We hear about the anime industry making a lot of money, but why are studios struggling?
It has to do with the production committee system, which the committee gets most of the profits and the studio only get one off production fees to make the show. It’s because the studios most instances are shut out of intellectual property rights, meaning they don’t get any of the money they earn.
This is why studios struggle to make a profit, which of course lead to a talent shortage, low pay, and poor working conditions.
@chikorita157 Workers always gets this treatment unless they fight back. The entertainment industry gets more press, but it happens everywhere. Retail for instance is pure hell to work in.
(This is part of why I, genuinely and seriously, think we should remove copyright, tax the snot out of profits, and use that for UBI. I know the argument is for artists to get paid, but they don’t get to own the copyright anyways. It’s like saying taxes should be low because one day I might win the lottery but I can’t afford healthcare until then.
At least make copyright and patents non transferable. So each worker owns anything they ever produce directly.)
@yon As they say, the beatings will continue until morale improves.
I guess if there is more large scale production disasters like the recent Sasakoi one, but with a more popular series that causes a studio to go under as a result, will people start to notice?
Maybe not, but I think something needs to change, the current projectory is not sustainable.
@chikorita157 People don’t care. I don’t even have to quality about what sadly:(
I fully expect the rich to push for anything that pushes costs down. AI, low wage countries, exploiting harder, etc:( It’s what has happened in every single industry out there. I.e. animation isn’t different from automotive or retail.
We are seeing capitalism falling apart, across the board. None of this is sustainable.
I know it’s not very likely, but I would love to see independently published manga. 100% by themselves. And for that manga to make enough to finance an anime. And then us fans embracing that directly and paying for that in a sensible way. We don’t need publishers and all that. They are leeches.
Basically a worker centric model. But as I said, less likely. A bit like indie games if that makes sense (not a direct 1:1.).
Basically if the workers own their work (not just a single person, but *all* the workers that were part of it) I think we’d be in a better state. And I’d argue that we’d better entertainment too then.
(Sorry if the explaination is kinda confusing, me brain isn’t on fully today. Lots of cotton in my head:/ So interpolate into sanity anything that sounds crazy. I probably just messed up what I wrote by mistake.)