Ippei Ichii, who has worked in the anime industry for over 20 years, criticized Netflix for allegedly paying animators less than the industry average.Ichii, who worked on series like Kill La Kill and School Rumble, laid out their claims against Netflix on Twitter, writing, "Apparently, a producer working on a Netflix anime made at MAPPA (was) suggested to pay 3,800 yen (US$34) per cut. The budget for TV series is between 3,800 to 7,000 yen, so if you accept that offer, the unit price for animators would go down." Freelance animator Zayd Ghassan, who has previously worked on series such as Smile Down The Runway and Sword Art Online, added, "The usual 4500 yen per cut is already bad enough. What is Netflix thinking allowing them to pay less than the average?" Ichii clarified that his issue is mostly with Netflix, saying, "For all the exorbitant amount of capital they have, it's a problem that they've started to place orders with such low rates. There is a possibility that the prices are even lower than a TV series." A full translation of Ichii's tweets, along with responses from other animators, is available on Anime News Network.
Allegations about animators being overworked and underpaid have swirled around both Netflix and the anime industry for several years. In 2019, an artist in the Philippines who worked at the studio that was producing the Carmen Sandiego series accused Netflix of paying its animators less than minimum wage. In the same year, Vox conducted an investigation that found animators in the anime industry were making less than $2 USD per drawing and spoke to an animator who had been hospitalized due to exhaustion. An article published by The New York Times in 2021 stated that full-time animators in Japan make as little as $12,000 USD a year, despite anime now achieving unprecedented levels of international popularity and expanding into a $24 billion/year industry. In May, an animator who used to work at Attack on Titan studio MAPPA, which Netflix partnered with on the production of Yasuke, complained about "factory like" conditions at the studio.
In June, Netflix announced its plans to expand the selection of anime on its service, confirming several new shows and deals to exclusively stream several popular anime titles, including the recently released Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway.
Source: Anime News Network