This summer, the animated film “Children of the Weather” supervised by Shin Haicheng finally won the annual box office championship in Japan, and became a representative of the Japanese film industry to compete in the Oscar International Film Awards. In addition, he was shortlisted for the Oscar Anne Award in the animation film industry. Awards. On the other hand, Kyoto Animation, the mainstay of the Japanese animation industry, suffered a painful arson in July. 36 staff members passed away and were shaken all over the world. Empire Data released a “Survey of Animation Production Industry Trends” in September. Daisuke Iijima of this data project was interviewed to answer some questions of concern to everyone

It can be understood from COSMOS2 that our company holds corporate data. In 2018, the animation production revenue totaled 213.173 billion yen, which has maintained growth for eight consecutive years since 2011, although it has been called the animation economy for a while The bubble collapsed, but with the increase in the number of animation productions, the birth of big hits, the IP licensing business, and the industry’s income happily reverted. Daisuke Iijima particularly emphasized that the success of the 2006 “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” series played an extremely important role in the increase of late-night animation. Previously, the late-night animation had only a small budget cost, but the success of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” The opportunity for TV stations to see animations of late night gear

– Today, the main force of TV animation is still funded through various companies through the production committee.

TV stations, video companies, publishing houses, record companies, advertising agencies, film companies, toy companies, original copyrights, commissioned production companies. The production committee and the production company are the relationship between the original package and the receiving package. Of course, the original package will be issued to the company with a low production cost. Fatigue at the production site

As a well-known animation supervisor, Mr. Anno Hideaki once made a speech. This will not work for animation production companies. Although there are also trends in the production committee to increase the budget and increase the unit price, the problem cannot be solved without forming a consensus..

– The number of animation production companies seems to be increasing.

We counted 256 production companies in July 2019, of which 154 were established after 2000, accounting for 60%. Animation production companies are a very easy independent industry, but there are now A feeling of chaos. With the increase in labor costs now, it is very difficult to increase profits. The manglobe, who previously produced “Organ Slaughter,” declared bankruptcy during the production process, and finally the film was postponed and Genostudio took over the production

– In this investigation, the number of bankrupt animation companies has also become a topic.

There were 6 animation production companies that went bankrupt in 2018, 11 of which were closed and disbanded, and this number exceeded 8 in 2010 and became the highest in history. For example, there are productions IMS of “I want to be a double pony tail”, “Magic School H × H” and “College Fleet”, and a drop of “The Light of the Sea Angel”. In addition to the decline in contract prices, due to lack of talent, labor costs have risen, and contractors have paid higher and higher costs, capital turnover has reached a deadlock

-what about the reformed milk on the production site?

Previously produced the well-known subsidiary of Japanese TV station MADHOUSE, such as “The Girl Who Walked Through Time and Space”, and was reported by employees for their 393 hours of monthly overwork and unpaid overtime. The same well-known STUDIO 4 ℃ Labor disputes also occurred

Iijima believes that the reform of animation production methods is a problem for the entire society. According to the survey, the annual income of animators is 1 million, and the total supervision level is 6 million yen. On the other hand, there are many people in the animation industry who are engaged in related work because they like animation, and there are many creators who are not good at communication. Therefore, the so-called “value exploitation” (meaning power generation) is rampant in the animation industry. As the animation industry also has a sense of crisis, large companies devoted to talent investment have also begun to appear, but from the current situation, they have not improved

– How do you think the animation industry will develop in the future?

Currently, the number of animation production books is developing at a level of over 300 works per year. I personally think that this state will continue. On the other hand, in order to maintain the animation, production can only be carried out using the current method, which is also a reality. But at least, it is necessary to establish a structure for the industry to achieve profitability

Animations made with computers have become a trend now. With the development of technology, maybe the original artists and paintings in the future will no longer need so much. This is already seen from the animations produced by Chinese AI

– Recently, Chinese animation production companies have shown signs of attracting Japanese animation talents

In China with less entertainment (Jimmy, I guess this Mr. Iijima has not been to China, in fact, we are really envious of entertainment). Animation is very popular. Therefore, for the growing Chinese animation needs the skills of Japanese animation producers, animation companies that have Chinese capital participation in Japan, the flow of talent will only increase in the future. If the competition for animation talents becomes active, it is a crisis for Japanese companies, because compared with China, Japan’s labor costs are much higher. In the future, the era where Chinese animation can match the quality of Japanese animation may come