Poll of the Day > Anime artists do not make a decent wage

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/business/japan-anime.html

When Mr. Akutsu became an animator eight years ago, the global anime market including TV shows, movies and merchandise was a little more than half of what it would be by 2019, when it hit an estimated $24 billion. The pandemic boom in video streaming has further accelerated demand at home and abroad, as people binge-watch kid-friendly fare like Pokmon and cyberpunk extravaganzas like Ghost in the Shell.

Median annual earnings for key illustrators and other top-line talent increased to about $36,000 in 2019 from around $29,000 in 2015, according to statistics gathered by the Japan Animation Creators Association, a labor organization.

But his wages are a far cry from what animators earn in the United States, where the average pay is $75,000 a year, according to government data, with senior illustrators often easily clearing six figures.

---

yeah but health insurance there is only like 5 bucks
and nuclear energy is free

No they don't. Same with Mangaka. Work can also be spotty.
There are studios like Kyoani that apparently pay well compared to other studios.

---

ok
---

Yeah this is a well known issue in the anime industry

Japan produces more animation than any other country on Earth because it is astonishingly cheap. Most anime are still just glorified commercials for manga and novels.

This is a few years old but



---

The average animator makes about 50k not 75k, 75k is in places such as Disney, anyway animators in Japan need to be paid at least 50k a year.

RoboXgp89 posted...

yeah but health insurance there is only like 5 bucks
and nuclear energy is free

Health insurance that's separate from their universal healthcare system is $400 a month in Japan at most, 300 at the very least.
---

Well, it is not like anyone ever advertised artists making big bucks. They are pretty much always depicted like philosophy graduates: impoverished and doing whatever they can to make ends meet. I am sure after a career of on and off again construction, waiting, ect, they are pretty happy to finally get a reasonably stable job doing what they want.

Although if you do create a hit manga you can make some serious bucks. Toriyama's not feeling too bad right now I imagine. Although, that is kinda like winning the lotto and can't be counted on completely.

---

I think what the article is getting at is the boom of the business does not match up with the compensation the artists are getting.

So it seems like you don't want to go into anime as an artist/animator. You want to go in as a product management type.

---

Kind of a given that not everybody is going to be earning a lot. It's the kind of field you get into it because you love it and hope to climb the ladder some day. Keep in mind how little Walt Disney made back when he got started as a cartoonist and then animator.

It's kind of the same with a lot of creative fields.

Dmess85 posted...

But his wages are a far cry from what animators earn in the United States, where the average pay is $75,000 a year, according to government data, with senior illustrators often easily clearing six figures.

...which is why America outsources so much of its animation to other countries. Very little animation is done in the US.

---

Zeus posted...

...which is why America outsources so much of its animation to other countries. Very little animation is done in the US.

yeah this is true, when you look at the credits for some cartoon shows it seas overseas animation department.

Although i think in the UK they keep their animation in country.

---

If you're a popular manga artist/maker you can make good money.
But that is different from an anime artist. Anime artist would be an animator hired by a studio to work on the anime, and animators everywhere are treated like shit.
Manga artists would have their own creations published in a manga magazine, or possibly self publish

---

Why do voice actors make so much? Jesus.

---

I guess the only solution is to just stop making anime

---

Zareth posted...

Why do voice actors make so much? Jesus.

It's only "famous" voice actors. They tend to double as idols and have a lot of fans. You may have heard of the case of Aya Hirano, who was a super succesful voice actress/idol who lost almost all her popularity after it was revealed she'd been having casual sex (gasp).

---

The low pay is honestly secondary to the frequently terrible stress and work hours although thats sort of a japan issue in general. The industry is not good although a lot of that is cause anime has been so slow to adapt to a modern monetization system. A lot of them still base their success on BD sales of which like 2-3k is decent. That's like 0.01% of viewers of anime are contributing to that because it's an insane rip off price wise. Apparently streaming services still aren't very popular in japan either.

Also it's not like JP animators make the least. They too outsource to cheap overseas animation studios plenty of times.

---