.

Of all arts, animation is one of the toughest and least glorious, no one ever knows the names and faces of these actors who act with their pencils. You don't draw or make one thing and get famous for it, you draw thousands of similar frames and no audience knows the amount of effort you put in.

There is simply no money and recognition to work in Japan as an animator and films you produce are technically inferior to western productions, you won't get a strong portfolio as well.

[fertygo]

For balancing a little bit so its not gonna too bleak at here, I reading about Ufotable studio before, they're interviewing the young staff at the studios that involved at the production of Fate/Zero and while the article itself mostly about Fate/Zero anime production.

There is a little segment here and there that those staff telling stories about working environment in Ufotable, they saying its very good on there.. the work was very stressing but they have little cafe for relaxing, they also saying in Ufotable they do not separate the senior and junior in work, if you have capabilities you gotta work, etc

here is the article in japanese :http://news.mynavi.jp/special/2012/fatezero/index.html

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.

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.

[Kimidori]

Originally Posted by C.A.

As an animator who has heard from many professionals and veterans in the industry, I can tell you that no animator outside of Japan in their right mind would want to work on anime.

Being an animator in Japan means you are more a factory worker or salaryman than an artist. and you get paid less than them.

You have to work so much that you don't go home, you either bring a tent and sleep in the studio or just sleep under your desk.

Of all arts, animation is one of the toughest and least glorious, no one ever knows the names and faces of these actors who act with their pencils. You don't draw or make one thing and get famous for it, you draw thousands of similar frames and no audience knows the amount of effort you put in.

There is simply no money and recognition to work in Japan as an animator and films you produce are technically inferior to western productions, you won't get a strong portfolio as well.

i read that talented animator do get recognized by fan though

Key Animation:

Based on the storyboard, the key animators start work, creating the animation drawings. They are assigned a certain number of different cuts by the person in charge of key animation. Key animators draw the essential frames that mark a distinct position or expression of a cel/character. For example, a character starting to kick someone as one key frame, and then the kick landing as the second key frame (if it’s a fast kick!). In other words, they draw the structure of the animation. The number of frames that a key animator draws for a movement will depend upon the intentions of the key animator and the nature of the cut, with time, and budget constraints considered. These drawings also include lines which direct where shading will occur. Around 20 key animators can be working on a single episode of anime, each in charge of a separate part (sometimes several cuts). Although it’s already decided what a movement will be, it is up to the key animator to express that as animation. That is why a talented and hard-working key animator can really steal the show, going well beyond the requirements of the storyboard and imbuing a scene with their own style. Some animators get the opportunity to deviate from storyboards as well (which the likes of Yoshinori Kanada was known to do, to great effect).

There is a subset of the anime fandom who are enthralled by great animation works and animators, ‘sakuga’ fans. Sakuga technically refers to the drawings in an anime, but is extended to describe the animation as a whole. People follow their favourite animators, and keep track of the cuts they do, also compiling them into anime or animator-specific music videos. The core of the sakuga online fandom is the ‘sakuga wiki’ (in Japanese), and a huge array of ‘sakuga MADs (animator AMV)’ can be found on youtube. Even a brief look over these videos inspired me with a real appreciation of the character and presence that individual animators can impart. I think this culture of appreciatimh outstanding key animation is one of the most fascinating arenas of the anime domain.

an example of "sakuga MAD"