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I hate to say it, but Crunchyroll and Sony are beginning to look more like a barrier to better pay and working conditions for animators in Japan than an ally. And this is incredibly disappointing to me because if the world's largest anime platform, which operates a virtual monopoly over the acquisition and distribution of anime productions outside of Japan is happy to continue endorsing exploitation of workers all they're doing is hammering another nail in the coffin of anime's future sustainability as an industry. If Crunchyroll is contributing on average between 40-60% of any anime they co-produce, the logic is that that without their investment the Japan-side production committee will simply not be able to move to greenlight. Crunchyroll must make its investment conditional on pay, benefits, contracts and working conditions for the actual people making the film or series. Production committees need whipping into shape.
I hate to say it, but Crunchyroll and Sony are beginning to look more like a barrier to better pay and working conditions for animators in Japan than an ally. And this is incredibly disappointing to me because if the world's largest anime platform, which operates a virtual monopoly over the acquisition and distribution of anime productions outside of Japan is happy to continue endorsing exploitation of workers all they're doing is hammering another nail in the coffin of anime's future sustainability as an industry. If Crunchyroll is contributing on average between 40-60% of any anime they co-produce, the logic is that that without their investment the Japan-side production committee will simply not be able to move to greenlight. Crunchyroll must make its investment conditional on pay, benefits, contracts and working conditions for the actual people making the film or series. Production committees need whipping into shape.