While Japan releases some fabulous anime, the pay often isn’t. In 2015, the average animator’s salary was under $10,000 US, and an American who works in Japan reported he was earning only $300 a month at his first animation job.
You can find plenty of articles detailing the harsh work environments and low pay. Even major studios like Ghibli aren’t immune to criticisms about its pay. In fact, non-profit organizations have stepped up and launched crowdfunding campaigns for subsidized housing for animators.
As a fan, though, would you give money to a studio directly?
Crowdfunding a Studio?
That’s what Studio Trigger is doing with their new Patreon page. Patreon is a site that allows creators to set up memberships where interested parties can pay a monthly fee to get exclusive content and support the artist, writer, singer, etc. Most Patreon campaigns have tiers of rewards, but people can give as little as $1 a month or project. Much like other crowdfunding venues, it’s open to just about anyone, so big-names and small-time individuals can have a Patreon page.
As of this writing, over 2,600 fans are giving the team behind anime like Kill la Kill and Little Witch Academia a collective $8,200 a month, quite a ways above their initial goal of $1,500. Studio Trigger is offering two tiers: the $1 a month tier gives backers a copy of the image drawn in a live session, and $5 or more upgrades the image to the file itself. This isn’t Studio Trigger’s first direct outreach to fans for money. They had a Kickstarter in 2013 for a sequel to Little Witch Academia.
Let me take a step back though. While you may have seen on some blogs, “Please donate at my Patreon page!”, Patreon is not considered a donation site. (Unless, of course, the campaign is registered as for a non-profit charity.) In most locations, it’s considered taxable income. However, Studio Trigger is pretty vague on what their money is going to be used for.
Not all Patreon campaigns explicitly break down how the funds will be distributed a la Kickstarter. Nor is it like Twitch where a lot of streamers will put up information that the next $1,000 or whatever will go to a new PC/capture card/game/etc. and will unlock a new reward for subscribers. But considering the first ideas listed involve merchandise, is the money mainly going toward, say, a down payment on a new keychain that can only be ordered on the Studio Trigger website? Paid-time off for workers to go to conventions? Fixing the office coffee machine? Giving animators a bonus? One of those things feels a lot less supportive of the animators and staff of Studio Trigger than the others…
Secondly, though, is the fact that the rewards are limited to watching a livestream and then receiving a digital image file — and that patrons have no idea how often they’ll be treated to these. In fact, the description on their Patreon page makes it clear fans should not expect frequent updates or rewards. Some people may appreciate the bluntness, but it’s also off-putting in my opinion. There are ways to put this to make it sound a little more serving to the fans. Right now, outside of the opening post, there’s the livestream from Anime Expo.
Again, I’m sympathetic to the plight of low-paid, overworked animators. But this is basically donating money to a for-profit business with little to no information on whether the people at the bottom of the totem pole will be helped. Even if people are only giving at the $1 level, there are some non-profit agencies or other creators who will actually tell you what they’re doing and give out rewards. Right now, this is all just some vague ideas from Studio Trigger.
I mean, I’d still feel uncomfortable if they came out and said that all money raised will be divided among staff because that’s asking strangers to subsidize their employees. And I’d still raise my eyebrows if they were going to say this money is all to make new merchandise. But to just ask fans to give them money and at some point they’ll do some sort of livestream and maybe do other things is even more bizarre.
I understand this isn’t being run by some sort of full-time social media expert and that this is still just getting off the ground, but I believe that any sort of crowdfunding campaign or creator-support site should be spelt out before launch. If someone can’t answer the question, “What is the money being used for?” definitively, it’s not something I think people should support.