The Industry - Lifestyle and Wages

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by 0cean

Keeping the wages of replaceable workers low is just common sense.

No. It might be common sense and logical, but it doesn't mean that it's acceptable. We are talking about people here who are suffering, and not machines that can be replaced and discarded at whim.

What it does mean is that there is a labour-market failure, and resolving it would require the intervention of a third party, usually either the government or a union.

I'm against the use of minimum wage, because all it would do is to kick the can farther down the road without solving the root problem. A minimum wage merely addresses the symptoms, but it doesn't fix the root cause, which is that, as you said, the job is easily replaceable. Because it is replaceable, it doesn't command a premium. And because it doesn't command a premium, the fledgling animator has no leverage and can't demand better pay.

His or her only choice is to walk away from the job. Logically, that's what they should do: Vote with their feet, and force the industry to change. But because these newbie animators are still coming up in droves, driven by their passion, they allow themselves to be exploited by the unfair conditions.

I haven't watched the video series that Dextro shared, and I am interested to learn more about what kind of operational change the initiative hopes to inspire. When I find the time, I'll look further into the video.

But I have no doubt that systemic change is needed in the way animation studios operate. Logic tells me that if in-between animation is indeed routine work that can be easily replaced, then by right, it ought to be easily automated.

I have suggested long ago, elsewhere in this forum, that the Japanese anime industry needs to invest more heavily on 3-D animation techniques. There is an important reason why animation in the US has gone fully 3-D: It's simply a far more productive and efficient process, and it greatly reduces the need for much of the tedious, back-breaking chores that had to be done with 2-D animation.

From what I understand, most animation today is already done and composited on computers, even in Japan. But there appears to still be significant resistance against the heavier use of computers in the anime industry. It's partly because of the aesthetic preference for hand-drawn art and animation. But to me, that's just an excuse, because 3-D animation doesn't have to be clunky and ugly, as Pixar and Disney productions clearly demonstrate.

From what I've read, the Japanese ambivalence towards 3-D techniques is preventing more animators and studios from investing in such training, and this lack of training, exposure and experience is the real reason behind why 3-D animation continues to be lacklustre in Japan.

With the use of technology, most of the in-between work can potentially be automated, and the focus would then be more on 3-D modelling, art and set design, and choreography. The fledgling animator would still need to master basic art and animation techniques. But because she would also incorporate a broader range of skills, including the greater use of computer-assisted techniques, she will become a much more productive and valuable worker. And this in turn means that she will be in a better position to command higher pay.

All the above is of course based again on the general views of an outsider looking in. I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong about the efficacy of technology with regard to Japanese anime. In the meantime, I'm very encouraged by recent anime like Houseki no Kuni, Knights of Sidonia and Drifting Dragons, all of which rely heavily on 3-D animation to very good effect.

Production I.G's latest attempt with Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045, on the other hand, is much clumsier, but at least the studio is trying. Hopefully, this project will provide its staff with the necessary experience they'd need for future productions.

[MeoTwister5]

It baffles me how there are some people who view humans and their labor as always and basically replaceable, with their worth inherently tied to what they can provide for others. I'm not a communist/socialist by any means, but I sometimes end up thinking that people with this mindset to be deplorable human beings with no sense of empathy.

You don't need to dehumanize others to enrich yourself.

[TinyRedLeaf]

It's not about dehumanising labour. It's about recognising and accepting market logic for what it is.

The problem here is that there is a failure in the labour market, caused by the over-supply of young aspiring animators willing to put up with current pay and working conditions. No one is forcing them to join the industry, and they ought to be well aware of the conditions, but they continue to dive in regardless.

So, from that perspective, a dispassionate observer can hardly be blamed for saying that these animators are getting what they asked for.

Contrary to your claim of not being a socialist or communist, what would the alternative to brute market logic? It's a brute fact that I'll only pay what I think a product or service is worth, and market competition will eventually settle on the equilibrium price for that worth.

Dictating the price by fiat will only distort that dynamic without removing the reality of constant competition. So, either you go with market competition or you go with total command economy. And we all know how a command economy will eventually turn out.

The better way forward is a managed economy, where you apply policy initiatives to nudge the competition towards a more humane, social outcome.

All that said and done, it still doesn't change the brute fact that young animators have chosen this current condition. They can choose to drop out, but they don't. And because they don't, the current practices will continue. It's a free choice that they've made, and they are suffering the consequences.

[MeoTwister5]

Oversaturation of a market is what it is. Here in the Philippines we have an immense glut of nurses over the assumption that nursing was a good and reliably paying profession with enough jobs available. When that bubble burst, you both have those capable of going abroad for nursing jobs (hence why were are one of the top exporters of nurses) and those who stayed and either ended up working for much less than expected or went into some other field.

No one really blamed them, it is their desire to enter into the field as both a dream and economic need that drove them there.

They had the same issue as Japanese animators of primarily giving up and accepting the status quo, but over the last few years especially with the pandemic the fight for equity in rights and compensation has greatly gained steam to the point that pay for nurses are slowly but steadily improving. Too slow for my tastes but it's improving. I have nothing but the greatest respect for nurses and other allied medical services.

You are correct that we need to recognize the market logic for what it is, cold and hard as it is. Do Japanese animators not have anything close to a politically representative group or labor unions to at least fight for better working conditions and remuneration, or is this like something frowned upon in Japanese society?

[TinyRedLeaf]

There aren't any unions or trade associations for Japanese animators that I know of. I don't know about general attitudes towards unions in Japan. I think SeijiSensei posted something a while back showing relatively poor union representation in Japan as a whole.

And, yes, I echo your views about the nursing profession. A good number of Filipinos have come to Singapore to work, due to the shortage of Singaporeans taking up the job. We've been trying to tackle this by boosting the progression pathways for nurses, all the way to the senior levels where they gain the autonomy to make certain patient-care decisions. And since we now have this clear and transparent progression pathway, it becomes easier for the nursing union here to negotiate better pay for nurses, especially as they rise in expertise and seniority.

Something similar needs to happen in the Japanese anime industry.

[0cean]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

We are talking about people here who are suffering, and not machines that can be replaced and discarded at whim.

People with free will. They chose this, as you said.

3D animation is fugly, so I wouldn't watch it unless it looks like traditional animation. There is already software out there based on artificial intelligence that can automate lots of this. It's just that paying humans to do this is cheaper. Software isn't free and it's not unusual to have to pay $20.000,- a month for software that not many people would have a need for. The fewer people that buy this software, the more you need to charge. Also, it's not like it would be bug free, so there's still need for some human oversight and at that point the math just doesn't work out, so paying humans is cheaper.

It would make more sense to develop software like this in-house, but studios don't have any expertise when it comes to hiring software developers. They also cannot afford to pay software developers, since they barely can afford their animators.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

It baffles me how there are some people who view humans and their labor as always and basically replaceable, with their worth inherently tied to what they can provide for others.

Reality might look cruel, but that's no reason to avert your eyes from it.
Be the change you want to see in the world and buy a fairphone or something. It's just that moral outrage doesn't really sustain a business for long.


We live in a free world. You can choose the job you want and you can choose who or if you want to marry. But you need to also live with the consequences of your choices. If you chose a job that doesn't pay, you will have money troubles and if you don't marry, you likely won't have children to take care of you in old age.

Like the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

There aren't any unions or trade associations for Japanese animators that I know of. I don't know about general attitudes towards unions in Japan. I think SeijiSensei posted something a while back showing relatively poor union representation in Japan as a whole.

At seventeen percent Japan is far below some northern European countries with rates of unionization over fifty percent. On the other hand, it's better than the US or Turkey in the 9-10 percent range and not much different from Germany or New Zealand.

https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TUD

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

It baffles me how there are some people who view humans and their labor as always and basically replaceable, with their worth inherently tied to what they can provide for others. I'm not a communist/socialist by any means, but I sometimes end up thinking that people with this mindset to be deplorable human beings with no sense of empathy.

You don't need to dehumanize others to enrich yourself.

There’s a reason why Ayn Rand books never go out of print.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

There aren't any unions or trade associations for Japanese animators that I know of.

Scratch that. It turns out that all I needed to do was exercise a bit of GoogleFu to find the answer.

There are at least two professional associations in Japan that represent animators.

One of them is called the Japan Animation Creators Association, or JAniCA. Surprisingly enough, JAniCA was mentioned once before by another forum member here in AnimeSuki, but in the context of Anime Mirai/Young Animator Training Project. That thread was started in 2013 by totoum (who, like me, appears to have gone into a hiatus; I remember enjoying our discussions on Mamoru Hosoda's Wolf Children). JAniCA was founded in 2007.

JAniCA has some very good statistics on the industry here. It's in Japanese, unfortunately, but some of it can be easily deciphered.

From the second slide: The average age of animators as of 2019 is 39 years, versus 34 years in 2015. The industry is greying, suggesting that there are fewer new entrants, which, as I said earlier, is logical and only to be expected.

The average years of continuous working experience jumped to 16 in 2019, from 11-and-a-half in 2015, suggesting again that there are significantly fewer new entrants, while those who remain in the industry are hanging in there for much longer.

Average annual pay increased to 4.4 million yen (US$41,000) in 2019, from 3.3 million yen (US$30,800) in 2015.

The median annual pay — which is the much better measurement for comparison — rose to 3.7 million yen (US34,600) in 2019, from 3million yen (US$28,000) in 2015.

More encouragingly, average daily working hours seem to have gone down, to 9.6hrs a day in 2019, from 11hrs a day in 2015.

The ratio of men to women in the industry has been at about 60:40 since 2005, the first year for which data is available.

Virtually all anime production (97.6%) is done by Japanese nationals (slide five). Only 1.6% of animators in Japan are foreigners.

More than three-quarters (76.2%) of all animators live in Tokyo (slide six). A further 12.3% of animators are based in the suburbs of Tokyo, in the Kanto region.

As many as 35% of them are college graduates (slide seven). But the majority (nearly 40%) come from specialist training schools.

Also, I remember now where my impression of increased outsourcing in the industry came from:

Irie Yasuhiro, representative director JAniCA, says the main reason young animators cannot accumulate enough experience today is the Japanese animation industry's dependence on offshoring. He estimates that 80% to 90% of the in-betweening work in Japanese animation is now being outsourced overseas, primarily to China and South Korea.

Mr Irie adds:

It is standard procedure in the animation industry around the world for new animators to start their careers as in-betweeners.

"I worked for about two years as an in-betweener, starting when I was 18, before I progressed to polishing 'layouts' [rough sketches] into key animation frames," Irie recalls today. "After learning the basics of animation over the course of several years as an inbetweener, I was finally ready to make the move up to key animation."

"Nowadays, though, many new animators are put straight to work cleaning up the key frames simply because they know how to draw clean lines. But they haven't picked up any of the essential background knowledge of how animation is actually done that you learn as an in-betweener. And thus, they're left at sea when they're assigned to actually do key animation themselves."

^ What he said above resonates strongly with my own experience in media. I have now worked in journalism, media and publishing for 15 years, and I'm fairly certain that my foundation is very much stronger than that of the new journalists I see today. A lot of it, I believe, has to do with the four initial years I spent slogging in the sub-editing trenches, where I was editing as many as 10 to 12 articles a night. That works out to as many as 4,000 to 5,000 words a night, the equivalent of three or four short chapters of a novel.

My department was very tiny, so we practically got to do everything apart from the frontline reporting. I learnt the basics of page design, text design, photo selection, captions and headline writing, on top of everything else I did. I was fortunate to be working under a supervisor with more than 30 years worth of experience, and he remains the best mentor I ever had in my career.

I do not have a college degree in journalism. My four years in the trenches were my college education in this profession. My advice to aspiring journalists, actually, is forget about the degree — it's worthless; you learn journalism by doing it, not studying it. Your college years are better spent taking up some other degree that would make you a domain expert in a particular field.

======

Before I ramble on, here's the other second trade group I found: The Association of Japanese Animators (AJA).

I believe I've stumbled upon the group before, but I've forgotten about it. I think I first heard about the association at one of the Anime Festival Asia events in Singapore. Anyway, unlike JAniCA, the AJA has data available in English. I'll leave those of you are interested to do your own research.

[TinyRedLeaf]

It's my day off, so I have time to add a few more details to my previous post.

First off, I would say that the idea of leaving the free market to solve all issues within any given industry is incredibly short-sighted, as a growing number of economists are beginning to observe. At the very least, there's a need to re-think the kinds of data we're measuring in any given economy, and then ask ourselves whether economic growth is helping to foster social well-being.

Or, as an old friend of mine succintly said: Long-term business is good business.

And you can't have long-term business, if you don't have sustainable practices.

Now, in that light: Younger animators still struggling amid anime boom

<< TL/DR version: There two feasible solutions to the current industry conditions that can be considered for immediate action.

1) Pitch for better production budgets. The introduction of Netflix and Amazon has dramatically increased the potential for bigger, better budgets.

2) Studios should consider basing themselves elsewhere, and not in Tokyo. Kyoto Animation and P.A.Works were able to do this successfully. Learn from them. >>

"We have to avoid people with talent quitting because they can't survive," says JAniCA Representative Director Yasuhiro Irie, himself an anime director.

"Production companies need to devote themselves to paying young animators properly as they improve. If they don't, in some 10 or 15 years, there will really be no animators."

(1)
Irie and Daisuke Okeda, auditor and lawyer for JAniCA, say solving the problem requires a two-pronged approach. The first prong requires production companies being more proactive when negotiating with sponsors, demanding budgets that allow young animators to be compensated properly. Companies should also look outside Japan, to sponsors like Netflix or those in China*.

It's still too early to tell whether such non-traditional sponsors will truly make a difference, says Okeda, but he notes that since last year (2018), when multiple animation companies began working with firms like Netflix and Amazon, "many titles with good budgets have emerged. In terms of A-tier titles, the average budget has increased by over 30 per cent"**.

(2)
According to the JAniCA survey, over 75 per cent of anime production currently takes place in Tokyo***. So, another potential solution may lie in more studios locating outside Tokyo to places with a lower cost of living.

Two successful examples of such studios include Kyoto Animation in Kyoto and P.A.Works in Toyama. Both took many years to reach their current levels of success, Irie notes, but "if new studios learn from such examples, they may be able to get a head start and improve more quickly".

(3)
Another often-discussed option is for animators to form a labour union. For its part, JAniCA has sometimes faced criticism for organising as a general incorporated association rather than a union.

"I do believe a labour union would have a certain effect," says Irie, adding that JAniCA is set up so that members can continue their work in the industry while trying to improve conditions. Running a union, on the other hand, would be a full-time job.

"I want to continue making anime, so that would be a very difficult decision for me," says the director.

Unions are often formed, adds Okeda, so that workers can negotiate with one major corporation. Anime production companies, on the other hand, are small, diffuse operations with no central governing body.

"Animators' consciousness has definitely gone up in the past five years. They are realising that while animation is a profession they chose because it's fun, they need to get paid properly, too. I believe that trend will continue and lead to new ways to do things. But it's a must for animators and production companies to keep pushing forward in pursuing those solutions."

THE JAPAN TIMES

* According to the 2019 Anime Industry Report compiled by the Association of Japanese Animators:

The Chinese theatrical animation industry started the year 2019 with uncertainty due to a significant decline of its box-office takings since 2016; however, a work which totally dispelled such worries finally arrived: The 3-D animation Ne Zha.

Ne Zha eventually recorded 5 billion yuan (80 billion yen), overtaking the Chinese record of the global boxoffice champion, The Incredibles. This will surely trigger a boom in production investment...and accelerate the expansion of the Chinese animation industry.

But there is a risk that China will detach itself from Japanese animation. Chinese creators, including the director of Ne Zha, were born in the 80s and were deeply influenced by Japanese manga, anime, and games. Now it seems those creators have already mastered their own methods of expression and fully absorbed Japanese culture.

It's now a question whether China, with such talented creators, still needs to collaborate with Japan.

** Also from the 2019 Anime Industry Report:

1) The market size of internet distribution was 59.5 billion yen (US$556 million) in 2019, overtaking video distribution (58.7 billion yen) for the first time since the AJA started tracking the data in 2002.

2) The overseas anime market was worth more than 1 trillion yen (US$9.4 billion) in 2019, compared to a measly 372 billion yen (US$3.5 billion) in 2002. So, it's not surprising that Netflix and Amazon want a piece of the market.



*** Again, from the 2019 Anime Industry Report, but citing figures from 2016:

As many as 542 anime studios — ie, business operators engaged in planning, production, script-writing, direction, key-drawing, in-between, CG (2-D and 3-D), background art, special effects, shooting and editing — are located in Tokyo. That's 87 per cent of all Japanese studios. Many of them are concentrated in the Suginami (138) and Nerima (103) districts of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

While anime studios are overly concentrated in Tokyo, some local studios, such as Kyoto Animation (in Uji city, Kyoto) and P.A.Works (in Nanto city, Toyama), are doing well constantly. These studios take advantage of local cities, where they can focus solely on animation production, despite a lack of convenience. Actually, there are more cases of animation studios headquartered in Tokyo, while having branch studios outside the capital.

A lot more studios are showing interest in establishing local studios specialised in digital production. Some studios also have training facilities. WHITE FOX Izu Studio, established in 2016, has a dormitory where new employees live together, while receiving training as animators.

One final note: I haven't been able to find any data on the total number of animators in Japan. I suspect it's because so many animators, especially the in-betweeners, are working as freelancers and are therefore hard to track officially. Therefore, all the percentages I've cited may not be representative of the full picture. They can only be interpreted as a percentage of self-reported data from the sampled studios.

One more note: It's interesting how this thread has compiled a wealth of industry data over more than 10 years. It turns out that one of the first mentions of JAniCA was in 2009 by wao, who I recall is a fellow Singaporean and a fan of Seirei no Moribito. She hasn't been active here since 2009. karice67 also contributed a number of posts in this thread in 2017 that are worth re-reading. It turns out I mostly repeated what has also been said three years ago, albeit with the latest numbers from 2019.

We come and go. Hopefully, some of us will return. I just happen to be passing through again, and who knows how long I'll stick around this time? Here's hoping that the situation would have become a bit more optimistic, if and when I do return.

[Dextro]

That was a great couple of posts there. Nice to see the rationale for the folks at JAniCA not considering the union route is that it would take away too much time from their actual work as animators and they don't want to sacrifice their work. I respect that.

I have a feeling that the Japanese culture also doesn't help. They clearly mention unions as discussing with a single large entity and, while that is the most common way unions work, they can also be industry wide and cover people from different disparate small companies. Also the usual "nail that sticks out gets the hammer" and all that.

[0cean]

If you care to improve things, as a Westerner, what actions are you personally going to take to achieve that goal, other than writing some encouraging words in a forum?

[ArrowSmith]

Absolutely nothing. All that will have to happen is a collapse in the anime industry.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by 0cean

If you care to improve things, as a Westerner, what actions are you personally going to take to achieve that goal, other than writing some encouraging words in a forum?

Well I personally actively donate to the anime dormitory project for one. Aside from that it's hard. I do try to stream legaly and buy local releases but that's more to support the local companies doing that (which are also good folks that do good work and I want to support) than the animation studios and animators in Japan sadly.

For us westerners is hard. I do like what Netflix is doing since they seem to be going straight to studios instead of using committees (which would mean the studios getting a larger chunk of the pie) but not sure that helps matters as much as it looks like.

It's hard but what can you do aside from the small things available to you and raise awareness?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by 0cean

We live in a free world. You can choose the job you want and you can choose who or if you want to marry. But you need to also live with the consequences of your choices. If you chose a job that doesn't pay, you will have money troubles and if you don't marry, you likely won't have children to take care of you in old age.

Like the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Bit late, but free-market value is not the be-all-end-all decider of something's worth. The market is certainly an important factor, but it is biased. (Particularly when most of the economy is based around the stock market and its emphasis on short-term gains.) This is why many countries have programs in place specifically to subsidize the arts along with things like amateur sport -- things that have cultural value but can't rely only on private patronage and free market economics to thrive. (Even countries that are very big on free-market economics, like the United States, still spend a lot of taxpayer money on amateur sport because a good Olympic placement increases national pride, which can in turn benefit other things, including the economy. It's not always about the direct profit/loss calculation.) These programs of course have to be regulated/monitored to ensure appropriate funding reaches the artists/athletes/etc. and is not just diverted to corrupt officials. But, in principle, we can decide as a society to value things collectively that are otherwise undervalued/underappreciated individually or by immediate business interests.

The existential threat to Japan's anime industry is that, unless Japan nurtures its young talent and helps ensure they can afford to stay in the industry (and don't make the cold/dry calculation to abandon their dreams and cut their losses), other countries will gain more creative and narrative control over the medium. Japan's "cultural value" and impact/influence in the world (especially among young people) is lessened, and that impact is larger than the direct amount of money spent. So, in my view anyway, the push that needs to happen (and be directly supported by the government) is for industry reform, improved labor practices, and better transparency. Because having Japan be the cultural nexus for anime is of value to Japan's global brand far beyond whatever direct revenue stakeholders make from it today, especially when you consider the long term.

Obviously here on this forum, we're just talking about it. But things are also coming to light now from actual animators and interested parties in Japan that are helping to bring awareness to the problem. The more "exposure" the problem gets, the more chances of it building momentum into a collective demand for action. So even in our small way (and whatever small steps we can take individually), raising awareness helps.

[0cean]

I agree with your general ideas, it's just that I'm more cynical. State sponsored anything is always full of inefficiencies and rarely if ever leads to the desired outcome that was envisioned in the beginning. For example, Germany decided a long time ago it should do something about the fact that German cinema was on the decline. What we got out of it where complete disastrous game adaptations made by Uwe Boll.

You can't just add some state in the mix and expect miracles to happen. If there's free state money, that will attract the kind of people good at extracting it.


The very core of the anime industry is the production committee system. This system has sustained itself for many decades already and under it anime grew bigger and bigger over the years. Netflix can do what, a few anime per year? The production committee system can do hundreds of anime per year!

Think of the few studios who have a nice cushion of cash, like Ghibli and khara. Ghibli contributes a movie every couple of years; khara did Evangelion back in 2013 and no anime movie since. They started the Animator Expo Project five years ago, which I liked the idea of. Now there's only silence from them.

Meanwhile, the production committee system cranks out hundreds of anime every single year and the overall quality of TV anime has only been increasing over the years. Personally, I don't think the anime industry is in any trouble.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by 0cean

Meanwhile, the production committee system cranks out hundreds of anime every single year and the overall quality of TV anime has only been increasing over the years. Personally, I don't think the anime industry is in any trouble.

I really don't think you can look at the situation in the last few years (before this current health crisis) and really say it's stable or improving. Productions are collapsing under the weight of understaffing and over-aggressive scheduling all the time, resulting in delays, extensive rework, "meme-worthy" art/animation fails, and so on. Many people in the industry have commented that the current model and production load is not sustainable.

But besides that, the effects of a talent drain/emigration would be felt over the long term. The current crop of talent that's helming productions is eventually going to retire. If you're not nurturing young talent (and rather are causing them to seek other work due to poor pay and working conditions), who is going to take their place 10-20 years down the road? This is where Japan as a country needs to consider it an investment in their future as a cultural exporter. Even if you ignore the problem signs in the productions we're seeing now, you can't hope to sustain this talent over the long term if your attitude is just "if young animators don't like it, they should just find a better job."

Originally Posted by 0cean

For example, Germany decided a long time ago it should do something about the fact that German cinema was on the decline. What we got out of it where complete disastrous game adaptations made by Uwe Boll.

This kind of state sponsorship is extensive in the global film industry (and other related/similar fields). It's questionable to just cherry-pick a single director and dismiss the whole model as if it's cause-and-effect. But, even then, I'm not saying the solution has to come from this specific kind of program, but rather than it's extremely commonplace for governments to invest resources in supporting these sorts of cultural works, and there are lots of strategies that could be considered to support and nurture young talent so they want to stay in the industry. Relying blindly on the free market means a continued race to bottom cost, indirectly developing currently-cheap talent oversees until they get to the point that they don't "need" Japan to be involved anymore. We've seen the same happen in many other industries over the last few decades (and some of the examples specifically involve Japan). So I don't see how, as a country, they can just do nothing and hope it all works out somehow.

[Guardian Enzo]

Trigger now caught up in the unpaid overtime scandal. Some are acting shocked but that seems very much in-character to me.

[Sheba]

As anime as a consumer media goes global in the two last decades, a committee have been discussing about what do next.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/fr/anime...ese-government

Ken Akamatsu seems well aware of how more artists are getting harassed on twitter by western conservatives and fauxgressives, and how those seems to think they can throw their weight around to influence Japanese artists' creative direction.

Compared to other countries, Japan's forte is its freedom of creativity. However, with foreign platforms becoming more and more dominant, I would like to avoid a situation where Japanese works are regulated by foreign standards.'"

This, to me, is one of the most important parts of the article.

[0cean]

I don't see how Japan can be considered to have freedom of creativity when they are forced to censor the naughty bits across all mediums. A few years back an anime adaption of Nidome no Jinsei o Isekai de even got cancelled for perceived wrongthink from the author. It's baffling how they can praise their own freedom of creativity with a straight face.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Productions are collapsing under the weight of understaffing and over-aggressive scheduling all the time, resulting in delays, extensive rework, "meme-worthy" art/animation fails, and so on. Many people in the industry have commented that the current model and production load is not sustainable.

When was the last time you watched an anime with 26 episodes or less that had an entire recap episode or two mixed in? Having a few hundred anime every year with some of them having these issues is still preferable to only having a few anime released every year.

"Many people said" isn't really an argument. Many people said we'd reach peak oil in the 1970s and have melted polar caps by the year 2000. People can say all kind of things, including that we are secretly governed by shape-shifting lizards from the 4th dimension. Doesn't mean it's true.

Having watched anime from the 1960s to today, I can say confidently that everything about anime has improved steadily. That animation "productions are collapsing under the weight of understaffing and over-aggressive scheduling" has been a meme since at least the 1980s. This was even made fun of in the OVA Otaku no Video from 1991. It has been 'not sustainable' for over thirty years and still managed to grow unceasingly. I don't think we have to worry about the anime industry.

The comment about Uwe Boll was just an example that came to mind immediately. On the other hand, I can't even think of a single example where the state invested in culture producing a good result. If the free market doesn't manage to take care of your occupation, maybe it's time to look for another job. A state cannot work miracles. If the industry isn't investing in itself, that's on them. However, it doesn't look like the industry is having a real problem here. Anime is still mostly made in Japan and most of the industry is unable to move out of Tokyo, I don't see them moving out of Japan anytime soon.

Maybe they'll get some competition from China, which I'd welcome. China could animate some of the cultivation novels that Japan hasn't been able to touch.