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While it's pretty easy to find what is the budget for most anime feature films
like those from Studio Ghibli, the average cost for making an anime series,
much less an episode, is not readily available.

How much does an anime episode or series cost to make these days? Where does
the money come from?

What is the breakdown of all the cost (to what part [e.g., script, sounds,
edition, etc.] go how much of the budget)?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-06-21T02:54:09.717
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2015-01-21T21:07:45.727
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question
anime-production
How much does a typical anime episode or series cost to make?


This is going to vary a lot depending on the budget of the series. The
difference between high budget and low budget series is big enough that
applying this to any individual anime is probably not a very good
approximation. As an aside, this is essentially a rehash of my answer
[here](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/857/24), though the question is
different enough that I don't think it's a duplicate.

A single episode of a typical anime today costs roughly 10 million yen. [This
Cruncyroll article](http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2011/10/30-1/how-
much-does-one-episode-of-anime-cost-to-make) from 2011 lists the following
breakdown of costs for one single 30 minute episode of a 2011 anime had the
following breakdown of costs:

> Original work - 50,000 yen ($660)
>
> Script - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
>
> Episode Direction - 500,000 yen ($6,600)
>
> Production - 2 million yen ($26,402)
>
> Key Animation Supervision - 250,000 yen ($3,300)
>
> Key Animation - 1.5 million yen ($19,801)
>
> In-betweening - 1.1 million yen ($14,521)
>
> Finishing - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
>
> Art (backgrounds) - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
>
> Photography - 700,000 yen ($9,240)
>
> Sound - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
>
> Materials - 400,000 yen ($5,280)
>
> Editing - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
>
> Printing - 500,000 yen ($6,600)

for a total of about 11 million yen.

[This image](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ke6LH.jpg) (in Japanese) is a breakdown
of the costs of a single episode of the series [Bamboo
Blade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_Blade). As you can see, the price
comes in at just under 10 million yen. [This
site](http://d.hatena.ne.jp/makaronisan/20060719/1153219520) has some more
info, as does [this list](http://alfalfa.livedoor.biz/archives/50621035.html)
(though not everything there is anime and most is old). But the bottom line is
that the market price is roughly 10 million yen per episode, which comes out
to 230 yen per frame. Some of that goes to things other than animation, but
the bulk is for art and animation costs.

As for the source, the production company typically self-funds its own
original anime. For example, [Puella Magi Madoka
Magica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puella_Magi_Madoka_Magica) was funded by
Aniplex. For adaptations, the publishing company typically provides some or
all of the funding, as it serves as a form of advertising for the original.
The details on these arrangements are very secret and can vary a lot.

Note that the production company also has to pay for the TV run in most cases,
since late-night TV slots are purchased by production companies as a form of
advertising for their final product e.g. DVDs (see [Why does anime usually air
at night in Japan?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/4013/24) for more
information on this). According to [this blog
post](http://washiblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/anime-production-detailed-
guide-to-how-anime-is-made-and-the-talent-behind-it/), for a 52-episode series
airing on 5-7 stations, this would be in the ballpark of 50 million yen, or
about 1 million yen per episode. They typically only make back their money at
the point of DVD sales, which is why studios never know exactly how much money
they're able to invest on a new series.


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2013-06-21T04:06:35.853
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2013-06-21T04:06:35.853
2020-06-17T09:17:53.303
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answer