On twitter, Terumi Nishiithe main animation director of “Jujutsu Kaisen 0“, painted a bleak picture for the future of the anime industry, suggesting that we could soon expect more anime studio bankruptcies.
On twitter Nishii he wrote:
In the future, the capacity of each studio will be completely exhausted. We expect to see more and more bankruptcies due to the fact that a production scheduled for 3 years was completed in 5 years, but the budget was spent on another production. I wonder how many animators will be able to survive at this point. Those who are careless will be eliminated. We should all study more!
The concerns of Nishii over anime budgets are supported by other industry figures. Anime production usually begins about three years before the premiere. For example, the producer of “Solo Leveling”, Atsushi Kanekorecently shared in a “Solo Leveling” who received the design draft in July 2020. Since animation usually happens at the end of production, an excessive number of corrections due to low competence means additional compensation. If this is not taken into account, other projects that are also ongoing will collapse despite significant work carried out, resulting in bankruptcies.
Terumi Nishii has long claimed that the imminent collapse of the anime industry is largely due to the declining skills of the new generation. She has also previously criticized the practice of hiring artists through social media, which she considers to be cheap labor who will not 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 pave the way for skills to be commensurate with job prospects and salary.
A fundamental part of the role of Nishii is to correct animators’ drawings that do not meet acceptable standards. She has previously spoken about the enormous health pressures faced by animation directors, which are essential for an anime to maintain a consistent design. Kiyoshi Komatsubarachief animation director of “Bleach: The Thousand Year Blood War”, spoke on this topic at the end of last year, describing health problems at the end of the year for two years in a row.
I realize that I’m getting older and I need to take care of my health, so I’ll be more careful next year.
