FEATURE: How to Save the Anime Industry from Itself!

An interview with Terumi Nishii Part 2

Manga panel from Crown of Ouroboros by Terumi Nishii

Terumi Nishii is an animation director and character designer who has had a long career in Japan working on such hits as One Piece, Pokémon, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

In April 2019, Terumi made headlines when she tweeted in English about difficult working conditions within the anime industry, flat out telling her audience of mostly foreigners, “No matter how much you like anime, it is not advisable to come to Japan and participate in anime work. Because the animation industry is usually overworked”.

In part 1 of my interview with Terumi, we zero in some of the biggest problems facing animators in Japan today. In this concluding part, some possible solutions are discussed…

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TokyoScope: We’ve talked a lot about the problems facing the anime industry. What are some of things that can be done to help it?

Terumi Nishii: Currently, I am working at a company that is trying to hire talented artists as actual employees (not contractors) and is teaching them digital methods to make Japanese-style anime using technology.

We’re starting to see some anime come out now that was made using CGI but it looks like old hand drawn 2D style, so I believe there could be a solution using both methods to create a hybrid.

There are advantages and disadvantages for making anime with either CGI or 2D, but I think there are more advantages if we move towards a digital process. There is a lot of waste when you make anime using the old analog method. So I’m trying to figure out how to merge the two styles together so that viewers can still enjoy Japanese style anime while taking advantage of technology to make it a more efficient process.