The anime industry is brutal. The average salaries can get low. Just how low? Let’s have a look at how they break down per position.
TheJapanese Animation Creators Associationpublished results of average salaries and ages for different production jobs in the anime industry.
Before we get to that, Tokyo-based animator Thomas Romain created a helpful flowchart that might help better explain how the different production jobs relate to each other
Supervision roles of the series director (kantoku 監督) and episode director (enshutsuka 演出家) in an anime production. pic.twitter.com/63zmf5qQU3
— ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ (@Thomasintokyo) April 27, 2016
Website Washi’s Blog also has a helpful explanation of the different productions and how they fit into the process.
This survey is for 2015, so 2018 might be slightly different. Over 750 people participated in the survey, with a nearly 60 to 40 percent breakdown between men and women. Via Yaraon!, All Nationz and 4chan, here are the results of the industry survey.
Series Director
Average Age: 42 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 540,833 yen ($4,878)
Average Yearly Salary: 6,490,000 yen ($58,540)
Chief Animation Director
Average Age: 43 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 470,000 yen ($4,239)
Average Yearly Salary: 5,640,000 yen ($50,873)
Producer
Average Age: 39 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 451,667 yen ($4,074)
Average Yearly Salary: 5,420,000 yen ($48,888)
Character Designer
Average Age: 38 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 425,000 yen ($3,833)
Average Yearly Salary: 5,100,000 yen ($45,997)
Animation Director
Average Age: 38 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 327,500 yen ($2,954)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,930,000 yen ($35,445)
3DCG Animator
Average Age: 34 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 320,000 yen ($2,886)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,840,000 yen ($34,629)
Episode Director
Average Age: 41 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 316,667 yen ($2,856)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,800,000 yen ($34,268)
Storyboarder
Average Age: 49 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 310,000 yen ($2,795)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,720,000 yen ($33,546)
Art Director (Background Art)
Average Age: 35 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 285,000 yen ($2,570)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,420,000 yen ($30,841)
Color Designer
Average Age: 38 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 278,333 yen ($2,510)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,340,000 yen ($30,118)
Cinematographer
Average Age: 34 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 265,833 yen ($2,397)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,190,000 yen ($28,765)
Production Assistant
Average Age: 30 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 257,000 yen ($2,317)
Average Yearly Salary: 3,090,000 yen ($27,865)
Key Animator
Average Age: 36 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 235,000 yen ($2,119)
Average Yearly Salary: 2,820,000 yen ($25,430)
Inbetween Checker
Average Age: 35 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 217,500 yen ($1,961)
Average Yearly Salary: 2,610,000 yen ($23,531)
Layout Artist/Rough Keyart
Average Age: 38 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 195,000 yen ($1,758)
Average Yearly Salary: 2,340,000 yen ($21,097)
Paint Staff
Average Age: 26 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 162,000 yen ($1,460)
Average Yearly Salary: 1,950,000 yen ($17,581)
2nd Key Animation/Clean-Up
Average Age: 27 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 93,333 yen ($841)
Average Yearly Salary: 1,120,000 yen ($10,097)
Inbetween Staff
Average Age: 24 years old
Average Monthly Salary: 92,500 yen ($833)
Average Yearly Salary: 1,110,000 yen ($10,007)
The top positions, such as a series director, make a good salary, but if you compare that paycheck to what a television series director gets or what a Hollywood filmmaker makes, it’s significantly less.
More disconcerting is how when you move down the scale, there are people who aren’t even making minimum wage. According to Mainichi News, Tokyo, where many anime studios are located, has the highest minimum wage in Japan (it varies by location) at 907 yen ($8.18) per hour. So, compared to the lower-paying anime jobs, you could easily make more working minimum wage. That’s depressing.
If that’s too abstract, NHK did a story on animator wages, putting them in concrete terms.
Animators are paid about 200 yen ($1.80) per drawing.
It’s possible to do up to 20 drawings a day.
For a monthly takehome salary of 107,833 yen ($972).
Each workday is 11 hours long with around four days off.
Damn. It’s even more disheartening when you realize that more anime is being made than ever before, yet there are people in the industry who don’t even earn a living wage
322 anime TV series produced in 2014 in Japan. No wonder there is such a major animator shortage in the industry. pic.twitter.com/W1ogWtYhDL
— ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ (@Thomasintokyo) April 28, 2016
This article was originally published on May 5, 2016. It has since been updated.
