ANIME AND THE CUT UNIT PRICE: On the Interplay Between Producers, Animators, and Anime Workers in a Post-Qualified Invoicing System Industry
That animators don’t swim in gold is common knowledge in the anime community, especially if compared to their Western counterparts, whether it is about hand-drawn or 3D animation. But industry insiders have revealed at several occasions that this didn’t quite depict fairly the state of the remuneration of animators in the field. The last article I wrote on this blog, on anime socioeconomics in the industry, has shown that age — possibly correlated to experience — led to an increase in remuneration (thanks to job positions) within the industry; as well as the fact that some animators like Vincent Chansard can earn triple the income of your average key animator, and that a series director can earn near 6 times the income of an in-betweener. But something else is to consider: remuneration and income are terms that don’t necessarily equate to salary.
“If animators accept this, their unit price goes down on the whole”
Ippei ICHII, animator/storyboard artist
The basis for an animator’s remuneration is the cut, and Ippei Ichii (animator and storyboard artist) was quoted a few years ago by Cartoon Brew, criticizing Netflix for commissioning a Mappa production with unrealistic rates for the cost of living in Japan: “Apparently a producer working on a Mappa production for Netflix has suggested that the unit price be 3,800 yen per cut. Tv series are budgeted to 3,800–7,000 yen, and if animators accept this, their unit price goes down on the whole. Note: if you’re asked, I think it’s best to negotiate for at least 15,000 yen.” That a major industry player like the streaming mammoth itself throws its weight around one of the most popular studios this way is honestly dire for the state of the industry… For a quick comparison, that would have been $34 a cut, your average TV series episode being according to Washi’s Blog made out of 300 cuts. One has to consider that limited animation stems from the ludicrously cheap production costs (and how AI is being considered won’t favorize better wages), and if we want anime to open itself to its true potential as animation, we have to invest in it at some point — we wouldn’t want animators to die from overwork… Well, at least I don’t, especially as Japan is famous for coining karôshi.
It seems the person responsible to “negotiate” the “unit price” (something key for the sociopolitics of the anime industry, as if Japanese animators that hold the know-how to produce anime end up not able to make ends meet, they may quit the industry, already experiencing a critical labor shortage) is a “producer”. According to Anime News Network, on an article by Kevin Cirugeda (admin on Sakugabooru and main writer on Sakuga Blog), the role of the Production Desk is to “directly oversee the Production Assistants”, “often [being the ones [to] assign them their work at the beginning of the project”, as well as to “[manage] the overall schedule, allocating the finances given”. Of course, that’s only relevant if there is a hierarchy in the production company. But producers overall, by meeting up with the various parties involved in a production committee, end up determining the budget of a series, negotiating the unit price.
But animators also have to negotiate with producers, if they want to access better living conditions, especially with the state of the industry being as it is. Though it is not in Japanese mores to unionize, this concept has traveled around speech on the anime industry with the hope to address the low remuneration problem, whether it is for voice-actors or for animators. And that probably explains some of the inequalities we have seen occur in the anime industry. But just what, exactly, are the resources this negotiation with producers that come into play? Conversely, what resources do producers, or the production side of the anime industry, possess to make up a more or less optimal exchange? An optimum, in economics, being the ideal equilibrium between demand and offer, or two resources that are mutually exclusive.
If an animator needs credits to prove themself, they may be more inclined to accept prices that other workers might downright find derisory, if not insulting. After all, for beginners, after having an acceptable portfolio or demoreel, making a break in the anime industry takes the form of accumulating participations in various shows with more or less popularity. And if they happen to still be students, perhaps that family support or a scholarship help them take care of their living expenses. Or an animator might prefer to choose to work on a project instead of another because of what cuts they are allowed to choose, since it’s also a trade where passion is required to persist… Producers can use the appeal of various productions to convince artists to work for them at a given unit price, and another factor may be responsibilities, seeing as you need to prove yourself in different job positions to advance in your animation career — especially if your private life economics evolve with age, for example by having to repay a mortgage, or having kids.
As the rules of this interplay are dependent on the Japanese fiscal system, it’s something prone to change the rules of the game the anime industry abides by. Indeed, this very month the Japanese entertainment industry has experienced a consumption tax reform, the Qualified Invoicing System. What it changes is the taxing rate for free-lancers, among other things like making the identity of artists be public information — in an industry where death threats are a very tangible concern due to how entertainment capitalizes on parasocial relationship dynamics. Since it was designed to cater to constructing work, there has been no consideration to the specificities of entertainment, again a case of blind politicians… This changes the remuneration of free-lancers in the anime industry, and that’s the most common status for animators: “A comparison of the 2015 and 2019 surveys provides surprising results: freelancers have always been the majority, but their proportion has moved from 37 to 50%. On the other hand, the proportion of on-contract workers has decreased while that of in-house workers has remained consistent.” According to Full Frontal, “Given these changes, it’s no surprise that two surveys reveal a grim reality: 20% of voice actors and 20% of animators believe they will go out of business as a result of the new Invoice System. This is a cry for help from those who bring us the anime we love.”
However, the fact that this targets free-lancers — taxing pushes the animators to negotiate for higher cut unit prices so they may counterbalance and find a prior equilibrium — also means that there will now be an incentive for hiring in-house animators, or for becoming in-house animators. The guarantee to find work more frequently could be an important part of choosing stability. And since the workplace is frequently a place where experience is acquired, concepts are taught and knowledge circulates, seeing as a few of the major anime studios are known for having their own training programs, favorizing the in-house status in the anime industry may lead to somehow saving the hand-drawn legacy of Japanese animation. Whereas free-lancers, perhaps some of the animators working the most remotely, may work for productions overseas, which could lead to specialized animation knowledge — that could only develop thanks to anime as a specific artform, with given conventions — further circulating around the world?
In this article, I sought to further explore the unit price, a key factor in determining an animator’s living conditions. A prior blog article on socioeconomics within the industry proved that incomes at a similar job position weren’t monolithic, and since production committees end up letting multiple economical actors across several fields interact, budgets end up negotiated and allocated by the producer. Capping the budget is something that Toshio Okada, once Gainax producer, mentioned in a video. It refers to a strategy to give the majority of funds for a show to be made, so as to dominate its project policies, for instance in terms of censorship. Once the stage to allocate the budget occurs, animators can negotiate with producers in terms of responsibilities, remuneration, or even for prestige (a valuable resource for peer recognition or networking). The interplay of negotiation between producers and animators ends up determining for animators to progress in their careers, and is also subjected to fiscal policies, like the Qualified Invoicing System. This can favor a status over another, like in-house versus free-lancing, therefore repositioning the studio entity versus work from home, and the consequences of the Qualified Invoicing System will be interesting to look forward to, for instance in tracking the average unit price per animator status…
