The Anime Industry Shrinks For The First Time in 10 Years!

Anime Industry have grown faster than ever. Worldwide anime fans are growing every day, but what made these anime industries shrink for the first time in 10 years? It’s no surprise and we all know the answer.

Pandemic Lockdown deffo made anime more popular. Many new anime fans were born during lockdown. If people actually watched anime legally, 2020 would have been very profitable for the industry.

Anime Industry in 2020

In 2020, the anime industry shrank for the first time in 10 years; 37.7% of production companies ran at a deficit. One of the reason is the pandemic, yeah but us watchers too, who love to enjoy anime on illegal websites.

2020 Anime Record Broken Movie

The anime industry in 2020 had many hits, especially the anime movies. Immediately after its release, “Violet Evergarden” was packed into movie theaters, and “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” exceeded 40 billion yen in domestic box office revenue. Also succeeded in breaking many industrial records.

The reason Anime Industry shrank

On the other hand, in addition to the decrease in the number of TV animation productions for the third consecutive year in 2019, problems such as production delays and postponement of animation broadcasting due to the influence of the new coronavirus have added to the production site.

Japanese Animators’ working condition

Furthermore, with the rise of Chinese companies that have continued to produce highly acclaimed works even in Corona, the issues of the Japanese animation production industry, such as the labor problems and profit structure of animators, which have been pointed out for some time, are being exposed again. No surprise because the Chinese companies are paying more and providing better working conditions and schedule. While the Japanese companies are working with their staff like dogs. It’s no surprise many animators are moving overseas.

The market size of the animation production industry (based on business sales) in 2020 (Financial results for the January-December period) was 251,081 million yen, 1.8% lower than the record high of 2019 (255.7 billion yen)

Also Read: Top 5 Best Animation Studios | Best Anime of 2021

In terms of production, of course everything went down, industries went bankrupt, etc. But coming to popularity, the quarantine period birthed many anime fans and boosted it’s popularity. So a 50-50 situation I would say, but those losses are much much greater than the gains though.