- Low Salary - You't can't enjoy Anime normally anymore

- Many get depressed - Companies make people work too hard.

Hey guys it's Cathy Cat and ... - The director. -What's our topic?

Today's topic is.... the past of your director!

Tata! Everyone's been curious what kind of job the director used to do.

Before he worked as Director for Ask Japanese. - I made Anime.

Yes he used to make Anime. Tell us some of the famous pieces you've done.

I loved working on Full Metal Alchemist

Full Metal Alchemist. Which one? Brotherhood? - Yes. - How about Fruits Basket?

I worked on that one too. - How about Railgun? - Yes I worked on that too

Any other anime I might know? - I worked on most famously known Anime even Doraemon

Gundam and many more.

So today's topic is... the honest voice of someone who worked in the Anime industry.

I will reveal 5 good and bad facts about making anime.

Number 5

You will get many cuts on your hands. - Because of the paper? - Yes

Many seem to think that Animes are made fully digitally.

But many things are still done in pencil and paper

I was in the Production Progress team.

Part of the management. - You didn't draw? - I didn't but I had to

take care of the paper that the animators worked on.

Making anime is not just about drawing, there is composition, management.

Visual graphic, high motion, background and more

There is a lot. Hundreds of people work on one anime.

And I was in charge of making sure it all goes smoothly.

So the reason for the many cuts on our hands...

There is an incredible amount of paper used to make anime. Thousands.

I had to touch thousands to check the quality of the anime

And many people cut their hands during. - Is there blood on the actual pages? - Yes

What? What the heck! That's super scary. - It sometimes happens

When there is brown on the corners, I could tell someone cut themselves again.

But I have also cut those parts and fixed the paper

due to that before. - What?

This sounds gross. - The next person wouldn't like to get those pages.

Wow that's some info that only people

who worked in the industry would know.

There are many accidents. - What type? - Car accidents.

Car accidents??? - Yeah. - WHY ?

I was part of the production progress team so

I was in charge of the animators of my studio...

It's hard to complete an anime within one studio though.

We have to ask many other animators and studios to help make an anime

So you had to go to other animation studios? - Yes

If you watch anime ending credits you will see

that there are often names of different studios too.

I had to take the car to get there

and retrieve works or deliver works to animators.

But! You might have heard it that working in anime is super hard.

No time? - Not in the morning, lunch or evenings. Never

We have to drive even when wer're exhausted so....

accidents happen. I didn't get into one accident but

animation studios have all their cars...

they are generally all dented

That's a common thing. I have never seen an undamaged animation car.

You are under a lot of pressure, not just time pressure...?

Well, there are times like that too.

The worst is when they say "This has to be there

in a certain time limit!" that happens

That sounds like out of an anime or manga. Wait oh right.

Hearing of it sounds fun but doing it is hard.

That's how accidents happen.

Number 3

The salary is super low.

I heard that. It's pretty bad right? - Super low

It's under the average salary that graduates get

a lot lower actually. Some get 130,000 ($1300)

or less. - I heard some get only $500 per month

or even less. - That depends on your work. Animators can

earn even less. - Less than $500? - Yeah

- like $300 per month - Some only get a few coins really.

For a whole month? - What... How do they pay rent?

They can't that way. Animators earn the least

Animators never get fully employed either.

Only contract or

freelance. - They love it but

They can't live like that. - Let's be honest...

fresh starters can't start working right away.

The studio has to consider that.

Like training? - In training they only get a little bit of salary like $300-400

But young fresh animators in the industry...

wills struggle to pay rent or get the help of their parents

to make do. - How long do they only earn $300 a month?

One year? - That depends. If they get good they can earn more

if they don't improve, their salary doesn't either.

That's tough. - Especially new starters in the area...

There are many processes. Some get paid per page.

They get $2-3 per page or less.

But to draw one of those pages...

it takes several hours. Use that to calculate the sallary.

If you draw slowly you lose? - Yes.

But what if you draw fast but in a bad quality?

The studio will return it and you gotta do it again.

You can't get money either. - You gotta draw the exact same image again.

If you are good and fast, you have better salary. For example

Draw 10 pages, get paid $2 per page... you get $20 per day.

If you work 20 days you only earn $400 a month.

It would be better to work at McDonald's then. - Jobs pay better

Are there animators who job and do anime? - Yes

The freelancers do that. - That low salary is a problem

I think that's not good and it makes it hard to get new people in.

But there are studios who are trying to change

this process, trying to employ workers full time. - I hope more studios do that

In order to continue Japanese anime, we gotta create a better environment.

I hope Japan will work on improving working conditions.

So we can support the animators who are giving their very best.

Anime are full of dreams, hearing these truths...

I am a little shocked. - It's important to know them though.

Number 2

You can't enjoy anime anymore. - That one!

Occupational hazard they say?

There are great works: Great story, cool action scenes!

But... I still can't watch them anymore. I will now see things

like "the animator there made a mistake"

or "they used the wrong color / line / movement there!!!"

It was my job to check the quality - Looking for errors - Yes.

So now I can only see that. Furthermore...

I can tell which parts of the anime were done by which animation studio.

How though? One girls angle is from one company, and the next cut from another?

You can tell that? - I can.

One of the most famous animators is called Tetsuo Nishio and he made Naruto

He is a super animator with a special style. It's easy for me to tell what he drew.

You know it's him? - The way he moves and created action on page, I can tell his hand.

That counts for famous animators but also for animation studios.

I can tell where parts are from. Say one anime has a heroine

and many people need to draw her right?

I can tell who drew what. I can say who's thick pencil was that.

I can tell people even by the way they use their eraser. - Wow!!!

Like the "handwriting" of an animator? - Yes

I can also see when people change animation studios by their work.

What? - Yeah that happened. - You can tell that by looking at their animation? - Yes

That's quite a skill you have there! - I hate it.

Number 1

The work environment is really bad. Many get depressed.

It's a "black company" - A black company...

is generally one that doesn't protect the workers rights, that makes them work too much

to little payments, everything that shouldn't be done and that's why

they are called "dark or black companies" and have a bad reputation

so.... Japanese anime is very know for being very

very dark. - Did many people quit during your time there? - SO many.

Some people have "disappeared" too. They just vanished.

That's dark... the backstage of anime is super dark...

In the animation industry we all knew that but....

"you love anime so you will do it" and that's how they get you.

"You LOVE anime, that's why it's your dream do work here."

and that's why they can keep doing it with low pay and overtime hours.

This might link to what you've said....

I heard that anime studios also...

don't get much money for making anime in the first place.

That might be a big reason. The money that comes in doesn't reach the workers

If a studio has all the rights and makes their own DVD it's a different story

Then they get the money directly. But it often doesn't work like that in Japan.

That's why nobody has money? - It doesn't reach the animators.

I used to speak to friends in the industry about this...

Japan is promoting Anime as "Cool Japan" export culture to the world.

But all that extra money the government puts into the promotion

of Japanese culture doesn't go to the animation studios.

Even though many people love Japan because of Anime

the anime industry doesn't get support from the government. - Not enough

This is confusing. How shall we rescue Japanese anime? - We all love anime

and that's why being able to work on it is great.

It's art that the world appreciates.

I think having that is important. Having money would be nice too though.

We often see the vast pay differences between Disney and Japanese animators.

I saw that. I was shocked by the difference.

I was hoping we would not crush dreams of people who wanna work in anime...

Can't be helped. These are the 5 bad points. But in the next video...

I will also tell the 5 good points to lift everyone's spirits back up about anime.

I will explain that next. - Let's have that in the next video.

This is not the end, there's also 5 good things about working in anime and we're gonna discuss

them in future movies. Hit the subscribe button with your finger, elbow, nose and make sure

you don't miss it. There's gonna be more about this topic, if you love anime and you'd like

to work in Anime. Don't forget to check out the next video, thanks for tuning in and catch you soon for

more stuff on Ask Japanese. Bye!