New Anime Making System Project Phase 1
Fundraising campaign by
Jun Sugawara
-
US$23,913raised of $50,000.00 goal goal
Campaign Story
We’re Animator Supporters, a Japanese non-profit company founded in 2010. Our purpose is to improve the lives of animators and provide solutions to their low-wage problems! 10 years have passed since our founding. We started by giving underpaid animators a housing stipend of 6,000 thousand dollars per year. Then, in 2014, we opened The Animator Dormitory. Here, we provide direct housing assistance to underpaid animators.
Located in Tokyo, animators can live at our dormitory for less than 250 dollars a month (utilities and internet included).
You can learn more about The Animator Dormitory on our YouTube channel here:
The anime industry is currently suffering an extreme shortage of manpower due to high turnover rates caused by low wages. This means that there's a lack of staff who can bring up newcomers and teach them proper technique. As a result, animation quality is declining across the industry, and cancelations are becoming more and more frequent. Actually, Chinese animation wages have exceeded those of Japan. There's concern that, due to poor wages and working conditions, Japan may lose its place in the animation industry. These conditions mean that Japanese talent is incentivized to take their skills elsewhere. This has already happened to the Japanese consumer electronics industry. Poor working conditions lead talent to flee to other countries, and the exact same thing is about to happen to the anime industry. Although foreign investment in anime has boosted animators' pay temporarily, we need long-term, sustainable solutions from Japan to keep the industry alive. The anime industry is in dire straights and we need help from the fans to fix it.
The root cause of animators’ financial struggles is low production budgets. To help these animators, we need to raise these as fast as possible. However, steps to remedy this issue have been very slow in coming from within the industry. (Wages for in-between and key animation have remained nearly stagnant for 10 years.) We don’t see a practical way to better the situation from the inside, so we’re trying to create a new anime production system, completely separate from the framework of the current industry.
As a simple, effective method to increase these budgets, we've started producing original anime through the power of worldwide funding.
This music video that we're creating is the first step in our process. While there may be other efficient ways to increase production budgets, such as establishing an industry union, many of them aren't realistic in a Japanese context. We believe our approach is the path of least resistance and the most likely to bring substantial change to the industry.
We've been going to overseas anime events every year since 2014. This has given us some perspective about anime outside of Japan and garnered us a decent level of support overseas, making it possible for us to acquire funding from all around the world.
Our goal for this music video is to raise 50 thousand dollars from overseas.
We're aiming for a budget of 100 thousand dollars when combined with an additional 50 thousand dollars from Japan.
100 dollars is a relatively good budget for a 3-minute music video. This amount will allow us to compensate our creators fairly.
(Of course, we'd like to pay our staff more if possible.)
We've enlisted the help of 23 famous musicians including Mason Lieberman, composer for RWBY, and Kevin Penkin, composer for Made in Abyss and The Rising of the Shield Hero to create the music for this project. Japanese animators will develop an animated music video based on their composition. This includes past Animator Dormitory residents and recipients of our housing aid program.
We want to craft a system where animators can work with a proper budget!
Japanese animators have suffered from low wages, long work hours, and exploitative outsourcing contracts for decades.
Because of this, the entire industry faces impoverishment, and in recent years, increases of inconsistent, low-quality animation, cancelations, and art degradations have become a grave issue.
We are extremely concerned for the future of the world-renowned Japanese animation industry in its current state.
However, it’s incredibly difficult for anime creators to meaningfully change these circumstances on their own. (They risk losing their jobs if they try.)
If the industry refuses to change, why not make a new one? A new anime industry built by the fans, that’s the idea behind this whole project.
We aim to create a new anime production system. One that allows animators to tackle their work with sufficient funding, completely separate from the limitations of the current industry.
■ The average monthly salary for an animator in their 20s is about 800 US dollars.
The Japanese anime industry which is responsible for many of your favorite works is valued at over 18 billion dollars.
However, the animators responsible for this suffer under low wages, long work hours, and predatory subcontracting agreements that strip them of all employee benefits, all of which happen above-board in the industry. To call it cruel would be an understatement.
According to a 2015 survey published by the Japan Animation Creators Association, the average annual salary for an animator in their 20s is about 10,000 US dollars.
That’s roughly 800 dollars per month.
There are even cases where first-year animators earn less than 300 dollars a month.
Animators’ low incomes stem from a myriad of complex factors.
The largest factor is the low going rate for in-between animation in Japan.
Most animators are hired under piece-work payment contracts. This means that they receive a fixed amount of money for each frame they draw. It takes time for them to get fast enough to produce the number of frames necessary to earn even a meager living.
For a TV anime, one frame of in-between animation goes for about 1 dollar and 80 cents.
If an animator draws 300 frames a month, they’ll earn 300 times 1.80, or 540 dollars per month.
That’s a big if. Drawing 300 frames a month is a daunting task, especially for new animators.
■The Drop in Art Quality
Naturally, no one can live on this salary, so the turnover rate for new animators is extremely high.
90% of animators leave the industry within 3 years of entering.
Even more experienced key animators aren’t paid enough. It’s extremely common for animators who initially braved the industry in their 20s to quit in their 30s as they start to think about marriage or new jobs.
Since so many people quit, there’s a consistent shortage of both key and in-between animators.
This shortage of manpower has led to people without sufficient skills (such as hobbyists found on Twitter who don’t possess the necessary qualifications to do animation work yet) being made to take up work. As a result, quality is dropping at an alarming rate.
This has resulted in a recent increase in failed productions and canceled shows.
Animators are just one cog in a larger machine, making it infeasible to meaningfully change things independently. (Again, they risk losing their jobs if they try.)
On the other hand, we anime fans who exist outside of the industry have immense power.
We hope to craft a system in which anime creators can tackle their work with proper funding, one entirely separate from the limitations of current production standards.
As mentioned in our introduction, this non-profit has been active for over 10 years.
In the beginning, we gave new animators a housing stipend of 6,000 thousand dollars per year.
Then in 2014, we opened The Animator Dormitory where we provide direct housing to underpaid animators,
and now, The Animator Dormitory is finally up and running securely.
Animators with less than 3 years of work experience tend to lead particularly difficult lives. Seeing this, we opted to establish these “safety nets” for new animators. We believe these programs have made a tangible difference in their lives.
Many of our housing aid recipients have gone on to work as directors and chief animators.
We see this as proof that our efforts have been able to nurture the talent of these young animators.
Some of our housing recipients include:
■ Shingo Tamagawa:
PUPARIA, Director
Gundam Reconguista in G, Animation Director
Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash,Animation Director
■ Tatsuro Kawano:
BURN THE WITCH (Movie, 2020), Director
BORUTO -NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS- (TV, 2017), Opening Animation Director
■ Moeka Kuga:
DARLING in the FRANXX (TX/2018), Character Animation Director
Some of our past Animator Dormitory residents include:
■ Masaaki Tanaka: First Term Resident
Attack on Titan Season 3, Animation Director
■ Hitomi Kariya: Fourth Term Resident
NHK Morning Drama, Natsuzora, Opening Title Director,
Key Animator, and Character Designer
■ Madoka Ogawa: Fourth Term Resident
Inazuma Eleven: Mark of Orion, Animation Director
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Episode Director
And more.
However, The Animator Dormitory is just a bandaid over a deep wound. It helps animators who are struggling now, but we need to make more substantial improvements to animators’ wages before this wound can fully heal.
Reasons for animators’ financial grievances are complex and varied, but as we mentioned earlier, the largest one is low production budgets.
In order to raise animators’ wages, we need to do something about these budgets first.
So what’s the plan then? Essentially, we’re trying to “make the pie bigger” so to speak.
What we’ve come to realize by attending overseas anime conventions yearly since 2014 is that anime is exclusively made to sell in Japan. There is little to no regard for overseas fans. In fact, even in the U.S., until sites like Crunchyroll and Netflix became standard, there was pretty much no way to watch anime legally, and they only came around recently, too.
Crunchyroll even originated as a pirate site, and there are still many countries where you can’t watch anime legally, like India.
Knowing this, we believe that if we can conduct our business such that overseas fans are properly acknowledged while retaining the unique characteristics of Japanese animation, then we should be able to make the pie 2x, 3x, or who knows, maybe even 10x larger than if we focused solely on Japan.
After all, Japan may have 120 million people, but there are 7.8 billion people worldwide.
Over the next few years, we’ll be trying to produce a series of short-form music videos, gathering funds not only from Japan but from around the world. In doing so, we’ll create an environment where anime can be made properly with sufficient time and money.
With this in mind, we’ve been lucky enough to cooperate with 23 major famous musicians on the music for this project including Mason Lieberman, composer for RWBY, and Kevin Penkin, composer for Made and Abyss andThe Rising of a Shield Hero.
Japanese animators including past Animator Dormitory residents and housing aid recipients will produce an animated music video based on their composition.
We aim to create a new anime production system. One that allows animators to tackle their work with sufficient funding, completely separate from the limitations of the current industry.
We humbly as for your support in this endeavor!
The money we raise will be used for the production of our music video.
This is the minimum budget necessary.
We would like to pay our creators as much as possible.
In addition to the breakdown above, we also plan to pay for video documentation of our production process with creator commentary. We plan to release part of this documentation publicly on YouTube and part of it as a backer reward.
How did such a harsh work environment come to be?
Anime is extremely expensive to make. If a show doesn’t do well, it becomes a huge financial deficit to whoever funded it.
To avoid this, anime are typically financed by what’s called a production committee. A production committee is a group of investors who all contribute money to a project such that if a show fails, the burden doesn’t fall solely on one entity. Investors include TV stations, movie companies, advertising agencies, publishers, and major studios.
This financing style exists to minimize risk, but it brings other negatives.
To start, the budgets that production committees give to anime studios are typically way too low.
Japan’s animation budgets are less than a tenth of Disney’s.
This means that studios are left to suffer from financial deficits regardless of their cooperation with these committees.
It’s believed that 1 in 4 studios are financially underwater.
On top of that, even if a show takes off and becomes a huge financial success, all the profits generated from the show go back to the production committee. The studio and its staff won’t see a dime for their work after production is finished.
There is no way to improve these unusually low production costs.
These abnormally low production costs are the largest contributor to animators’ financial struggles. Unfortunately, there’s no effective way to change this at the moment.
If you’re from the West, you might think that animators should unionize. That’s because labor unions in the West tend to be industry-wide. This is not the case in Japan. The structure of Japanese unions makes it very difficult for them to solve these issues.
Industrial unions as they’re known in the West are organized such that workers from the same or even similar industries can exceed the restrictions of companies.
For example, if anime studios were to form an industrial union, any studio could participate in it and regulate themselves under a mutually agreed upon, typically humanitarian set of standards that exists over the rule of any one entity.
In Japan, industrial unions are extremely uncommon. Most Japanese unions are small, in-house unions created internally by each company. These sorts of company unions are banned by law in many countries including the U.S. because they put too much power in the hands of companies.
Even if an anime studio demanded a higher budget, the production committee could just ask another more desperate studio to do the work. Without an industrial union like those in Europe or the U.S. to set a universal standard, negotiation is simply out of the question.
The current standards need to change
Animators usually work under domestic outsourcing contracts instead of The Employment Standards Act -- which is meant to protect workers and is the standard at most Japanese companies. In addition to low pay, animators hired as contract workers may be forced to forgo entitlements like vacation pay, holiday pay, insurance, and retirement benefits.
While all this may be the case now, things don’t have to be like this forever. We aspire to a higher standard of quality and ethics to fight for our colleagues, friends in studios all across Japan, and the fans themselves.
≪ Music Team ≫
Direction, Composer, Conductor:
■Mason Lieberman
Composer for RWBY and Beyblade Burst God.
Collaborator with Yoko Kanno on the Real Folk Blues charity performance for COVID-19 relief.
Composer on The Rising of a Shield Hero and MADE IN ABYSS: Dawn of the Deep Soul.
Orchestrator / Co-Arranger:
■Kevin Penkin
Composer for Made in Abyss, The Rising of a Shield Hero, Norn9, Tower of God and more.
Lead Vocal:
■Dawn M. Bennett
Music Director and Actress at Funimation.
Lead Vocal:
■Morgan Berry
TheUnknownSongbird on YouTube, Actress at Funimation, popular TikTok personality.
Lead Vocal:
■Donna Burke
Anime industry vocalist featured in Tokyo Ghoul, Metal Gear Solid, and more
Lead Vocal:
■Adriana Figueroa /Adrisaurus
Popular Anime cover artist with 510,000 subs on YouTube.
Lead Vocal:
■Milly Jones
Vocalist on Made in Abyss, The Rising of a Shield Hero, Hollow Knight, and more.
Lead Vocal:
■Amanda Lee
Popular anime cover artist on YouTube with 1,680,000 subscribers.
Lead Vocal:
■Jason Paige
Lead Vocalist from the original Pokémon Theme song.
Lead Vocal:
■Caleb Hyles
Anime cover artist on YouTube with 1,350,000 subscribers. Vocals for RWBY and other projects.
Lead Vocal:
■Casey Lee Williams
Lead Vocalist for RWBY.
Lead Vocal:
■Brina Palencia
Music Director and Actress at Funimation.
Guitar:
■FamilyJules
Popular YouTube game/anime cover artist with 420,000 subscribers.
Saxophone:
■Carlos Eiene
Popular YouTube game/anime cover artist, Insaneintherain Music, with 319,000 subscribers.
Trumpet:
■John Robert Matz
BAFTA-nominated composer and trumpet player.
Violin:
■Jeff Ball
Violinist and composer on Steven Universe, Steven Universe Future, and many other titles.
Violin:
■Diwa De Leon
Popular YouTube artist, String Player Gamer, with 146,000 subscribers.
Violin:
■Patti Rudisill
Violinist on titles like Apex Legends, Call of Duty: WWII, Marvel’s Spider-man, and dozens more.
Violin:
■David Morales
Violinist and pianist from the San Diego area.
Violin:
■Zack Rapp
Violinist and guitarist who has performed with artists such as Dream Theater, Alek Darson, and more.
Drums:
■Fabrizio Cavallaro
Drummer for artists like Kanye West, Giorgi Mikadze, and more.
Mixing:
■Matthew Templeman
Mixing artist for Tower of God
≪ Animation Team ≫
■Akihiko Ota (Director)
Akihito has been working as an animator since 2011, and since 2013, has worked as a mentor, bringing up new animators by helping them manage their work and providing technical guidance.
They’ve worked as an animation inspector on Macross Δ (Macross Delta), Harukana Receive, Pokémon, and more.
He also founded animation studio PaTHos while undertaking work in TV anime as an animation director, key animator, in-between animation inspector, and more.
At Studio Pathos, the staff is free to work from home in various parts of Japan, from Hokkaido in the north, all the way down to Okinawa in the south.
Some notable works in their animation career include Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, Chihayafuru, Youkai Watch, Hakuouki, Vanguard, and more.
Akihiko also worked as an animation director on Aquarion Logos.
■Creative Producer: Kenichi Kutsuna
Kenichi worked on hit anime series such as Fullmetal Alchemist, GAD GUARD, Paranoia Agent, and Eureka Seven all while still in university. He has been working as a key animator, animation director, and character designer ever since.
Some notable works in their animation career include Naruto, Naruto: Shippuden, Gurren Lagann, Crayon Shin-chan, Someday's Dreamers II: Sora, Birdy the Mighty: Decode 02, Mr. Osomatsu, director Hayao Miyazaki’s Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess, and more.
Kenichi also worked as a character designer and animation director for Horimiya, an effects animation director on A Certain Magical Index: The Movie, and more.
He’s been a part of MARZA ANIMATION PLANET INC since 2015.
One of his recent roles was as a storyboard artist, assistant director, and animation director on director Omaru Oshi’s Vlad Love.
≪ Production Management ≫
■Jun Sugawara (Producer)
Founded the NPO Animator Supporters in 2011, and has been working to improve the low wage problem in the anime industry ever since.
The NPO currently provides housing assistance at the Animator Dormitory for new animators. So far, over 40 new animators have resided at the Animator Dormitory, in which some of them have gone on to become directors and animation directors. At the Animator Dormitory, located in Tokyo, new animators can stay for less than 30,000 yen per month including rent, utilities, and a stable internet connection.
Visual Style of the Music Video
This is a sample image from our layout.
$30
Thank you email including a limited edition illustration of New Anime Making System Project, 2020
*The image below is a sample.
$150
Keyframe Collection , Standard Edition (30 Pages)
*The image below is a sample.
$300 We Love Animation
- Keyframe Collection , Standard Edition (30 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type A)
- Storyboard Collection
The T-shirts available are shirts of the characters who make an appearance in the music video! There are 3 designs: the A type, B type, and C type.
*The image below is a sample.
$500 Anime Forever!
- Keyframe Collection , Standard Edition (30 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type A)
- Storyboard Collection
- Your name in the credits (Small)
*The image below is a sample.
$1000 The Animator Supporter
- Keyframe Collection, Standard Edition (30 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type A)
- Storyboard Collection
- Keyframe Collection, Deluxe Edition (100 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type B)
- Background Art Collection (30 Pages)
- Your name in the credits (Medium)
*The image below is a sample.
$3000 Anime Be Eternal
- Keyframe Collection, Standard Edition (30 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type A)
- Storyboard Collection
- Keyframe Collection, Deluxe Edition (100 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type B)
- Background Art Collection (30 Pages)
- Designer Illustration Card from KAPPA-KUN
- Your name in the credits (Large)
*The image below is a sample.
$5000 Collector
- Keyframe Collection , Standard Edition (30 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type A)
- Storyboard Collection
- Keyframe Collection , Deluxe Edition (100 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type B)
- Background Art Collection (30 Pages)
- Designer Illustration Card from exclusive Animator Dormitory Channel illustrator/KAPPA-KUN
- Designer Illustration Card from animation staff
- A portrait of you in the credits drawn by animation staff
◆Your name will be shown along with the credits of our staff, represented in a still image
In regards to the addition of names, portraits, and animations to the credits-- we are thinking of adding a few seconds of animation line art of our main staff doing everyday things. Ryoko, for example, would be depicted doing work at her kitchen table. The Collector’s perk will include a still image of the donator’s daily scene in the credits.
*The image below is a sample.
$10000 Otaku King!
- Keyframe Collection , Standard Edition (30 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type A)
- Storyboard Collection
- Keyframe Collection , Deluxe Edition (100 Pages)
- Music Video Character T-Shirt (Type B)
- Background Art Collection (30 Pages)
- Designer Illustration Card from exclusive Animator Dormitory Channel illustrator/KAPPA-KUN
- Designer Illustration Card from animation staff
- A short animation of you in the credits drawn by animation staff
◆Your name will be shown along with the credits of our staff, represented in a few seconds of animation doing daily-life activities. e.g. drawing, skateboarding, etc.
In regards to the addition of names, portraits, and animations to the credits-- we are thinking of adding a few seconds of animation line art of our main staff doing everyday things. Ryoko, for example, would be depicted doing work at her kitchen table. The OTAKUKING perk would depict the donator’s daily scene with a few seconds of line art animation on the credits.
*The image below is a sample.
Rewards
◇The Animator Supporter◇ Keyframe Collection, Standard Edition (30 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (A) , Storyboard Collection , Keyframe Collection, Deluxe Edition (100 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (B) , Background Art Collection (30 Pages) , Your name in the credits (Medium)
◇Anime Be Eternal◇ Keyframe Collection, Standard Edition (30 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (A) , Storyboard Collection , Keyframe Collection, Deluxe Edition (100 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (B) , Background Art Collection (30 Pages) , Designer Illustration Card from KAPPA-KUN , Your name in the credits (Large)
◇Collector◇ Keyframe Collection , Standard Edition (30 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (A) , Storyboard Collection , Keyframe Collection , Deluxe Edition (100 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (B) , Background Art Collection (30 Pages) , Designer Illustration Card from exclusive Animator Dormitory Channel illustrator/KAPPA-KUN , Designer Illustration Card from animation staff , A portrait of you in the credits drawn by animation staff (your name will be shown along with the credits of our staff, represented in a still image)
◇Otaku King!◇ Keyframe Collection , Standard Edition (30 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (A) , Storyboard Collection , Keyframe Collection , Deluxe Edition (100 Pages) , Music Video Character T-Shirt (B) , Background Art Collection (30 Pages) , Designer Illustration Card from exclusive Animator Dormitory Channel illustrator/KAPPA-KUN , Designer Illustration Card from animation staff , A short animation of you in the credits drawn by animation staff (your name will be shown along with the credits of our staff, represented in a few seconds of animation doing daily-life activities. e.g. drawing, skateboarding, etc.)
Organizer
- Jun Sugawara
Donors
- Joshua Klarmann
- Donated on Mar 05, 2024
- Nathan Tuvey
- Donated on Jan 15, 2024
- Anonymous
- Donated on Jan 02, 2024
Finalized Production Schedule for our First Music Video
Update posted by Jun Sugawara at 11:33 pmThe production schedule for our first music video has been officially finalized! We’re tackling the layout in July, key animation in August, in-between animation in September, finishing touches and color composition in October, and compositing in November. The music video is scheduled for an end of November completion!Through this first. . . . .
Production on our anime music video has started!
Update posted by Jun Sugawara at 10:43 pmProduction on our anime music video has started! This is the initial video storyboard for the project. Currently, key animators are discussing cuts with directors and soon the layout phase will begin! We'll post sneak peeks of layouts and key animation as we make more progress!
Donors & Comments
- Joshua Klarmann
- Donated on Mar 05, 2024
- Nathan Tuvey
- Donated on Jan 15, 2024
- Anonymous
- Donated on Jan 02, 2024
- Guest
- Donated on Dec 22, 2023
- Onihime G.
- Donated on Dec 15, 2023
Animators make us dream, cry, laugh and smile. Please take care of them as they take good care of us 🔥
- Anonymous
- Donated on Jul 25, 2023
- Troy
- Donated on Jul 01, 2023
- Anonymous
- Donated on May 13, 2023
yuh
- Anonymous
- Donated on May 04, 2023
- Guest
- Donated on Apr 15, 2023
Thanks for doing this.