Many fans of anime have been waiting to see who would ultimately be the main platform used after Sony acquired Crunchyroll in a 1.2 billion dollar deal. However, as it looks like Funimation will ultimately be moving its entire collection over to the orange-clad streaming platform, voice actors are expressing outrage at how poorly the company has been paying them.
Several voice characters known for their work on major anime dubs have been taking to Twitter to complain about their pay rates with some calling for more unionization efforts to ensure fair treatment. There have been claims that Crunchyroll is exploiting their voice talent, underpaying them while not providing any other benefits.
Sara Secora, known for her voice work in video games in SMITE as well as anime like Rumble Garanndoll and Log Horizon, took to Twitter to explain why current rates offered are unacceptable to her. Anime companies, specifically FUNimation/Crunchyroll, are owned by a major corporation like Sony. They easily have the funds to allow their actors to make a living wage, yet they are not hard pushed to do so because so many actors are willing to take lowball rates."
She also claimed that anime dubbing was "notoriously" the lowest paying genre for voice actors as the genre hasn't increased pay rates since anime was new and had less interest in Western countries. With a lack of benefits provided as well, there's the potential that voice actors who damage their vocal cords while recording won't be able to afford support.
"Additionally, voicing in anime can also be physically damaging to vocal chords," she explained. "DBZ (Dragon Ball Z) is a good example of an anime that puts heavy strain on their talent's voices. Even more so, actors should be given healthcare eligibility when possibly damaging themselves while working."
Michael Schwalbe, the voice actor for Kawaki in Boruto, also took to Twitter to voice his concerns. "Funimation has a long history of exploitative tiered pay for anime actors, starting out at only $35 an hour without session minimums," he said. "Anime is exploitative from the top to the bottom. animators, artists, actors, japanese, English. Nobody makes what they should, given that anime is like a $25 billion business now."
What Schwalbe said about Japanese voice actors also being underpaid seems to be true as well if firsthand accounts are to be believed Previously, Atsuko Enomoto, known for roles on Pokemon and Detective Conan, shared in a Twitter space how even as professional working since 1998 that getting paid enough is a struggle. “The fees for animation work are too low," she explained. "Only those who have been performing for a long time and are confident can afford it." When funds were broken down based on Enomoto's explanations of pay, it equaled about 750 yen per hour, which is significantly below Japan's minimum wage of 930 yen per hour.
Stephanie Sheh, known for her roles as Hinata from Naruto and Orihime in Bleach, called for more union-based recording efforts across the entire anime industry.
With hashtags like #StoryCraftUnite and #NewDeal4Animation trending across Twitter over the past few days, it seems that now is a particularly ripe moment for voice actors and animators alike to band together to get better treatment and pay within the anime industry.
For those looking for what they can do to help, Schwalbe offered one suggestion. "If you're a Crunchyroll subscriber, write to their customer service and tell them that as a paying user, you want to see Crunchyroll increase production budgets so that actors, engineers, directors, and writers are all paid what they should be."
Currently, various shows from Funimation, Wakanim, and VRV are all moving to the Crunchyroll platform.
Source: Twitter / J-Cast