Studio Shaft’s Ace Animator Talks About The Production House’s Unbearable Working Conditions

Hearing about animators suffering and having sleepless nights while working on a series is not something new for anime fans. We’ve seen studios like Madhouse, MAPPA, and A-1 Pictures make headlines about their animators openly complaining about their insane work schedules while getting paid less.

Now, another studio has been added to the list and that is Studio Shaft!

Hiroto Nagata, a key animator at Studio Shaft, openly shared his troubles while working on a recent project. According to his tweets, he has been crying while working because he was told that he would be erased from the industry if he didn’t complete the work on time.

The animator had currently had this tweet deleted but fans have preserved the screenshot for evidence.

In another tweet, Hiroto Nagata admitted that his work felt so unbearable that he wasn’t able to sit in front of his desk without feeling anxious for his job and wellbeing. In his own words, he said he felt fatigued and short of breath, so much so, it affected his ability to even draw storyboards properly.

The stress was catching on to him so much that in another tweet, he talks about a dream about being strangled by someone at work. Even though it wasn’t real, he felt this sort of weird feeling in his throat, like someone was pushing on on it. He went to the hospital for a checkup but the doctors told him “nothing was wrong.” And he couldn’t believe it.

The animators at Studio Shaft had worked on multiple big projects like the Monogatari series, 3-gatsu no Lion, Nisekoi, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica, and so on but it’s actually surprising an animator from this Studio is suffering from these levels of stress, considering how many more projects Studio MAPPA accepts, despite having limited staff.

Nevertheless, this goes to show how much this issue is spread far and wide in the industry, and animators, voice actors, and manga artists are not properly rewarded for their efforts. In Nov 2023, we’ve seen multiple animators from MAPPA leave due to strenuous work schedules and unreasonable deadlines, causing Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 to get delayed.

Source: Hiroto Nagata’s Official Twitter via Twitter