Make sure part of the money a hit anime keeps earning goes to the studios and artists who actually made it
In short
- Part of the income from streaming and merchandise is shared with the creators, whether or not they put money into the project.
- Artists who worked for subcontractors or overseas also get a share if their names are recorded.
- Pay by the piece must never fall below the minimum hourly wage once it is divided by the hours worked.
- The system stops letting only the companies that put up the money keep collecting all the profit.
If this comes true
In a small studio on the edge of town, a woman who draws key frames receives her share of money from a work she joined five years ago, now streamed in a faraway country, and she starts drawing for her next project without worrying about rent.
Perhaps
Fewer companies might be willing to fund new stories that may or may not become hits, and mostly sequels and anime based on famous original works may get made.
Water so far 💧 0
The proposal in detail
The rules cover anime released on TV, through streaming, or in theaters, and the drawing work on the manga those anime are based on. Most anime are funded by a group of investors, such as broadcasters, publishers, and toy and music companies, who together hold the rights to the work and most of the income from streaming and merchandise. The studio that makes the work receives only a fixed production fee, and gets almost no extra income no matter how many years the work keeps selling. So for a set number of years after release, a fixed share of the income from streaming, overseas sales, merchandise, and similar sources must be divided between the studio that made the work and the workers it hired, whether or not they invested. The share goes to people whose names and roles are in the production record, including those who drew for subcontractors or overseas studios. A neutral body that includes both creators and investors collects and distributes the money, and any share that cannot reach its owner is held for a set period and then used to train young creators. In addition, pay by the piece or by the scene must not fall below the local minimum hourly wage when divided by the time it took. The same minimum applies to pay for people who help a manga author with the drawing.
BenefitsA work's success comes back to the lives of those who drew it
Because income flows back to creators the longer a work sells, skilled artists are less likely to leave the industry just to make a living. For studios, the shares from a hit can pay for preparing the next work and training people, which makes it easier to escape the habit of running every project on a barely sufficient budget. Because the money goes to people whose names are recorded, subcontractors and overseas artists who used to go unnoticed can receive something real that shows their work helped build the value of the work. Applying a minimum hourly wage to piece-rate pay puts a brake on working that leaves artists unable to live on their pay even after drawing all night to meet a deadline. Because a neutral body handles the records and the flow of money, each studio does not have to negotiate one by one with powerful investors. Rewarding the people who draw also protects the quality of the work. If good artists stay and their experience is passed to the next generation, the depth of the works that audiences around the world enjoy is kept.
DrawbacksLess money for new stories, and works become more uniform
From the investors' side, their share when a work succeeds gets smaller, while they still carry the loss when it fails. If funding becomes less attractive, the first things to lose backing may be original stories that may or may not become hits and experimental works for small audiences, and mostly sequels to already popular works may be made. If the number of works falls, so does the number of jobs, and more young artists could end up unable to find work at all, let alone receive a share. Also, when hundreds of people work on one title and layers of subcontractors spread across borders, it is not easy to record correctly who drew how much and to get money to individuals in faraway countries. The cost of keeping records and running the distribution body will have to be paid for by cutting into someone's share. If it becomes cheaper to make works in countries without such rules, production may move there and take away the jobs of the very workers the rules were meant to protect. The minimum wage standard could also weaken the reason to hire trainees who are still learning and cannot yet draw fast.
Learn the background
Anime and manga are now watched around the world across borders, and streaming and related products move large amounts of money. Yet the lives of the people who draw each picture have been left behind by that growth. In many works, the companies that put up the money hold the rights and take the profits in proportion to what they invested when a work becomes a hit. The studio that takes the job must finish it on a fixed budget set at the start, and the work is passed on to smaller studios and individuals at low per-picture rates. Even after long hours, artists often earn too little to live on when their pay is divided by their time. Even if a work is watched around the world for years, that income does not return to the people who drew it. Investors think it is only fair that they take the profits, since they carry the losses on works that fail, and studios are afraid of losing their next job, so they cannot ask for better terms. Many of the artists are individuals who are not employed by anyone, and they have been left outside the systems that protect workers. Now that there are not enough hands and production has spread overseas, this imbalance continues across borders.
Choose them ready to accept their drawbacks too (up to 5)
It helps pay for the server and the AI's planting
This proposal was written in Japanese by AI (claude-opus-5-5, policy version 2026-10-23b) and translated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5). Nobody has checked the facts. Read the original (日本語) How the AI writes