If you’ve been an anime fan since the 90’s (or even the 80’s) then you’re already familiar with how it became so popular today. The art style, the direction, the animation, the complex stories, and the character development all encompass what the foundation of anime is for many fans of the genre. Many fans who are products of the 80’s and 90’s remember an era where it was rather expensive to buy dubbed episodes of your favorite titles of that time. In fact; if you wanted to get the first dubbed season of Dragon Ball, you had to by a set of 12 bricks (VHS tapes for Gen Z’ers who don’t know what ‘bricks’ are) that only had 2 or 3 episodes on each for $150. 2000’s kids will never have to do that now; for that exact same price, and possibly even less (maybe a third), you can get every dubbed and subbed season of Dragon Ball Z (or Kai if you want the 100% ‘true-to-the-manga’ version).

This may come as a shock to those who don’t know this, but…dubs are EXPENSIVE! Now, if you didn’t think that came as a surprise, then allow us to give you an even greater FYI. Anime…is EXPENSIVE to make! Yeah, how’s that for a surprise?

Ever heard of the phrase ‘You get out what you put in?’, yeah, that goes for Hollywood movies and Anime production. Creating Manga is one thing, but producing an anime adaptation based on its source material (the manga), is a whole other monster. The process that goes into adapting your favorite titles into anime form is more layered than you think. (Contrary to popular belief, there are those within the social media world that believe it is ‘easy’ to produce anime. To that we say…try making your own Sourdough bread and get back to us with your results!)

For this post; we’ll be going over how much it costs to produce one episode of your favorite anime title, the overall cost to make a season, and the phases that need to happen. (We’ll be going by the U.S. equivalent of Yen, so feel free to translate how much it costs in Japan.)

The Cost of 60 Seconds of 2D Animation

For anybody that’s taken animation courses, the animation part of the overall process is done in frames to simulate an action (or actions) that are taking place. This is also the part where the animators can get the most creative. If you’ve heard the word ‘FPS’ (no, not First Person Shooter) then you may have seen it whenever you render videos for Youtube. For anime in this case; it’s rendered between 24 and 30 frames per second, but for this post we’re gonna say 30 frames per second. There are 60 seconds in a minute, and with an FPS of 30, its 30 x 60 = 1800 frames per minute.

What about the cost you ask? For just 60 seconds of video, the average cost is $6000. We’re not making that up; it actually COSTS $6000 to make just ONE minute of anime! If you divide 6000 by 60, it costs $100 to make 30 frames of animation – and we haven’t even factored in the time it takes to do this! (We’ll get to that soon enough.)

The Overall Cost Of One Anime Season

So 1800 frames of a 60-second animation costs an average of $6000 (depending on the studio), so how much does it cost to produce a 23-24 minute episode? Take that $6000 and multiply it by 24, and you’re looking at $144,000; or if you multiply it by 23 you’ll get $138,000. Depending on the studio you’re looking at between $100,000-$300,000 per episode. For every 43,200 frames of animation, it costs $144,000. (Or $138,000 for 41,400 frames of animation.) You want 12 episodes? That’ll be between $1.6 Million-$1.7 Million, and in some cases up to $3.6 Million if the season is 24 episodes; the equivalent of two 12-episode runs. We’re surprised your wallet hasn’t killed you yet! XP

That number is double or triple if you’re producing an anime movie between 90-150 minutes long.

The Production Phases

Ok, we covered the money…but what about the time? Well there’s phases in the production process that have to happen before the money for said production can even be kicked out. First is the Concept Phase. You need a base or a foundation for the characters, right? Well it all starts here. The artists will create character concepts of what they want the character to look like, move like, and what their mood will be like. They then go through testing animations to get an overall feel of the character before they do a ‘final draft’ design. Sad thing about this phase is; it’s where most projects end…but not all the time.

Survived the first phase? Then the Storyboard Phase is next! This is where the ‘action’ happens as the cuts and story composition as a reference for every animation. You know all the backgrounds for all the action, rom-com, isekai, and fantasy anime titles you like? Well, this is the phase where it all comes together.

Now onto Phase 3; the Animation Phase. This. Is. The. Phase. That. Takes. The. Most. Time! Most fans get annoyed when other ‘fans’ complain about the animation of a series, but their response to that is ‘If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try it!’ The lead artists will create the keyframes; then with the missing gaps in between, the animators will draw in the frames leading into the next keyframe the main artists have set. (Don’t forget the lip flaps, because those have to be animated too.)

Finally comes Phase 4; the Cutting Phase. All of the scenes are cut together with the colors corrected, the music produced, and the voice actors with their lines already recorded. We haven’t even factored in the cost of music and voice acting; especially if you want professionals, but this is the phases of the process in a nutshell. As for the time this process takes, you’re looking at between a couple of weeks to a few months. (A lot of studios have deadlines, so you also gotta factor that in too!)

So Big Spender, you can’t say making anime is easy, can ya? This is just the cost of producing the anime you love so much, and we haven’t even gotten into the promotional and advertisement costs, IP copyright laws and protections, overseas distribution, English-dubbing, musical composition royalties, ADR, broadcast streaming and home video release rights. ALL of this goes into the process of creating the anime that you love, and how are they able to recoup the cost? You basically BUY THEIR PRODUCTS! (Prints, Blu-Rays, DVDs, anime figures, apparel, official art books, etc.)

The next time some troll on the interweebs tells you that they think its ‘easy’ to make anime, direct them to this post and tell them to make their own Sourdough bread and post the results. Anime’s expensive, but with such a high demand for it worldwide, we don’t see it dying off anytime soon – no matter how expensive it is to make.

That will do it for this post, so until next time, stay nerdy! 😉

Anime. What more can be said about it that hasn’t already been said before. It went from being an underground niche medium (and still is in some parts) to a mainstream stay that has seen the light of Hollywood and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Everyone has their favorite titles, genres, waifus, husbandos, best boys and best girls, but if there’s one thing that anime fans love more that anime itself…its anime openings.

What is it about these ‘openings’ that draw in crowds of otaku from all around the nation and even overseas? From its panning cameras to its vivid and vibrant colors anime openings have always given fans a taste of what the atmospheric mood of the show that they’re watching, will be about.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the many, MANY years of watching anime, its that the music to the opening of an anime title is the first thing that jumps out at us. If the opening gives us a visual of what the anime series is going to be about, then the music will give us what type of emotion that show will carry along with it. If we had to give an example right now, the best one that everyone’s familiar with is Soul Eater. As soon as you hear the first kick drum you guys lose it; not because its one of the most recognized opening anime songs in the anime community, but also the fact that anybody that is a fan of Soul Eater (or knows someone who is) is already familiar with the opening sequence. Hell, we have T.M. Revolution as one of our top tracks on our Spotify playlist.

When it comes to anime openings it makes fans feel a special type of way; most of the time they’ll sing along to the song or even just do a crazy dance because the rush of endorphins just hits you. The music as we’ve said before is the emotional piece of the opening; which lets the viewer know what the mood and the feeling of the show will be about, while the opening sequence introduces you to the cast of characters that interact with one another, and give you a glimpse of what the story of the series will be about – depending on the genre. Supernatural Fantasy Harem titles like High School DxD will have music and visuals that make you feel a sense of action, excitement, danger, and yes…boobies. High School Rom-Coms and Slice-of-Life Comedy anime openings give you more of a silly, zany, entertaining mood with its music and opening sequences; while psychological thrillers and horror anime openings give you more of a chilling, uneasy, and anxiety-induced mood.

Anime openings are always associated with the overall mood of the anime title itself. There are various alternative versions that change from season to season to reflect the mood of the show during that season; like when the second opening to a funny rom-com title becomes more series and drama-filled during its second season (or half). For some fans the opening may actually be the best part of the anime series even though the rest of it onwards may be, well…trash. (We’re not judging you.) At the end of the day; we love anime openings because they make us feel a sense of excitement and joy when watching the showcase of vivid colors, high quality sequences, and impeccable attention to detail. In fact, there are some anime-inspired shows that have taken a page out of the anime opening playbook to pay homage to anime openings as a whole. To put it simply; there is something visually beautiful about anime openings, and to end this post, here’s one opening that we all know and love! 😉 

Remember when you were a kid and you watched one of your favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons, and then Monday morning you’d talk about said cartoon with your friends at school? If the answer to that question is ‘yes’ then you’re one step closer to what we’re talking about on this post. That one thing we’re talking about…is opinions. Everybody has them, everybody is entitled to them, and everybody isn’t afraid to voice them.

When it comes to opinions, they’re always unpopular. They can be as simple as pineapple on pizza, or as confusing as who’s the best Spiderman (*cough* Tom Holland). The most common places to find them would be from the fans of the sports and entertainment industry; ESPECIALLY the anime and gaming industry! Before social media invaded the internet anime fans only knew about what new shows were coming by television advertisements or Toonami (cuz’ we’re products of the 90’s and that’s how we found anime). Back then we just enjoyed it; and wasn’t even focused on character or plot development, or why Team Rocket wanted to capture Pikachu so badly, or even how Sailor Moon was the pinnacle of the Magical Girl genre of anime; as it opened the door for so many other titles that came in afterwards.

To us; anime was fun, and we had fun watching it. Sure, we got bulled for watching it and gushing about it every single time, but during those days it was all we had growing up. Jump ahead to the 2000’s and now we’re introduced to the era of social media (i.e. MySpace). Now we’re able to take our love for anime to our online chat rooms which helped create small little communities. At this point you’re probably asking where do these ‘unpopular opinions’ you’re talking about come in? Hang in there, cuz’ it wasn’t until 2010 that everything changed.

When anime started getting mainstream attention during the start of the next decade, that’s when we knew there was a shift coming. Now that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook gave a platform to people to voice their opinions, people now have a platform to voice their opinions. Youtube gave rise to aspiring content creators to share their content with the world, of course they all brought their opinions along for the ride. Anime has become so subjective these days; now instead of enjoying titles like Dragon Ball Z, Gundam Wing, Pokemon, Cowboy Bebop or Sailor Moon just because they were fun to watch, we find ourselves on the receiving end of heated debates like how Vegeta is actually stronger than Goku, and why Gen Z anime fans like Boruto over Naruto. (Don’t ask us why.)

We’re not saying that you shouldn’t have an opinion, but at the same time it feels like anime fans have overanalyzed anime to the point where it has to be either good, or bad. Take the first season of SAO for example; while the creator may not have had any experience in what MMORPGs are or how they function (cuz’ yeah, the series DID have its flaws, and we saw how bad it was getting bashed online), to some fans it was still entertaining to watch. There are even opinions out there that state if you haven’t seen the ‘Big 3’ or ‘Big 4’ (if you count Sailor Moon) that you’re not a ‘real fan’; and that’s where things get toxic and ugly.

That’s probably what we’re forgetting; that anime’s original purpose was to entertain us. It was something different from what we were used to watching, and it had such compelling and complex stories that were beyond anything our minds could fathom. When it comes to anime reviewers (including ourselves), they love breaking things down and seeing how things work; from the story to the characters and everything in between. When we try to fit anime titles into one of two categories, good or bad, or tier lists (and we’re all guilty of that), it takes the fun our of enjoying what it was trying to do in the first place – entertain you.

At the end of the day its about enjoying the shows you like. You like AoT (Attack on Titan)? go for it! You think Rias Gremory is best girl? Have at it! You think Demon Slayer is the best show ever made? Cool! No title out there is without its flaws, but if you love your favorite anime (flaws and all) then it has value to you regardless of what other people’s opinion of it is. You never want to base or shape your opinion off of someone else’s opinion (even if you admire them), because when their opinion matters more than your own opinion; it makes you forfeit the entitlement of your OWN opinion.

No matter how you slice it; anime fans will always have an opinion about anime – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Unpopular opinions only become problematic when boundaries are crossed (especially when it comes to voice actors), and there have been several moments where that’s happened (the Darling in the FRANXX Ichigo situation comes to mind). When it’s all said and done; if you’re getting the entertainment value from the anime titles that you’re watching, then that’s all that really matters. You’re free to acknowledge and accept other people’s opinions of shows that you like, but don’t let their opinions shape your opinions. On that note that will do it for this post.

Until next time, stay nerdy! 😉