Ask John: Would an Industry Crash Actually Help Japanese Animators?

Question:
I’m not pro-piracy, but I’m starting to question the value of supporting anime legally, other than for my personal enjoyment and the satisfaction doing something morally correct. I don’t understand how Japan can simultaneously have big hit moé titles, as well as more general-audience favorites like Evangelion and One Piece, and yet a discrepancy in how much of that money animators actually earn. It seems that the anime industry is run like American record companies, in that both claim to be advocates for the artists, but generally screw them out of royalties while marking up their products at artificially inflated prices which have no bearing on costs – just so the middle-men can pocket the dough. I’m guessing that’s why Satoshi Kon wanted to unionize. So wouldn’t it be better if the industry, like Hollywood with 3-D, did crash, so the suits who have nothing to do with the creative process – but who profit off the deals all the same – get fired, and the people who actually have an investment in the production actually get paid? Because it seems there are an awful number of, to quote Moretsu Pirates, “sanctioned” pirates in the industry.

Answer:
Late animator & director Toyoo Ashida helped found the JAniCA (Japan Animation Creators Association) union for Japanese animators in 2007. The organization works to generate awareness of the seemingly unfair conditions that Japanese animators are forced to accept in return for employment, including low pay, long working hours, minimal employment benefits, and few holidays. Certainly the present Japanese anime creation system seems broken and is constantly struggling with a declining labor market and a shortage of skilled animators because few people want to enter the profession, and many of those who do are unable to remain in the profession because they burn out or simply can’t make ends meet on a small animator’s salary. However, while conditions and practices within Japan’s production industry certainly seem to require change, a drastic shock to the system – a wholesale industry crash – is not the solution because animators themselves are not the problem.

Very few anime production studios sponsor their own creations. Studio Ghibli and Toei Animation, for example, internally decide what and when to animate, but the majority of working anime studios are freelance companies that work by commission. Investors and producers – some involved with the studios themselves – plan and organize the development of an anime then contract a studio to produce the animation. The studios agree to create the work within the budget that the production committee states that it wants to invest. After the work is done and the studio has been paid for its animation, the residual profits from home video and merchandise sales go to the production committee that planned and initially paid for the production. Meanwhile, the studio that animated the work hopes that another production committee with an idea and investment money will contract the studio’s services for a new anime production. Observers may believe that the studio that produced the animation should be paid more or should receive a share, or a bigger share, of the profits the completed animation generates. But animators are considered contract workers, not creators. After their work is done, they have to keep working on new titles to continue earning a paycheck. The revenue from anime sales goes to the investors and sponsors that took the risk of investing the cost of the production, not the rank & file animators hired to do the animation work.

If Japan’s anime industry was struck by a catastrophic market crash and consumers abruptly stopped purchasing anime, no one would renegotiate animator contracts or take pity on animators. If consumers suddenly stopped buying anime, production committees would stop developing anime and stop contracting studios to create animation; thus the studios would shut down and Japan’s animators suddenly find themselves unemployed. In 1983 the American video game industry catastrophically crashed. Numerous development studios closed, and for several years following America simply didn’t produce home video games. But the industry resurrected because the crash was caused by studios themselves creating poor games. When fresh, creative ideas returned, the American video game industry rose, phoenix-like. The same situation may not apply to anime production. If the industry suddenly ground to a halt because consumers demanded better treatment for animators, anime sponsors and investors may decide to simply stop investing in anime rather than reorganize the industry’s entire established fiscal structure. Meanwhile, at least for a period of several years while the industry decides its future, a lot of animators would be unemployed.

The goal of the Japan Animation Creators Association is to institute change in the present industry, not kill the present industry then attempt to relaunch it from nothing. JAniCA hopes to increase awareness of the circumstances under which Japanese animators work in order to convince producers, sponsors, and investors to be more sympathetic because, ultimately, more reasonable treatment for the bottom rung workers – the animators – will result in more creative, higher quality animation that generates greater revenue. The JAniCA’s argument is that the present production scale and division of revenue is simply unsustainable; it’s gradually leading to the demise of Japan’s animation production studios. In fact, we’ve already seen Group T.A.C. go. Refusing to purchase anime only gives investors and sponsors less reason to commission the production of anime and contract animators. Continuing to purchase anime, on the other hand, keeps animators employed and able to negotiate for better wages and opportunities. Supporting especially creative and handsomely produced anime sends the signal that anime which invest heavily into the animators themselves generate more response, success, and profit, thereby encouraging investors to fund studios generously.