Demon Slayer animator reveals his income: 4,000 yen for completing one storyboard in two days

The anime Demon Slayer is so popular that no one can match it. Are the relevant industry players making a lot of money? The fact is not so. Those animators fighting on the front line probably don't think so. According to foreign media reports, an animator of Demon Slayer revealed his income. He needs to work for two full days to complete a complex storyboard and only earns 4,000 yen.

Daigo Nakamura (pseudonym, 43 years old), who worked as the original artist for Demon Slayer, revealed to the media a lot of cruel inside stories of the animation industry today. To sum it up in one sentence, no matter how popular an animation is, only the president and producers can make a lot of money.

Japanese animators are actually divided into two major positions, original painters and animators. The so-called animators are responsible for the connection between original paintings. Daigo Nakamura used to be an animator for a long time, but he changed his career because he felt he was about to die from overwork. He got a part-time job as a part-time original painter based on his past experience.

·According to the latest market conditions, for example, for a popular animation like "Demon Slayer", it costs 4,000 yen to complete a storyboard regardless of its complexity. Of course, a simple storyboard with mostly talking scenes can be completed in 1 to 2 hours, but it is common to take 2 full days to complete a storyboard with complex scenes of running and fighting.

It may sound a bit uncomfortable. After all, the hourly wage for simple odd jobs in Japan starts at around 900 yen. However, if you listen to Daigo Nakamura talking about his past experience as an animator, you will find that the treatment is much better. During the more than ten years that Daigo Nakamura worked as an animator, his income for a storyboard unit was only up to 240 yen at most. Daigo Nakamura was sent away by ambulance several times due to overwork and finally decided to change jobs.

Finally, let’s summarize:

Average monthly salary for animators: 200,000 yen.

Nakamura's part-time original artist income: 6.8 yen, working 8 days, completed 17 storyboard units X 4000 yen.