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Veteran Animator Terumi Nishii on the Problems and Future Facing the Anime Industry

With all this in mind, Niishi has some predictions about anime's future in Japan. “As things stand now, I expect budgets to go up,” Nishii explained. “But the money received doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the work. As I mentioned before, the number of amateur-level animators is increasing rapidly—and no matter how much money you give to amateur-level animators, they're still amateur-level animators.”

“We're getting to the point where no matter how much money you have for people who are good at the job, you won't be able to find them—and once that happens, the number of skilled people won't increase unless you develop them and this is why we are creating the Animator Skill Test,”

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With all this in mind, Niishi has some predictions about anime's future in Japan. “As things stand now, I expect budgets to go up,” Nishii explained. “But the money received doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the work. As I mentioned before, the number of amateur-level animators is increasing rapidly—and no matter how much money you give to amateur-level animators, they're still amateur-level animators.” “We're getting to the point where no matter how much money you have for people who are good at the job, you won't be able to find them—and once that happens, the number of skilled people won't increase unless you develop them and this is why we are creating the Animator Skill Test,”

This is a good read. Most people tend to just pinpoint animation limitations as an issue of money, and it obviously is important, but money can only get you so far when the actual major problem is animation talent being stretched thin amongst projects.

Labor conditions are obviously the most important thing, but the skill issue has become noticeable these last few seasons. The most obvious example is CG carriages replacing drawn ones, due to the lack of animators skilled in horse walk cycles. Mechanical animation in general is a skill that's being lost.

Here's a wild idea: pay animators properly and improve their working conditions and in short order I think the industry will find that their "unskilled/labor shortage" problem will disappear.

Here's a wild idea: pay animators properly and improve their working conditions and in short order I think the industry will find that their "unskilled/labor shortage" problem will disappear.

Blood- wrote:

Here's a wild idea: pay animators properly and improve their working conditions and in short order I think the industry will find that their "unskilled/labor shortage" problem will disappear.

Resolving skill issues usually involve more training (money) or hiring more skilled (expensive) animators instead. More money will help in those ares but simply giving money to the entry level animators isn't going to suddenly make them better at their job so that seems unlikely.

light turner wrote:

Blood- wrote: Here's a wild idea: pay animators properly and improve their working conditions and in short order I think the industry will find that their "unskilled/labor shortage" problem will disappear. Resolving skill issues usually involve more training (money) or hiring more skilled (expensive) animators instead. More money will help in those ares but simply giving money to the entry level animators isn't going to suddenly make them better at their job so that seems unlikely.

That's true, but better pay and conditions will help the industry retain skilled animators and potentially attract more talented animators to begin with. It would be a shame if this article left anime fans with the impression that lack of training was the biggest problem facing the industry. Although I'm sure the money dudes would love for the public to think that.

The article also clearly states the way out for the latter being a proposal for a standardized test which isn't a bad idea.

Most people tend to just pinpoint animation limitations as an issue of money, and it obviously is important, but money can only get you so far when the actual major problem is animation talent being stretched thin amongst projects.

gordonfreeman1 wrote:

The article also clearly states the way out for the latter being a proposal for a standardized test which isn't a bad idea.

I’m actually a little stunned that there’s not already something like this in place already for the studios. I get that a lot of work is outsourced by necessity, but most studios that I’m aware of stateside require some kind of portfolio review, so is it just that the hiring process is completely glossing over that part, or that “competent” means being deliver a certain level of quality within a specific amount of time, and that these animators are technically competent, and just not given enough time to work with?

Right now, the animation industry is crumbling because of the lack of staff. The cause isn’t just the lack of people. It’s also that those who are already there don’t have the necessary skills to do their job. There are so few people and so much work that animators don’t have the time to receive any feedback on their art. And a lot of people just won’t actually correct their drawings if they do receive feedback, because they’re already busy with their next job. In such conditions, people never become aware of whether they’re good enough or not and can’t improve. Such artists end up becoming animation directors, and then you have people who know nothing about animation production working in studios, and now it’s complete chaos.

Of course, not everybody can withstand such conditions, and some end up quitting. As a result, the chronic lack of staff is only getting worse, and that’s how production assistants end up recruiting people on Twitter. But such people don’t want to become pro animators in the first place, and there’s no way they’d know about the intricacies of animation production – but they still take the job, draw what they’re asked to, and consider their task done.

That’s a topic I want to get into, but first, I’d like to ask Ms. Nishii. As an animator and animation director, what is it that’s missing so much in animators that makes the Skill Test so necessary?

Terumi Nishii: What’s missing… Just upload some drawings on Twitter, and you’ll get studios offering you a job.

(nervous laugh)

Terumi Nishii: You tell me what’s missing when you’ve never drawn any animation! (laughs)

Ayano Fukumiya: (laughs)

Terumi Nishii: That’s why we’re doing it.

I get it. (laughs)

Terumi Nishii: All the people who get those offers accept “because they’ve been invited”, or so they say, but they don’t know how things are actually supposed to be done and only get the other staff members angry at them. But their excuse is that they were offered the job – and because of that, they don’t even understand why other people might get angry.

This kind of situation happens a lot to foreign “animators”, but is it also the case for Japanese people as well?

Terumi Nishii: Yes, a lot. I suppose that production assistants have already exhausted their possibilities in Japan, so now they turn overseas and rely on automatic translation sites.

Don’t studios forbid production assistants to recruit people like that?

Terumi Nishii: They don’t. There are still people who do it, and whenever I go on Twitter, I still see people going, “We’re recruiting people who can do second-key animation”… It’s not that I don’t understand how these production assistants feel, but it’s not that easy to clean up the mess once you get an amateur on board.

Ayano Fukumiya: Even I could apply…

Terumi Nishii: You could. Even if you’ve never done animation before, you can get offers. People have no idea what being an animator is about. It makes me depressed…

But the biggest problem and the root of all that is that every franchise, every series, every episode is missing people in charge. There might be some exceptions, but nowadays, nobody has the time, and you end up with 10 or 20 animation directors on a single TV episode. In such a situation, you no longer have any idea of who was responsible for the drawings you’re seeing.

Now, animators often say, “That cut is mine” on the web. They’re effectively taking that responsibility, aren’t they?

Terumi Nishii: That’s what they’re saying, but in the end, you can’t know who corrected that. Maybe all of it has been redrawn. Anyway, the problem is that you can’t tell who’s responsible for what anymore.

When someone under pseudo you’ve never heard about claims responsibility, you can’t really trust them. You really have to question how much of the animation you’re seeing is actually from their drawings.

The other thing is that now you have lots of young artists whose only goal is to become able to say ‘I did this!’ on Twitter. Rather than creating something, contributing to a work of animation, or moving people, they only want to brag and show off their ego. That kind of attitude only puts the rest of us in trouble.