Nearly 40% of Anime Studios Were in the Red in 2021

Financial research firm Teikoku Databank published a report on the anime industry in 2021. The report revealed that 39.8% of the 309 anime studios were in the red in 2021. The percentage is 0.9% higher than in 2020 and is the highest in Teikoku Databank records.

The company cited the drop in the number of TV anime productions, the COVID-19 pandemic, the shortage of human resources and the delays in many of the productions in 2021 as the reasons for the record.

The industry’s total revenue for 2021 was 249.582 billion yen (about US$1.87 billion). 5% lower than 2020. This marks the first time since at least 2000 that the anime industry has contracted for two consecutive years (Teikoku Databank also recorded a contraction of 1.8% of the industry’s total revenue in 2020).

42.6% of anime companies specializing in subcontracted work (such as intermediate animation or backgrounds) also suffered losses. The average revenue of these companies in 2021 was 287 million yen (about US$2.15 million).

The average revenue of an anime company in 2021 was 818 million yen (about US$6.13 million), down from 2020, and the second time the figure has decreased from a year earlier since 2017. ( The first time was in 2020.)

Of the 309 anime companies surveyed, 70 had transactions with foreign companies through outsourcing or production contracts in 2021. 33 of these companies had transactions with Chinese companies, 25 companies with US companies, 15 with South Korea, seven with Taiwan and 19 with other countries.

According to the Association of Japanese Animations, the number of television anime titles dropped for the fourth year in a row in 2020 and dropped more than 80 from its all-time peak of 278.

via: ANN