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'I Have Some Horror Stories': Animator Talks Industry's Problems, Hopes for the Future

This really is no different than the shaming of American clothing brands that were found out doing bad things overseas.

TarsTarkas wrote:

This really is no different than the shaming of American clothing brands that were found out doing bad things overseas.

They can be shamed when they're multi-billion dollar companies paying peanuts to their workers

But who to shame in the Japanese production committee system made up of little men

It is interesting Astro Boy from Mushi Production was brought up. I always hear people talk about how that TV anime, being the first, started the whole problem. Hayao Miyazaki may have said this as well. I am curious to how valid it is. It sounds reasonable as I have heard Tezuka artificially depressing prices when negotiating with Fuji TV, but unsure if it is true or not.

Many people believe that manga and anime creator Osamu Tezuka, also known as "The God of Manga," is to blame for the current low production costs of anime. He produced Japan's first television anime series, Astro Boy, with a small budget. Tezuka then made up the slack through merchandising and supplementing the production with his own money.

However, Takamatsu labeled that explanation for modern anime's low production costs as an urban legend with "half truth and half lies." According to Takamatsu, Astro Boy was sold to a television network for a low price. However, Tezuka believed that other studios would not make anime for that price. Therefore, one of anime's founding fathers maintained a monopoly and paid employees with his own money.

Takamatsu posted a vintage Mushi Productions recruitment ad from around the time the studio produced Astro Boy. With the economy of 1963 in mind, Takamatsu believes that Mushi Productions treated its employees well.