by Is the animator’s salary cheap because the production committee is terrible?
In 2020 in Corona, “Spirited Away,” which was released under the circumstances of a series of closed movie performances, was never broken. It is fresh in my memory that the box office revenue of 31.68 billion yen was easily exceeded. Furthermore, in 2021, “Shin Evangelion Theatrical Version” was a big hit with 10.28 billion yen, and “Theatrical Version Magical War 0” was a big hit with 9.84 billion yen was decided to decorate the box office revenue one-two finish of this year.
While the anime blockbusters continued this way, we often see negative comments on the internet, saying, “It is because of the production committee that the animator’s salary remains low.” Is that the case? We will verify it in this article.
In front of the production committee, “TV station villain theory.”
The “animator salary cheap theory” has been said since the 1990s, and in the old days, it was the “TV station villain theory.” In TV animation production, the production committee method (a method in which multiple companies provide production funds and hold the rights of the work according to the investment ratio) became the mainstream, and “Neon Genesis Evangelion” became a big hit. It was after the mid-1990s when late-night anime began to increase, like Takeko after the rain. Before that, it was overwhelmingly led by TV stations.
At that time, without the internet, the TV station was a media representative or even a lord, and its power was enormous. Perhaps because of that, it is inevitable that there was an image of a “government” that gave a glare to the production site. It’s hard to believe now, but payments from TV stations to animation production companies have been kept low for a long time. However, it is impossible to make a work with that, so the animation studio has been working hard to continue the production in such a way that the advertising agency compensates the production cost and distributes the royalties income of the goods.
From a TV station to an era led by a production committee
The situation in which such TV stations had rights changed after the production committee system became common. In contrast to the traditional anime for kids and families that is broadcast in the evening and Saturday, Sunday, and morning, in the late-night anime, where the number of works has increased, the TV station only sells the broadcast frame, and the initiative of animation production is the production committee. (In some cases, the TV station takes the industry, but there are only a few, such as Fuji TV’s Noitamina frame).
The production cost has also been paid directly from the committee to the animation studio. The amount has risen to a level where production can be done quickly through discussions between the committee and the studio. Therefore, the production committee system that raised the cost of producing cheap TV animation was a great gospel for the animation studio and the staff working there.
Animation production costs are increasing.
The author is editing a statistical yearbook called “Anime Industry Report” (published by The Association of Japanese Animations). Still, the anime studios’ comments show that the cost of producing anime has risen in the last few years. I understand this. The reasons can be roughly divided into three. One is due to the relationship between “supply and demand” due to the increase in the number of animation productions, the second is the increase in working environment maintenance costs due to work style reforms, and the third is the emergence of large-scale budget works by foreign capital such as Netflix. ..
Considering the comments from anime studios in the Anime Industry Report, production costs are probably up 20-30% on average from a few years ago, and overseas investment works are two to three times the domestic standard. Guess. Considering these things, I have to say that the point that “the animator’s salary is low is due to the production committee” is out of the question. Before that, the anime studio, not the production committee, decided on the animator’s salary in the first place.
The salary of anime staff is 1.76 times in 10 years.
The statistics of the above-mentioned “Anime Industry Report 2022” show that the Japanese animation industry is growing. Sales of 1.2661 trillion yen in 2009 (total amount paid by users for anime distribution, character goods, movies, concerts, etc.) almost doubled to 2.4261 trillion yen in 2020. .. For that reason, the salary of anime staff engaged in the field of animation production is steadily increasing.
Janice (Japanese Animation Creators Association), which regularly conducts questionnaires to anime staff, has announced three surveys in the past, and the transition is shown in [Document 1] “Private.” Comparison of average salary and salary for animation production staff. “
