When one company controls both production and distribution, competition suffers. Streaming platforms lose access, creators lose leverage, and audiences lose choice. Anime thrives on diversity, not consolidation, and the industry is moving in the wrong direction.
Oshi no Ko Season 3 is a clear example. Despite its popularity, it was locked to Crunchyroll and HIDIVE, leaving fans on Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon with no legal access.
Sony used the same reasoning when it became the largest shareholder in Kadokawa, pushing global distribution and co-productions that strongly favored Crunchyroll, which Sony owns. The result is increasing exclusivity and fewer choices for viewers.
Sony is tightening its grip on the anime industry everyday.
Through Aniplex, Sony has acquired Egg Firm, a production company behind major titles like Mushoku Tensei and Sword Art Online.
On its own, it looks harmless, in context, it is part of a larger strategy that benefits Sony.
If you truly care about animation, and are an active participant in it, you need to realize that this isn’t innovation, it’s an attack on the craft and the industry itself.
While it’s tempting to use AI to speed up workflows,
Even for subtle stylistic changes like these, model datasets include virtually every Disney, Sony Animation, Illumination film, anime from Kyoto Animation, MAPPA, Bones and more, often illegally stripped from piracy sites at high resolutions.
Some ex-Pixar staff are now teaming up with Google AI to chase that hand painted look CGI projects have been obsessed with since SpiderVerse.
The difference is that projects like Arcane and Puss in Boots:TLW actually put in the work, painting normal maps, backgrounds, by hand in every single shot.
You always start with a sketch, then from the furthest objects in the background, to the closest, that's how backgrounds are broken down in anime, in layers
Here's the original image
Ever wondered how backgrounds are made in anime so quickly?
Here's my recreation of the Nobi Residence step by step:
Using some of my Sakkan from Kanteshi#12, I would like to mention that in anime, standard walk cycles usually require you to make just two keyposes
The douga animator(inbetweener) will fill in the rest, unless staff ask for more breakdowns, animators generally follow this rule
Smaller companies, even big ones in their own industries, often can’t afford to join in
That’s why not everyone who wants to make anime actually can (Such as game publishers, big brands, etc) (3/5)
Anime is funded by production committees. Studios can’t just pour millions into a show without guaranteed returns, they don’t have that kind of money
Only giants like Kadokawa, Shueisha, Sony, Good Smile, record labels, etc., can afford to take that risk and form committees to finance anime. (2/5)
No one can stop AI from replacing animators because entire governments are backing this technology, the United States of America has heavy federal funding in this the industry, in an AI arms race with China, the courts are not going to enforce copyright laws on AI companies
I’ve seen this firsthand, directors constantly retaking cuts and adding new things last minute
Because of time pressure, the cut gets forced through douga (in-betweening) with all these micro-adjustments tacked on, pushing key animator level work onto the animation director.
But if the director can’t manage a large team, doesn’t know when to compromise or when to take control, the entire production suffers. That’s how you end up with slideshow level animation, regardless of which studio is producing it.
It’s not that modern anime lack talented staff, there are always skilled animators on board. (Eg: Chainsawman replaced many fully key animated action cuts with CGI because of time constraints, not staff skill.)
The first season of One Punch Man worked so well because it had a strong director who knew how to handle high frame counts, something extremely difficult in TV anime. They avoided production hell, endless retakes, scenes being scrapped, and the usual chaos most anime fall into today.
Making anime isn’t easy. You have to pick which cuts get polish & which get simplified to meet deadlines. A strong director can make or break a show, much more than the studio itself.
Thanks for asking, yes i've got some contracts with a few studios that helps keep me afloat
Correct!
Also, while unions are great, i believe they are part of the reason why 2D western animation is mostly outsourced to south korea, and asia, as evil as that sounds, media companies operate this way due to the "expenses" of hiring swaths of local animators, which include dealing with unions
it's not good, everyone is constantly grinding and being overworked, but they want to do it or else someone else will take their cuts, it's the same thing with people working in the game dev industry, they trade in good working conditions for the chance to work at their dream job
Ip that they buy, trade, and consolidate like NFTs. ROI, customer acquisition costs, and production efficiency are not the name of the game in this kind of business, which is a kind of dangerous business to run in the first place, moving pictures themselves aren’t that profitable. (3/4)
Big media mergers, like Skydance, CN(AT&T), Discovery, are less about creativity and more about rich Hollywood executives consolidating IP. These companies aren’t “media companies”; they’re glorified IP and copyright holders. The creative staff on their projects barely matter to them (2/4)
I worked on Witch watch EP#18 as a key animator
Thank you for watching!
I participated as animation director (Sakkan) for the anime April Showers bring May flowers EP#3, Thank you for watching!
(Sadly went uncredited this time)
And although this company is just 1, this represents a greater shift in the industry, where more AI companies are starting to pop into the anime industry to try and make a profit, optimizing the production pipeline for companies and ultimately stealing jobs from Inbetweeners (Dougaman)
I was actually invited for one of the investor pitch meetings for this company when they were looking for funding, approximately 60k, they ended up getting funded from Japan i believe.
Ultimately i believe this technology will displace jobs and slowly destroy the livelihoods of animators in Asia
Pretty much, the success of Disney is what hurt diversity in animation so much during those decades, and created that perception amongst audiences that cartoons are just for kids, anime helped show audiences more diversity and now, alot of western animation has some inspiration from anime somewhere
From a Personal Project
