Yesterday we explored how Japanese anime transformed from a niche subculture into a billion-dollar industry adored by millions of kids worldwide.
While researching the story, we spoke to a number of Japanese artists and producers who work behind the scenes on anime films and spoke at length about some of the challenges that anime’s booming popularity has placed on the industry.
“I’m glad that the industry is expanding, but it comes at a price,” Japanese animator Nishii Terumi says.
“We currently don’t have enough manpower to sustain this level of production.”
In a report published earlier this year by the Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association (NAFCA), an organisation aimed at improving conditions in the anime industry, hundreds of creatives complained of ultra-long working hours, persistently low incomes, and an inability to pass on skills of the trade to younger generations.
“If things continue like this, [skills] will eventually stagnate and the anime industry may collapse,” NAFCA concluded about the surveys findings.
Here’s what some of those involved in creating Japanese anime films told us about life behind the scenes, their perceptions of the global fascination with anime, as well as some of the challenges facing the industry now and in the future.
From ‘taboo’ art form to global recognition
Having worked in the anime industry for more than 25 years, Nishii Terumi says many animators — including herself — often remained unaware of just how big Japanese anime had become around the world until the rise of social media.
“Animators are usually just confined to their desks,” Nishii tells the ABC, speaking generally about the industry rather than any specific production studio.
“They draw, they submit their drawings, and then they draw more.
“It’s a very, very closed environment — and they’re often not really that concerned with anything happening outside of that.”
Nishii — whose resume includes work on Pokemon and One Piece films — says that it was through Facebook that she first noticed just how far anime had spread around the world.
“There were a lot of Facebook groups where anime fans from all around the world interact with each other,” she recalls.
“It was quite a shock for me.”
Nishii was first drawn into the world of anime back in high school, when she watched Evangelion Neon Genesis for the first time.
She went on to become an animator and character designer, with credits in well-known productions including Rurouni Kenshin, Jujutsu Kaisen and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
In those days, Nishii says anime was somewhat of a “taboo topic” frowned down on in Japan due to its association with consumerism and fandom culture, known as Otaku.
While internationally Otaku usually refers to enthusiastic fans, in Japan it carried negative connotations — particularly back in the 1980s and 1990s — that leaned more towards obsession and isolation from society.
“Directors and animators weren’t really featured in interviews … there was a condescending attitude towards fans and anime itself in Japan,” she says.
But Nishii — who was involved in the creation of NAFCA which conducted the survey and which she describes as a “sort of labour union of animators” — says that growing fandom around the world has led to an increase in interest in those working behind the scenes.
“Now finally, the people behind the craft [of anime] are being put front and centre [and] are no longer being looked down upon.”
What do Japanese creatives think about their work?
While many anime fans around the world see Japanese anime as having distinct characteristics featuring mature themes or violence, these perceptions are often in contrast to how creatives see their own work.
Yoshida Ken, an anime producer and head of computer graphics company Picona Creative Studio, says foreign perceptions of Japanese anime’s “uniqueness” are often different to Japanese perceptions.
“Overseas producers will come and say ‘we want something typically Japanese’ — usually meaning something violent or horror-oriented,” Yoshida says.
“But many Japanese producers never considered what people call ‘typically Japanese’ as violent at all.”
Initially inspired by Pixar Animations, Yoshida — who has been in the industry for over a decade now — has worked on a number of animes that have had huge international success such as Chainsaw man and Dorohedoro.
“For example, Dragon Ball Z was considered a violent cartoon when it was broadcast in English speaking regions,” Yoshida continues.
“But from the Japanese perspective, it’s just a fantasy cartoon.”
Yoshida thinks that it’s an “absence of taboo” or censorship in the Japanese cartoon world that potentially leads to these perceptions, rather than a specific fascination with an isolated mature theme.
“Cartoons in other countries often have [limitations], such as no sex, or no violence or religion,” he says.
“But there’s really nothing that you can’t necessarily do in animation within Japan.”
The perception of Japanese anime as being risque or violent equally perplexes Nishii, who wonders why non-Japanese artists and cultures ever prohibited themselves from exploring similar themes themselves.
“Fans tell me how Japanese anime can be enjoyed by adults, that they’re not as simplistic as animations in other parts of the world,” Nishii says.
“My question is: why didn’t this happen in other countries?”
“It seems like the most natural thing when you have an expressive art form and people who want to express themselves through it.”
Growing popularity spotlights an industry in crisis
But despite anime now generating billions every year as some of the world’s biggest media franchises — for example Pokemon is bigger than Star Wars, Barbie and Harry Potter combined — Japanese creatives surveyed from within the industry maintain it’s in a state of crisis.
And it’s a number of unaddressed factors — long hours, underpayment, a lack of proper training, labour shortages — that have contributed to the situation.
The NAFCA report found that anime creatives work hours 30 per cent longer than the national median for a median salary slightly less than minimum wage — while others reported working up to 84 hours a week, or for salaries well below the minimum wage.
“We’re now in dire straits where people in management are scouting social media for young and inexperienced people who like to draw [to work on anime productions],” Nishii says.
“Those people are then underpaid because their work doesn’t meet the industry standards, which then leads to veterans being brought in to correct the work instead of allocating resources to train them properly.”
Vann Oba is a 28-year-old freelance animator based in United Arab Emirates who found an opportunity to get into the anime industry.
His journey into the world of anime began during high school after watching Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle, which he says “really inspired me to become an animator”.
Driven by passion, Vann started to post his drawings on social media, which he says were discovered by a Japanese producer leading to his “dream come true” commercial debut in the series Fate/Grand Order.
“Surprisingly, that’s how you get hired these days if you want to work in the anime industry,” Vann says, before adding how he soon found out anime doesn’t pay well.
“It’s common for new animators to join the industry for less than three years, because they can’t survive, especially in Tokyo.”
Vann says a “newbie” can often get paid as low as $40 to draw a very complicated scene, adding that if they don’t know how to negotiate, they arrangement can often be exploited.
“But a lot of people stick to working [through it] because of the love of the craft,” he says
The future of a more international anime
In terms of the future of anime, both Nishii and Yoshida say they believe anime may no longer be something exclusively Japanese in the future, as more countries enter the creative space, potentially looking to tell stories of their own culture.
“Many anime fans come to Japan from overseas to learn, and then go back to develop the anime industry in their home countries,” Nishii says.
Such an arrangement is Vann’s dream plan — currently drawing for big anime titles including Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen, Vann says he is trying to upskill himself as much as possible.
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“[My dream is to] establish my own studio that can compete with the international studios,” he says.
“I’ve never been to Japan, but hopefully I will one day.”
Yoshida explains how traditionally Japanese animations were produced “by Japanese companies, for Japanese audiences”, but international co-productions appear to be the direction the industry is heading towards.
But some maintain that the issues highlighted by NAFCA and plaguing the industry must be urgently addressed in order to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for workers.
“We are trying to convince politicians to do something about the current situation,” Nishii says.
Additional translations and interpreting assistance by Renato Rivera Rusca.