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INTEREST: Animator Ippei Ichii Says Netflix Anime Produced at MAPPA Paid Bottom Rates (Updated)

Whitestrider wrote:

Let's face it, we should start pay more for the anime streaming services, a fixed fee for every series you want to watch (for example $9.90 for 12/13 episodes)

We already have a way to pay for individual series, it's called DVDs and Blu-Rays.

It's already hard to justify paying for streaming services. Something like this would just give people more reason to pirate.

AmpersandsUnited wrote:

Whitestrider wrote: Let's face it, we should start pay more for the anime streaming services, a fixed fee for every series you want to watch (for example $9.90 for 12/13 episodes) We already have a way to pay for individual series, it's called DVDs and Blu-Rays. It's already hard to justify paying for streaming services. Something like this would just give people more reason to pirate.

Well, with this attitude things will never change for the better for sure...
People pay $60/70 for a new videogame, but they can't pay $5/10 for 13 episodes of an anime?

There are things like time spent playing vs time spent watching, replay vs rewatch value, resell value, etc.

Also, again, customers spending more is not the solution here. It's not even a temporary relief. Customers not paying enough is not the problem, the problem is Netflix pushing down prices to produce more content cheaper. Us paying more wouldn't help, it would just result in the higher ups taking larger cuts and spending the rest of the profit on even more content, while the animators don't get any more money. Welcome to capitalism.

If you say so...in the meantime Spotify has added a link to donate to (some) of your favourite artists, especially those more in need, because of the lockdowns...should they add a "donate" button for the underpaid staff in the anime industry?

Paying more for the things you like, and also paying more to compensate the people that effectively produce those things, It"s never a bad idea.

Whitestrider wrote:

If you say so...in the meantime Spotify has added a link to donate to (some) of your favourite artists, especially those more in need, because of the lockdowns...should they add a "donate" button for the underpaid staff in the anime industry?

...yes, instead of addressing the real issue, which is companies shamelessly exploiting people whose work they're profiting from, let's pretend to "do something" by having consumers pay those same companies even more, on the promise that some % of that will go to the artist/studio. OK!

Whitestrider wrote:

Paying more for the things you like, and also paying more to compensate the people that effectively produce those things, It"s never a bad idea.

You do realize that paying more to Netflix will not trickle down to animators in Japan, right?

I never said we should pay more Netflix or Crunchyroll, though...

Whitestrider wrote:

I never said we should pay more Netflix or Crunchyroll, though...

You said we should pay more to a distributor. Whether it's Netflix or Crunchyroll or any other company based anywhere and created by whomever is irrelevant - it's not going to trickle down to the base-level workers, as long as the people paying for the creation of the content are intent on pushing prices down. But hey, if you honestly believe that throwing more money at a fundamentally unfair and rotten system will help those that it exploits, be my guest.

SHD wrote:

Whitestrider wrote: I never said we should pay more Netflix or Crunchyroll, though... You said we should pay more to a distributor. Whether it's Netflix or Crunchyroll or any other company based anywhere and created by whomever is irrelevant - it's not going to trickle down to the base-level workers, as long as the people paying for the creation of the content are intent on pushing prices down. But hey, if you honestly believe that throwing more money at a fundamentally unfair and rotten system will help those that it exploits, be my guest.

The system is sure rotten, but you can't fix exploitation without paying more (even a bit) for some products.

If paying more for something meant it went directly to the staff who made it, Japan would have already solved their animator pay crisis with how expensive their Blu Rays are. The problem is not with the consumers but the abusive policies of the people in charge and it's shifting the blame to make it seem like it should be up to fans to fix it.

You absolutely can. You can't be seriously thinking that paying more for anime would make animators earn better... right? It's like arguing that paying more for a shirt in H&M will automatically help the people who create it for pennies, if at all. If paying a lot for a product fixed exploitation then all those luxury products that consumers pay ridiculous money for would be made by employees paid handsomely for their work, instead of, y'know, oftentimes actual slaves, even child slaves.

It's not like there's no profit made from anime (if there wasn't the industry as such wouldn't be where it is now), and poor animators just suffer the difficulties of the market. The problem is that 1. companies like Netflix want content they can sell for the least money that they can get away with, which results in driving down prices which affect animator pay; 2. the income is distributed in an incredibly unhealthy way; 3. the industry itself is exploitative and abusive, and treats animators and other "low-level" workers as unimportant and disposable.

People said Netflix getting involved in the anime industry would also do the same thing and help fix the industry. Netflix would avoid the production committee process and lead to better paid animators and quality shows. It didn't. All that happened was Netflix were the ones doing it instead.

Less anime being made doesn't mean companies are going to start paying their employees more. If anything, fewer job opportunities means even less pay because it becomes a far more competitive industry and people are willing to take lower pay rates to get a job. The fewer job positions there are, the more compromises workers have to make.

Zepoleba wrote:

Well I guess you make the same leap that ANN did by posting a Yasuke poster with this article. Even though Ippei did not mention what project it was. And in fact he clarified by saying "To avoid misunderstanding, I have to say that my issue is with Netflix." Seems like someone at ANN threw Yasuke under the bus for some reason on this one. I'd like to know why so many posting on this site hate on that series in particular? Though I'm sure it's just the American way.

Yasuke is the only MAPPA show funded by Netflix. The others have only been licensed by Netflix internationally. If Ippei is putting the blame on Netflix, then it would be because they are the production company behind it.

El Hermano wrote:

People said Netflix getting involved in the anime industry would also do the same thing and help fix the industry. Netflix would avoid the production committee process and lead to better paid animators and quality shows. It didn't. All that happened was Netflix were the ones doing it instead. Less anime being made doesn't mean companies are going to start paying their employees more. If anything, fewer job opportunities means even less pay because it becomes a far more competitive industry and people are willing to take lower pay rates to get a job. The fewer job positions there are, the more compromises workers have to make.

Considering its population size, Japan should be producing the same amount of animated works the U.S. is producing right now, and the States has the double of population Japan have right now.

Japan is an anomaly in the animation (and media) world, since they produce too much animation for a quite a small country and with a shriking population. The only reason the U.S., a country having the double of resources for producing high-quality animation, doesn't produce the same amount of animation that Japan does right now is because of the giant amout of legal, economic and cultural barriers and counterweights that prevent someone from simply crapping out lots of animated productions, compared with Japan, when there's a lot of animated productions either catering to certain audiences, or in the worst case, outright vanity projects which in normal circunstances would rarely being greenlighted in the States or anywhere else.