Matt Schley
June 1, 2019 
A couple years ago, we brought you an inside look at Tokyo’s animator dorm, the fan-funded dormitory helping to address the notoriously low wages paid to young animators in the anime industry.
Now the folks behind the dorm have launched a new project to try to create anime with fairer wage distribution. Or, as they put it:
If it’s hard to change the current state of the industry, we should create a new anime industry ourselves!
In a system outside of the current anime industry, we are planning on increasing production costs to increase wages, and create a flow in which sales profit are returned to animators. In the future, we are willing to produce short films that allow staff to work under better wages.
The first step in that process is what they’re calling the Anime-Kikaku Grand Prix, in which a short film will be created from original submissions in two categories: manga and music.
The group is currently running a crowdfunding campaign to fund a “a sample movie to show you an example of the quality the short movie.” The sample movie, which will run 30 seconds, will be directed by Tatsuro Kawano (Boruto opening animation director and former animator dorm resident).
The crowdfunding site has many more details, including the proposed pay structure for animators working on the project.
As the site itself points out, these are small steps, but it’s good to see someone trying to change things for the better for young animators.
Source: NPO Animator Supporters
