A Twitter
user recently raised eyebrows with an investigation into salaries at various
anime studios in Japan. His post compared base salaries without
including production bonuses (出来高) and analyzed how much they have increased
in the last two years. Of course, the information generated a lot of reactions on
social media, with people debating whether the anime industry has really
improved working conditions for animators or whether they are still dealing
with low salaries and long hours.
According
to the published ranking, A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks are at the
top with a base salary of 274,000 yen per month (around
$1,850), followed by Twin Engine Group with 260,000 yen. In
third place is Cygames Pictures (256,055 yen, at its Tokyo
headquarters alone), and rounding out the TOP 5 are Yostar
Pictures (252,000 yen) and Kinema Citrus (224,000
yen, increasing to 253,900 yen after six months of work).
It should
be noted that the ranking only takes into account the fixed base salary, not
including additional payments for the amount of work, precisely to show which
studies offer the most stable salaries. Not only that, in
addition to the ranking of the highest-paying studies, the user also compared
current salaries with those of two years ago and revealed which companies have
given the largest increases:
- A-1
Pictures / CloverWorks → +55,000 yen.
- C2C →
+50,000 yen.
- OLM →
+42,500 yen.
- Kinema Citrus → +34,000 yen
(+29,900 yen extra after six months).
- Cygames
Pictures → +32,721 yen.
- TRIGGER → +32,500 yen
during trial period and +56,740 yen afterwards.
Other
companies such as WIT STUDIO, Yostar Pictures and Science SARU also raised
their salaries, albeit to a lesser extent, with increases of between 10,000 and
30,000 yen. But
while these increases seem like good news, many pointed out that they are still
not enough. Japan still has accelerating inflation and the cost of living is
increasing, so these increases are not as impressive as they seem.
On the
other hand, many animators end up relying on extra production fees. If they
don't have enough work assigned, the base salary simply isn't enough to live on
in the big cities where anime studios are based. An interesting
case is MAHO FILM, which doesn't appear in the ranking of the best salaries,
but when you add up production bonuses, overtime, and subsidies, an animator
could earn up to 448,808 yen per month. Sure, that means making 40 animation
cuts per month, one hour of overtime per day, and paying 80,000 yen in rent. Basically,
you earn more if you work more, but the risk increases as well.
What
now? The topic of salaries in the anime industry has been a topic of debate for
years. Although
some companies are raising salaries and offering more benefits, there is still
a lot that needs to be improved in order for animators to have stability and a
better quality of life. And of course, the comments from the community reflect
these concerns:
- “ Huh? CloverWorks pays
that much? When I talked to them about the fee for direction and key
animation, they only wanted to pay 250,000 yen for everything .”
- " Double
their salaries! "
- " Is it that low?
Well, in the end, what really generates revenue is the merchandising
products ."
- « Subsidiaries of big
companies like Sony, CyberAgent or Yostar pay well. I wonder if studios
like Madhouse or Shin-Ei Dōga, which have television networks as their
parent companies, also have high salaries. I'm curious .»
- " Wow, those are
huge salaries! If a producer at one of these top-ranked companies earns
that much, he must be making an incredible amount of money ."
- « While there are
obviously several factors and conditions to consider, looking at this it
seems that studios are really working on improving salaries. And in the
end, the companies with a larger financial base are the ones that have
increased salaries the most. A-1 and CloverWorks also have Sony backing,
so their additional benefits should be a big plus .»
