

It's not like I thought that anime could be one thing that one group of people
could easily decide one day to do, but costs are seriously way bigger that I
could have ever imagined, as shown
[here](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4175/how-much-does-a-typical-
anime-episode-or-series-cost-to-make) for example, what's worse is that making
a simple episode can even be more expensive than that, as shown
[here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime#Industry), it can even go up to
300,000 $ per episode.

It literally says.

> An anime episode can cost between US$100,000 and US$300,000 to produce.

That maximum is around 6 times bigger than what I thought an anime episode
could cost at most (considering that what's animated is a top series, with top
animators, top animation programs, top voice actors and so on).

All costs shown on first link are around 3 to 10 times bigger that I would
have expected, so I'd like a general explanation, prefarably using the costs
shown in first link as a base, of why it is so expensive to make.

Thanks.


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anime-production
Why is anime so expensive to make?


As animated television goes, anime is actually made on the cheap. [This
article](http://lineboil.com/how-much-does-an-animated-tv-episode-cost/) goes
over the costs per episode of a few different US animated shows; every one of
them is more expensive than the cited high-end cost of $300,000 per episode
for anime.

_The Simpsons_ seems to be top in costs; according to the article, it cost
around $2 million per episode in 2007. [A 2011
source](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/simpsons-renewed-two-more-
seasons-245748) indicates that voice acting costs per episode alone were
around $300,000, and that was after the actors took a 30% pay cut, coming down
from a high of around $440,000 per episode. That means _The Simpsons_ was
paying more per episode **for voice acting alone** than the entire budget of
an average anime episode.

As for the rest, Nickelodeon apparently spends around $600k per episode on
their animated shows; the sources come from comments made around the release
of _TMNT_ , but [a post in a
forum](http://www.toonzone.net/forums/threads/spongebob-budget-
question.5255321/) cites a _Wall Street Journal_ article that I can't read
because it's behind a paywall claiming that _Spongebob_ too is around $600k
per episode. I was shocked that [_Drawn Together_ got $700k per
episode](http://www.awn.com/blog/drawing-close-drawn-together-movie-movie)
since it was widely regarded as terrible and was canceled. [This Cineeuropa
article](http://cineuropa.org/dd.aspx?t=dossier&l=en&tid=1437&did=201387)
claims that the average hour of US animation in 2007 cost €776k (about $800k
today).

[An Answerman
column](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2015-09-08/.92622) from 2015
also goes over this and offers some conjectures about why: US animators get
paid more, thanks to unions and other market factors, and voice actors, like
other television actors on US TV, tend to make more money as the show goes on
longer, as we saw with _The Simpsons_. In [another 2015
article](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-05-15/study-animators-
earned-usd28000-on-average-in-japan-in-2013/.87762), ANN reports on a study
finding that animators in Japan make around $28,000 a year, which is a very
modest salary in the US. [This 2009
article](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-09-10/directors-dispute-
reports-of-poor-animator-salaries) goes into more details on staff salaries in
anime. [Another Answerman
column](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2015-08-19/.91831) touches
on voice actor salaries in Japan and mentions that most voice actors make
between $120 and $360 per episode, though the more famous ones can set their
price.

So anime are not really that expensive to make, in terms of the usual cost of
producing a professional level half-hour animated television show with top
talent.


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It's depending on the technology which is used by the studio.

I think we can use the forward algorithms of animator programs to easily
create the good anime without scanning, but draw on screen can reduce the
artistic level of the movie if the artists aren't familiar.

The voice actors can be rented or you can ask your friends for voicing to
reduce money until you already have sold a lot of anime.


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