Japan's starving anime artists get hand from Chinese producers

Tencent seeks talent as poor work conditions haunt birthplace of art form

20200324N Tencent anime cropped

Tokyo studio Colored Pencil Animation, which is owned by a Chinese company, pays its artists more than the industry average. (Photo by Rei Nakafuji)

REI NAKAFUJI, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Chinese streaming providers are increasingly hunting for talent among animators in Japan, the land where anime was born but whose own industry has fallen on tough times.

At a small office building in Machida, a residential area outside of downtown Tokyo, several men and women recently were busy drawing what looked like a Shinto shrine gate on tablets using stylus pens. It looks like a typical anime studio in Japan.

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