Forum - View topicINTEREST: Former MAPPA Animator Describes Working Conditions as Like a 'Factory'
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TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 3993 |
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I'm not surprised about the working conditions.
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2890 |
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i think kyoto animation used to have that. and only them. as said by other posts this is not even an animation company only problem, but a general japanese companies problem. what makes anime worse is that the pay is lower than average while the hours are higher, so it compounds pretty bad. there is long hours but good pay ( think amazon ) and low hours bad pay ( think a mom and pop store ) where things are bad, but balance out. |
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Gomiyaro
Posts: 9 |
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yup just another proof that those studios are sweat shops, that couldn't care less about their employees. those animators deserve better than this.
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MagicPolly
 Posts: 1616 |
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Shin Ei isn't a subsidiary of TMS, they just happen to co-produce things often. Shin Ei is owned by TV Asahi. If you want to you can throw Anpanman into that list too but I don't see the point seeing as how TMS has so many subsidiaries that makes producing this many shows not an issue |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1440 |
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Also something to keep in mind, a lot of cases this and last season where studios have multiple shows airing at once is due to airing/production delays from COVID. While that doesn't mean the shows and their animators aren't still being crunched to get made, it at least means this sort of constant/redundant output isn't the norm for them.
MAPPA, on the other hand, has had 1 or more shows airing every single season since Summer of 2018: Summer 18: Banana Fish cour 1 Fall 18: Zombie Land Saga, Banana Fish Cour 2 Winter 19: Dororo cour 1, Kakegurui XX Spring 19: Sarazanmai, Dororo Cour 2 Summer 19: To The Abandoned Sacred Beats Fall 19: Granblue Fantasy season 2 Winter 20: Uchitama, Dorohedoro Spring 20: Listeners Summer 20: God of High School, Mr. Love: Queen's Choice Fall 20: Jujutsu Kaisen, The Gymnastics Samurai Winter 21: Attack on Titan Final Season, Spring 21: Zombie Land Saga REVENGE Summer 21: Re-Main, Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi That's 20 seasons of anime in just 3 years, and they remain a relatively smaller studio compared to studios like BONES that have multiple sub-studios that can tackle multiple or back-to-back projects without overburdening their teams. So yeah, turning into a "factory" sounds about right with that kind of schedule. |
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Meowtain Duwu
 Posts: 165 Location: United States |
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This “quantity over quality” approach that many anime studios have taken recently is a horrible trend and I hope that at least a few of them at least dial back the amount of anime they produce a year a little bit (think one or two fewer series). Not only do some of the anime produced under this approach tend to have varying degrees of production and general quality issues, but the studio employees suffer as well. And we can all agree that the employees are affected by this approach the most.
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Whitestrider
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The truth is that these studios are paid for each production by others companies or committees, but usually don't get anything more even if an anime is successful, which means they have to produce many series only to survive. In other words the whole anime industry (or al least a huge portion of It) sucks, and until someone decides to change the system or the system implodes, nothing will ever happen. |
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GNPixie
Posts: 316 |
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I guess I can understand where they're from coming but I also disagree with it slightly.
You're working freelance. You ARE going to get the work nobody wants to do. I've done freelancing for several years with book editing and I always get the really bad jobs precisely because I'm a freelancer. |
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Whitestrider
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Don't think that only freelancer get the worst jobs (and sometimes the worst pay), normal employees can have it tough too. The truth is many of the things this guy complains about could be avoided, with better planning, funding and overall Better laws on overtime working. It's not Easy, but It could (and should) be done. |
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Sheenoobuu
Posts: 86 |
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I know it's not typical for Japanese animators but having new animators start by fixing small issues sounds like a very good way to run a company. Otherwise you're throwing them into a highly stressful situation they won't be used to dealing with. Working on many small fixes sounds less stressful than being in charge of very noticable parts of the production.
But I'm sure I'm somehow misunderstanding the full scope of this situation |
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Slashman
 Posts: 253 |
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I think that to get those things, you would need some serious culture change in Japan in general. A lot of their business practices just don't make sense and are there because that's how it was before. You are expected to contribute to the machine and be quiet about it. I mean it is similar to the restaurant situation in the US right now...restaurants are having a hard time re-attracting the folks who used to work for them because they are looking for better jobs and don't want to return to the shitty conditions that they used to deal with. The difference is that some restaurants are rethinking their payment and benefits to get them back...but in Japan...not much is changing as long as old men are at the helm and young people are desperate to get jobs in animation. |
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1883 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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THIS is why I don't watch anime anymore!
No amount of weekly entertainment fix from Japan is worth the animators being treated like slaves in a sweat shop. What I can't understand is why do the fans know this and yet continue to watch anime knowing FULL well that these industry abuses exist? |
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Suxinn
 Posts: 248 |
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I would say this is truer of other animation companies than Mappa, considering how many original anime Mappa has under their belt (the currently airing Zombieland Saga REVENGE being one of them), which they get all the proceeds to. And their originals do decently well, from what it looks like! So this isn't a Manglobe situation where poor sales in later originals tanked their whole operation. But, man, speaking of which, just compare the list of works Mappa has under their belt versus the aforementioned Manglobe (or heck, any other animation company, e.g. Madhouse, A-1 Pictures, etc.). It's very clear how absolutely overextended Mappa is as an animation studio. |
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ARC-1300
 Posts: 364 |
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Which makes it worse when they proudly proclaim pirating a product. Those people make me sick to my stomach. |
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TdFern 87
Posts: 251 |
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Honestly why can't they take a more slow & steady approach when it comes to production say like Kyoto Animation and I think Wit Studio is also doing something similar.
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