Precarity in the Professional Industry
While previous nodes in the path have talked about precarity strictly with respect to a specific type of fangroup in the otaku subculture being abused by the its respective industry, this node will focus on a completely different group that is sometimes ignored within the otaku fandom: the professionals in the anime industry. Surprisingly, precarity even applies to those who are under the guise of "professionals" working in the industry, despite anime being the subject of their job. There are two key examples I will go over, one the experiences of an animator in Japan by the name of Henry Thurlow, and the other a fictional anime called Shirobako, which is about the production of anime and the daily life of working within the anime industry.
Henry Thurlow is an American animator who moved to Tokyo to work in the anime industry as a keyframer. He was first hired by Nakamura Productions and then moved on to the better known Pierrot Studios. In his interviews and AMAs (Ask me Anything) on reddit, he recounts his experiences of finding an opening and working in the anime industry as an animator. He states that it is "not a ‘tough’ industry… It’s an ‘illegally harsh’ industry". This was especially true when he was working at his first company, Nakamura Productions, where he would get paid "paid $1 per drawing, meaning you earned between $5 and $25 a day". Even Pierrot was not much better, where "1 drawing = $2-$4 .... so on any given day I can earn about $40. (HORRIBLE by anyone's standards.... but, if you want to work on cool anime, there's not much choice.)".
While the amount of money that he received as a "professional" is horrid enough to show abuse, to prove the precarious nature of his work, it is important to look at how he is being paid. He is being paid on a frame by frame basis, an unstable means of payment, due to how variable his total pay could be depending on how many drawings he could flesh out in a day. Furthermore, this method of payment completely ignores the fact that scenes with more complexity take an exponential amount of time to draw compared to simple shots. As he states, the pay in a day at Nakamura could vary between 5 dollars and 25 dollars, a five-fold difference. Such an instability in pay indicates it as a precarious job, despite being a professional.
Another example of precarity is demonstrated in the 2015 anime Shirobako, whose main plot focuses on presenting the production process of anime and the lives of those who work on it. The plot focuses on a group of friends who once created a small scale anime in highschool as club activity. This group is now old and working in the professional anime industry. One character in this group is Sakaki Shizuka, called Zuka chan throughout the anime. Zuka chan is a seiyuu, or voice actress, who embodies the precarious nature of the anime industry.
As a seiyuu, Zuka chan tries out for multiple voice positions throughout the anime season, but unfortunately lands no stable role in an anime, only picking up very minor mob roles here and there. In fact one scene of her depression of not being able to find a stable role is powerful (Episode 22 18:20), where she is shown drinking herself to sleep in sorrow. Furthermore, in order to support herself financially as a seiyuu, she is shown to have a part time job of working at a small izakaya. Essentially Zuka chan is working as a freeter, a precarious position, in order to support her other precarious job of being a seiyuu.
In both cases of Thurlow and Zuka chan, the two are experiencing direct precarity in the anime industry. What is worse for these two compared to the fan groups in the previous nodes is that the interests of the individuals and the industry lie within the same space and directly clash with each other. Thurlow and Zuka chan are looking to gain monetary payments for their work, while the industry is trying to maximize its profit by providing as little wage as possible. Hence, the individuals are the ones who are put at maximum risk, while the anime industry is able to profit off of them.
References
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/japans-animation-industry-isnt-just-tough-its-illegally-harsh-110074.html
AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2qprjj/i_am_an_animator_from_ny_who_moved_to_japan_and/
Shirobako can be watched here for free (and legally): http://www.crunchyroll.com/shirobako
Henry Thurlow is an American animator who moved to Tokyo to work in the anime industry as a keyframer. He was first hired by Nakamura Productions and then moved on to the better known Pierrot Studios. In his interviews and AMAs (Ask me Anything) on reddit, he recounts his experiences of finding an opening and working in the anime industry as an animator. He states that it is "not a ‘tough’ industry… It’s an ‘illegally harsh’ industry". This was especially true when he was working at his first company, Nakamura Productions, where he would get paid "paid $1 per drawing, meaning you earned between $5 and $25 a day". Even Pierrot was not much better, where "1 drawing = $2-$4 .... so on any given day I can earn about $40. (HORRIBLE by anyone's standards.... but, if you want to work on cool anime, there's not much choice.)".
While the amount of money that he received as a "professional" is horrid enough to show abuse, to prove the precarious nature of his work, it is important to look at how he is being paid. He is being paid on a frame by frame basis, an unstable means of payment, due to how variable his total pay could be depending on how many drawings he could flesh out in a day. Furthermore, this method of payment completely ignores the fact that scenes with more complexity take an exponential amount of time to draw compared to simple shots. As he states, the pay in a day at Nakamura could vary between 5 dollars and 25 dollars, a five-fold difference. Such an instability in pay indicates it as a precarious job, despite being a professional.
Another example of precarity is demonstrated in the 2015 anime Shirobako, whose main plot focuses on presenting the production process of anime and the lives of those who work on it. The plot focuses on a group of friends who once created a small scale anime in highschool as club activity. This group is now old and working in the professional anime industry. One character in this group is Sakaki Shizuka, called Zuka chan throughout the anime. Zuka chan is a seiyuu, or voice actress, who embodies the precarious nature of the anime industry.
As a seiyuu, Zuka chan tries out for multiple voice positions throughout the anime season, but unfortunately lands no stable role in an anime, only picking up very minor mob roles here and there. In fact one scene of her depression of not being able to find a stable role is powerful (Episode 22 18:20), where she is shown drinking herself to sleep in sorrow. Furthermore, in order to support herself financially as a seiyuu, she is shown to have a part time job of working at a small izakaya. Essentially Zuka chan is working as a freeter, a precarious position, in order to support her other precarious job of being a seiyuu.
In both cases of Thurlow and Zuka chan, the two are experiencing direct precarity in the anime industry. What is worse for these two compared to the fan groups in the previous nodes is that the interests of the individuals and the industry lie within the same space and directly clash with each other. Thurlow and Zuka chan are looking to gain monetary payments for their work, while the industry is trying to maximize its profit by providing as little wage as possible. Hence, the individuals are the ones who are put at maximum risk, while the anime industry is able to profit off of them.
References
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/japans-animation-industry-isnt-just-tough-its-illegally-harsh-110074.html
AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2qprjj/i_am_an_animator_from_ny_who_moved_to_japan_and/
Shirobako can be watched here for free (and legally): http://www.crunchyroll.com/shirobako
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