Japanese animators and the struggles they face

Written by Rahma Yulita | Read in Indonesian

When you hear the word Japanese, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Maybe it won't be far from manga, anime, cosplay, Weaboo, or Japanese animators. That’s right, Japan does have its own unique charms, especially in the entertainment industry which is its pivotal point.

This is evident in data on current anime viewers, which reach more than a third of the world's population, or around 2.88 billion people. It doesn't stop there; over 100 million Netflix users worldwide watched at least one anime title on the streaming application in 2020.

This figure represents an increase of 50% compared to the previous year. As more and more people enjoy that form of entertainment, demand for Japanese anime continues to increase year by year. Requests did not only come from Japan, but also from other countries, even countries outside Asia.

If we talk about the increasing demand for anime, of course we can't forget the people behind them. Yes, the animators.

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Creating just one image may take a long time, but animators need to make many images to create the illusion of moving images.

The results can be seen in the form of films, series and even videos that can be enjoyed on various streaming platforms.

Endless working hours lead to burnout among Japanese animators

Considering the complicated work with the increasing demand, it's not uncommon for many animators to collapse. One of them is an animator who work at MAPPA Co or MAPPA Studio, a Japanese animation studio that produces many popular anime, such as "Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)", "Jujutsu Kaisen", "Chainsaw Man" dand "Kakegurui".

In 2021, Mushiyo, a freelance animator at MAPPA, told Anime News about his work experience at the animation studio. He said that working at MAPPA felt like "working in a factory" with an unhealthy working environment, aka toxic.

Demands for drawing revisions that kept pouring until the sun rose again the next day made the MAPPA animator start to feel exhausted. Especially because at that time, MAPPA was working on four major animation projects at the same time.

Mushiyo said around 80% of MAPPA animators have the same complaint: overworked to the point of exhaustion and burnout. This problem was widely discussed following the spread of a photo of a MAPPA animator who looked exhausted with red eyes.

Gap between the pay and the rising popularity of the industry

In addition to poor working hours and environment, Japanese animators are also struggling with underpayment, which makes them feel underappreciated at work. An example of this can be seen from the Animator Dormitory YouTube account that was created in 2020.

Animator Dormitory is a dormitory for junior Japanese animators who are new to this profession. The hostel, located in Tokyo, is operated by non-profit organisation Animator Supporters which was established in 2011.

Animator Dormitory's social media, especially Instagram and YouTube, shares content about the lives of Japanese animators, starting from tips about animation to the struggles of Japanese animators working during the pandemic and information regarding pays that turned out to be disproportionate to the demands of their work.

In a video titled "The low wage problem in the anime industry" uploaded on 14 March 2020, Sugawara from Animator Supporters tells how the Japanese anime industry has a market size of more than 2 trillion yen (around Rp223 trillion).

Even though the Japanese anime industry has created a lot of masterpieces that are selling well and loved by many people around the world, the people behind the success of anime, namely the animators, are actually struggling when doing their work. They face various problems, such as cheap labour, endless working hours and unfair work contracts.

The average annual income of Japanese animators in their 20s is around 1.1 million yen (around Rp122 million), which means they take home around Rp10 million every month. One of the reasons why Japanese animators experience the problem of cheap labour is because many animators are employed on a piecework system.

This system allows Japanese animators to get paid based on how many key frames they can create. For example, for an anime that will be aired as a TV series, an animator can earn 200 yen (around Rp22 thousand) for each "in-between animation" image, or individual images from a key frame.

It means that if an animator draws 300 in-between animations in a month, they will earn 60,000 yen (around Rp6 million). Creating a lot of keyframes is not an easy feat, especially for an animator who is just starting their career. Therefore, many new animators are trapped in cheap labour for years.

Making a career as an animator: A dream too difficult for newcomers

Harsh working conditions prompted many people who dream of working as an animator to give up. The reason is because the pay is not enough to cover daily expenses.

Sugawara explained that a work system like this often causes many young animators to stop pursuing their dream of making a career as an animator. In fact, about 90% of Japanese animators decide to give up their job after three years.

If nothing is done to address this issue, it is not impossible that the animation industry will lack new animators to regenerate senior animators who are no longer productive in the future. What will happen if there are no more new animators? The animation industry will certainly have difficulty producing anime., especially considering that demand for anime continues to increase every year.

As part of Japanese culture, anime has its own unique charms that cannot be found in animation produced by other countries. For this reason, Sugawara hoped that anime can continue to exist, painting Japanese culture with colours forever, with a more prosperous life for the animators in the future.