CATDOLL: Why are there fewer and fewer original animations? Senior animators say they don’t have the money to make them

Many Japanese animations are adapted from comics or light novels, but there are actually many original works, and there are really many excellent ones. However, many viewers have noticed that there are fewer and fewer original Japanese animations, and the quality is not as good as before. It is rare that there are several original animations in each season, but not many of them can finally receive attention and become popular works. What is the reason that makes Japanese original animations a scarce resource? Recently, Masayuki Miyachi, a senior Japanese animator who has participated in the production of many original and adapted animations, gave us an answer: "The animation industry can't stand the tossing."

Masayuki Miyachi was once the assistant supervisor of "Spirited Away". In recent years, he has been responsible for the storyboards of animations such as "Gundam G Renaissance", "Haikyuu!!" and "Attack on Titan". In a radio program, he said that it is now difficult for original projects to be made into animations: "Japanese animation production companies now prefer to make animations based on original works that are best-selling works. Such animations adapted from popular novels or comics can promote the sales of the original works, promote the sales of animations, and also allow animation production companies to establish industry reputation."

"In the Japanese animation industry, designers, performers, and scriptwriters have a lot of work to do when adapting an original animation. Once it becomes a completely original work without even the original work, many producers' brains will easily freeze and they won't be able to come up with good ideas. Everyone is used to handling animation production in the simplest way, and original animation requires higher creativity from producers. I am not saying here that original animation is better than adapted animation. In fact, original animation and adapted animation have their own strengths and weaknesses."

"To make a season of animation now, the cheapest production cost per episode is 10 million yen, plus the publicity cost is about 20 million yen per episode, the production cost of a season of animation is about 200 million yen. Once you see someone online saying that a certain animation has been cancelled this season, you will be very shocked. Now, as soon as an original animation is broadcast, people online say that this animation is like XX, and then judge the original animation based on the so-called similar animations. This will undoubtedly pour cold water on the enthusiasm of the production team members. The Japanese animation industry now can no longer accept the failure of an animation. In the past, when they encountered an original project, they would say give it a try, but now they will clearly say that the animation industry does not have so much leisure time to make an original animation with an unknown future."

There have been many articles before that have stated that the current Japanese animation production industry can only rely on the sales of animation BDs to maintain operations. Animations adapted from original works have a certain fan base, and as long as the plot is not cut out and the whole thing is not completely remade, there will always be fans to support it. Original animations are completely started from scratch, and the key is that not all animation production companies can handle original animations well, so minimizing risks has become the first choice for animation companies to produce animations.