Kingdom animation director Jun Arai has revealed why people working in the anime industry are stuck in an unfortunate “vicious cycle” of not being able to find long-term employment.
Arai responded to a post by X (formerly Twitter) expressing concern for animators, saying: “Why do animators only outsource work? I wish they could take that job as full-time employees.” Arai replied: “Anime companies don’t have © [copyright], so there is no source of funding other than anime production costs. So we are in a cycle where we cannot maintain internal reserves [finances] unless we get the production costs and keep doing the animation. That’s because they can’t afford to pay their employees monthly salaries.”
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Many animators in the Anime industry are freelancers, not employees
The recent 2023 report from the Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) surveyed 425 animators, finding that only 40.5% were permanent employees. 47.3% identified as freelance animators, who do not enjoy the same employee protections as permanent employees. 8.5% are fixed-term contract employees, who may or may not be renewed at the end of their term. When animation studios do not hold the rights to a series, they often do not benefit from secondary sources of income such as Blu-ray sales, theatrical screenings, and licensing such as merchandise, events, etc.
Instead, animators in the industry primarily receive money for the number of frames they complete, while more senior animators can receive a fixed income regardless of what they complete. how much work. Unsurprisingly, this means that most animators are not well paid, especially young ones, with a recent NAFCA survey revealing that 40% of animators paid less than $16k a year. This percentage increases to 50% for animators between the ages of 20 and 30. A recent animator’s pay stub from last year shows a worker being paid just $1.47 per frame.
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Some Anime studios benefit from securing franchise rights
However, more and more animation studios are securing copyrights for series. MAPPA holds the copyright to Chainsaw Man and Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill. Studio Pierrot director Keirou Itsumi recently shared his brazen approach to securing copyright, which involved taking out large loans from banks, with the agreement that if Pierrot defaulted, the bank would Customers can sell copyright to others. With the box office success of recent anime films and advance screenings like the Solo Leveling World Tour, this is a huge source of income that studios can benefit from.
Some people argue that animation studios don’t deserve more because they don’t risk much money during production. However, as Arai’s comments suggest, if studios remain poor, they will never be able to find more money to take risks. Therefore, NAFCA and JRI (The Japan Research Institute, Limited) require a minimum royalty rate, for example 30%. This would come with a time limit of about 10 years, allowing studios to build reserves to later fund their own series. Benefits for anime fans could include higher salaries for animators and creative enthusiasts at the heart of anime production.
Source: X (formerly Twitter)