It is indeed true that in the anime industry not everything is rosy, as news of bankrupt studios, production problems and very low wages come and go. Nevertheless, the contribution of anime in Japan's film industry is invaluable and would not be an exaggeration to say that the anime movies are the ones that keep it alive. 

Trending Towards Anime

Japanese moviegoers have begun to choose anime movies over the classic live-action films. Since 2011, there is a very large increase of anime in the top 10 box office movies, while more than the 75% of the annual revenues is derived from them. 

According to the data of Box Office Mojo, we can see that Japan compared to the United States and United Kingdom, shows an increasing trend towards animation films, including foreign production movies like Disney. In fact, 2016 was a record box office year in Japan, as 6 of the 10 highest grossing films were anime. Despite that many will think that Your Name was the first big anime hit after Spirited Away that aired in 2001, it’s actually part of this growing trend. 

Reshaping Japan’s Movie Industry

Except that the Japanese film industry is now turning at anime films, live-action adaptations of anime and manga series have been equally popular. This movement is quite similar to the trend of Hollywood to adapt comic books and Young Adult novels. Movie studios choose what is popular with manga readers, having more confidence in their adaptation to a film than to take the risk and loose a huge amount of money for a new original script.

As shown by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, in 2016, 3 of the 10 highest grossing films were live-action adaptations (Nobunaga Concreto, Assassination Classroom, and Orange). The only original film on the list was Shin Godzilla, which was based on a popular franchise, while the rest were anime movies. 

Low production cost

The production cost is one of the major reasons why production companies are in favor of anime. Unlike live-action, there is no need to spend large sums on CGI effects, which are necessary for the films to be as realistic as possible. Moreover, the music production is much cheaper, because the voice actors can play the role of singers for promotional songs. Finally, anime productions do not face issues regarding filming licenses, costume production, and insurance for their actors.

Although Japan tends to keep the numbers of budgets hidden, we can be distinguish from reports that Spirited Away cost Studio Ghibli $15 million to produce, which is considered the highest budget for an anime movie. The revenues of the film reached $289.1 million. On the other hand, Shin Godzilla also cost $ 15 million and its revenues reached $77.9 million. 

Rise of Voice Acting

The voice acting presents flourishing rise in recent years in Japan, since from 2007 and onwards, the number of voice acting agencies has increased considerably, while the profession seems to receive better recognition than in the past. Voice actors, or else seiyuu, are no longer treated as people voicing shows for kids, but as talented artists. 

Since 2007, at least 60% of the actors who registered in Japan’s Actors’ Union voice actors, while about 75% of the members are voice actors. However, it is also important the fact that they receive more exposure than before, while the multi-talented voice actors are even more popular, as they can promote their works during concerts or performances in various shows. 

Sources: animationbusiness.info, eiren.org, boxofficemojo.com, goboiano.com