Studio Shaft Animator Lays Out Their Horrific Experience With the Company

By now, the anime fandom has learned that it isn’t easy working in the field. For animators and production staffers, anime is a tough gig. From low pay to overtime demands and tight schedules, the dark side of the anime industry has become ever clearer in the past few years. And now, a star animator in the field is calling out Studio Shaft by detailing their horrific experience with the company.

The confession comes from social media as artist Hiroto Negata posted a series of letter to followers. The posts, which have seen been deleted, detail how working at Studio Shaft as eroded Nagata’s mental health. They even suggest staff at the studio threatened to “eliminate” Negata from the industry if they couldn’t meet demands.

“The production staff said, ‘If things don’t go well this time, you’ll be eliminated from the industry,’ so I’ve been crying while working and telling myself that if I don’t work hard, I’ll be taken out. I wanted to say, ‘If you had not given me another job at the last minute, we wouldn’t be in this situation. I told you it was impossible.’ But I swallowed my words. There is no point in arguing with the company anymore,” Negata explained.

“I dreamed about getting strangled by a person in my company, and even after I woke up, it still hurts for some reason. Since that day I’ve had this suffocating feeling as if someone was pressing on my throat. Of course, I got worried and went to the hospital to get it checked, but there was nothing wrong with it. What is this,” he continued. “Work is so unbearable that I can no longer sit at my desk. Just sitting there makes my heart pound and leaves me short of breath. I can’t draw anything anymore.”

Clearly, Negata is struggling with work conditions at Studio Shaft, and it isn’t like the animator is a novice. The artist is considered one of the best at Studio Shaft as they’ve overseen work on Fate/Extra, Magia Record, March Comes in Like a Lion, and several Monogatari series. It seems the artist has hit a breaking point, and as anime fans become better versed in the industry’s conditions, they are sending the artist all the best wishes.

What do you make of this latest report involving Studio Shaft? Let us know what you think over on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!