More Anime Studios Could Go Bankrupt, Claim
Terumi Nishii, lead animation director of "Jujutsu Kaisen 0," has painted a bleak picture of the future of the anime industry, suggesting that we could soon expect more anime studio bankruptcies. In a post on Twitter, Nishii stated:
- "In the future, the capacity of each study will be completely exhausted. We expect to see more and more bankruptcies due to the fact that a production scheduled for 3 years from now will be finished in 5 years, but the budget has been spent on another production. I wonder how many animators will be able to survive at that point. The careless ones will be eliminated. We all need to study more!"
Nishii's concerns about anime budgets are backed up by other industry figures. Anime production commonly begins around three years before it airs. For instance, "Solo Leveling" producer Atsushi Kaneko recently shared in a "Solo Leveling" special that he received the project's outline in July 2020. Since animation usually happens at the end of production, an excessive number of corrections due to low competition means additional compensation. If this is not taken into account, other projects that are also underway will collapse despite the significant work done, resulting in bankruptcies.
Terumi Nishii has long maintained that the impending collapse of the anime industry is largely due to the decline in the skills of the new generation. He also previously criticized the practice of hiring animators through social media, whom he sees as cheap labor who won't have the time or environment to learn from their mistakes and improve. NAFCA hopes to introduce an Animator Skills Certification, which will standardize skills and open a pathway for skill to be commensurate with job prospects and salary.
A critical part of Nishii's role is to correct animators' drawings that do not meet acceptable standards. Previously, he has spoken about the enormous health pressures faced by animation directors, who are critical for an anime to maintain a consistent design. Kiyoshi Komatsubara, lead animation director of "Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War," opened up about this topic late last year, describing health issues at the end of the year for two years in a row. "I realize I'm getting older and I need to take care of my health, so I'll be more careful next year," he added.
Source: Twitter Official Account
