Anime is pop-culture. Dragon Ball Z has been translated to nearly 35 different languages. The wildly popular series One Piece aired more than 1000 episodes. Half of Netflix’s 200 million subscribers watch #anime. Anime is so popular that in 2021 the industry was valued at a whopping $24 billion and demand is only going up. However, the working conditions for the people who make our favorite anime does not match the industry’s wild success. Animators in Japan are overworked and underpaid, earning as little as $200 a month. It’s been so bad that in 2010, an animator working at A-1 Pictures, makers of Sword Art Online and Fairy Tail, committed suicide. He was overworked to death - claiming that he was working 600 hours a month. Japanese work culture is famous for overworking their employees to the point of death that that there is a word ‘かろうし’ (Karoshi). Reforming the industry is difficult. For now, fans can support the artists in various ways whether it’s donating directly to them, or informing themselves and others about the realities of the industry, and tweeting at / writing letters to company heads to demand they increase pay.
Anime is pop-culture. Dragon Ball Z has been translated to nearly 35 different languages. The wildly popular series One Piece aired more than 1000 episodes. Half of Netflix’s 200 million subscribers watch #anime. Anime is so popular that in 2021 the industry was valued at a whopping $24 billion and demand is only going up. However, the working conditions for the people who make our favorite anime does not match the industry’s wild success. Animators in Japan are overworked and underpaid, earning as little as $200 a month. It’s been so bad that in 2010, an animator working at A-1 Pictures, makers of Sword Art Online and Fairy Tail, committed suicide. He was overworked to death - claiming that he was working 600 hours a month. Japanese work culture is famous for overworking their employees to the point of death that that there is a word ‘かろうし’ (Karoshi). Reforming the industry is difficult. For now, fans can support the artists in various ways whether it’s donating directly to them, or informing themselves and others about the realities of the industry, and tweeting at / writing letters to company heads to demand they increase pay.