Ask John: How Much Does it Cost to Make Anime?

Question:
What are the costs and time production of making an anime. Could an individual put up the funds or only companies?

Answer:
After doing a bit of research, I’ve come up with some rough figures on the capital necessary to produce a professional quality anime production. Production cost on an average 26 episode anime TV series ranges in 100-300 million yen range (roughly US $800,000 – $2.5 million) including production, promotion and associated costs. OAVs likewise divide a similar budget between fewer episodes. For example, the 6 episode first Dirty Pair Flash OAV series had a 100 million yen budget to work with. Expensive major theatrical features range from the 8 hundred million yen (US $4-5 million) budget of Wings of Honneamise, the most expensive anime film of its time, to Akira and Metropolis that both had a budget of 1 billion yen (US $8 million) to Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi and Mononoke Hime which had budgets of 2 billion ($19.2 million) and 2.4 billion ($19.7 million) yen respectively.

Even short single episode anime OAVs require a large number of animators, artists, producers, coordinators and directors to oversee production of story, art, painting, music, script and dialogue, hiring and directing actors, photography, editing, marketing and distribution. And major works including the Cowboy Bebop movie, Mononoke Hime, Metropolis, and the Earth Girl Arjuna TV series are well known for having spent anywhere from a year to three years in production. Thus producing a major anime production is much more than a one-man job.

American companies including AD Vision, Manga Entertainment and Media Blasters have helped co-produce Japanese anime productions, and AD Vision has successfully commissioned and had custom anime productions created for them by Japanese studios- namely the American created and Japanese animated Sin: The Movie and the upcoming Lady Death movie. Smaller American companies and individuals including Glenn Danzig and his Verotic Studios and Antarctic Comics have tried to finance original anime productions but have only managed to support the production of 3-5 minute long preview clips.

But this isn’t to say that it’s impossible for a single person to create anime (or even finance a major production). While it may be improbable for a single person to finance a major anime production, there are numerous examples of fan produced anime, including the Daicon convention anime opening clips created by the people that would later be known as General Products, then Gainax, and short pornographic anime films including the Evangelion and Rayearth “ani-gan” films and “The Shower” films which have all been produced almost singlehandedly by determined and talented amateur Japanese fans.