New York Times Explores Anime’s Unfair Wages in New Feature

In recent days, a number of articles and stories on social media were revealed that dove into the world of the anime industry and how some of the animators that bring some of our favorite franchises to life are making some extremely low wages, and now, the New York Times has taken the opportunity to dive into one of the biggest problems of the industry. The New York Times not only explored those making some of the lowest wages in the brutal industry that demands so much from animators, but it also got the opinion of veterans in the field.

In chatting with animator Tetsuya Akutsuo, who is a veteran of the industry working on a number of franchises for the past eight years, the New York Times discovered that to get paid a “fair wage”, some may be required to devote every waking moment to the craft, stopping many from starting families and settling down:

“I want to work in the anime industry for the rest of my life. I know it’s impossible to get married and to raise a child.”

As stated in the piece, some freelancers in the world of anime can make “as little as $200 a month”, which is obviously far less than what is needed to live a comfortable lifestyle in Japan. The newspaper outlet also had the opportunity to ask manga translator, Simona Stanzani, why wages were so low, at which point Simona responded by stating the fact that there were so many artists vying for a position that some companies could keep rates low as a result:

“There are a lot of artists out there who are amazing and studios have a lot of cannon fodder — they have no reason to raise wages.”

Recently, Netflix made a big announcement that they would be offering animators the opportunity to learn from one of the best studios in the business, Wit Studio, via a scholarship opportunity that would help animators learn the ropes for no cost whatsoever. With many would-be animators having to pay tuition while also covering room and board for themselves, the streaming service is adding a new wrinkle to the development of these creative minds with this new endeavor.

How do you think the industry can combat the low wages that threaten to burn out animators on some of the biggest franchises? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.

Via The New York Times