Animator claims those working on the Pokemon anime make less than a part-time convenience store worker

Jun Arai is a 45-year-old freelance anime animator, and he's been around the industry quite a bit. Arai recently opened up on Twitter about the Pokemon anime series, which he claims pays its animators a ridiculously low wage.

“The Pokémon anime pays 4,500 yen (US$42) per animation cut, which means it’s made with some of the lowest-paid artwork in the anime industry. If you work that out to an hourly rate, it’s less money than you get paid working part-time in a convenience store.”

While this is certainly disappointing to learn, it's pretty much par for the course in anime. Numerous anime production teams are paid a pittance in return for animating, and this has been an issue for a very long time now. I'm not quite sure what needs to happen to make things change, but it's clear the industry's approach towards payment needs to be addressed.