Forum - View topicINTEREST: Foreign Animators in Japan Weigh in on Industry Conditions Part 2: Scott MacDonald
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Blackiris_
 Posts: 535 |
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Very intersting, a big thanks for the article to both ANN and Scott MacDonald (I also really enjoyed some of the shows you worked on)! It's pretty cool to get some insight into the work of a professional.
This article showed me that, even though it's certainly tough, not all jobs in the industry are inhumane. I think doing In-Between Animation when you are still a beginner is some of the toughest work compared to the salary you get. Looking forward to the other interviews! |
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12skippy21
 Posts: 785 Location: York, England |
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An interesting piece, though I cannot understand how how anyone can live with such low wage for what is a technically skilled job. I got paid more for shop work, but the UK does have a legal miniumum wage.
Here I see the average wage being higher but in exchange companies will rarely help with anything extra and unpaid overtime is often expected.Would be interesting to see how this compares with animation jobs in other countries. |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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While it's good that conditions have improved in many studios, it really kind of shows how hard up for cash many anime studios are when they can barely pay their lower-rung animators a wage that's competitive to McDonalds minimum wage. Anime in Japan is a very niche industry to begin with (outside of the children's stuff), and somehow anime's "popularity" (relatively speaking) abroad is not trickling down enough cash to the people where it actually matters.
It won't improve as anime becomes more accessible to consumers without them needing to pay a single dime, either. A lot of people could see this coming way back in the late 90s. |
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Via_01
 Posts: 551 |
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Most countries have a legal minimum wage, but it's not always as high. Around here (Chile), the minimum wage is rougly $375 USD a month, which would be $4500 a year, less than half than the yearly income of young animators (according to the article) It's still not much, and probably just barely enough for the livelihood of a single person (in other words, these people wouldn't be able to support a family), but it's still not an outrageous amount, even while considering that the overall cost of living in Japan is higher. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13552 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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And to think my $8.75 FT File Clerk wasn't giving me much since it's usu. $283.43 or similar per weekly paycheck. |
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old_yoshi
 Posts: 42 |
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I think that since Japan is trying to promote anime as part of it's "Cool Japan" cultural identity, the government should make certain that animators work for decent wages. After all, who thinks stuff made under inhumane working wages and conditions is cool?
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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that would just bankrupt anime companies, tho.
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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most anime just don't make enough money to pay higher wages for animators. I think it's probably better for American to comeback and find a better animation jobs here.
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14758 |
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Man, if even pachinko gives better pay than TV anime, how low does the totem pole go.........
Well, at least when laborers are standing up for themselves, it's making it better for many others like him. The other members of the production committee just need to share more of the revenue and give back to the actual people who labor making it possible in the first place. |
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Blackiris_
Posts: 535 |
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While you are probably not wrong, I think it's more a matter of how much money anime makes compared to the time invested making and selling it. I'm pretty sure that both games and pachinko are more profitable at this regard, so I think it's natural that you get more money from them. Pachinko machines probably also only need a couple of backgrounds, while anime need dozens or hundreds for every episode. |
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reanimator
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It's interesting to note that background art studios improved their working condition on their own thanks to the lawsuit. At least they didn't do mass strikes like what Toei staffers did in early 1960's which eventually made things worse.
I hope they don't outsource their works too much as I've seen tons of outsourced foreign names, notably Vietnamese, under BG art credit. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2418 Location: Germany |
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I would love to know though how many hours he (the 6 days work week is mentioned) or the or the others put in a month as that would put the salary and the amount of time off in perspective.
I of example am a government employee so i would get into big trouble if i started to accumulate overtime like a madman but the free market lives on unpaid work. Nice math though. (He worked on a giant amount of crap anime btw.) |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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Those are some very interesting salary figures. It indicates (or would indicate) that those in the lower-end of the command chain are getting better salaries than the hunger fees that were reported occasionally. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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I'm pretty impressed with how cheap the housing is, even in popular places like Shinjuku. That certainly goes quite a long way in explaining how it's even possible to live on those salary numbers.
12skippy21: The UK did not have a legal minimum wage until 1999, but it still paid more than this. |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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There's something to be said for being creatively fulfilled but unsecure financially vs financially secure but soul crushingly uncreative. I've witnessed a downturn of variety in TV animation in the US over the past few years. Lots of patronizing soft stuff for kids. Even Transformers and GI Joe seem like hardcore action compared to the "action" cartoons in the US today. He definitely has a point about the proliferation of "SpongeBob" type cartoons these days. Now on its own, SpongeBob is great for what it is, but when nearly EVERYTHING is that kind of stuff, it's depressing. Even anime has 1 completely different anime for every 4-5 moe ones. |
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