Freelance character designer Terumi Nishii is a talent artist (see above) and has an impressive list of anime credits. She’s worked on Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, among others. She has lots experience and some frank advice.
Via Game New Flash, here is some real talk for those dreaming of moving to Japan and making anime.
So, yeah, don’t come to Japan to make anime.
80,000 yen is $716 dollars.
Nishii added that the current production grind is causing major burnout.
And the whole business is not geared to make money for the artists.
Thomas Romain, a French-born animator working in Japan, recounted this:
It’s not just long hours, but an industry that has yet to enter the 21st century.
Even if the situation was slightly better, it’s still hard for foreigners to become animators in Japan due to intrinsic problems, like visas.
Nishii said she has been shifting away from anime to games.
Be sure to follow Nishii on Twitter because she’s one of the few Japanese animators publically challenging how things have traditionally been done.