Is the anime industry really black? TRIGGER director Kazuya Masumoto, who has been working in the anime industry for over 20 years, talks a lot about the current state of the anime industry in Machi★Asobi Vol.27!
It is often said that the anime industry is a low-wage, black industry, but with a huge number of anime being produced every year and video distribution through subscription services, the anime industry is becoming more and more popular. I am. The event 'Current Anime Industry!' was held where Mr.
Machi★Asobi
https://www.machiasobi.com/
After this, from 13:00, we will have a talk show called 'Now in the Anime Industry!'
— Kazuya Masumoto (@kenji2413) October 28, 2023
The current situation surrounding anime! We will use a lecture format to explain everything surrounding anime, such as the production site, production status, business, human resources employment, and employment status. https://t.co/3So4uhX5TV
The location is a vacant store on the 2nd floor of the Sakurama Building, just south of the Shinmachibashi Higashi Koen Stage.
At the venue, original reproductions and cut bags of ``Little Witch Academia,'' ``Kill la Kill,'' and ``Gridman Universe'' created by TRIGGER were on display. Visitors are free to pick it up and look at it.
Also on display were setting materials, storyboards, and reproductions of hand-painted color originals.
Kazuya Masumoto, who will be speaking on stage this time, has been in the anime industry since 2000, and after working as a production manager and producer, he served as a director of TRIGGER and is involved in various jobs including overseeing the production of works.
◆Is the anime industry really in decline?
There are many people who hear about the anime industry on X (formerly Twitter), and most of those conversations are about how the anime industry is in trouble. However, according to Masumoto, the anime industry has changed a lot in the past two to three years. TRIGGER is actively recruiting human resources, visiting many vocational schools and other institutions, meeting around 200 to 300 people and giving advice. Students who want to work in the anime industry use X to gather information, and it seems that they enter the industry with some apprehension, but Masumoto says, ``I don't think this is going to work.'' Masumoto says that the information on X is not completely false and that it is a place for free speech, so he has no intention of stopping it, but if he only sends out bad information, it won't have a positive impact on the future of the anime industry. thinking about.
Speaking about 10 years ago, Masumoto recalls that the anime industry itself was extremely black, including working hours, wages, and employment. However, although he knew that this was not a good thing, he needed money to raise people and improve the environment, and he couldn't do anything because he didn't have money anyway.
According to Masumoto, 10 years ago, the production cost for one 30-minute anime episode was approximately 15 million yen. However, in reality, this seems to be insufficient at all, and it is said that the cost performance is poor for the anime industry to create an industry. For about 50 years, anime production companies have been structurally similar to small and medium-sized subcontracting companies, making ends meet with the money given to them by their clients. In other words, there was less money coming into the anime industry.
However, the situation changed dramatically when Netflix arrived about eight years ago, and people started telling them, ``Please make an anime because the production costs will be two to three times as much as before.'' Since then, the scale has expanded rapidly, and production costs have also increased. Nowadays, the average production cost for one 30-minute anime episode is 25 million to 30 million yen, and for major studios that produce famous anime, the production cost per episode can be 50 to 60 million yen. thing. However, Mr. Masumoto says that for various reasons, even this is not enough at present.
When you think about anime in the entertainment industry, who decides how much money to spend is the amount of customers. Until 10 years ago, anime was a culture consumed only in Japan. However, with the creation of anime fans overseas, the number of customers for anime works has increased significantly.
According to Masumoto, when the Internet became popular around 1995, there was a culture of illegal uploading all over the world. It was unavoidable that illegal uploading spread because there were not enough legal systems in place at the time, but the people who were uploading illegally were thinking, ``This anime is interesting, so let's watch it together!'' There were many people who went there. Of course, illegal uploading is legally bad, but if you look at the results alone, it can be said that it has achieved the achievement of ``creating anime fans all over the world.''
The increase in anime fans overseas has created an opportunity for anime to become a bigger business. Netflix arrived in Japan like a black ship at a time when a culture of enjoying anime was being created around the world. At the same time, Japanese clients are also starting to pay for anime production. Therefore, it can be said that the current anime industry has relatively economic leeway compared to the past.
Here, Mr. Masumoto touched on the industry as a whole while displaying materials from the Agency for Cultural Affairs' 'Summary of Budget Requests for FY2020.'
Agency for Cultural Affairs Summary of FY2020 Budget Request
(PDF file)
On page 57 of the above document, there is a ``Media Arts Creation and Dissemination Plan''. This includes a description of ``Animation Human Resources Development Project''. In other words, a movement has begun across the country to train animators and animation staff. In particular, there is a project in which industry, government, and academic institutions are working together, and Mr. Masumoto is also on the program selection committee for animation. This program selection, for example, involves selecting textbooks and assignments to include in educational programs and disseminating them to vocational schools, and it is said that more specific human resource development efforts have begun in earnest. The Agency for Cultural Affairs has also formed a task force of experts and is reportedly trying to research the anime industry.
◆Trends in the anime industry as a whole
Next, Mr. Masumoto presented the results of a survey published by the research company Teikoku Databank.
Special project: “Anime production market” trend survey 2023 Anime production market recovers for the first time in three years “Video distribution” is a tailwind, copyright income is the key
(PDF file)
As the article says, ``The anime production market has recovered for the first time in three years,'' although the anime industry is still not profitable due to the effects of the new coronavirus, the anime industry as a whole is on an upward trend. Masumoto commented that while the anime industry is by no means black-free, he wants to convey that things are getting better. As the industry as a whole recovers, new major problems are emerging. This is due to the polarization of the production field, which means that the gap between companies that are profitable and those that are not is extremely wide. A company that is profitable can be said to be able to survive in the anime industry. Mr. Masumoto advises students looking to get a job, ``Research the company thoroughly before choosing the company you want to join.''
According to the research results of Teikoku Databank, there were 310 TV anime in 2021. The peak was 361 in 2016, but this is partly due to the large number of short animations. Also, from last year to this year, there were many theatrical anime works.
According to Masumoto, the anime industry is supported by the large number of original works such as manga and novels. If you have plenty of money, you can earn 50 to 60 million yen per episode of TV anime, but if it were 12 episodes, it would cost 720 million yen. If it's a strong title, you can get a lot of money, but on the other hand, it also means that original TV animation is in the winter era.
On the other hand, the number of theatrical anime releases is on the rise, with approximately 70 films from September 2021 to August 2022. Mr. Masumoto predicts that the number will probably increase even more by 2023. The reason behind this is that director Makoto Shinkai's `` Your Name '', which grossed over 25 billion yen at the box office, showed that theatrical anime can sell well. The original theatrical anime `` Promare '' released by TRIGGER also posted box office revenue of 1.5 billion yen. Ufotable, which is hosting this gore play, has released `` Demon Slayer: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train '' which has exceeded 40 billion yen in box office revenue.
Now, let's return to the story of the increasing polarization of profits and deficits. Among the 316 anime-related companies, about 50% have increased profits, which means they are profitable, but about one-third of them are in the red. Mr. Masumoto sees this as a problem. This is true in large industries such as the automobile industry and the IT industry, but Mr. Masumoto analyzes that consolidation and mergers may begin in the anime industry as well. In fact, there are talks of publishers and broadcasting stations acquiring anime production studios, and Studio Ghibli will become a subsidiary of Nippon Television in September 2023.
◆ Waves of internationalization hitting the anime industry
TRIGGER has released a work called `` Cyberpunk: Edge Runners '' on Netflix in 2022. 'Cyberpunk: Edge Runners' is a work that took five years to create after receiving an offer in 2017. The offer for this work was received directly from CD PROJEKT RED, the Polish game company that developed the original game 'Cyberpunk 2077.' It has also reportedly entered into a deal with Netflix's headquarters in the United States as a distribution platform. Furthermore, TRIGGER seems to be increasingly contracting out contracts for PV production overseas.
However, according to Masumoto, contracting overseas is more difficult than contracting within Japan. First of all, all contracts are in English, and the contents of Japanese contracts and overseas contracts are very different. You will need to get used to negotiating in English and dealing with international issues. In this wave of internationalization, almost all companies are signing contracts for works that are five years in advance. Of course, such works have not yet been announced at the time of the contract, and in most cases they are announced about a year before the work is released.
Also, when an offer is made by an overseas client, there is a contract to 'deliver the product as soon as possible.' The best option is to deliver all episodes three months before release. There are two reasons why you are asked to deliver all episodes three months in advance. One is, for example, with Netflix, there are mistakes and quality checks. The second reason is localization, or translation support. If it were to be released worldwide, it would need to be translated into more than 10 languages, so it would take a lot of time.
According to Masumoto, 10 years ago, there were cases in which the delivery was one day before the broadcast. For example, in the case of ``
In addition, goods sales for overseas markets are weak, making it extremely difficult to sell products overseas. Core people buy figurines of his works, but he says that there are some people who buy them as works of art.
Of course, North America is the biggest market for the anime industry. And when it comes to where sales will hit a plateau, it can be said that it is the Earth. Anime is something people watch, so if it spreads across the globe, the business will end. Mr. Masumoto predicts that once anime reaches a point where it is distributed all over the world, things will settle down. If we don't do it right, such a situation may occur in 10 years, or even 30 years at most, but this is an issue for the younger generation who will succeed us.
◆Current state of the industry from the perspective of anime production
As the anime industry has grown, animators' wages have more than doubled. From a studio's perspective, this means that outsourcing costs have increased. This is the reason why Mr. Masumoto said at the beginning, ``Even if the production cost rose to 25 million to 30 million yen, it still wasn't enough.'' And the current issue is a shortage of human resources.
With more than 300 anime being produced each year, the shortage of human resources is a natural consequence. In the past, the term 'lack of human resources' used to mean that there were not enough animators who were good enough to draw, but as the anime industry has changed, more and more animators are becoming employees, and the number of freelance animators is decreasing. In other words, there seems to be a complete shortage of animators themselves. However, human resources cannot be increased as quickly as needed.
As for where they are looking for new workers, the current situation is that they are relying on amateurs, students, and overseas. Animators are required not only to be good at drawing a single image, but also to have the skill to draw space. The required knowledge, such as how to draw time sheets and technical terminology, is also very important. Even if you hire amateurs or students, no matter how good the drawing is, there will always be something that cannot be used in that sense, and veterans will correct all of them in the field. It seems that time and technology are used to make corrections, which puts pressure on the schedule.
On the other hand, Mr. Masumoto reported that when he surveyed 196 companies recruiting animators by listing their employment conditions, 50 companies offered to make them employees and offer a fixed salary. When asked whether the anime industry is black, Masumoto answered, ``It's becoming more gradated now.'' This means ``I have completely broken away from black, but I have not become completely white.'' Some companies are white, some are not. For this reason, he advises students to ``research the company'' and ``email them directly.''
Securing human resources is a matter of life and death for anime production companies. It seems that about 30 animators have been contracted to produce '
Mr. Masumoto also mentioned the management of working hours. It is said that there was no concept of 24 hours day and night in the anime industry. When Mr. Masumoto was working as a production manager, he once worked for six months without a day off. It seems that some companies still have this kind of culture, but in order to survive in the anime industry in the future, it is necessary to run an anime company from the perspective of the current staff. Darwin, who proposed the theory of evolution, said, ``It is not the strongest creatures that survive, but the ones that adapt to the environment that survive.'' Companies can also be said to be living creatures made up of humans, and they need to adapt to the environment. said Masumoto.
Additionally, anime production is increasingly becoming digital, including the drawing process. There are good and bad aspects to this. As the introduction of AI progresses, it is expected that some people will lose their jobs, but this is one of the problems that every industry faces. In addition, introducing such digitalization requires large capital investments, which poses another issue of the need for money.
Mr. Masumoto believes that the hiring of human resources will change, and that the salaries of new employees will tend to improve. Additionally, anime production companies will also need to consider recruiting personnel, including those from overseas. Given this current situation, some anime production companies, including TRIGGER, have been focusing on human resources development for several years. Some studios seem to have a strategy of setting up their own schools and hiring talent from there.
◆Q&A
From here it was time for questions and answers from those who were watching the lecture.
Q:
Otaku, who were once looked down upon, have become commonplace over the past few years, and I think their social status has improved. Do you feel that the social status of anime creators has changed?
A:
There are so many. I think it's really gratifying to see that even after the year 2000, fans' output regarding anime has blossomed. When I say, ``I work in anime,'' they say, ``That's amazing.'' “This world is different from the one I lived in!” I thought to myself. As someone who lived through the dark age of otaku that began with the Tsutomu Miyazaki incident, I can only be grateful.
Q:
When you say you want to create an original anime, how do you get the proof that it will work or that you will get funding?
A:
This is already like gambling. There is nothing you bet that you are 100% sure of winning. However, I have decided that if it is a work that gives me the feeling of being able to go up to 60%, then I will go. And anime producers will strive to reach 60%. There are some difficulties in producing original works, but I will do what I can, including promoting them. Thankfully in the case of TRIGGER, past performance is also a sign. In other words, the activities of the fans become a source of support. We don't do it solely on the strength of our works. There are many things we need to do for our clients. It's not just the quality of the work that determines whether you win or lose, it's business.
Related Posts:
