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INTEREST: American Animator in Japan Offers His Take on the Industry's Wages and Work Environment

I was going to ask why he just didn't go back to America to work. But that line at the end tells me he probably worked on some really boring projects. Do they have any animation made in America? A lot of places only do pre and post production and send the rest off to Korea.

Fronzel wrote:

By making Naruto?

If the alternative is working on American children's shows, it's a definite step up in terms of artistic merit I would think. More freedom to express your animation talents and creativity.

That's besides the point though, what I want say is that American Animation has always been the same. Comedy for kids or comedy for adults. No murder mystery, no psychological thriller, no Shonen types or even romance.

Do they have any animation made in America? A lot of places only do pre and post production and send the rest off to Korea.

I wonder how long anime industry in Japan is going to survive.

if majority of the industries workers / artists are being driven to this point in exhaustion, how is it going to survive.

We could start by trying to ease the problem by actually buying anime and more of that money may go into paying them a much higher wage and not throw bullsh*t excuses not to.

Just read the article and wow, that's a harsh lifestyle, even it's doing something you love. It's too bad that the anime industry isn't really that interested in improving the pay. I guess the price we pay for the ton of shows every season is driving the animators into the ground.

MarshalBanana wrote:

Do they have any animation made in America? A lot of places only do pre and post production and send the rest off to Korea.

CN tries to keep their works stateside, within the studios of their creators.

Anyways, Henry Thurlow answers more on Reddit:

• The “as low as $100 a month” in the Buzzfeed article referred to my first couple months at Nakamura-pro. After that it was about $300 a month, until I came to Pierrot, which has been around $1000 a month.
  
  Right now I do some work for Naruto Shippuden and Tokyo Ghoul, but am mostly drawing Akatsuki no Yona.
  If I stay with Pierrot for a while longer Baby Steps season 2 and the "bolt" movie are coming up.
  
  Now though, I like anime that isnt done in the normal "anime style" ... So projects done by Yuasa Masaaki like "Mind game", Michael Ariess "Tekkon-kinkreet", and Norio Matsumotos Naruto episodes. Im starting to dislike almost everything else actually. But .... idol-group related series and stuff like that would have to be the worst in my opinion.
  

He did like working on Superjail in the States, instead of yet another "normal anime style" clone.

^ figured it was something like that.


Now, hearing other people's experiences (like Cindy Yamauchi and Scott MacDonald) has me concluding that the money being that bad isn't universal.

Still, I think things could stand to improve quite a lot.

While I may have misremembered the exact quote, the owner of a ballet once said, "I don't want people who want to dance, I need people who need to dance", referencing the low pay of the position. The same really applies here: it's a calling, not a vocation.

Same here. While I don't doubt that experienced animators' pays are pretty good, but it's difficult for entry level "inbetween" animators to sustain a living. I figured that whole lower-than-minimum pay practice is meant to weed out untalented and uncommitted people, but I think it's also working against talented and motivated people as well. I remember Oreimo director Hiroyuki Kanbe said at a convention that more young people wanted to become voice actor than animator. Partially the low pay practice created reputation that there is no hope working as animator as career and talent pool gets smaller. Eventually all hot and best animators has to retire in the future, so it's important to have large talent pool ready.

StfuSleepySteve wrote:

That's besides the point though, what I want say is that American Animation has always been the same. Comedy for kids or comedy for adults. No murder mystery, no psychological thriller, no Shonen types or even romance.

This is sadly true. Animated comedy is great and all, but having variety is even better. It just seems like the majority of American/Western animation refuses to branch out. It's very telling that Thurlow says he'd rather work in Japan, under these conditions, than go back to what he was doing before in the US.

If the alternative is working on American children's shows, it's a definite step up in terms of artistic merit I would think. More freedom to express your animation talents and creativity.

This is sadly true. Animated comedy is great and all, but having variety is even better. It just seems like the majority of American/Western animation refuses to branch out. It's very telling that Thurlow says he'd rather work in Japan, under these conditions, than go back to what he was doing before in the US.