As anyone who’s interested in the anime industry knows, animators (especially young ones) face chronically low wages, causing a majority of newbies to drop out of the industry within one or two years. Why the low wages? Many blame Osamu Tezuka, the “god of manga” …Read more »
A couple years ago, we brought you an inside look at Tokyo’s animator dorm, the fan-funded dormitory helping to address the notoriously low wages paid to young animators in the anime industry. Now the folks behind the dorm have launched a new project to try to create …Read more »
The past few years have seen no shortage of folks from the anime industry taking to social media and giving us a glimpse inside the dark inner workings of the business. You can now add director Taiki Nishimura to the list of anime-making grievance-airers. Nishimura, …Read more »
We’ve all heard horror stories about just how little money rookie animators make in Japan (despite the high demand for their services). Now one lawyer has weighed about anime’s low wages in an opinion column that suggests the industry’s practices might not even be legal. …Read more »
Anne Happy 's Ruri Hibarigaoka A frazzled animator has taken to Twitter to complain about the length of time that goes into drawing anime characters’ eyes, which have become so detailed in recent years, says the animator, it’s impossible to draw them quickly enough to …Read more »
Photo: Sankei News A vocational facility in Kyoto at which several mentally and physically disabled people help to create anime has been garnering praise – and criticism – reports Japan’s Sankei News. At Kyoto’s Fukushi Kobo P&P, a social welfare vocational facility where community members …Read more »
Seems like we use the ol' "burnt-out Shirobako characters" image a lot these days... We’ve posted a lot over the past few years about the dismal wages in the anime industry. But a lot of what we hear is anecdotal, with a lot of rumors, …Read more »
Studio Trigger – you know, the Little Witch Academia , Kill la Kill , and Ninja Slayer guys? – are hiring. We know quite a few of you readers are industry geeks, so why don’t we take a look at a real-life anime industry job …Read more »
It’s been about a week since animator, character designer and blogger Sachiko Kamimura stirred up a lot of discussion – both in Japanese and English – about the low wages paid to new animators in Japan. Kamimura wrote in her original post that because animators …Read more »
Shirobako 's Ema reacting to her paycheck. A newbie animator in Japan gets paid around 120 yen – that’s one, yes, one dollar – an hour. Kamimura (photo by Okki ) That’s the word from animator and character designer Sachiko Kamimura ( City Hunter , …Read more »
Matt Schley
