by Robert Kohr

Recently I heard a rumor about an American animator working at a Japanese animation studio, [ Production I.G ]. The have a very concise English based website run by one of their CG artist’s Justin Leach. Justin is originally from Michigan and an alumnus of the Ringling School of Art and Design. Prior to journeying to the Far East he worked at [ Blue Sky Studios ] on the Academy Award winning “Bunny” and the acclaimed feature “Ice Age”, as well as boarding a sequence for Fox’s “Titan AE” and is presently a CG artist on I.G’s “Innocence: Ghost in the Shell”. For about 2 years now, Justin has been working at I.G, which is known for its adult animation. They produced the original Masamune Shirow’s “Ghost in the Shell” as well as the “Jin Roh”, “Blood the Last Vampire” and the acclaimed series “FLCL” (Furi Kuri), which was co produced with GAINIX.

Most of this can be learned from an article that he wrote for [ AWN ] this past year and also a journal that Justin has been keeping up on the [ Production I.G ] site. His very candid and open discussion about his experiences prompted me to see if he would write an article for Animators Unite. Because of his heavy schedule, the typical workday being 10 – 14 hours and alternating Saturdays, he declined and instead offered to meet me over his vacation to New York over the Holidays. With his cup of tea in hand we sat down at Alt Coffee on Avenue A and casually discussed what is it really like for a foreigner to work in Japan.

For many years, in animation schools many an avid animator/anime fan has drooled over the idea of working at a Japanese animation studio. However they have been told that it was an impossibility; this is gradually changing. What lures them cannot be money, Justin reflected on his comfortable salary at his former job compared to much less at I.G. On average, animation studios pay entry level employees about $12,000 to $25,000 USD a year, less then half their American counterparts. Most animators/artists have freelance work to cover some of their expenses. So how does one live on such a scant amount of money? Like New York, Tokyo’s housing gets much cheaper as you move away from the center of the city into the suburbs where one can expect to find an apartment for about $400 to $600 USD a month. What is attractive about Japanese animation is the wealth of work that can be found, 60% of the media output of Japan is animation compared to the US’s scant 1% (Anime, Suzanne Napier). There is also a much wider breadth of work to be had in Japan, television shows are animated in-house; I cannot neglect to mention that there is also a wider breadth of content. Much of the animation in the States is “family” oriented, while Japan has a much wider range varying from children’s animation to more mature films and even pornography.

Justin continued to tell me that while the animation industry is struggling here, in Japan it continues to do pretty well. It is thriving, but like the US it has problems too. One of the more obvious is the budget. American films tend to be very top heavy, and over spend on executives and marketing research, which usually results in a film costing in excess of $100 million USD. In Japan films tend to run a $10 million to $20 million USD budget with similar production values to the US animation. The benefits can be seen, however because his experiences first hand, Justin wishes that the Japanese market would find a happy equilibrium between the two. In addition to the budget constraints, there are other differences in trends. From his perspective, for CG anime production in Japan, studios lack interaction between the 2D animators and the 3D animators, whereas in the American 3D animation industry he felt that there was a more of an effort to bring the traditional animation principles from 2D to the 3D animation world.

One practice that you might have noticed on Japanese films is that more than one studio works on a film; there is a very prevalent practice of studios with certain strengths lending out their talent to “competitor’s” studios. A good example of this in practice is with [ Production I.G’s ] next feature project, “Innocence: Ghost in the Shell” which is being co-produced by Studio Ghibli, known for “ Princess Mononoke” and [ “Spirited Away” ] . American studios almost never practice this and are very protective of their studio’s secrets. Another large difference is the amount of corporate input and staff input on a film. In the States we always hear tales of the “suits” interfering with the creative process either to redirect it to the studio’s doctrines or to destroy it with marketing research. Justin reflected on the fact that the Japanese studio employees often give a great deal of respect to the creators involved in the project. The director is king and the rest of the staff works to fulfill his/her vision, unquestionably and eagerly. A lot of American studios are trying to make more appealing films that follow similar ideals as the Japanese. But films, like “Treasure Planet” tend to only be redirecting their market to “tweens” rather than ignoring the market all together and just concentrating on producing great films. Then the executives step in and destroy any creative juice the film might have had. American films seem to be in an era of passing blame and killing films before release. As for business agreements, Justin said that a lot of contracts in Japan are verbal and it is very important for a studio to stand by its word, otherwise that company will lose respect in the industry and ultimately fail. Japanese companies still promote the idea of company loyalty; the company is loyal to its employees and visa versa. The result is a trend for employees to remain employed at the studios for several years, whereas in American studios, employees face a greater risk of being laid off at the end of a season or even upon completion of a pilot. Features are not much better.

Justin emphasized the fact that there are indeed many cultural differences and similarities. He noted that most of his fellow workers grew up on similar series, like “Battle of the Planets” and on similar video games, like Super Mario Brothers. Probably one of the greater differences in culture is the method of communication. Very often he has found that disputes are not openly handled and are usually ignored in hopes that the disagreement will resolve itself with time. While computer generated animation is a very hot subject in the west, many of the Japanese studios have yet to show a real interest in creating full CG feature animation. Justin attributed this to the creatives not having seen anything using CG character animation that truly inspired them to switch over. However, one way in which CG is making its way into anime is by using 3D to create backgrounds and highly detailed mechanical objects. This has generated a wonderful integration between 2D and 3D that is reminiscent of the quality of “Iron Giant”.

Justin has a lot of recommendations regarding employment for foreigners in a Japanese animation studio. A lot of these are based on his own personal learning experiences. The obvious ones are that you must have a solid interest in the Japanese culture. Japan is a very culturally rich country and if it interests you as it does Justin, it will be a dream come true to live there. You should probably visit Japan at least once to make sure, it is very different from the US and Tokyo is a very crowded city. It is not necessary that you speak Japanese to live there or even get a job, Justin knew very little when he was hired by I.G. However he recommends 2 –3 years of study other wise you will need to learn it once you get there; given the work regimen you would be better off taking classes beforehand. Make sure you have paid off those school loans given the going salaries. The Japanese also want to see that you have experience. Generally speaking it will be difficult to get a job right out of college so it may be a good idea to gain experience at a reputable animation studio (feature film or a popular television series.) In Japan, animation is treated more like a traditional trade. Most animators begin work when they get out of high school and apprentice in place of a college degree. Therefore your degree will definitely be second to your actual practical experience. Rumor has it that some studios want to begin hiring foreigners, I.G has three right now and Mad House is also looking (produced “Trigun’) If you have the desire to seek out a career in Japanese animation or if you have any questions you can contact Justin on the Production I.G. Forum.

A new article by Justin recently came to my attention. In it he has interviewed some of his co-workers [ CGNetworks ].