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INTEREST: Animation Veteran Claims That Industry Newcomers Only Make 120 Yen An Hour

How is the animation industry in Korea?

What's the economic power of the country got to do with the super niche anime industry were selling 10,000 volumes of an anime is a mega hit.

About 150 anime tv series have managed average volume sales of 10,000 copies since 2000 and there was 130 anime released in just 2014.

Remember most late night anime only make money through disc sales since it's only a handful that boost the LN or manga sales.

If paying low wages is how we get anime made without lots of studio closures when one title bombs then that's what it takes.

Veteran Cindy Yamauchi, has also disputed outlandish claims and another veteran, Aya Suzuki (who had previously worked at Madhouse and on the Death Billiards short) gives a more complete view of the situation in this audio interview

well while i can't sya wenether it is true or not.
Assuming it is i made about three times that every hour during my internship for school. ( 2.70 euro)

seriously if you earn more on your internship than someone else does for there job something is horribly wring with the pay, and the industry.

Initially, I was questioning this since pretty much any job would pay better so I would wonder why anybody would continue working for such low pay, but it can be awfully hard to turn down a job doing what you went to school for, even if the pay sucks. Plus, some might not even realize that actual breakdown of how much they are making. The culture of basically living at the office is so prevalent in Japan that I can see where skipping sleep might not seem problematic to them.

This is a much more believable description and it's pretty disingenuous for Sachiko Kamimura to neglect any mention of base pay and different levels of work. Given that the industry's demand of animators is still higher than supply, most people would jump ship at a $/frame rate equal to $1/hr because they easily can, However it also your skills, because even though the demand is high it's still a competitive market.

Initially I bought into these claims but after seeing it disputed from insiders themselves and thinking about the economic logic from the demand I just don't buy such a simplistic view. In fact, one has to ask how the more experienced animators get paid much more if everyone is stuck at such low pay coming in? Not only that, but survive by themselves animating for a living?

I can live on 1/2 of the number of anime we are getting today. Human rights and quality over quantity.

I wonder what the "assistant" animators (so the in-between animatiors) in Vietnam (yes they do cartoons) are getting paid in comparison. A bowl of rice a day?
Glory to Nippon and the hardest work i did in my life is to manufacture glass for 6,5 € an hour which was as exhaustive as my basic training in the army. Certainly my lowest point but thank god that stopped. I wonder though how the average japanese slave can endure for so long? You have to admit defeat at some point! Is loosing your eyes sight for filler episode x that fascinating? $839.26 is about what the "Arbeitsagentur" will pay you for staying @ home and applying for jobs over here and they will pay your rent and so on too as i did that just that for over a year (and succeeded in getting my library job).
How would the animators though endure the prices in NeoToyko with 800$ or even better 15% of that? Capsule hotels and Cup Noodle kickoffs? What is the future. Animation by Freeter´s only?

The Ministry of Economy estimated damages of two trillion yen (US$19.6 billion) from America in 2013.

Can anyone at ANN get in contact with the Ministry of Economy and ask how they determined this number because it's absurd.

In 2012, Hollywood broke an earnings record of $10.7 billion, and the MoE expects us to believe anime lost more than Hollywood?

The industry has a problem of rolling out 40 series in a season, with most at 13 episodes, for an estimated cost of $150k per episode (I'll even boost this to $200k), the number sits at around $105 million? Even with padded costs, we could throw up $300 million for an entire year

This doesn't take into any consideration of the royalties or licensing received for merchandise.

Even at $1 billion per year, this would cover just about every anime made for that year, and then some.

As evidenced by the many Yahoo Japan auctions each week for artwork from newer productions, there is at least some market out there. I'm quite curious as to how several of these sellers get their stock, with someone on the inside supplying them and then receiving a share of the money earned.

The industry is subsidized by the dreams of young people. People don't become animators because they want a steady job that pays well, they become animators because they love animation. As long as they're willing to work for less in order to be a part of what they love (regardless of whether or not they actually love the day-to-day job), then they'll continue to be paid less.

These aren't desperate, impoverished people working two jobs to support their families - they wouldn't even have time for that - they're college graduates most likely being supported by their parents until they "get a real job".

Perhaps studios need to look into new ways to make money to pay their animators a better wage. If they were willing to sell the artwork that their animators drew, such as the backgrounds, layouts, douga, etc. that are scanned into a computer and then promptly trashed or burned, these animators could be making a good chunk more than they are now.

As evidenced by the many Yahoo Japan auctions each week for artwork from newer productions, there is at least some market out there. I'm quite curious as to how several of these sellers get their stock, with someone on the inside supplying them and then receiving a share of the money earned.

I wouldn't mind buying some artwork, but I usually just never see any that I want when I go there or in the rare cases that I do, I'm too late.

If animators can get back their drawings, that is. Once their drawings go to different department, I doubt that they will get them back as production coordinators are too busy. At least best ones go to storage.

It's been known that those auction sellers go through dumpster bins of anime studios.

Studios are making quite bit of money through their own merchandise sales...