2024年 10月 25日
November 2016 Interview 12
-Aside from the voice actors winning royalties on software releases, what other accomplishments came from the 1991 strike?
H: Program production costs went up to about 8 million yen. (It had been about 6 million yen before that.)
But that was only for some of Toei's popular works, like Galaxy Express 999. It wasn't for everything.
Nowadays, the average production cost is about 10 million yen.
But at the time, everyone interpreted it as "Let's appreciate the fact that production costs have gone up (even if it's only a partial increase)."
At that time, the performance fees for veteran voice actors also went up.
However, from that time on, large companies stopped using veteran voice actors and started using a lot of young, new voice actors.
And they changed the style to casting only one or two veteran voice actors per program.
The rest are all young, new voice actors.
In the end, there was a lot of excitement at the time of the strike and demonstrations, but basically, the people working in the anime industry are busy, and the owners of small and medium-sized companies are busy too, so they don't have the energy, and it gradually died down. At that time, the presidents of Mushi Productions and Yumeta Company were working hard, but the movement gradually became smaller.
That's when the voice actors got frustrated.
All voice actors are members of the Japan Actors Union and are already organized, and since they all work in a voice-over job, they're all very energetic.
So they proposed to the labor union and small business owners that they "do lots of events."
So the Animation Joint Struggle Conference and the Animation Small Business Owners Association organized two or three events, all of which were well-received and very successful.
But it's hard for the organizers and organizers. Everyone does it in between work.
The animators attend the meetings exhausted.
The voice actors are all very energetic.
So gradually everyone left, and it just kind of died out. It was a sad story.
-Even if you don't have much power, if you keep on working, the results will be different.
You mentioned earlier that the direction of the works changed from the 80s with "Arale-chan" and "Urusei Yatsura." I think that was when Toei Animation started to have a policy of training new talent, using trainees and Studio Carpenter (outsourced studio). Does that have anything to do with it?
H: Training new animation staff is a different story.
The first thing that changed was the new main staff.
The chief director was replaced by the series director, and new, young talent was put in the lead role for the show.
Besides that, there was a kind of pressure on the production site from various agencies and the management of large companies. It was like silent pressure.
-Like "Change the direction of the works"?
H: Yes. The discussions were progressing rapidly among the upper echelons of large companies, and no matter how much I expressed my opposition, it was already too late.
Also, from the perspective of the young staff, I think they would naturally want to work with young people like themselves under the new system.
That's the difference between the veteran directors who were active in the 60s and 70s and grew up in the history of postwar Japanese movies and animation, and the young staff who emerged after the 80s.
This was combined with the training of the next generation at advertising agencies and other organizations.
-From here and there?
H: Yes. A while ago, I participated in a staff roundtable hosted by a publishing company because they were going to make a special feature on "Humanoid Monster Bem."
I thought I would tell them all the behind-the-scenes stories, but a producer from an advertising agency said he would be there too.
I think they were probably monitoring what I said.
Well, the advertising agency I wanted to accuse was sitting next to me, so I thought, "What's the point of getting into a fight here?" and couldn't make any accusatory remarks.
The staff on the ground have a tendency to follow the powerful.
Moreover, most people think that they should just enjoy their work within the limits of what is permitted.
H: Program production costs went up to about 8 million yen. (It had been about 6 million yen before that.)
But that was only for some of Toei's popular works, like Galaxy Express 999. It wasn't for everything.
Nowadays, the average production cost is about 10 million yen.
But at the time, everyone interpreted it as "Let's appreciate the fact that production costs have gone up (even if it's only a partial increase)."
At that time, the performance fees for veteran voice actors also went up.
However, from that time on, large companies stopped using veteran voice actors and started using a lot of young, new voice actors.
And they changed the style to casting only one or two veteran voice actors per program.
The rest are all young, new voice actors.
In the end, there was a lot of excitement at the time of the strike and demonstrations, but basically, the people working in the anime industry are busy, and the owners of small and medium-sized companies are busy too, so they don't have the energy, and it gradually died down. At that time, the presidents of Mushi Productions and Yumeta Company were working hard, but the movement gradually became smaller.
That's when the voice actors got frustrated.
All voice actors are members of the Japan Actors Union and are already organized, and since they all work in a voice-over job, they're all very energetic.
So they proposed to the labor union and small business owners that they "do lots of events."
So the Animation Joint Struggle Conference and the Animation Small Business Owners Association organized two or three events, all of which were well-received and very successful.
But it's hard for the organizers and organizers. Everyone does it in between work.
The animators attend the meetings exhausted.
The voice actors are all very energetic.
So gradually everyone left, and it just kind of died out. It was a sad story.
-Even if you don't have much power, if you keep on working, the results will be different.
You mentioned earlier that the direction of the works changed from the 80s with "Arale-chan" and "Urusei Yatsura." I think that was when Toei Animation started to have a policy of training new talent, using trainees and Studio Carpenter (outsourced studio). Does that have anything to do with it?
H: Training new animation staff is a different story.
The first thing that changed was the new main staff.
The chief director was replaced by the series director, and new, young talent was put in the lead role for the show.
Besides that, there was a kind of pressure on the production site from various agencies and the management of large companies. It was like silent pressure.
-Like "Change the direction of the works"?
H: Yes. The discussions were progressing rapidly among the upper echelons of large companies, and no matter how much I expressed my opposition, it was already too late.
Also, from the perspective of the young staff, I think they would naturally want to work with young people like themselves under the new system.
That's the difference between the veteran directors who were active in the 60s and 70s and grew up in the history of postwar Japanese movies and animation, and the young staff who emerged after the 80s.
This was combined with the training of the next generation at advertising agencies and other organizations.
-From here and there?
H: Yes. A while ago, I participated in a staff roundtable hosted by a publishing company because they were going to make a special feature on "Humanoid Monster Bem."
I thought I would tell them all the behind-the-scenes stories, but a producer from an advertising agency said he would be there too.
I think they were probably monitoring what I said.
Well, the advertising agency I wanted to accuse was sitting next to me, so I thought, "What's the point of getting into a fight here?" and couldn't make any accusatory remarks.
The staff on the ground have a tendency to follow the powerful.
Moreover, most people think that they should just enjoy their work within the limits of what is permitted.
The only time people complain to the higher-ups is when they're all drinking at an izakaya.
*The official name of the often-quoted "Animation Small and Medium-Sized Business Owners Association" is the "アニメーション事業者協会." It is a different organization from the ",動画協会" a coalition of large animation companies.
Materials from the first general meeting of the "アニメーション事業者協会"
A newspaper of the "民放労連" (Minpo roren. Commercial Broadcasting Workers' Union.a TV station labor union) reporting on the 1991 anime demonstrations.
by kiyubaru2020
| 2024-10-25 15:43
| 記事,文章 Article,Essay
