A-1 Pictures “Killed Animator” with 600 Hour Month
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Apr 20, 2014 05:03 JST
- Tags: A-1 Pictures, Crime, Kyoto, Litigation, Mental Illness, Production Controversy, Suicide
Police have confirmed that A-1 Pictures worked one of their animators to death, ruling that being made to work hundreds of hours of overtime a month drove him to suicide.
The case centres on a man, 28 at the time of his death in 2010, employed on as a full-time animator at A-1 Pictures from 2006 to the end of 2009.
In 2010 the man quit his job after suffering severe depression, having been denied a transfer after his health collapsed, and later in the year committed suicide, prompting his bereaved family to retain a lawyer and pursue his former employer as being directly liable in a case of “karoushi” – death through overwork.
For some reason A-1 Pictures kept no record of the hours employees actually worked, but hospital records included the revelation that he “worked 600 hours in a month,” and Shinjuku police in charge of enforcing labour regulations confirmed that in the months prior to his diagnosis with depression he worked over 100 hours of overtime each month.
The family’s lawyer claims the reality was significantly worse, saying online posts he left suggest he started suffering from depression in 2008 and had to work from 134 to 344 hours of overtime in the months leading up to his departure.
He also mentions that “he frequently could not go home and no evidence of him ever being paid for any of this overtime survives” – at one point spending an entire week sleeping at the studio, and working for 3 months without any day off.
Despite the discrepancy in accounts, the family have nonetheless likely won the case – the police investigation officially concluded his death was caused by depression stemming from overwork.
His family say they launched the suit because “He loved anime and worked fervently – we wish nothing similar to occur at an anime studio in future.”
A-1 Pictures say “the police verdict was unexpected, and as we don’t know how they arrived at it we cannot comment.”
The man worked as a production coordinator, and titles he was involved in include Kannagi and Ookiku Furikabutte.
The case has prompted outrage online – anime studios already being notorious even amongst Japanese companies for exploiting their animators with miserable pay and working conditions:
“Rest in peace. I liked the studio but 600 hours in a month is just inhuman.”
“20 hours a day or something to that effect… my prayers are with him.”
“I work 12 hours a day and that is bad enough. This is awful.”
“He worked on some top titles… such a shame. RIP.”
“I would suppose they impose the same conditions on the rest of their employees?”
“Criminal liability should be sought against the directors!”
“Cool Japan – what a joke when this is what lies behind it.”
“A-1 is blacker than black!”
“Labour standards need to raid this company. 600 hours is outrageous. A 5 day work week of 8 hours a day is 160 hours, and even 16 hours a day is only 320. 600 is like 20 hours a day every day of the month. They treated him as a slave… poor guy.”
“Why is the anime industry like this? They just through away their artistic talents with this kind of treatment.”
“Hard to enjoy anime hearing stories like this about how it is made.”
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Expected already. Same shit as dreaming to live in japan. Your dream is over as soon as you understand how much you have to work in japan to survive...
Japaneses doesn't give a fuck to pawns of industry/commerce. Work 12 hours a day and use Monday at bed since your body will be so fadiged to do anything... Plus, weekends in japan? What a joke.
It's actually kinda hilarious in an absurd way.
Work more+abenomics=earn more but prices all rise so your buying power is reduced.
The other fun thing is what the evil bitch from the IMF is proposing: more women in the work force so more dual income families. So far in the USA dual income has just lead to higher mortgages, higher prices, depression, neglected children, weakened families, higher divorce rate.
I do see a correlation between problem children and the so called latchkey child syndrome.
ZVEZDAAAAAAAA
Not to mention, it's also gonna accelerate the declining birth rate because those women are gonna be overworked too and too tired to have and raise children.
Its funny how retards like you speak about things they have ZERO idea. You write that if a japanese woman start to work there will be no children. Japan has the lowest birth rate on the planet. Japanese population is declining for few years now. So their system is not working correctly in the first place. FFS shoot yourself in the head.
Yeah, the USA shouldn't be giving moral advice to anyone. And this is an American speaking here.
The Japanese family is doing just fine with mom properly raising the kids.
Thus why all the men are impotent & all the women remain unsatisfied.
He couldn't just quit though. It would be a great dishonor to do so.
"pride goeth before a fall"
i'm a NEET
No one cares though.
Bitch please trying being in the military... any military. Especially training, physically demanding work for 18-20 hours a day for 8-13 weeks. All the while being emotionally berated and purposely exhausted. You know how many suicides a year they have because of shit like that? A fucking lot. And those are non-japanese. geez you know your society sucks when its known for its suicide rates.
Dude at least in military they do exercises.
Do you know what the fuck is sitting 24H a day on a fucking chair, just moving your hands, and only going up to scan the fucking cel's?
ARE YOU REALLY COMPARING?! fuck you piece of shiet
Imagine. Year after fuckin year, sitting in the studio doing the same fucking thing over and over again. It ain't physically exhausting, agreed and even if he wanted to get some exercise the studio piled more and more work on him. I'm sure that if you were in his position you'd go fucking insane. It isn't physically demanding, its mentally demanding. You know what happens to people who don't get enough vitamin D as well right? And sitting on a chair is incredibly bad for you. Its a major health risk, especially if you do it for so long.
Mr. Internet Tough-guy here.
First of all, the military is training human beings to withstand inhuman conditions. In a war zone, you are fighting for your life and the lives of your fellow soldiers. Soldiers are expected to be tough, because the consequences of failing is human lives.
Animators are not soldiers. They're working a regular job with a regular (probably shitty) salary. If they fall behind, no one dies and countries don't fall.
Also, the conditions of which you speak is mainly in bootcamp. The whole purpose of bootcamp is to test the physical and emotional limits of a person. After bootcamp, it gets easier. It's a testing and initiation process. This story refers to an animator who worked hundreds of hours overtime over multiple years.
Soldiers can at least look forward to being on leave. This animator had no option other than to quit and potentially become a NEET for the rest of his life or work endlessly. Quitting in Japan is not as simple as it is in Western countries. Quitting leaves a negative stigma on your career.
lol @ the military douche. what a hero...not. no one cares. quit with your working class hero bullshit, no one is impressed by you :)
Not cool Japan :-/
They should just hire more staff, they charge enough for the damn DVDs, Blu Rays, other merch.
Wrong. People don't buy them. Nobody buys them most of the time. More staff is not possible unless people buy them or the shows generate enough worth to get the advertising budget. The only pathway they are left with is to toss extra shit into the bluray collections you can't get anywhere else and collectors will buy them, and then pump up the price knowing that a certain collection of hard-core people will get them at whatever price, then they have to hope to the gods that their characters are lovable enough following the archetypes everyone claims to be getting sick of so they will sell in merchandising. Then they stamp them on everything for the people who have shown to have all the money to scoop up.
This is what piracy has done by the way, and pretending otherwise is just plain foolish. The time when people stated 'piracy is helping the industry' ended about 8 years ago, it long since passed the hump and now is killing the DVD/Bluray industry. It brought our DVD box set prices down, but nobody buys them still, so only the companies who calculate when dubs are worth it make much with the sales.
Thankfully the American market has caught up with a last-minute net in the streaming services, but if we don't buy the best shows and show the support through merchandising or DVD purchase, this is what we've become.
DVDs and Blurays (and VHS tapes before that) were always expensive in Japan. Piracy has nothing to do with it. Not every show has shitty sales, but those that do usually pander to Otaku in the first place. Or are actually shitty.
Would you buy a mediocre show 3 episodes at a time for $60?
It used to be TWO episodes.... it seems better now at 3 per $60.
The $60 per DVD/Bluray is also part of their horrible model, we all know this, but the sales in America are also drastically low even after the market was adapted for piracy and no longer has the $200 for the Trigun box set I paid for. There was that very minor point where we had the chance to show some potential when they catered Big O to us as a second season, but unfortunately that wasn't really a very strong show in general. I wonder what could have been if that succeeded.
Have you checked the prices of anime? It's totally mindnumbing how much they charge. It's no wonder few people buy them... PS: As for 'piracy' - for westerners it's nigh impossible to follow shows unless you pirate - with the exception of the US and a few other countries (FR, GE, UK?) where there are deals with ie Funimation who buy the license from the Japanese companies.
Yeah fsck Funimation. The cocksuckers only make deals for US releases. At least CR has worldwide streaming for about 70% of their catalog, but still charge the same rate for everyone.
There are many revenue streams for anime. A country of 120 odd million people where anime is a pop culture phenomenon and they can't afford decent salaries? Retards.
Fuck man, im glad i pirate all those releases from CR by grabbing them at horriblesubs.
Anon 9:46's complete lack of understanding of how much they have to work with almost directly leads to anon 10:55's reasoning, and these ideas are the reasons why animation studios often can't grow without 'miracle' shows like Bakemonogatari leading to sales almost despite everyone's expectations.
One would hope that Trigger is being watched closely to see what happens when you come out of the gate with quality like the old 90s Disney cartoons. Then again, one also has to hope that being a studio that was created by animators, they don't use these torture tactics.
> This is what piracy has done by the way, and pretending otherwise is just plain foolish.
Wat? I wouldn't even be interested in anime if it weren't for piracy, and now probably about 80% of my entertainment spending goes into buying anime and anime related goods. I know I'm not the only one, as basically all my good friends are in the same boat. "Piracy is killing " has always been a terrible argument, and it doesn't work any better on anime than it does on any other medium.
Now, if you want to argue that piracy is killing shitty products, I'll agree with that. For example, if I pirate a game based on marketing hype and it turns out to be garbage, I don't feel very inclined to make a purchase. If, however, I find the game to be excellent, I'll be more than happy to purchase it and other related goods (budget allowing) to support good work.
> "Piracy is killing "
Err, weird Sankaku formatting. this is supposed to read: "Piracy is killing *insert media*"
Basically they're choking themselves with outdated business model. Streaming service has already been proven profitable. Even with rampant piracy. But most of anime publisher still can't get over the whole DVD/BD mentality.
According to the industry professionals, DVDs are still the most profitable avenue, followed by merchandising. Streaming only holds up so far, there isn't much of a way to make it too profitable yet as anime fans only pay a smaller monthly fee for the license, and if it got too high, fewer would pay it because anime fans of the modern age are by and large too young to afford it in their demographic, in some cases too cheap to think it's worth their money even if they love it, or growing up without a concept of what it was like before you could pirate everything without penalty. It is the last one that can truly destroy the industry.
"anime fans of the modern age are by and large too young to afford it in their demographic, in some cases too cheap to think it's worth their money even if they love it, or growing up without a concept of what it was like before you could pirate everything without penalty. "
Bullshit. That's even more true before the modern age.
I hate to break it to you but the world runs mostly on free market capitalism, where stuff tends to get less expensive over time. If you think kids can't afford anime today, they REALLY couldn't afford it back in the day. Back in the Bad Old Days, even the TV could set you back. People had to deal with VHS too, which has higher cost of ownership. For example, you can't get away with the cost of storage, even if you pirated.
And yes, people pirated. I hate to break it to you again, but it's not just kids these days that grew up without a concept of what it was like before you could pirate everything without penalty. It wasn't just anime either. Kids traded mix tapes for music and floppies for games too.
And most of us faced no penalties, because back then what we did was known as SHARING, not "piracy".
See, piracy used to only mean those who copy and distribute for COMMERCIAL gain. Somewhere along the line, the copyright lobby got it to include all the kids and grandmas doing it for PERSONAL use too.
In short, "piracy" (what is actually just sharing) isn't the variable that changed. The industry's stance on what counts as piracy did.
@ Anon 12:53
Well put, but you also do not consider that the internet was not widespread then. I am old enough to have done all you are talking about. As well as recording movies and shows off the TV on VHS. The 'sharing' you are referring to amongst a group of buddies has become a world-wide exchange that has no control whatsoever. You say the industry changed, and it changed to do its best to survive the onslaught of dwindling profits and sales for the new market that had the uncontrollable flood of digital data.
Their attempts at controlling the data flow are meeting fierce opposition now, as it should be, but the scope has become industry-destroying. Currently owning a physical, tangible copy is becoming something that is becoming less and less of a 'thing' and while digital downloads are in place, they basically exist now as a stop-gap from what industries were in the past.
That said, I also recognize that things are much more easily able to transition into a global market, and will also admit I do not have the creativity to know how that can be done successfully this day and age, or I guess I should say 'to the level of success it was' in terms of profitability.
In the end, the true fear is that markets become unsustainable in an online atmosphere. The good news is that so far that doesn't seem to be the case, but the reason people sit around and bitch about shows being crap and having no story is because the sustainable shows are the ones that have merchandising capabilities.
In a rather hilarious turnaround, anime is almost like the reverse of the Transformers era. The story generates the character designs that generate the toys rather than the toys generating the story with which to sell them.
From everything I can see though that's not an expanding market like a successful show based on a toy would be.
"the internet was not widespread then."
Irrelevant. The ANIME MARKET itself was not widespread back then either.
Without the Internet, the industry couldn't have sold anime or related goods to lots of people either. Today I could go to Amazon in my other browser tab, perform a quick search, and buy almost any anime related good I want. They don't have stock or I don't know about Amazon? A Google search can solve that problem. All done in the comfort of my own home.
Back in the Bad Old Days? I'd have to ask around to find out where one can find anime related things. Then I have to drive out to the store (assuming one was in the area). Then I have to hope they have stock of what I want.
The Internet gave the industry more opportunities than it did take away. The pirates didn't and isn't destroying the industry. The industry squandered their own chances. Best example is how it responded to Napster, and the emergence of Apple. Instead of embracing it, industry fought against technology with lawsuits. Little help that did, as for every Napster shut down, another two pop up. They were throwing good money top chase after bad.
Then Apple came along, offering to be the online middle man for music companies. Many companies refused. Why would they want to give Apple a cut, right? But we all know how successful Apple turned out. Turns out selling music for less but getting some profit is better than no profit at all.
Other companies caught on, and now buying and selling music and pretty much anything else online is the norm. Amazon again, Steam, plenty of online stores for your anime importing needs.
Yeah, profit margins are tighter than ever, but again, that's how free market capitalism works. Stay competitive, or you're out.
"n a rather hilarious turnaround, anime is almost like the reverse of the Transformers era. The story generates the character designs that generate the toys rather than the toys generating the story with which to sell them.
From everything I can see though that's not an expanding market like a successful show based on a toy would be."
Well, that's an indication that perhaps going story first is a bad strategy. And my point stands: it's not the pirates fault. The pirates didn't sail up to the anime companies, put a flintlock to their heads, and told them "yarrrg you will make animu with more waifus"
@ Anon 21:37
The irony of your statements is they do not grow with the times either. You make valid points, but valid points from about 10 years ago. I already recognized and commented that piracy is by and large the reason for the anime industry's growth by 2005, however afterwards, the profit-margin and growth to ratio of lost sales hit its zenith and no longer could sustain itself.
Bringing the anime over has multiple issues, namely the old-school Japanese thought, which of course is changing now as we can see with simul-streaming. Space Dandy I hope is a test that succeeded, because that is how anime in America can survive on TV and become a bit more like Japan, in the sense we can see it on TV and they get their advertising, then we can make the choice to get the DVDs through legitimate means as well.
Back in 2005 and before I won't call them the Bad Old Times, things were and are changing. Anime couldn't get over here fast enough, that really was the only reason we got it from online in many cases, it was there and we had no other access. It took a year for shows to get over here on average after they completed and that wasn't enough.
It might be easy to get series now, but the issue is the arrogance of the normal anime watcher is tough to determine. In our generation we had to earn allowance to get movies and games we wanted, and there was honor to that, even though it required some hard work, we respected what we got. When the Kazaa era came, it was magical but we also still had the understanding of how things worked. Now I worry that without consideration of what they are getting, teenagers and kids are not going to be able to sustain things. Granted its people who work for a living who fund the industry anyway, but influence from kids drives sales quite a bit too.
The big thing is we have no influence, and in a very real sense, if the Kickstarter concept truly hits the west in a big way, it's basically the Micro-transaction method that saved many industries in the East. If investment wasn't centered around large companies anymore, but a pre-investment of 35 bucks on the promise of DVDs for a show that will come out in a year, then I think we can control the industry again.
you are an idiot
And you are useless.
@11:10
Just like your penis kid.
HouseLife you wanker. I bought both Kannagi DVDs. I probably also bought merchandise. So people do buy that stuff.
HouseLife, anime DVDs and BDs are expensive even abroad. And CR also costs. Some of us do buy this crap, as well as merchandise. The stuff also gets shown on cable in Japan, regular TV and finally DVD/BD releases for sale and freaking rental. Add to that the merchandise, such as even for example, the always sold out limited edition VolksDollfie Dreams and you have lots of revenue streams, never mind the manga, novels, audio drama cds and OSTs. That these wankers pay their employees so little is atrocious, but then again, why didn't he quit and look for another studio? If he was good, he'd be taken in. Then again maybe it's Japanese culture. Or maybe it's his depression which was pre-existing hence he saw no way out and just worked away.
People who say 'why didn't he just quit' have no idea what it is like to be an artist in an industry that is so competitive that you fear losing your job to one with slightly less skill but slightly faster, and never have the chance to go elsewhere. There are not enough anime studios for animators to just jump jobs. Japanese culture tends to lean toward overworking, but it's because of reputations being demolished for going against the group more than anything.
Depression puts you in a corner that your own mind eventually crumbles under, and being trapped between that which you love doing with all your heart and being forced down a pathway of that very love being your prison is something only those of us who have been there can understand. After you've been a creator, and watching yourself able to bring something to life, if you don't have another plan in place when that is ripped out from under you to be a creator again, then you can spiral out of control. You can call it weakness if you wish, but it's still the truth of someone who has touched that ability to create and make it their livelihood. The thought of losing that is often worse than death when you are as trapped as this man was. I don't know him, but I know the lifestyle he was in well.
Troll confirmed.
>> The time when people stated 'piracy is helping the industry' ended about 8 years ago
Mostly because that was around the time you got a better product if you pirated. Piracy is and always was a service issue. As a paying customer I get fucked up the ass, as a pirate I'm still king.
bullshit. The animation studios have been working staff to death long before THE INTERNET even existed, blaming 'piracy' for this is the stupidest shit I've seen pour out of you in a while.
Maybe you've heard of a little title called Otaku no Video? Perfect example of what the animators have to do to live, and that's over THIRTY YEARS ago.
Not sure why my comment that says that the studio should hire more staff was rated bad here, all I can really say is lol Sankaku Complex. If you would rather they work their staff to death because they're clearly short on employees for the job, by all means.
Heard of quitting? Or finding another job?
Heard of reading? Before you post?
i cannot read, i have no eyes.
I cannot type, I have no fingers.
(how did I type this... you don't want to know...)
and i must scream
Truth about Japan, pretty much as soon as you find a job you will be treated like crap, your "will" be broken, you will be forced to bow everytime you see a superior in the hallway, it's hell and it's also standard in Japan.
Result, you either become cold hearted workaholic, you kill yourself, or you become a NEET.