The voice actor behind Tanjiro's master Sakonji Urokodaki , the 66-year old Hochu Otsuka, appeared on the Fuji TV variety show Sono Neta, Neta ni Shite Ii Desu Ka? on December 31 and discussed the phenomenon that is the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise and how much a voice actor makes from being in a popular work.  Otsuka explains that payment to a voice actor is fixed before recording has even started and that each voice actor is paid based on their "rank" in the industry. This rank is determined based on their experience, work they've done in the past, how popular the voice actor is, and how long they've been in the industry. Otsuka says that no matter how popular the work is, "the salary stays the same". Even for behemoth works like Demon Slayer, which is now the highest-grossing film in the Japanese box office ever, the payment is fixed and royalties aren't paid out from the box office. According to a voice acting school in Japan, payments for a 30-minute TV anime episode are between 15,000 yen (US$145.44) for lower-ranked voice actors to a maximum of 45,000 yen (US$436.16). Anime voice acting is usually the least paying work for voice actors in Japan, with dubbing for overseas live-action films the highest at a minimum of 50,000 yen (US$484.75) per hour of footage. SRC https://www.crunchyroll.com/en-gb/anime-news/2020/12/31-1/demon-slayer-voice-actor-says-that-no-matter-how-popular-the-work-is-the-salary-stays-the-same Is it bad? i have a feeling English dub voice actors get paid more. |
 |
| Yeah,that's not fair for the voice actors.It's the same for the author too.I heard that she got 22k usd and she didn't even got a raise considering that Demon slayer got to the level of the og big 3. Wow the live action dubbing gets more salary than Japanese va that's because the us have more revenue compared to the Japanese. |
 Scordolo's Recent Reviews To your eternity Vanitas no Karte |
| Yeah I heard that too.^^^ Honestly, I'm dissapointed |
 |
| too bad it's in their contract voice actors are like independent contractors, right? |
 |
| But if the work fails. They will gonna get the same money as well. Don't they? |
| "I think I wanted to attack something. Like betraying people or hurting people. And, well, it's not exactly nice, but hurting the readers too... In all honestly, I feel that's what I really wanted to do. For me, as a reader, when I think, "this manga will remain in my heart," it means, for example, it phenomenally hurt me: It's those kinds of experiences I'm after." - Pajime Hisayama (My favourite hurting author). |
| Laughs in overworked and underpaid animators |
 |
2077 said: yeah, this is the sad thing about the anime industry, the ones doing the most work like the va's and animators are the ones getting paid the least And the producers are the ones that are paid the most. |
Scordolo's Recent Reviews To your eternity Vanitas no Karte |
BenRyan said: Is it bad? i have a feeling English dub voice actors get paid more. If we're talking about anime only, they are not so good either. Here are SAG AFTRA rates. Anime Dub - $65/hr (series), $150/hr (movie) Non anime - 50/hr Games - $400/hr Live Action ADR - $980/hr Animation - $980/hr + other royalty Commercials - 1k+/hr + royalty Though, Canadian has higher pay grade of about $300-400/hr. |
Kenny_StrykerDec 31, 2020 10:19 PM
 |
| thats such bs, u can tell the amount of hard work that goes into va |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
Teraplan0409 said: yikes thats kinda rough. Shame because voice acting in Demon Slayer is really good. Also on topic https://myanimelist.net/people/337/Houchuu_Ootsuka is a legend as someone said and has been since the '80s (e.g. Yazan in Zeta Gundam) |
|
| Rip Voice Actors and their salary. C'mon Japan. |
| BANZAI NIPPON. Nippon is the Land of freedom. Nippon is the Land of Peace. Nippon is the Land of Justice and Prosperity. In Nippon, we trust. We love Nippon, we love Anime. Anime love us, Nippon love us. 日本 I believe in freedom of expression. |
| they get the same amount whether it succeeds or is a dumpster fire. the problem is that they should get better contracts not that they deserve a raise |
| "Nobody is stronger than me, even when I go easy on them. Remember that" - Ayanokoji Kiyotaka |
| People need to remember that Voice acting is a much bigger industry in Japan than it is in America. Voice acting in Japan isn't as high value like it is in America where it's a much smaller industry. In Japan there's so many voice actors and up and comers that they wouldn't be able to sustain the industry if they paid people who don't have the notoriety more money than they are worth. Unlike in America where there's not a lot of voice actors in the industry so the industry can afford to pay actors a bit more without it collapsing. |
ZeroflamezJan 1, 2021 1:29 AM
| Its not bad really, they make contracts and agree with them. If Demon Slayer had made near to nothing, and they had a contract that aligned with the revenue generated it would also be a mess. |
 |
| I already knew that, it's the same with animators, only the big shots from the prod commitee get the money |
CatalanoJan 1, 2021 4:24 AM
    |
| of course the salary stays the same the voice actors have done their part and gotten paid before the movie has even made money in theatres as far as I know the actual investors deserve that money since they took the gamble of losing lots of money after paying voice actors, animators, music crew, directors and for maybe even equipment along with paying rent for facilities for all these people to work at of course the voice actors or anyone else who worked on the movie dont magically deserve more money just cause that gamble paid off. That would be an absurd business model  Whats important here Id say is hoping with a anime movie breaking a box office record the industry will perhaps move more easily into a age where we dont see animators work long hours for low pay |
 |
| Isn't there some sort of VA association to advocate for better pay or revenue sharing or that sort of stuff? anime isn't very profitable from what I have seen, the money is in other stuff for the most part. so it does make sense that a studio would be the one who profits the most, since the risk is highest for them. |
I'm level  on mal-badges. View my badges.  |
is-whoelsome said: that's just objectively not true. the ones getting the most money are the "A-list" voice actors. i don't know what is the wage diffrence betwean the a-list and the rest of the va, but i have a feeling the demon slayer va earn enough (and even if they didn't after acting in a series so popular they will never run out of acting jobs). people hate anime producers because when they hear the word producer they think people who do nothing all day and get all the money, but in reality anime producers are among the most important workers in the production, and the only reason any anime manages to air weekly is because of their work. even the most low profile va have more bargining power than most people in the anime production cycle because unlike anyone else they aren't replaceable without the audience noticing. Wtf?People really think that Producers do nothing and get the money?Lmao No producers=No anime This is like the basic knowledge of how the industry works that everyone should know. |
ScordoloJan 1, 2021 5:13 AM
Scordolo's Recent Reviews To your eternity Vanitas no Karte |
| Lol he voices some minor side character. |
 ☆☆☆ "There's a huge difference between one and infinity. However, compared to the difference between existence and non-existence, one and infinite are nearly the same. I am the child destined to become the best witch... no... The greatest Creator in the world...!" -Maria Ushiromiya ☆☆☆ |
EndlessMaria said: Lol he voices some minor side character. Yes but we are not only talking about him but all Japanese va's in general |
Scordolo's Recent Reviews To your eternity Vanitas no Karte |
Scordolo said: EndlessMaria said: Lol he voices some minor side character. Yes but we are not only talking about him but all Japanese va's in general This is in regards to Kimetsu no Yaiba specifically, due to the fact that the movie grossed so much. If the voice actor was the seiyuu Tanjirou or Nezuko then we would have a discussion. |
EndlessMariaJan 1, 2021 7:04 AM
| ☆☆☆ "There's a huge difference between one and infinity. However, compared to the difference between existence and non-existence, one and infinite are nearly the same. I am the child destined to become the best witch... no... The greatest Creator in the world...!" -Maria Ushiromiya ☆☆☆ |
| The anime industry really needs to rewire itself with the payment of VAs, authors and animators based on the success of the show and include some kind of royalties/bonuses system. |
MAL EMOJIS - Get your specially formatted emojis for MAL forums.        |
| Welcome to life, that's how the world works |
| Imagine how boring this world would be without Japan - a comment at youtube |
Scordolo said: Yeah,that's not fair for the voice actors.It's the same for the author too.I heard that she got 22k usd and she didn't even got a raise considering that Demon slayer got to the level of the og big 3. Wow the live action dubbing gets more salary than Japanese va that's because the us have more revenue compared to the Japanese. Why should she get a raise? She was paid up front for the rights to an unknown work. There was no risk involved on her part in anyway, same goes for the VA's. Its on them to negotiate a better contract if/when there are sequels. |
| Well others said it too but I don't see it as a problem because if a work fails they still paid before it. Also the mangaka, animators and VAs do nothing related to its marketing so it's not like they deserve more |
| There is no reason for people to complain about this, what the fuck. It's written in the contract that they agreed on. This is usually the case to have a stable income because if they get paid the same no matter what, it means that the actor will always get paid, making it a stable job. If the contract said "You get 0.001% of what the movie makes" or something else like that, than there is a reason to complain. |
 |
| What does their work have to do with the success of the show? They're paid to do a job, one that they do regardless of the eventual outcome. The producers, on the other hand, line up investors and connect all the dots to make it work. Their outcome is literally riding on the success. So not only is it not fucked up that voice actors get a fixed income, it's fucked up for you guys to deride the producers for literally making the anime happen. |
| My subjective reviews: katsureview.wordpress.com THE CHAT CLUB. |
| Isn't that how every business work? No matter how well the bank I work for does, my salary stays the same. That's how it works. They probably signed a contract for the movie with a concrete salary. They accepted it and expect a change because the film did well in hindsight? It's not VAs that are taking any risk by investing into the movie. It's only natural they don't earn more just because the movie happened to sell so well. |
 |
billybub said: fucking finally someone said it :D.Scordolo said: Yeah,that's not fair for the voice actors.It's the same for the author too.I heard that she got 22k usd and she didn't even got a raise considering that Demon slayer got to the level of the og big 3. Wow the live action dubbing gets more salary than Japanese va that's because the us have more revenue compared to the Japanese. Why should she get a raise? She was paid up front for the rights to an unknown work. There was no risk involved on her part in anyway, same goes for the VA's. Its on them to negotiate a better contract if/when there are sequels. |
 |
| I don't get it, how is this some kind of surprise? This is how literally every business works. Salaries don't retroactively go up if the movie goes well (just like they don't retroactively change for the worse if the movie is a box office bomb), sometimes there are small bonuses given, but that is far from the norm. If the VA really wanted more, they probably should have negotiated before signing their contract. There are many legitimate problems with the anime industry and other industries moved by the passion of those who work on them, but I fail to see how this is one of those problems. |
Pale_28 said: #billybub said: fucking finally someone said it :D.Why should she get a raise? She was paid up front for the rights to an unknown work. There was no risk involved on her part in anyway, same goes for the VA's. Its on them to negotiate a better contract if/when there are sequels. Quite right too. People are behaving as if the VA's were cuffed and forced to sign a contract they didn't want to sign. They agreed to to the contract terms before putting pen to paper. It's up to them to negotiate a better price if they think they're worth more than what the production company offers. |
| Anime viewers: "We support right-wing politicians 'cause we hate feminists, SJWs, forced diversity, and socialism!" Also anime viewers: "How come these exploited workers are so powerless against their employers??" |
| Well that's reality. I hear they made the contract for Demon Slayer before it blew up, so they still get the same flat price. |
 |
| The surprising part is that some people are surprised about how a contract works |
 |
More topics from this board
Sticky: » AWC 2026 Anime Watching Challenge - Sign-Up (Challenge Ends DEC 10) ( 1 2 3 4 )AWC_mod - Dec 20, 2025 |
168 |
by riouwastaken
»»
1 minute ago |
|
» Surprisingly dark/depressing episodes and scenes in wholesome and funny anime.StarBloom_64 - 2 hours ago |
11 |
by perseii
»»
4 minutes ago |
|
» Have you ever come into contact with anime misinformation? ( 1 2 )thewiru - Jan 3 |
62 |
by MadanielFL
»»
10 minutes ago |
|
» Do you use anime wallpapers on your devices?DesuMaiden - Yesterday |
32 |
by FiendishChan
»»
13 minutes ago |
|
» How do you organize your life so that you can watch 20+ anime per season?ixaa - Yesterday |
24 |
by Richard_drizzle
»»
24 minutes ago |