Studio Trigger Comes Under Fire Over Unpaid Employee Wages

Studio TRIGGER has once again made the news thanks in part to the announcement that it would be […]

July 1, 2020, 4:47pm

Studio TRIGGER has once again made the news thanks in part to the announcement that it would be bringing an anime adaptation of Cyberpunk 2077 to Netflix, to say nothing of the various series that they’ve put together in the past when it comes to anime, but it seems as though the company is “under fire” thanks in part to unpaid employee wages. In the past, TRIGGER has been responsible for television series such as Kill La Kill and Little Witch Academia, as well as the recent feature length film in Promare that was a big hit for 2019.

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Studio TRIGGER itself was actually created as a result of a former employee of Gainax, the animation studio that was responsible for bringing the anime franchise of Neon Genesis Evangelion to life, who was responsible for the mech fan favorite series known as Gurren Laggan. Aside from the aforementioned Cyberpunk/Netflix announcement, TRIGGER has also been in the news thanks in part to its franchise of BNA: Brand New Animal landing on Netflix in the past weeks. The animation house’s style has long distinguished itself among its competition from the medium of anime, blending a sense of energy that is tough to duplicate in any series or movie that has been released in the past years.

Twitter User Evandro_Pedro96 translated the word that Studio TRIGGER wasn’t paying their workers in overtime pay, supposedly due to “incorrect operation of the discretionary labor system”, which definitely brings the legendary animation studio back into the public eye:

Another one bites the dust… This time is Studio Trigger that didn’t paid their workers for overtime work (due to some “incorrect operation of the discretionary labor system”), suposelly on Gridman. Though, this issue was already solved amicably with both the B.Union and Trigger https://t.co/OPoyv3xkGH
— Evandro ペドロ (@evandro_pedro96) June 30, 2020

Trigger has gone on record stating that they will be “working to improve their work conditions”. The animators of Japan have had to go through some rigorous work conditions across the board, with a number of stories being revealed and hopefully, companies are able to turn things around so we don’t hear as many of these incidents in the future of the medium of anime.

What do you think of the anime industry’s work conditions? Do you feel they’ve made worthwhile attempts to turn things around? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Studio TRIGGER!