Forum - View topicINTEREST: Animators Reveal Global Disparities in Earnings With #AnimationPaidMe Hashtag
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4671 |
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It's interesting that the seiyuu, at least the big-name ones, would make substantially more than even high-level staff members. Then again, they tend to be managed by talent agencies that have notoriously tight control over entertainment in Japan, so it's probably a case of they either come expensive or they don't come at all.
The annual income for animators is pretty sad to see laid out like that. It's pretty obvious that people's desire to work in the industry is a big motivator since it seems like they could do just about anything else and make more money. |
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AkumaChef
Posts: 821 |
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I suspect for seiyuu it all comes down to royalties, since they get royalties but the rest of the staff appears not to. If the show flops they get paid very little, but if the show happens to be a runaway success they make a stack of money. This is not unique to anime or even Japan. Years ago I sent a question to Answerman about the production cost differences between domestic US animated shows (the specific example I gave was The Simpsons) and Japanese ones. The angle I was trying to take was that surely the simpler art of the Simpsons would cost less to produce than the often times much more complex Japanese animation. And that seemed to be the case....but the cost of the Simpson's voice talent pushed its costs far far higher than any Anime TV show and blew the art cost out of the water. I'm sure it's the same for American television shows: the big-name actors and actresses with headline roles get 95% of the money, while the extras, the camerman, the makeup artists, wardrobe techs, set designer, etc, make nothing by comparison. I'm very curious where the "original creator's" income falls on that graph for the Japanese animation industry! |
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Telu
 Posts: 130 |
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Well, looks like anime industry is going downhill.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4830 |
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This is goddamn criminal.
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CrypticPurpose
 Posts: 341 |
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Except, sadly, this isn't exactly a new development. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5602 |
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It's a bit misleading. Seiyuu are paid salary+royalties and what not. However last time I read up on this I found that most of profit regarding a top-level seiyuu is from non-anime stuff such as meet-ups, CD sales, concerts, ect ect. But they're mostly paid a salary that I can only assume is agreed on based on how popular they are, so it looks like they take a lot of an anime's budget but that may not exactly reflect reality. They're definitely expensive. But again, this is still only the top like 5% of seiyuu anyway. The vast majority have to work 2nd jobs. |
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Alexis.Anagram
 Posts: 278 Location: Mishopshno |
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It's always disheartening to see the harsh reality of this exploitation being brought to light, but more disheartening is how it just seems to continue unabated and unaddressed. I'd like to be hopeful that in this moment of unprecedented potential for class solidarity, there are steps taken towards real movements for wage equity and work improvements for animators-- whatever that may look like. There needs to be change.
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omiya
 Posts: 1856 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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I also submitted a question to Answerman about how voice actors/actresses came to get decent wages in Japan (while animators missed out). Even without Answerman around, this is a topic that ANN should cover. |
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AkumaChef
Posts: 821 |
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I might be wrong about this, but my understanding is that most voice actors & actresses do not make decent wages, while those who manage to perform a top-tier role end up earning well because of royalties, etc. Plus like Kougeru mentioned a popular seiyuu would also earn income from events, merch, CDs, etc. I don't think this is too different from musicians where most struggle to make a living but can make stacks of money if they get a big hit. That said, I'm curious what the solution to this problem might be. I'd be happy to pay double what I pay now for anime streaming or physical media if that extra money went into the pockets of the animation staff. I'm used to paying Japanese-region import prices for anime. But it seems like these days, with far too many people wanting to stream for free (or pirate), then the situation is indeed untenable. |
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bennyl
Posts: 123 |
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33k to 51k per year in 4 years is decent wage growth. What is surprising to me is their self defense force apparently pays $100k per year.
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TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 4032 |
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If they haven’t done so already, they need to unionize
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14896 |
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Unlike SAG, seiyuu don't get royalties - they're usually work-for-hire. Unless they've unionized. Or they're an A-lister who could negotiate their own contracts. That's why they need to do extra work in order to get more income, e.g. public appearances, meet & greets, singing the theme songs (where music do get royalties, though mostly to the writer, but at least singers get money from concert tickets), etc. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3857 |
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I haven't seen shirobako, did that show portray salaries differently or is it just being used as a visual guide for the roles?
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