Studio Ghibli apparently wasn’t hard to get into for many years…

Work conditions in the animation industry are often grueling and demanding. Artists are aware of the demands of the industry before going into the workforce. Movies such as Sausage Party brings the animation production demands into the greater public’s consciousness but does not usually hold attention for long.  Fans of manga and anime are well aware of this fact as the life of a mangaka is damn near suicidal. Many Japanese artists often have lasting health effects such as Yoshihiro Togashi creator of Hunter x Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho who worked 18-20 hours a day seven days a week for consecutive years. In former Ghibli employee, Steve Albert’s book Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man Studio Ghibli is guilty of work violations. The tell-all book is yet to be released with excerpts borrowed from Cartoon Brew.

“Staff would put in ‘an illegal number of hours’ during crunch time. Alpert outlines the studio’s working conditions during his time there: a six-day week, unpaid overtime, a reluctance to take vacations. ‘And duties such as cleaning the office and serving tea or coffee were mandatory for all female employees (only).’”

While it is disheartening to hear one of your favorite studios having negative workspace it is not surprising. To me, this reiterates the amount of work and effort that goes into an animation project on a scale like Studio Ghibli. Subjecting all female employees to menial chores is surprising as that would be an HR nightmare in America.

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Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man contains other examples of the unorthodox Studio Ghibli’s workplace. During the production of Princess Mononoke, anyone would be able to enter the studio. Albert specifically mentions two Japanese school girls casually walking into the studio in order to take a picture with the legendary artist. Loose security is surprising while welcoming school girls is not.

“During the production of Princess Mononoke,” Alpert wrote, “I once watched astonished as two local junior high school girls in their school uniforms walked upstairs and interrupted Miyazaki to have their picture taken with him. They made V for victory signs as they posed for the camera. No one objected and they politely left with their mission accomplished.”

Despite the quality of Studio Ghibli films, the finished product never Miyazaki satisfied. Miyazaki is a constant perfectionist who finds the small flaws in a film upon release. TO combat this, Miyazaki constantly looks towards the future to keep his mind off previous films. The Never-Ending Man reflects Miyazaki’s constant drive.  This can be seen in an excerpt from Turning Point: 1997-2008 which was written by Miyazaki.

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“Making films is all about–as soon as you’re finished–continually regretting what you’ve done. When we look at films we’ve made, all we can see are the flaws; we can’t even watch them in a normal way. I never feel like watching my own films again. So unless I start working on a new one, I’ll never be free from the curse of the last one. I’m serious. Unless I start working on the next film, the last one will be a drag on me for another two or three years.”

The constant drive for perfection by Miyazaki created fantastic movies that came at a cost to those who made them. Viewers appreciate the bacon and rarely care about how it is made as media is an escape from their own lives. As the world becomes more conscience of workplace violations hopefully the animation industry will adapt to a more reasonable lifestyle. Studio Ghibli seems to have an interesting workplace judging from the few excerpts CartoonBrew revealed. I am looking forward to the release of Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man which comes out June 16th.

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SOURCE: Cartoon Brew

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